Thursday, August 5, 2021

Geocaching July 2021

Continuing the effort to acheive 500 geocaches found before the summer ends...

I donated blood at the American Red Cross donor center by the Mall in Columbia. Usually I go get a treat afterward. Checking the geocaching app, I saw a cache on the other side of the mall right near Corner Bakery. I bought a pecan pie bar and a chai and found Sandra's Birthday Cache! 13! It was not difficult, probably because I was there early enough to avoid lots of muggles. The log was very wet so I could not sign it. I left a note on the app when I logged the find.

The stripy awning is Corner Bakery, the geocache is somewhere else

I ran some errands in Maryland City, Maryland, and found two caches there. 

Behind a shopping plaza is The Black Magic Cache. The location was mostly muggle-free and it didn't take long to find the cache.

Nothing particularly magical about the spot

In the front of the shopping plaza is Strong Mints... Ground zero is right next to a former Pier One store that's been closed for a while. Even so, a bunch of people parked nearby when I showed up, forcing me into stealth mode. This was another easy find once I was less visible. As you might guess from the title, the container was an Altoids tin.

Not at the gas station

While in Texas, we found some caches to help us along the way to 500. The first cache was Leadership Class 4 Series, Since 1937 in Dripping Springs. The Rippy Ranch and Supply store across the street has been in business since 1937. We didn't shop there since we don't own a ranch. We did find the cache fairly quickly, so quickly that we didn't take a picture. We did stop at Rolling in Thyme and Dough, a fun coffee shop that's across the other street.

A fun place for a drink, breakfast, and snack

We went to Bee Cave, Texas, to check out that suburb and found a cache in Central Park, which is not really centrally located. Maybe they'll develop the other side of the park? The cache was Girl Scouts - Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest achievement in Girl Scouts, though the cache itself is not part of a Gold Award project. It was still fun to find and had a nice view of Bee Cave in the distance. Also, I saw my first cactus in Texas.

View from the cache to Bee Cave

View in the other direction

Nearby cacti!

By our hotel, two geocaches were hidden by a fan of The Beatles. The series is about the Blue Meanies, the bad guys from the Yellow Submarine movie. The first cache I found was TBM - The Butterfly Stompers. The find was quick and easy and less exposed than it looks like in the picture. The traffic on the road goes by pretty fast.

The location will be obvious to experienced geocachers

The second cache was TBM - The Countdown Clowns. This cache is on the other side of the hotels so the exposure is much less. I found both in less than five minutes!

Another easy find

The other Blue Meanie caches are premium caches and we are between being premium members, so maybe we will find them later on another trip.

The count is now 496, so very close!

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