After buying some shoes today, I did a little geocaching. I had the funniest experience at one of the caches. Reproduced here is my log for Festival Park Micro:
This was the funniest cache experience of my life. I was in the area, so I decided to look for this one. Not many people out on a chilly, misty day. But the people who are out are... interesting.
After parking my truck near the cache site, I notice that there is a man standing by the end of the picnic shelter. No problem, I think, I'll just take the long way to the cache site and perhaps sit a spell and enjoy the lake view. Then I noticed what the man was doing, standing at the end of the shelter -- relieving himself!
I thought I might just decide to go home and try this one another day, but I figured I'd give it a few more minutes. Besides, the lake was pretty, what with the mist coming down and a nice breeze keeping the top of the water moving. Birds trying to fly into the wind appeared to be flying in slow motion. A man was playing "fetch" with his dog -- dog in the lake. Eventually, the man by the shelter moved along, so I went to go look for the cache.
Keeping an eye on my surroundings, I searched a bit for the cache. I wasn't having much luck, then I noticed that the man had come back to the shelter and was obviously watching me. OK, I'll just have to come up with a good cover story in case I'm challenged -- I have no desire to try to explain geocaching to Urinating-In-Public Man. I start examining trees and leaves carefully, UIP Man walks down to the lake.
I found the cache! But I'm not going to retrieve it while UIP Man is keeping an eye on me. So I keep looking at leaves and taking pictures of them with my camera phone. Oh, look! UIP Man appears to have lost interest and his back is to me. I grab the log from the cache while his back is turned and prepare to sign it. Oops -- UIP Man didn't really loose interest, he turns back around and starts walking towards me. Time to take more pictures of leaves.
UIP Man: "Whatcha doing? Taking pictures of leaves?" DrMellow: "Yeah. I like to take pictures of leaves that are about to change colors and leaves that have been damaged by disease or insects. Then I put the pictures in PhotoShop and make a collage from them.... You know, art." UIP Man: "Oh. That sounds kinda neat."
I go on to explain how I like the overcast day like we had today because it helps with the light and my pictures come out better. UIP Man just nods like he understands and agrees with everything I'm saying. I keep taking pictures. I explain that I'll probably come back tomorrow with my big camera to get better pictures -- I'm just scouting the location now. UIP Man nods. He looks over my shoulder while I snap a few more shots of dying leaves. After a few minutes, he moved on.
I signed the log, took more leaf pictures (just in case), returned the log, took more leaf pictures (just in case), and headed back to my truck.
Funniest adventure I've had while retrieving a cache. Thanks!
BTW, the log is damp. Not overly so -- it's still very usable. But it's a little damp.
