What Was Accomplished

Monday, August 31, 2015          Home at last     trip odometer 7,816 miles

            I arrived home around 10:30 this morning to be greeted by a rush of cats. Well, by Ginny rushing out to the garage because the connecting door was open and she was eager to hunt for mice; by Cassie, who actually did saunter out to greet me, sniffed my fingers thoroughly, gave an approving face rub, and accepted petting; and then, when I walked in, Molly looked up from her nap and saw it was me. She gave me the whole enthusiastic welcome treatment, from thunderous purrs to slamming her body against my legs to rub them fervently, finally giving me a series of tender licks. She and Ginny continued to be my most emotional welcomers, with Cassie looking on happily. Deanna gave me dirty looks but finally caved in when I sat for awhile. The lap was irresistible to her, and I am now forgiven for going away by Deanna. I had to go out into the workshop to greet Alex, since that’s his napping place. Once he sniffed my hand and recognized me, he allowed himself to be picked up and draped over a shoulder to be carried around purring. Rowena, five hours later, has NOT forgiven me but just grabbed a treat I put down where she could sneak it without acknowledging me as the donor. An ex-feral, she is slow to trust and easily offended. I have to wait for her to make the first move.

            It didn’t take as long to get home as I’d figured, because by the time I found a place to stay last night I’d come nearly half an hour from where I’d decided I was too tired to make it home. But here I am, safe and comfy. Now is the time to evaluate my accomplishments.

            I drove 7,816 miles in 25 days, for an average of about 313 miles a day. During that span of time I stayed in one place for multiple nights twice. My goals were to attend my friend’s daughter’s wedding, to find three of the most prestigious geocaches in the world, to attend the final Geocaching HQ Block Party, to fish the Yellowstone area and see some of its best-known sites, to pay my respects at the Native American sacred site Medicine Wheel, and to see the famous Minnesota Twine Ball. I accomplished all of these goals. I once again enjoyed catching native cutthroat trout on flies, and saw Old Faithful erupt, which I missed both previous times I was in Yellowstone. I had a profound experience at Medicine Wheel which, as such things often do, involved some pretty rigorous testing.

            During the trip I logged 70 geocaches, making August 2015 my best caching month ever, and bringing my total to 488 finds, just 12 short of my 500 milestone. I found a cache (at minimum) in each of 19 states I never had before, each earning me a virtual souvenir and boosting my US State Souvenir total to 31. I also found my first non-US caches and added Ontario, Canada to my souvenir list. The Original Stash Tribute Plaque and Geocaching HQ each have their own souvenir, as does the Block Party. Additional souvenirs earned include 4 of the 5 2015 Challenge souvenirs and International Geocaching Day. My souvenir total stands at 76! I’ve now found 84 caches more than 250 miles from home, the farthest being 2,224 miles away. The Original Stash Tribute Plaque, the HQ Cache, and Mingo, the oldest continuously-maintained cache, were the three I set out to find, but I also added the St. Louis Arch virtual and the Famous Twine Ball cache, two well-known and desirable finds. This may all be as boring as watching paint dry to most people, but I am a statistics freak (one of the things I loved about baseball), and have great fun with the geocaching personal stats pages.

            I acquired a good many geocoins and the like, dropped one each of my ASPGB proxies in Mingo and the Tribute Cache and watched, open-mouthed, as they BOTH went to the HQ Cache and arrived there before I did! I picked up the Bristol Bunny Travel Bug and gave it a 1,500 mile ride, hopefully earning its owner a pint of holiday cheer for mileage this winter. I got to tour Geocaching Headquarters, found all the Block Party Lab caches, and generally had a caching good time. Incidentally, Bruce, my trackable Subaru, has now logged 6,080 miles since activated April 8^th. Why the difference? Road miles versus line-of-sight between caches Bruce ‘visited.’

            Aside from fishing and geocaching, I’ve learned a great deal this trip. For one thing, coffee gets worse the farther one travels West. On the west coast, I had to double the sweetener and use cream (which at home I seldom do) to make it potable. For another, my brain, meaning memory, planning, and processing, is in much better shape than I’d been led to believe. My emotional state, though… I reach the proverbial ‘last nerve’ very quickly and just lose everything when I do. I’ve learned I have courage. I also possess more physical strength and stamina than I’d figured, although I do have my limits. I’ve learned that I have a benevolent guardian (call it angel, spirit-guide, or what you will), perhaps several, who subtly call my attention to lessons I should learn, point out things that will make me smile, steer me away from evil people and towards nice ones, and, most of all, cushion life’s little disasters so that I learn from them rather than becoming a statistic.

            Things I didn’t need to learn that stood me in good stead were, when something is pleasurable, enjoy it! Give people a chance to be nice, and they will almost always take it. When someone smiles, smile back; when they don’t, smile first. Most of all, see the beauty.

            I like to travel. That should be obvious by now. However, I’m looking forward to a good, long stretch of time spent almost exclusively at home. I want to digest the things I learned from this trip, perhaps make some of the truths my own and apply them to my day-to-day life. Will I make another big trip like this one? Probably, but not soon. When I once more feel stagnant, and need to change in order to grow, I will pack my suitcase, and seek my answers on the road.