Mama Treasure Boxes and CITO

On Friday the weather was just too beautiful to be inside. I decided to get an early start and take the boys to a park we don't usually visit. I admit I had an ulterior motive for going there. I knew there were two geocaches hidden nearby. As you can see in the picture to the left, there isn't much to this playground at all. The equipment is outdated and in need of a new wood stain. The black topped basketball and tennis courts are cracked and overgrown with weeds. The only thing good in my opinion is the condition of the baseball field, which will soon be used regularly. Our town recently had a rundraiser that was matched by the government to update the park. Hopefully the ground will be broken on this project soon.

I explained to Devin we were going to go to a park where there would be 'mama treasure boxes'. I told him the difference between my kind of box and his, was that my kind were smaller and didn't have any toys. I told him that while I was looking for my treasure box, he and Bryce would be running around and having fun. He was all for that and in this setting it worked out.

When we first pulled in about 10:00 A.M., there was a car parked in front of the pavillion. I was hoping to avoid any muggles, but it looked like there would be some. My plan was to let the boys play and wait for the person or people to leave.

As I got the boys out of the van and then unfolded the stroller (still looking for that all terrain wagon!) there wasn't anyone in sight. Devin went around, over and under the playland for a bit while Bryce played in the sand. Eventually I coaxed them toward the back of the park where a rusty chicken wire type fence seperated public land from a private farm. Come summer there would be sweet corn a fingers length away from the fence. There were three pine trees close enough together that their boughs overlapped. They were the only grouping of trees in the entire park. I saw a single one here and one over there, but trees were far and in-between in that place.

The coordinates put me at the tree farthest back. Even though I had saved the hint in my handheld, I didn't look it up. I knew the cache was a micro, but I felt pretty confident I was standing right on top of it. There isn't anywhere else really to hide a cache here. I scanned the thin branches, avoiding an eye poke here and there, but saw nothing. I looked for holes in the trunk and the base of the tree, but still nothing. Then I saw something among the dried needles blanketing the ground. On the ground is where I found the pill bottle shaped, camo taped cache. It had a green wire hooked on the top of it's lid and I assumed it had fallen from one of the branches above. I brought it back out from under the tree toward my boys who were running around the tennis court.

It's very important to take your find away from its hiding spot. It takes a bit of time to sign the log and sort through any tradeable items, especially with kids. Hunter likes to look at each and ever item before he makes up his mind. Therefore it's better to do all that a few feet away, somewhere not so conspicious looking like being a single adult under low hanging trees while young children run amok further away. I wold have preferred a bench, but none were nearby, so I had to make do in front of a toddler I rounded up and strapped back in his stroller so I could sit in front of him and appear to be interacting while looking through the log.

Bryce was conveying to me quite loudly how he felt about my chasing him down and making him immobile, so I pulled out my extra pen and let him play with that while I signed the paper log and wrote down the clue. This micro cache was actually one of seven in a series. There are six micro caches in my county called 70's One Hit Wonders. Each of the six has an additional name that goes with each individual cache. This particular one was Overlook, for the name of the park in which it was hidden. Once found, you copy down the verse contained inside of a Top Ten song made famous by a One Hit Wonder in the 1970's. My task was to identify the song and discover what year in the '70's it became a hit. Armed with that information, I can replace a letter substituded in the final cache cordiatnes with a number. For this cache, the formula was, C = 197_. The verse I wrote down that day goes as follows:

Well, Andy got scared and left the bar. Walkin’ on home ‘cause he didn’t live far. See Andy didn’t have many friends and he just lost him one. Brother thought his wife musta left town, so he went home and finally found the only thing Papa had left him and that was a gun.

If you know the '70's song from that verse than you know your Oldie's better than me! I Googled the first line and learned that this phrase was from The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. The top link said it was sung by Vicki Lawrence but it didn't say when. So I googled the two names together and the year 1973 jumped out at me. So, the missing number that is being held by the letter C in the final cach coordinates I know is now a 3! I also know that this son was first offered to Cher, but she turned it down.

This series isn't a multi-cache, where there is more than one box to find but you only get credit for a single find. When I discover all in the series of these caches, each one is another number added to my total summed up at geocaching.com. When I find all the missing numbers to create the final coordinates, I'll find a bigger cache container with tradeable items. I'm sure the first person to find that final cache got something pretty cool, but this series has been around for a couple years now so there probably isn't anything all that great in it. I'm interested and having fun doing series and I can't lie and say I'm not curious to see what's in the final cache. In any cache.

After I rolled the log up and tucked it back into the container I released B from the stroller and he followed me under the trees and began picking up pine cones. I hung the cache a few branches above where I found it on the ground. I then slowly coaxed B to follow Dev and I around the park, picking up trash along the way. It's a great cover and Devin does all the bending! It wasn't until I was back at home and about to log my find when I read the hint for this cache as 'Hollow fence post'. I realized that where I put the cache, hanging inside a pine tree, didn't mesh with the hint. I logged my find and added that I had found the cache uncovered on the ground. Without giving anything away, I said I placed it back where I thought it should be, but didn't realize that the spot wasn't the same as the cache creators hint, but that the coordinates were still right on. I didn't want to say that I hung it or else they'd know right away to look in a tree.

Except for the drive entrance, Overlook Park is surronded by a chain link fence. Half way around and in line with the pavillion is an opening to a cemetery. I don't recall the name, but knew the cache hidden somewhere there, also a Mama Treasure Box, was dedicated to the memory of a man who pioneered the NE Ohio Geocachers and was an advocate for geocaching to park districts, lawmakers and even people on the street. His first name was Eric, but he was known on the website and in cache logs as Sherwood Forest. His passing was unexpected and he has been honored many times in Geauga County with caches that have 'Spirit Trail' in the name.

I pushed Bryce in the stroller with Devin and Buzz Lightyear following behind onto a stone and dirt two track that disappeared deeper into the cemetery in a long U shape. I still had my garbage bag tied to the stroller and Devin and I continued to find and clear away trash from the grounds. While doing so, a car started in the distance and I saw the place it left and we waved to each other as the woman driver passed by. It could have been another cacher, but as we approached the spot where she had parked, my GPS told me my spot was a bit farther up.

We continued on our leisurely way, both enjoying the toddler pace, even though the toddler was strapped into a stroller seat and writing on his shoes with my pen. We had entered the U drive about a quarter of the way from the exit. We had now gone up and around to the entrance and were approaching what I assumed was a crypt, but I don't have any experience with such buildings.

We walked behind and past this building and toward two fairly good sized trees. The first one had a wider trunk, bigger overall and had caught my eye for the possible hide location as we walked toward it on the road. The second one though had two trunks from a single base as wide as the trunk of the other. The opening in-between was about the size of the plastic purple bucket Devin has been using the past couple years for Halloween candy. The hole wasn't as deep as it was wide and I could see another pill bottle sized cache. This one was also camoflauged in the special tape hunters use to cover shiny and reflective parts of their guns. Now geocachers also have a need for it to keep unknowing muggles away from their hide and with practice you grow an eye for spotting it. Devin was very excited for me, that I had found my Mama Treasure Box. I wasn't sure when I started out how he would do with not finding his own treasure to sort through, but he didn't behave like the selfish little boy I often see at home! I signed the log inside, closed it up tight and tucked it back into the crevice at the bottom of the tree. I've always been able to see that tree from the road, but now it holds a few different meanings for me.

That Friday was a half day for Hunter. The teachers needed the extra time to get their grades done, so the kids at his school would be released at 12:30. The boys and I had about 45 minutes to kill before picking Hunter up, so I called my hubby and asked if he wanted to meet us for lunch. Afterward we swung by the school and then went to the newer and more popular playground at Mineral Lake Park. The lake part of this park isn't very big. It's more like a large pond in the shape of a circle that has been pinched a bit. There are two parking lots so I parked at the one I usually do instead of the other that was suggested by the cache creator. The parking lots are only a stones throw away from each other. Dev and B used up some energy on the playground and Hunter and sat on the swings. I took a video of Bryce going down the biggest slide. That clip will be on my website if I ever get it up and running again.

While going back and forth between helping Dev cross the monkey bars and running back over to catch Bryce on the slide, I told Hunter that I had found two micro caches this morning and there was a two find micro multi-cache right here in this park. I said we'd walk around for a bit and find these small ones and pick up garbage along the way. I teased him and said, 'Doesn't that sound like fun?!'. He didn't think so.

So I set my GPS on this two parter and off we went. Hunter dragged along behind, but Dev was right there either helping me push the stroller or picking up garbage I pointed out. We went past the empty, fenced in skateboard park with its 'Keep it clean Or it will close' sign. We crossed some exposed tree roots going down toward the lake and finally reached the paved walking path around the water. Devin was very excited to see the ducks and geese on the bank. When a man and his dog approached the waterfowl from the other direction, it sent the ducks quacking and splash landing into the water. Devin was nothing but smiles as he watched the ducks tuck their wings back under and make their way to the other side. He wanted to get a plastic bag out of the water not far from the edge, but I told him we'd have to get it next time.

While Hunter and Dev sat down on the bench play punching each other (most of the time), Bryce and I turned back toward the bare trees on the other side of the walking path. I so can't wait for spring to add some color! Left center in this picture is a tree that's not quite as thin as it's neighbors. On the back side is a small nail and looped over this nail is twelve inches of what looks like an old sweatshirt drawstring. At the end of this string was the micro cache. I took it off the loop and pushed Bryce over to his brothers. On the bench I pulled out the log, signed it and entered the final cache coordinates into my GPS. When we left a few minutes later, I looked around for muggles and when the coast was clear, I hooked it back on the loop and placed it behind the tree so it couldn't be seen hanging on either side.

The coordinates took us back the way we came. Instead of going up the bumpy dirt trail we had come by and pushing B through the grass, we followed the walking path the other way band back up to the sidewalk, continuing to pick up garbage. Our bag was getting full and the stroller would probably tip like a see saw the moment I took Bryce from the seat. It was during this stretch that a large bug landed for just one second on Devin's nose. He freaked out for a couple minutes and then continued walking with one hand on his nose for some time after!

We found ourselves back at the parking lot where we left our van. Instead of heading toward it or the playland or the pavillion a little further out, we turned left and followed the tree line back toward a dumpster. Before we got there, though, I looked into the trees and a trail jumped out at me in the brown and wilted tall grass like it had been made in snow. I recognized it as made by other geocachers, because who would go into that area? Obviously not to pick up the garbage that was all over the place. I followed it in and soon came to a tree with holes along the base. I knew right away that the stone sitting there against the tree was placed like that on purpose. I found the second micro cache, the second for me in the 70's One Hit Wonders series, but had to sign it and scribble down the verse in a hurry and left without a picture because Devin was screaming and crying. Apparently a stick became Dev's new toy and Hunter broke off a piece. I don't think anyone saw me, but if I were a parent in the park, my head would have turned if I heard such a sound!

We were all tired by then and I was joining the grouchiness in the ranks. I told Hunter we'd got out again tomorrow and find him a cache he can trade something out of. That seemed to have put him in a better mood and we headed home.

Back at home I had to decypher the song verse I had rushed to write down. I think chicken scratch would have been easier to read! I wrote down only the first line and it goes...

Now first it wasn't easy...of how I learned a lesson....that day. (That was how I rushed it down.)

Hmmm...let's see if Google can tell me anything. Umm, no. I'm not going to find the answer in an interview about how someone learned to stop hating their mother.

I added the word 'lyrics' to my search and the song Play That Funky Music came up. I wasn't seeing a year so I asked Google, 'What year did Play That Funky Music top the charts?' The first result was 1988 by Roxanne...no.... Ah-hah! 1976 by the band Wild Cherry. Now I know that the letter P in the fake coordinates is actually a 6!

I'm enjoying the micro caches, but there are many people who avoid them because their size ups the difficulty rating.