SOMETIMES LIFE SEEMS LIKE A TRAIN WRECK

Sometimes, no matter how you try, your life just seems to become a train wreck. No matter how you try, things just seem to turn out wrong and you are helpless to stop it. All you can do is watch, wishing you could cover your eyes and go back to bed. More about that later. First the cache part:

We are back at Lake Stephens #2 Cache. A few weeks ago we searched here in the gathering dark and in the falling rain and snow for a cache that (we later found out) had been muggled--disappeared, stolen. I am a highly goal oriented individual and after having found 14 caches earlier in the day, this last failure left me frustrated, so when the owner sent out a note that he had replaced the cache with a new one we were back to look for it at our first opportunity. BatikFreak10 (sis) and wiscongranny (Joyce) and I are here early on Sunday morning and the weather is cooperating. Spring is on its way.

BF10 models her re-find. She was the actual finder of the hidden box and gets to sign the log first. We were the first finders of the newly replaced cache.

I hope you can see the detail in this photo, click to enlarge if needed. Can you see them? I told you spring is on its way. There are a goodly number of tadpoles in the picture. The little beings are less than a half inch long at this point but will shortly become top notch hoppers and croakers. Frogs and toads are facing an uncertain future. Global warming is taking its toll on the little guys. Will we follow some day in the future?

This has absolutely nothing to do with Geocaching , but how can you pass up the opportunity to photograph the turn off to Hoo-Hoo Hollow--or as is more properly said, Hoo-- Hoo Holler. No, we didn't go.

Now for the high point of the day. We are near Oak Hill WV and behind the WalMart. Can you see the cache? We spent about a half hour looking for the cache here. We crawled around--practically under-- this electrical transformer unit. We touched every joint and seam and tugged at every nut and bolt. Nothing!! We walked away and walked back. We searched and searched. Nothing!! We read and re-read the description and clue and logs. NOTHING!!!! Finally, more in desperation than hope, BatikFreak10 touched the numbers and sesame opened.

What followed was a victory dance and war whoop to equal any seen after the winning touchdown in the worlds greatest Super Bowl game. I think that if BF10 had been just a little younger we would have seen a series of hand stands and jive dancing.

The numbers themselves are the cache!! The hider had used a set of magnetic numbers and letters to place a fictitious serial number on the transformer. The backs of the numbers themselves are the log. How cool is that? And congrats to BF10 for giving us 8 for 8 on the day.

Now for the train wreck part of the day: Sometimes things just don't work out and your day turns out baaaaddd. And that's what happened to the crew of this train. About a week before we returned to Lake Stephens, this wreck had occurred. It's a small wreck as those things go, only a few cars and a few hundred tons of coal. But someones day was sure ruined. I'm sure someone just wanted to cover their eyes and go back to bed rather than face the bosses and an inquiry into why this happened. Someones day was a total, complete and absolute train wreck.