It's All Just Trivial

Last Saturday I attended my very first every Geocaching-themed Trivia event.  How was it? In a word...AWESOMESAUCE!!


Throughout the weeks following up to the event, I had a crazy fear of not knowing any of the answers and completely embarrassing myself, so I spent hours studying random caching facts and figures.  If you wanted to know what is most watched Travel Bug (Look at Me)  or the name of Geocaching's most famous Sock Puppet (a fresh, young Asian girl named Mitsuko), then I was your girl!!

Found it!!

Took a little bit of
geo-ingenuity
to retrieve this smiley!

The 5 of us (FailedApparatus, HoosierSunshine, tmouse, lmsw and I) started the day out with a little bit of caching during our 2 hour drive to J&S Cafeteria in Asheville, and we had a very successful hunt.

Do you see it?
 Beware the pricklies!

On the way, lmsw and tmouse and I were able to enjoy a little further bonding over our mutual love of books and I can promise you that there will be some new additions to my e-book shelf this week!!

How about this one?
Spotted it yet?

After several cache stops, we finally arrived at our destination and after helping HoosierSunshine and Failed Apparatus to unload the supplies, the rest of us took off to run some errands (and of course grab some more local caches!).

How do you know it was a fun cache run? When you end up giving away more favorite points in under one hour than you have all year!!  Here are a few of the fun caches that we ran into that day!





Yep! That was it!!



This funny little guy and his cute
companion were just so
happy that I had to
snap their picture!

When the time came around, we returned for a little lunch and a little competition.  There ended up being 7 teams in all and everyone brought their "A" games for sure!




Our incomparable hosts!

The questions were a perfect mix of common knowledge and obscure facts and you could definitely tell how much hard work FA had put into his event!!  There was a lot of effort put into making this an event to remember!

FA did a great job as the Coordinators and Master of Ceremonies, and HS did a fantastic job as the enchanting hostess. Together, they made an unbeatable team!



Though not the big winner,
I was more than happy to have
won this cool trackable!!

The winning team posing for a victory photo!

 It was great to see several familiar faces from the event the night before at Tillman Hall, and everyone was in the best of humors as after a couple of hours one of the teams emerged as victors and it was time to congratulate to winners, clean up the event, and head out for some more caches before we had to be home!



There were some fun trackable items to log as "discovered" including our hosts shoes and even a prosthetic leg!! Just goes to show you the positive spirit that embodies this game and its players!








So afterwards, the 5 of us added one more to our little group (Debaere) and left out to nab some nearby caches.  Though not the most creative caches out there, they were at least quick grabs. And after all, it was never about the numbers, but all about the company and the bonding!  The laughs and jokes flowed easy and the time flew by quickly!

 

Beware the bees!!

Here are some of the photos from our quick caching jaunt!



In case you get tired of
looking for the cache and
want to watch a little tv?

A super big thank you to FailedApparatus for organizing and pulling off this event and another big thanks to HoosierSunshine for opening her home and her heart to a hyper little NinjaChipmunk.  You guys are the best!!!

A Hauntingly Good Time!

Tillman Hall

Last weekend, I traveled a total of almost 300 miles in two days just to enjoy the company of some fellow cachers and maybe even a couple of spooks.


I was not disappointed!

Though there were no ghostly bodies to be found, the building of Tillman Hall at Winthrop College was most certainly filled with the best kind of spirits...the spirits of adventure and friendship!!

I began my weekend visiting fellow cacher and good friend HoosierSunshine, who had invited to some down to stay the night and enjoy her geocaching event: Lore and Legend of Tillman Hall.  Never one to miss the opportunity to learn a bit of history or hear a good ghost story, I quickly agreed and all was soon settled. 

tmouse and lmsw
two ladies who are the picture of awesomeness!!

It was not expected to be a huge to-do, perhaps just an intimate gathering of less than 30 cachers; but as the day wore on, it was easy to see that this event would surpass everyone's expectations with well over 100 "will attend" logs having been posted!  We were all very excited to see if these would ring true!

Before the event, we had a delicious dinner together where I was introduced to two of the most remarkable women you could ever hope to meet!  They were fellow cachers and Winthrop grads tmouse and LMSW, and their company made the weekend a completely unforgettable affair!

After our leisurely meal, we made our way on over to the College and there I met even more fantastic people, too many to even name, and was treated to some fantastic stories of caches past, present and future!  (including the description of a recently released cache that has to be the most evil one I have ever had the privilege of hearing about!). 

As per the logs, we ended up with well over 100 people in attendance and so the tours took a little longer than expected to complete.  That was time well spent getting to know new cachers (and some familiar one a bit better, which was a very special treat!) and being privy to more great stories.

I was given a very thorough and educational tour by the knowledgeable and very friendly Craig (the "C" half of C&S143), and although I never saw any ghosts on the tour, I could definitely feel the history of the Hall all around. I will do my best to repeat some of what I learned. So, here is a bit of trivia for you, in case you are not familiar with Tillman Hall and its history...










Benjamin Ryan Tillman, a senator from SC, established Clemson and Winthrop colleges while still Governer.


The eye in the portrait of Tillman at the main entrance will follow you no matter where you stand (yes, I did try this out!)


Tillman lost the use of his left eye in 1864 after a severe illness.  He became hateful and cruel and would often beat or flog the convicts and slaves who were building the Hall after losing the use of his entire left side due to a riding accident. 



Old "Pitchfork Ben", as he became known, is said to still haunt the top two floors of Tillman Hall at Winthrop College.



When the college began, it was an all girls college and young ladies, no matter their GPA or accomplishments, were not allowed to graduate without first proving they could swim laps in the pool built into the Hall's basement. (No I did not just make that up! here is a photo of the pool being used as a storage area...)




There is much graffiti in the Clock Tower and many people are said to have heard or seen strange things especially in this area of the building. I saw graffiti that dated all the way back to the early 1900s in some places, and also some rather cynical messaged written as well!

 

A very skeptical employee was converted one night as she walked up the stairs to the second floor to see a woman in white (all first year girls were required to wear the uniform of a white dress) walk straight through the wall in front of her.

Though I am sure that I have forgotten more than I can even remember, I still hope you have enjoyed my little post.  If you are ever in the area, it is well worth a visit to see in person!


 
 

The College went beyond just being generous enough to allow us to tour this closed off area of the school, but went as far as to donate a collectable GeoCoin to everyone who came out that night! It was gorgeous!!



A special thanks MUST be given to the lady who made it all possible and who worked countless hours to make sure that everyone had a great time and learned a little something...Thank you over and over again to Hoosier Sunshine, you are remarkable my dear!!

Me on the roof, in front of the clock

Have Gnome, Will Travel

Today, I would like to introduce you to my geo-buddy and fellow traveler, Gnorm the Gnome! 

Saying "Hello" from the SunSphere in Knoxville, TN

We ran into some of his cousins
at a cache in
Raleigh, NC

Gnorm has been my geo-friend for several months now and together we have had some excellent adventures and I thought perhaps I would share a couple of photos with you!

Though he has a very famous cousin who works for a popular travel site, he has not let that go to his head and is actually really down to earth and friendly.  He LOVES to meet fellow geocachers!! 




Hanging out with me, preparing for our next great adventure!

Visiting with a new friend while at a fellow cacher's house!




Enjoying the finer things in life!



Gnorm loves to walk on the wild side!
 





Next time you see Gnorm and I out on a trail, be sure to stop over and say Hi and get your picture taken with the little traveler!  :)

Priorities

Although it had been published quite a few hours earlier, I waited till my son, Jedi of the Woods, was able to go with me to try for a FTF on a new cache a few miles away.

I joked with him that it would be funny if we got there and it had already been found right before we arrived.

Self fulfilling prophecy?  Yep!  Just a few minutes before we arrived at Ground Zero, someone else had just claimed the first smiley.

Oh well!  Quality time with my kid is way more important and we still managed to capture the find :)  So it was a happy ending after all <3

Pain is pleasure?

See, I am such a positive person that even my  geocaching bruises are happy! Hahaha!!

Secrets Sunday

There's Definitely Something Fishy Going On

Earlier this weekend, I spent a very exciting day at our local Speed Park and the Aquarium with my son and his best friend. 

We had a lot of fun on the race track, but after the temps hit close to 100*, I decided it was time for some yummy sushi and an educational stroll through Sea Life (no, the irony did not escape me there).

Hhhmmm, I really hope that cute fish from the reef display was not turned into sushi an hour later...

Anyways, after several hours of racing cars and petting sharks, I decided that there was only one thing that could make this day even more exciting...capturing a smiley or two!





Luckily, there was one very close by at the Bass Pro Shop (noticing a fishy reoccurring theme for this day...) and although it was merely a regular cache hidden in the regular way, it was the location that I found fascinating as you don't see these things too often any more!


 From there, we went on to collect one more saucy little cache at a very spicy location before beginning our trek back home. 

 

On the way home, we stopped off for some refreshment before hitting the last cache of the day. This time it was a fun little cache from a series named after ROY G BIV (he's a colorful man!)

Always fun to have an audience!

 

After 5 minutes of trying to open it, I finally realized this was not the cache, but rather an actual broken off sprinkler!!

 

Though we did not find this one at the end of the rainbow, we did find a happy little treasure container filled with lots of green prizes (Each cache in this series is filled with one of the colors from his name)!! I added a bit of green swag in the form of a smart little green bear and brought home cute green button.

 

After the cache was found and replaced, as we headed back to the Geo-Ride, we found there was another exciting surprise waiting on us.  We were walking across the lot when a red truck pulled and a voice called out, "Hey! Are you geocaching?!"  As we got closer we discovered that this mysterious voice belonged to fellow cacher Harwell5 who saw us from the other side of the parking lot and knew we just had to be geocaching!! Meeting fellow cachers is always one of my favorite ways to wrap up any caching adventure!

 

 

Here are some more pictures from our day at the Speed Park and Aquarium!



He's right behind me, isn't he?!?

 

 

A fun day worth celebrating!