Friday, April 13, 2007

Another Cool Arkansas Story

I have many great memories of caching in Arkansas: Here is one of my favorite tales.

On July 20, 2005, jbgreer (my trusty caching buddy) and I decided to make a cache run to Jacksonville, AR. Since my mom (one of the best caching partners ever!) was in town for a visit, we took her with us. I had been to Jacksonville before and when I saw the JJR series had been placed since my last visit, I was excited to return to the area.

Fairly early in the morning we drove up to a cache in the JJR series (JJR #2 C R A Z Y ! ! ! by topkitty) that was in a wooded area. It was a very tough hide and we were all happy when jbgreer made the find! As we were walking back to the cachemobile, my Mom noticed that her glasses were missing. She didn't need them to see but they were prescription, very expensive, and she had carried them with her on this trip. We searched and searched but they were small and light and were impossible for us to find in the woods. We were majorly bummed but continued on our cache hunt.

We found a total of 19 caches that day, including JJR # 5 Obligatory Wally World Cache by topkitty98 & markrocksinheavennow, where I was quite surprised to have disturbed a big nest of very angry wasps! I got and signed the log with wasps swarming around me. I guess I was pretty lucky not to have been seriously stung and decided to press my luck by swatting the nest out into the parking lot.

We drove home that day happy with the day (except for the glasses, of course). Jbgreer logged his finds that day and had mentioned our losing the glasses at JJR #2. When I got to a computer the next day to log my finds, I was shocked to discover that not only had cachers looked for the glasses (thanks, nonnipoppy) but a couple of cachers had actually found the glasses! I contacted KevinG68 who along with mlbobo71 had found them to arrange to get them back. They had a relative there who was actually driving to Memphis the next day and was bringing the glasses with him to his business (not terribly far from my house)! I made arrangements to go pick them up that Monday (or maybe Tuesday..)

Geocachers are some of the greatest people I have ever met and Arkansas geocachers are no exception to the rule! I have had the privilege of meeting a few recently and enjoyed discussing Arkansas hides. When reviewing my log notes to find out the exact weekend this tale took place, I was surprised that it had been so long ago. Hopefully I can get back that way soon.

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