For those of you who haven’t been following my comings and goings intently for years, Austin traditionally has Events on the equinoxes and the solstices. Beloved friends used to hold them, but they moved to the Pacific Northwest. Another friend and I took up the mantle to continue the tradition: she does the equinoxes; I do the solstices. I am predictable and a little hidebound, so I throw my solstices at the same place they’ve always been held because that is where they’ve been held. She, however, is far more imaginative than me. For the autumnal equinox this year, she threw a s’more-making Event. Everyone gathered with camp chairs and smiles to roast marshmallows and smush them between graham crackers and chocolate. My only regret is that I had to leave early (real life sometimes interferes with my caching, you know?), but I had more than enough time to enjoy confections I honestly shouldn’t have been having. Besides, I was still having a little PTSD from burning glochids off prickly pears over the same fire pit during the weekend, but that’s a different story for another time.
In a completely different, subject, I’ve been thinking about a challenge I’m getting on the threshold of completing, the I’ve Been Everywhere Challenge. Once again, for those who haven’t been following my writings slavishly, it’s a challenge to go to and find caches in or around 91 cities and towns in Texas. It’s one of the oldest uncompleted challenges I have, and I really only signed it on a lark, never thinking I’d be close. And then one day I looked at it and realized I was already two-thirds of the way done with I, so why not finish? Now I’m down to seven towns total. One is down in the Rio Grande Valley, and another is on the way to or from it. It looks like I’ll be taking a day trip to go get them in the near future. One is in the Houston area, and another is an hour away, just outside of Beaumont. All I need is an excuse to go to the area, probably closer to winter, especially since it’d give me a chance to get the last cache I need to complete the Baytown Geotour. One is between Texarkana and Boston (and I’ve managed to forget or miss it every time I’ve been up there in the last few years), another just northeast of Dallas (its radius goes past the Red River in spots so it’s theoretically possible to complete that with a cache in Oklahoma, which seems heretical) and both of those can be done on a trip to L-Town or even on the way back from Missouri. The last one is up near Lubbock and, honestly, I have no reason to go back up there. However, Texas Challenge in 2027 is going to be in San Angelo. There’s no reason I couldn’t gather up some folks and take a day to run up there and back. I’m sure there are others who need it or the locations in and around Lubbock as well. After six and a half years, I should finish it in mid-March. Sweet.
