About That a CITO Event...

I believe I took the long way to get to that Geocache event...  took me every bit of 1 hour and 15 minutes....  but the road I took is curvy and I don't believe I ever got up to the 55 MPH speed limit.  I'll have to write again about some of the memories that drive brought back to me....  but this time it's all about that event.

A CITO event is a duel thing...  a geocacher gets credit (in this case we got a virtual souvenir on our geocache profile page) for attending.  But also the participants clean up an area... pick up trash, do whatever it takes to make an area be clean again.  The host had chosen a cemetery that had several fallen branches strewn about as well as old plastic flower arrangements on gravesites that were way past their prime. (the flowers, not the gravesites)

This is Arlene, the host of this event.  Turns out we'd gone to an event in Zanesville, Ohio 8 years ago that she'd hosted.  Right after that her husband passed away and she hasn't done any geocaching since then.  This was kind of her "getting back in the groove" thing to get herself back into geocaching again.  That's her husband's gravesite right behind her.  Her passion is honoring US soldiers who gave their life to defend our country.  She has hundreds of caches hidden....  each in honor of a particular soldier.  

These are some of her geocaching coins (kind of like a commemorative coin, only each has an assigned number and is registered....  it can be circulated or can be kept in one's own collection) as well as brochures, informational sheets, photos and various other geocaching items she has collected over 

the years.

I wrote in my last blog that I didn't think we'd know anyone else there...  I was wrong!

That's Thomas (geocache name... Didemous) talking to Patty and Roger (CTeam).  And we know all of these folks.  In fact, Patty and Roger live less than a mile up the road from us.  We'd have gone to this event together except I thought they had already left for their vacation in the Canadian Maritimes.

Did I mention that we cleaned up the cemetery?  Actually, what happened was that when Arlene contacted the County office to ask about doing this, a few days later they had a crew come in and clean up all the winter debris and even do some mowing.  So really, our group had very little to do.  I think we had 2 bags of old flower arrangements and a bit of debris, but most of the time we all stood around talking about our shared hobby.

Some of the original group had already left by the time I remembered my camera was in the car...  but we spent the better part of 2 hours making this cemetery look better and just hanging out with like company.

We headed home...  I drove a different route home than the one getting there...  shaved at least 15 minutes off the driving time...  and though the scenery was beautiful, I'll admit that the drive there is outstanding.  No photos as I was driving....  although if time would have allowed, I'd have pulled over (where?  there were hardly any places to pull over!) and take some photos.  

I loved this outing today...  we've been busy working on the rental and it was good getting away and seeing some old sights.  It was fun doing the geocaching thing, but especially fun meeting up with some old friends and meeting some new ones.

We're thinking that we'll probably go to the May meeting of this same group....  it's kinda nice to get off the Ridge for a few hours and do something different.

That's All For Today!