GeoWoodstock 4

Amanda and I started geocaching in February, and just a short time later, we began hearing about something called "GeoWoodstock 4" (AK G4). GeoWoodstock is basically the biggest gathering of geocachers from around the world, and this was the fourth year the event was held. As we got more into geocaching and found out what a big deal G4 was, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to be there since it was being held here this year (Cedar Hill State Park).

Since we live so close and since we had other stuff going on this weekend (End of the School Year bash on Friday night, church on Sunday), we didn't camp but just drove back and forth. On Saturday, we left around and noon and showed up at the state park. We registered, met some people, bought a souvenir t-shirt and water bottle and then headed out to Treasure Island. Treasure Island was the activity center for kids. Amanda had a blast doing crafts, playing games and meeting other geocaching kids. Of course, Amanda wanted to swim, so I baked in the blazing hot sun for two hours before we went back to Treasure Island for some Bingo (played on CACHE cards instead, of course). Amanda won a game and picked up a few treasures as well as a gift certificate from geocaching4kids.com. By this time, we were starving and enjoyed the free BBQ dinner from Dickey's and also enjoyed getting to meet some fellow geocachers. After dinner, we drove around the park a bit and then went to the park's nature show/talk, Reptiles, Our Scaley Friends. We heard about turtles, lizards and (of course) snakes. Amanda got to touch a couple of the snakes they brought and then we drove home for the evening. We were well-sunned, tired and chigger-bitten.

During G4, a number of "cache runs" were scheduled. This is where somebody plans a route and groups of people go out geocaching together. There was an event scheduled in Ft. Worth at 3pm on Sunday, so we drove out for that. We did not know quite what to expect, and things were quite 'interesting' at first. We wanted to ride with some other people rather than be in our car by ourselves, so we ended up in a truck with some folks from Oregon and their black lab puppy, Cache (honestly that's his name...and some of you think I am consumed by geocaching?). I think we did 6-7 caches with this group which consisted of about 8 cars...and it was not real enjoyable. It was difficult getting in and out of the vehicle with the dog, and I don't know if it was because of the group size or what, but every stop was a MAD dash out of the truck, to the cache and back. The lady who was driving never wanted to be last so we always had to hurry. Somewhere in the midst of the bedlam, I logged my 100th cache. (Everybody in the group logs the cache once it is found).

After this, the group headed back to find a cache at the Wal-Mart where our car was parked (why didn't we just start with this one?). After logging this one, Amanda and I decided to ride in our own car, so we ran back to the car thinking we would join the 8 car caravan. Fortunately for us, we met a much smaller group who also found the large group thing unenjoyable, so we were able to spend the rest of the day with them. This caravan was only 2 cars and consisted of a mom and dad (whom Amanda and I rode with), their daughter and son-in-law and a friend of the mom and dad. We found several caches, stopped at Steak And Shake for dinner, hit a few more caches then got dropped off at our car (around 10:00pm) and came home. Just before we left our new-found friends, we calculated that Amanda had also reached her 100th cache, so she was very excited on the way home...until she fell asleep in the car. We found 20 caches on Sunday.

I doubt GeoWoodstock will be in this area again and so I doubt we will be able to attend another one, but we really enjoyed this one. Amanda and I enjoyed our time together, she had fun playing all day Saturday, we enjoyed getting to know and spend some time with fellow geocachers and we both made it past the 100 mark. It was a very nice weekend.

For those of you who are wondering, we did take the day of from geocaching today and spent some time with Brooke! She was also exausted from a busy weekend doing kids ministry stuff and working a wedding reception to earn money for her Nicaragua trip so we all hung around the house and did not much of anything. A good way to end a busy weekend.

Here's a few G4 pictures.

You know those games where you have a list of tasks to complete like "Find somebody to sing Row Row Row Your Boat with you and then sign here"? This was one of those games and somebody asked GeoPunkin to thumb wrestle with them. Amanda had never done this before, so she thought it was great.

GeoPunkin making GIANT bubbles at Treasure Island

They did face painting at Treasure Island, so Amanda had "GeoPunkin" tattooed on her arm

Kids playing Bingo with CACHE cards

The last thing Amanda did before leaving the state park on Saturday night!

Logging my 100th find (with a guy from our group)

I LOVE pictures like this! The hunting and the treasures of geocaching are fun...but this is best part!

GeoPunkin's favorite trade item for the day

ATMA and GeoPunkin finding a cache. GeoPunkin actually spotted this one first. This is Tim, and it was he and his wife Rhonda that we spent the afternoon with. They are a very nice couple from Houston.

-Rob