Geocaching January 2025

I started the new geocaching year off with a bang. Ease into the New Year 2025 was a community celebration event for 25 years of geocaching. A lot of cachers have been granted events (including yours truly), this is the first of hopefully many. The event was at Game On Arcade, which we had a gift card for, so my family came along to snack and play games. I did the socializing.

Mom and youngest do DDR

Earlier in the day, I was on the WB&A Trail to find Thomas Knowlton and Shughart Gordon. The day was windy and the trees were a bit too creaky for my taste! Just outside the trail is Race Track Road C&D with a fun container.

Woods on the WB&A Trail

The next day I signed another cache on the Odenton Cooperative Challenge Trail--OCCT #12: Unknown/Mystery 250 Challenge. The WB&A finds qualified me for the 250 mystery caches I needed. The day after, I found Mile Marker 14 on Old National Road along with two more mystery caches, A Little Piece of Howard County History and an old DNF for me, Mission Possible, which was indeed more possible to find after the summer vegetation was gone. I was surprised to see the previous logger was DG or Dudley Grunt, one of the Monday Morning Coffee people. Since I am part of Dancing Gophers, we would share the same initials except I usually put an S on the end for clarity's sake.

DG and DGS in alphabetically order on the log

I had to go shopping at a game store (does anyone really have to go shopping at a game store?) and found some caches nearby. Ha! Run Dale! is a pun on the town's name, Harundel. Code Cross 1 filled another mystery day and Slurpy or Icey was a bonus on the way home. 

Code Cross the Road is more like it!

The next day I had to take my wife to a Virginia airport so I found some caches in the neighborhood. Reader's Delight was in a Little Free Library (yay!) and not too far away I found Doggo Walking: Alice Never Lived Here, a trickier find with a cryptic name. I also found a pair of challenge caches nearby, Picky CHALLENGE: Doggo Walking 200 and Doggo Walking 400, which require cachers to have found enough caches with the "Dogs Allowed" attribute. At one of them, a cute little pooch was barking at me through the fence. The fence had a hole big enough for his face but not for him to escape.

Cold enough to freeze the pond out back

Maybe he just wants out?

The next day was a massive snow storm, so I used one of the caches I signed in Virginia to keep my mystery streak going. Picky CHALLENGE: Doggo Walking 600 requires 600 finds, I had 627 before making these finds.

Picky CHALLENGE: Ow! I'm Stuck! 200 requires 200 thorn-attribute caches, for which I have qualified. MTO 2014 Icebreaker is another mystery cache, this one requiring some mathematical wizardry at home before making the find. 

I really did have to break some ice here

Annapolis, MD 21401 is another fun mystery I found the next day. Picky CHALLENGE: Happy Baby 200 requires 200 stroller-friendly caches which I have far surpassed in my finds. Random Wiki Puzzle: 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix is an easy to solve puzzle that wasn't buried in snow at Ground Zero, as was Math Mnemonic. Another puzzle I solved had a buried cache which I could not unbury.

Lamp Post Cache...to find later

Witchcraft Horror Series #1 brought me to a cemetery.

Salem Cemetery, but in Maryland

Also nearby are RWP: Filipe Machado and Define Definite Definitions #2, a series I hope will continue. Where's The Beef? was a fun find the next day. 

Hair Is Tea Tour is by a supermarket. Nearby I found what was left of Bees by the River...

The cache was removed with extreme prejudice not by the cache owner

That's a lot of work to put into a message for geocachers! On Route 40 I found Old National Pike Mile Marker 14, part of a series on the old road from Baltimore to the west, and different from the Mile Marker 14 cache mentioned above. 

The next day I went to Annapolis's western suburbs and found Dentophobia, a tooth-based puzzle cache. Also in the neighborhood was C and D Version 2.0, which had a lot of creepy vultures around it.

What are they waiting around for?

Also in Annapolis I found Festival of Lights: Night One, Two, Five, and Six. Nearby I found Fuzzydave s Rocks #1: Maneskin and ON BOARD!. 

Another snow storm put a damper on caching for almost a week, but then I got out again. Been Around Since the 1950's - Who Knew? was an easy mystery to solve. Then I went into DC on an errand and did some caching. CAA DC Edition: South Dakota Avenue is part of a series "Cache Across the Avenues" with hides on each street named after a state. This was my first one, so I have a lot more work to do! Nearby I found the multicache Existence Intertwined Mural which uses some information from the mural to point to the final cache. A guy was out grilling on the chilly morning, which surprised me. 

View to the mural

I found an Adventure Lab in Langdon Park that also had a Bonus Cache that I found. The park has a memorial to Chuck Brown, a guitarist who was a local legend in the Go-Go Music scene (he's called the "Godfather of Go-Go"). I had trouble finding the final cache--after emailing with the cache owner, I was allowed to take credit for finding it. 

Chuck Brown Memorial

Empty final location?

I found another string of mystery caches to fill in some of the days I have missing: What's in Your Pocket? and Name That Richardson!!!! The day of the Richardson find, I found most of a Hanukkah Nights series: Three, Four, and Six. Five and Eight seemed to be missing, so I emailed the cache owner to let him make replacements if necessary. Nearby is Fuzzydave Comes To Town #1 which was an easy find. They were all close to this bowling alley where I decided to park as a central location.

Another potential hobby

We did a quick tour of The Catholic University of America with the Catholic University Fun Facts Adventure Lab. I also picked up the Bonus Cache that was an easy find near a cybertruck.

Probably won't be there when you go to find the cache

I finished the month finding Lakeside after failing to donate blood (not enough iron!), along with two Random Wiki Puzzles: NFL Top 100 Players of 2019 and Galegos (Povoa de Lanhoso). 

I guess I could have taken a shortcut to the cache?

The month ends with 62 finds (two-a-day average!) and 1712 overall. I probably won't break into 1800 next month since February is shorter and I've already found mystery caches on every day, so my main project will be sidetracked. I'll concentrate on solving or qualifying for other mystery caches.

Barefoot Landing, Myrtle Beach

Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has a lot of shops and fun activities for families. Our first visit was early in the morning before the shops were open. We were still able to have lots of fun.

The sign

Walking in from the parking lot, we had our first experience of the water--the threat of water! The sign claims that there's alligators and snakes in the area and not to mess with them. I think my family is smart enough (or cowardly enough) to stay away from such critters. 

Watch out for the wild life

We had to walk through a bunch of shops to get to the most fun stuff. The shops are geared toward tourists, selling ice cream and candy, clothing and trinkets. There's even some restaurants.

We meant to go back for this shop!

Around an artificial lake is some larger restaurants and amusements. They have a lovely carousel.

Their carousel

No rides yet

Another ride not ready to go at 8 a.m.

One place I was very interested in is the Crooked Hammock Brewery. The restaurant's outdoor leisure area naturally includes a hammock.

Outdoor seating very available at 8 a.m.

Photo op spot

Further in is a playground for the under-ten crowd. The playground is themed around the oak tree in the middle of the playground. It's a recent transplant (moving from the outer parking lot to its new location in 2018), so the kids aren't allowed to climb it. 

Playground

Tree info

The tree itself

The artificial lake

The lawn has some games that we enjoyed too.

Mega-Jenga

Lawn Chess

The next day we went to Lulu's, a restaurant, store, and amusement area from Lucy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett's sister. 

Lulu's retail entrance

The kids were not interested in shopping so we made a bee-line for the arcade.

Most interesting part

The arcade is mostly games (electronic and physical) where you can win tickets toward the typical sorts of inexpensive items, unless you collect thousands of tickets and then can afford electronics and other really nice stuff. We just played for fun.

Ball dropper

Racing game, head-to-head optional

Some games, like air hockey, didn't give tickets, but did give great satisfaction.

Mom vs. older son

Brother vs. brother

Another fun attraction is a VR ride that simulates riding a rollercoaster, though we saw an animated landscape, not an actual coaster. The effect was amazingly convincing.

VR Ride

Some more regular-type arcade games were available.

Jurassic shoot-em-up

Pac-man

Ice Man, a zombie shoot-em-up

After we collected items for our tickets (mostly candy), we crossed the way to Sweet Molly's Creamery for an ice cream treat. 

One of many ice cream shops in the area

I finally got a treat from the Crooked Hammock, a South to Somewhere, a blonde ale flavored with coconut. It was refreshing and fit well with the semi-tropical theme of the area.

Enjoying a beer

We would definitely visit here again. The kids were a little interested in the ropes course and we never ate at any of the restaurants.

Chuck E. Cheese!

We went to Chuck E. Cheese for a family birthday. When I was a kid and went to parties at Chuck E. Cheese, I remember playing arcade games like Defender and Gauntlet. They had a small section of carnival-type games where you could win tickets to trade in for prizes. A lot has changed in thirty plus years.

The Chuck E. Cheese we went to (in Bethesda) was almost entirely games with tickets. A lot of them are sports-themed. Basketball is a family-favorite since we have a hoop at home.

Using his head

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease

Older brother gives it a try

Another flying ball

A fun variant of Whack-a-Mole lets the player be a member of the Justice League whacking the villains who pop up. Who wouldn't want to bonk Sinestro, the Joker, or Lex Luthor on the head?

My daughter as Wonder Woman

Skee ball is a classic game that all our family loves.

The youngest rolls his best 

My older son was happy to find a more challenging (and maybe more realistic) basketball game. We played head-to-head and I was unable to beat him. That time has come!

Another air ball

Chuck E. Cheese does have some rides, though they are definitely aimed at the younger visitors. My youngest liked the getting lifted around a clock. They had a micro-carousel and other ride-on games.

Getting a lift

I don't remember the party food and party room from my childhood. Now, the room has a big screen with cartoons and other info and a wind tunnel with free tickets. Chuck E. himself was not as present as I remember. He did come out for pictures but I was away when he showed up.

The party room

We had to rush off and weren't able to cash in our tickets, so we will have to go back and get some of the fun stuff they offer.