A great hide!

We didn’t know it, but our first cache for today was named appropriately in a couple ways.

Hunter’s grandma couldn’t join us in this adventure. We had gotten off to a late start and after breakfast at the local Amish bakery and restaurant, we parted ways. I took all three boys with me for a caching escapade while Tim, father and mother-in-law boxed up two dogs and climbed into my hubby’s truck in hopes of bringing home a wild game dinner (which I can now say, as I edit this long thing, that they did!).

My MIL thinks I’m Supermom for taking three kids with me, but it’s not really different than any other day! The timing and location was right for a nap. Both Devin and Bryce had full tummies and it was coming up on 12:30 by the time Hunter and I arrived at our first cache coordinates. Both locations would have parking nearby so I wouldn’t have to wander far from my van with the boys inside.

I used Google Earth again and it looked like we would be visiting another cemetery. The Latitude and Longitude showed me a spot in front of what might have been a group of trees or a small building. Google Earth put an X on the sport where there was and intersection of one road that crosses three roads in the memorial park, so I didn’t think I’d need Richard much and I was right. Phew! LOL

Hunter entered the coordinates and we were off. Before Richard told us to turn, we could see where we were going. It was a long cemetery right off the main road of a small town with a bridge further down. I entered using the middle roadway and slowly drove past the markers on either side, some honored with flowers, some wreaths and some plants. We could see in the distance that where we needed to go was actually a group of four well groomed evergreen shrubs in the shape of the top half of an octagon with a flag pole in the center. The flag on top was limp and unmoving on this 38 degree, sunny day.

Placed at an angle in front of the foremost bush were two stone benches with tops polished so fine we could see the reflection of the clouds in the sky above. The flat, horizontal surface of the bench face was engraved with For God and Country. The other bench held a smaller print but lengthier message. It told us both benches were donated by a family. At the base of the flag pole was a plaque flush with the ground that said it was dedicated to a certain soldier, same name as family who donated the benches, lost in battle and other soldiers who didn’t come home as well. It was a very nice tribute and somewhere around there was a cache we needed to check!

Hunter read the hint, How low can you go? How low indeed. We found out by squatting down in front of the benches and could see under them and the nearest bushes. Hunter got up first and said he was going to check the back. I went to the side and was getting down again to see under the second set of bushes when Hunter said, I think I found something. He was turned sideways between the two back bushes, reaching toward the ground. It was a close fit; each bush on his front and back were pressing their firm but soft dark green finger width branches into his coat, making a light scratching sound against it.

I asked him what he saw and he said it was white and in the ground and that he couldn’t pick it up. Did it have a twist lid? I asked. Yes, he said, but I can’t get it open. Hunter has pretty weak hands, so I let him back out and I reached in there and saw a white square molded onto a white circle underneath a dusting of branches from the bushes around us. I brushed them aside and knew this was our geocache, although it lacked the sticker we saw back at the fire department. I told Hunter he found it, that all but the top is underground. I began twisting the top off and than backed away to let my son finish.

He eagerly bent back into the embrace of the sweet scented evergreens and finished removing the top and then backed blindly out again with another wrinkled plastic bag in his hand. He opened it and handed me the log book which was cold and damp with a pencil that was too wet to give me enough of a tip to write with. I pulled the pen from our journal and signed our name, The Cache Checkers with today’s date. Hunter took two items, a mini Rubic’s Cube and a bouncy ball and left a small gorilla and elephant figures from his purple sack.

While we were bent over our hoards we heard a rumbling sound getting louder and louder. I poked my head up thinking the tank we passed inside the fence at the nearby Army Reserve was coming down the paved path. Then the growl became a roar as a train appeared between the trees at the edge of the cemetery. We bent back down to our work and then Hunter sealed the bag, put it back into the cache and I screwed on the top and scattered the branches back over it. What a great hide!