Caching & Our Caching Meeting 2/19-25/2009

Thursday and Friday there wasn't much going on at all. Did a little more packing and cleaning getting ready to leave MB and Mom did go Friday to volunteer at the hospital in the nursery.
Saturday was our caching meeting at Wild Wings Cafe that Ed, Mom and I were hosting. We planned a game of Battleship played with our GPS's for everybody who wanted to participate. We were supposed to meet at 4:45 and hand out the rule sheet and game sheets, but of course there were always the stragglers who didn't show up until 5:00 so we never left the restaurant until 5:15. Mom, Ed and I just hung around as everybody else played, with Mom taking care of Jillian a 3 year old girl who was the granddaughter of a cacher from Endicott, NY who we met from a cacher who lives on Oak Island. Ed and I just stood outside and took pictures of everybody going every which way with sheets and GPS's in hand. We gave them a 1 1/2 hour time limit and only 2 people found the actual final coords and cache and in retrospect we should have allowed 2 hours at least, but live and learn. After everybody got back to the restaurant we ordered dinner, ate, chatted and then had our meeting. We handed out the prizes for Battleship and then we had a special recognition for Liz and Bob our friends from north of the border as the meeting was their 1000th cache find and they logged it on our laptop right from the meeting. What made it really special, especially for them Ariane, a friend of theirs from Germany by way of Arizona, was there and it was her that started them on their road to geocaching and they had found their first cache with her. After dinner we sat around and chatted for awhile as the deck we had at the restaurant was rather cold becuase the 3 heaters they had to warm the room, only one of them would stay lit. We left about 8:15 and drove over to Liz and Bob's as Ed and ourselves had a bottle of champagne and a 1000th find geocoin achievement award for them.
Sunday Ed had ourselves, Liz, Bob, John, Nancy, Ariane, Gina and Steve over for a Italian Dinner Fest at his house. We had a great time and had some wonderful food as Ed did a GREAT job making everything we had. Dinner included tossed salad, Italian wedding soup (it was fantastic), pasta with sauce bake din the oven, garlic bread, a trifle and flourless chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner we sat and chatted with everybody and especially interesting was Ariane relating some great stories about caches in AZ.
Monday again was spent around the house packing and cleaning getting ready to get on the road again.
Tuesday we took a trip to Wilmington to do some caching with Liz and Bob. First cache we did was in the downtown area and was a multi cache with the final located in the old courthouse in the visitor's office. Next was a cache along a neighborhood path in the woods and was a marble exchange cache, next was a cache near some apartment buildings on a tree, next we did 2 caches by Michelle Fray a friend of ours who does really neat caches. These 2 were puzzle caches located in the woods and when you found the cache she had plastic birds near the cache location which went along with the cache theme page. One was owls and the other was ravens. Next cache was on a peninsula near a small lake near a shopping center, next a cache under a light skirt near a church, next one in a shopping center under a light skirt, next one behind a bowling alley and the last cache was a brand new one by Michelle in the middle of town with a great story behind it. The story starts in an area that was known as "Paradise Alley" back in the 1700s. As the name suggests, this was the part of town where visiting sailors could be assured of finding dark pubs and, ahem, temporary companionship. The proprietress of one of these establishments was an unusually tough woman called Gallus Meg (Gallus derived from gallows), who had a reputation for being as harsh and unforgiving as the gallows. Gallus Meg had the charming habit of grabbing unruly or non-paying customers by the neck and throwing them out into the alley, where she would often proceed to beat them to a pulp. If the customer was a particularly bad case, she would also rip off one of his ears with her teeth! It is rumored that Meg stored all of the ears she collected throughout the years in a large jar which sat atop the bar - surely this was an effective warning to those considering less-than-perfect behavior in Gallus Meg's establishment. Although Gallus Meg's reign over Paradise Alley ended centuries ago and only remnants of her business remain, her ghost still haunts the area. Patrons and employees of the restaurant at the west end of the alley describe strange incidents in the back of the building, most involving the sudden appearance of a large angry woman reaching for their throats! Oddly, it is only men who ever encounter the spirit of Gallus Meg - she leaves the ladies alone, which is why we fraygirls felt perfectly fine with placing a cache in Meg's honor in her alley! Alas, you gentlemen-cachers might want to be careful, be on your best behavior, and watch your necks and ears! And it probably wouldn't hurt to thank Gallus Meg for allowing you to survive this caching experience as you leave her alley!! We found the cache container which was an ear from a Mr. Potato-Head game, took some pictures and left to come back to MB. It also was our 2200th cache find so we had to take a picture for posterity. We had a great lunch with Michelle at Andy's, a burger joint, as it was really nice talking with her as it had been awhile since we had a chance to sit and talk with her. We did have one down side as Liz had fallen when we were in the woods and twisted her knee. She said she was ok and was able to walk back to the car but it did stiffen up on her after awhile and she needed a Tylenol on the ride back.
Thursday we ran a bunch of errands picking up things we needed to have before we left MB. We stopped on the way back to the house and saw Liz and she had been in bed as her knee was quite swollen and she had been sleeping a lot. Her and Bob were considering leaving for Canada rather than stay another month but they were going to make that decision on Thursday or Friday (they won't go we know it they are both very independant and stubborn). After we got back we did some more repacking the coach, lots of stuff to go back in but with some great rearranging by Mom we seem to have lots of extra room. Gina and Steve stopped over and picked up their chair and we then had dinner.
Well I guess that's about it for now so we will say until next time we love you all and miss you bunches. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Rebecca enjoying dinner, 2-Hot Chicks room, 3-Bar area, 4-