I Did It!

I've had a goal for a couple of years and I finally reached it this week. I'm not a big goal setter, but if I get involved in a hobby or activity for a long time, setting a goal helps me keep my interest and enthusiasm for continued participation. I think that may be true for most sports and hobby enthusiasts.

Hubby reached his goal almost a year before I reached mine. That was okay with me as we approach things differently. But he was quite instrumental in helping me reach this goal. He chose the location and I got to choose the day. Not that the day, January 22nd, was important; it was a day with nothing else on the calendar. But January 22nd is a big deal now as it is the day I found my 20,000th geocache!

We got up at 5 AM (if you REALLY know us, you know that is not typical!) to drive through Phoenix's early morning rush hour traffic from the east side of the valley to the west side and beyond...

There was only one accident on the west bound lanes, but a couple on the east bound lanes. The accident was not serious, no ambulance or firetrucks. We only reduced our speed until we were around the vehicles along the side of the 4 lanes.

The location for our day of geocaching was nothing special. We arrived about 7:30 to begin our day of jumping out...well...climbing out of the jeep and walking 20' to a pile of rocks and locating a small container with a piece of paper. 

The road for the first maybe 20 miles was paved with very level, wide shoulders. There was some traffic, mostly locals. It was open range country, but we did not see any cattle in the 28 miles. However, we did see evidence of them.

Then the road became gravel, but continued to be very wide and level. The only traffic we encountered on the gravel road were gravel trucks hauling a load from farther north.

The desert floor is green from the winter rains. The temperatures have been cool which contributes to the green grass.

Most of the geocaches along this road are in a small pile of rocks and easy to find. This one was different as it was a tree or brush root/trunk. It is too cold for snakes, so reaching into a piece of wood is not a worry right now.

Probably the scenery highlight for me was seeing a small cluster of blooming poppies. We really do not see them in January and some years, like last year, we do not see them at all. Moisture at the right time of the year (fall and early winter) is the key to abundant wild flowers.

It was cool, maybe 50º so the poppies were not really open. And there was quite a breeze blowing, but the camera on my new phone takes video (live) and then selects the best still photo for me. SHEEZ! But it gives me a nice clear photo...

I do not know the name of this little purple ground flower, but they are rather abundant right now.

So back to the goal of 20,000 geocaches. I started the day at 19,811. Although we found and signed about 200 of the 331 caches in this series, I wanted my 20,000th one to be somewhat special. When we started the run that morning we had no idea how many we might find, how hard they might be, etc., etc. So getting 200 geocaches wasn't exactly what we had planned. 

The night before I had solved a puzzle cache created by a Canyon Vistas geocacher. The final location of her puzzle was not far from our place, but out in the desert...a short walk. Hubby and I agreed to end our trail run with 200 finds. I wasn't too excited to drive back home in afternoon rush hour. Nor was he! By 2:00 we were on I10 heading east ahead of the really ugly traffic.

When we got home, I quickly made a sign while Hubby put the geocache on the GPS. We parked Lil' Red as close as we could. We crawled through a barb wire fence that many before us had also done, and headed into the sun for this special geocache.

 (I am holding Signal, the geocaching mascot. It was given to me by another AZ geocacher to give to my grandkids. Rather than GIVE it to them, it is going to have geocaching adventures and at the end of the year, there will be a book to share with Miss W and Mcbe.)

A Rose Between Two Thorns

This is an interesting chart showing my geocaching history. The dotted lines show the number of geocaches I/we have found each year, beginning the end of 2012. The shaded area shows how I/we have reached the 20,000 mark. You can see 2016 was a very big year for us. And you can see that 2018 was NOT a big geocaching year. Hubby's health, my hip replacement, our move to a new community and home all contributed to geocaching placed on the back shelf.

Another interesting tidbit is the following chart showing the rankings of South Dakota geocachers. I am currently #5, Hubby #4. (We rank in the 40s standings for AZ geocachers.)

There will be several celebrations to mark the occasion of 20,000 geocaches. But more about those as they happen. For now I am just basking in the accomplishment of a personal goal, one I never imagined in August 2012 when I encouraged Hubby to buy a GPS and try geocaching in the park at the end of the block.