The Jeep4x4 Travel Bug

It was a dark and stormy night. The lightening was streaking across the sky. The thunder rumbled so loud it shook everything around. And then the rain came. It was torrential at first. You could hardly see 50 feet in front of you. We figured, heck, why not, it was a 1/1 cache--should be an easy find even in the dark. I was armed with a flashlight, some night vision goggles, and a poking/whacking stick. What could go wrong?!

It’s nearly 11pm when I got started. It was a 45 minute drive to St. Augustine from our house. Luckily, everything was quiet by the time I got to the cache site. All was calm, all was dark. I pulled up to this tiny park along the water. The park couldn’t have been any bigger than our living room. There was a fountain in the center and just behind it, a HUGE oak tree. Off to the side was a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. The other side of the garden had a small walkway with a tunnel trellis of vines of some sort—too hard to make out what they were in the dark. That was the all encompassing park. It was very modest.

I snooped around the garden a bit. Looking here, looking there, getting the feel of the place. I spotted many a places I “thought” would be a great place to put a cache. Apparently, I was incorrect. I went back to the truck to re-read the cache details and logs. I went back out and searched some more.

The GPS kept pointing towards the fountain. I looked all around the bushes. I found an electrical box I was about to rummage through, until about 5 HUGE cockroaches came barreling out of the opening. I turned my attention to the tree behind the fountain next—the next most logical place to hide a cache based on the coordinates.

Waving my flashlight here and there up and down the tree, I didn’t really pay any mind to where I tread, since the path was concrete. As I rounded the backside of the tree, I nearly stepped on some drunken guy who seemed to have made himself comfortable back there. I think I may have woke him up a bit when I shined the bright LEDs of my flashlight right in his face, trying to see what I had stumbled over. Traversing this guy was difficult and so, I needed to focus my attention elsewhere.

As I was rummaging around my truck, yet again, decoding the secret hint, and changing the batteries in my flashlight, a voice came from the dark and asked “Are you looking for ghosts too?”  Apparently, a truck full of teenagers pulled up and one of the guys noticed my “equipment” so he thought he would ask. I was prepared to talk to a cop and his questioning or even the caretaker’s questions, had they seen me looking around a park in the dark. But that question was just one question I was not prepared for. All I could stammer out was, “Um…..no.” The guy replies that this area is famous for ghosts and they were out looking for some. He was laden down with a Sony night shot camcorder and a tape recorder. He trompled back to the truck. He snuck up behind the girl and scared the snickers out of her. Screams and giggles could be heard through the night air. His party climbs back in the truck and goes off on their ghostly hunt. And back to mine…

I spent about 2 hours in this park, the size of my living room, searching for a 1/1 cache. After the scare of the drunken guy sleeping behind the tree, and the freaky “ghost hunters”, and not being able to make out WHAT was jasmine in the dark…I decided it was time to call it quits. Maybe I would have better luck in the daytime. So, I went home, told the wife my tales, and we decided to trek out again after work tomorrow, when there was daylight and another set of eyes.

After work, we packed up the car with our gear and ourselves. It is quite a feat to accomplish, just getting into the car with everything and we always undoubtedly leave something behind. Mom, Dad and Peanut were on their way back to St. Augustine and the tiny garden. This time, we hoped to beat the rain. The clouds loomed near, but never seemed to break. This gave us the needed time, but we were all drenched in sweat from the humidity that weighed the air.

We looked and looked again. Another two hours spent in this tiny little park. The GPS kept leading us to the fountain. We looked all around the fountain, in the bushes, under the water, and we still were not going to put our hands in that electrical box that cockroaches claim as home. Mom couldn’t look as well as she wanted. With Peanut running around she had to keep her eagle eye on him. Dad was still looking all around the fountain. And Mom remembered the hint…the smell of jasmine. Tried as she might, she looked in the overhanging arch full of spent blooms. Her field of vision was limited to ground level to 3 feet up, and Peanut was more interested in the passing horses.

Another hour and a half looking, to no avail. Were we just that bad at geocaching? Or was it that good of a hiding spot? It was 7pm and the sprinklers had come on. Peanut was getting grumpy. Disappointed, yet again, we went home. We are still determined though. We will never give up.

When we got home, we checked the logs to make sure the Jeep was still there. Apparently, someone had been there before us, found the cache only to find the Jeep missing. Man, what were we doing wrong? Now, we were just getting frustrated. As we were talking about all that had transpired, and almost giving up on ever finding a Jeep, we got an email that another Jeep had been placed—and not to far from where we were just searching. So, yet another trip was planned.

The next day was a little more successful than the previous trips…but not much. We found the cache easily with the newly listed bug. But, alas, we were again, too late. The Jeep had been picked up and no one had logged it yet. Again, frustration set in. So, since we were not to far from our dreaded garden cache, we drove back to the tiny park. This time, we went right to the spot and pulled out the cache in less than 2 minutes. It wouldn’t have mattered though, as this Jeep was also not logged as being picked up. Arg! We were about ready to scream! Like a child forced to leave a toy store, we all climbed back into the car and drove home. At least we had 2 finds today, we were not going to let that cache get the better of us, either! But, still, no Jeep.

A few nights later, we were involved with a night-time event cache. This was our first event cache (even if it was ‘unofficial’) and we met a few of the local cachers in our area. We told our tales of the past week and let Peanut roam about a bit. He was having so much fun playing ball with the other cachers. A few minutes later, we all heard “Car. Car. Car.” And we look down to find Peanut with a little yellow Jeep going “Vroom. Vroom.” on the sand. 4 days, 370 miles later we have our prize! And it was found not by Mom and Dad, but by 19 month old Peanut! :D