Adventures in the Fair & Square Club, by Limax

I'm still learning my way around Bassoville and I stumbled on this advert from Seckatary Hawkins about the Fair and Square club. The dues seemed reasonable, so I thought I would check it out. It took me a while to find the clubhouse since Bassoville isn't exactly laid out logically. It turns out that the clubhouse was next to a picture of a river which was floating in a fountain near the river, which seemed to just go around in a mobius strip. All that's said, I'm glad I walked and didn't try to take the Trolley. I've heard stories about that...

I had just arrived when the other members seemed to be upset about a note left by the gang from the other side of the river... but since the river has only one side, I'm not sure what other side they were talking about. Anyway, there seems to be a new gang in town from a clan called Signal. Hm. I think I have heard of that clan before. Armed with that piece of information, I went in search on my own for the wayfarer from this mysterious clan. I didn't really know any of the other members of the Fair and Square Club very well, so I doubt they would have liked me to tag along with them.

I did some checking around the river... it really fascinated me for some reason. Suddenly, I noticed something at the edge(?) of the river. There was a set of wet footprints leading away from the river. I took out my magnifying glass and confirmed it. Yes, they were wet. Not much shape to them, but I decided to follow them. It led me on a merry chase, and took me over the tracks of the trolley several times... and that's when I heard it. Someone speaking in a funny language. I took out my translator (required for every new visitor to Bassoville) and was able to understand what was being said.

By entering this information into the Certainty Checker that Seckatary Hawkins provided, I was able to find out where this new clan was hanging out. When I arrived, it appears that other people had been here before me. It appears they had made contact, because there was no one there when I arrived. All that was left was a roll sheet of those that had been there before me. I signed it as well and then tried to find a way out of there back into town. All that was there was a trolley stop.... I hope I will be able to find my way back...

AWARD WINNER FOR BEST GEOCACHING STORY

Balancing Act, by Andrew Lloyd

So I get off the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, February 2015 and -- of course -- the first thing I do is try to get a geocache. I had lived there for a year after law school, 1997-98. I loved my year there and had occasion to come back for an event. There was still a fair amount of ice on the ground, but a crisp, sunny day. I had a few hours to kill before the event.

I got to the cache location -- in a small park dedicated to some obscure Civil War Battle -- but it took me forever. I knew I was looking for a key-holder, but there was a fair amount of metal under the crust of the ice and snow. After several laps around a information kiosk/bathroom/drinking fountain, I finally started kicking at the ice. I found the cache, but in digging it out pulled a finger nail and cut my thumb pretty good.

So I wander back to my rental car, put my Garmin 60 on the windshield wiper, and start unfolding the log. When, all of sudden -- at 4 pm on a Thursday afternoon, I had the place to myself -- three cars come squealing up the driveway.

Now, I'm not a suspicious sort but I've lived in a couple of bad neighborhoods in my day and this just felt wrong.

I pocket the cache, turned on the car, and the first guy enters the lot and stares at me with some dead, dead eyes. His two companions -- in their own cars -- sort of spin around the lot and decide to try to block me in. I don't stick around. I pop over the curb with the right front tire and head for it, squeeling my own tires as I head down the lane.

Now, of course, I'm terrified. Not at the encounter -- my body hasn't had time to process the adrenaline, so this is instinct, not rationality. I've put 500 yards between us, but then a different stimulus comes through. As I've made a break for it, my precious Garmin has slid to the very edge of the hood of the car and I'm going to need to stop to get it if it falls. If I slow down, it's falling over, if I turn, it's falling off. I doubt the NIssan Maxima has a big enough engine to accelerate from 30 to 40 with enough uhmph to push it back up. So I let the car slowly, slowly come to a stop, focused far more on my GPSr than on my near-mugging a few moments ago. And there it stays until the very, very end.
I'd have rolled through the stop sign, but along at the same time came a Little Rock PD, so I stopped, it fell off the hood. I hoped out, gave him a wave, grabbed my GPS and he laughed and drove on. I literally didn't even think to ask the popo to check on those fellows -- my brain just hadn't yet caught up to the events.

As these things go, the adrenaline hit later. I kept the device with me and ended up going to make a brief cameo at a local Geocaching event before my own event there at one of my favorite BBQ places and handed the cache off to another cacher -- St Rock -- who ended up putting it back.

Is there a moral? Not really. Trust your instincts. And keep your GPS on a lanyard, for heaven's sake.

Liaision in Latvia, by rragan

This Reviewers note on my attempt to publish an event cache in Latvia made me laugh.

Meet and Greet the Californians in Riga (GC608VW) has a new log:
Logged by: Leptoceratops
Log Type: Post Reviewer Note
Date: 7/20/2015
Location: Latvia
Type: Event Cache

Well, please don't use Google translation in Latvian for Meet and Greet events. In Latvian word "meet" can be translated in 2 ways- "satikt" that means get together with new people and "apmierināt" means to pleasure someone (usually in sexual way).

So unless you are looking for a local sex partners I suggest to use this translation:
"LATVIAN
Šī ir mūsu otrā diena Rīgā . Pievienojies rragan un mswarren21 - mēs gribētu satikt dažus vietējos slēpņotājus (un citus geocaching ceļotājus ). Nāc un padalies ar saviem stāstiem un samaini ceļotājus!
Pasākums būs no 18.30 - 19.00, bet interesenti var palikt ilgāk."

Witness the hazards of machine translating an event cache description for a language you don't speak. I'm sure glad the reviewer caught it or I might have had a most unusual event.

Down the Drain by Jmobr

When I first started caching with these two new female friends, i was really new to gc'ing. We decide to do this multi stage very difficult cache. The first stage we get cords off a fence, so no big deal. The second stage, we come to a manhole. I start saying , why would it be on a guard rail for a 4diff/4 Terrain ? I start focusing on the manhole, which surprisingly, the cover was ajar.

I, being, the strong man, said, Look, it's clearly in the manhole. Mag key box. I will go down and get the cords. Uh oh... hmmm, interesting , there is water about 4 feet down. I start climbing down, but not finding anything. Im sure its here. I go lower down , with my hiking pole also. Okay, so this has to be a nano.

My friends are looking really worried, peering down at me going down farther, hanging and feeling around. I keep reassuring them, it's got to be right here. I will just do a depth test with my stick. Hmmm, that's funny, not hitting bottom. I extend my stick out more, okay, hang on here... nope, max it out more, uhhh oh, still not touching bottom. Meanwhile, I am perplexed, until I realize, my friends were calling the CO. They apparently contacted him to get more info, and later on I was told, he was saying,

Your friend is in the sewer? He went down the manhole? Why did you let him do that?

Them: Isn't that correct?" ----No, of course that's not correct!! Wait a few minutes. I live close by and am coming out there. Ive gotta see this for myself.

So, long story short, they are snapping photos of me down the manhole, and laughing, then the CO shows up with a lawn chair and a pack of cigarettes. Of course, it was in the guard rail the whole time. Good times

**The Severed Hand by NutterButter222**

There is a series of caches located in a State Park near us called MHSP series. They are all super clever and super unique Whenever I take someone new, I try to take them there even though I have found them. They are fun, clever and cover a wide range of things to teach people, just to give you an idea of the area we are in for this one.

It was a nice Spring day so my sister and I decided to hit up the local State Park as we were working on a series of caches that run thru the park. We were on about our 5th one for the day. Now mind you, they are all clever and in unique containers (fake potted plan, ketchup bottle, rubber chicken - yes a rubber chicken) so we knew we were looking for something unique and different.

Just off to the side of the trail was a downed tree. Its a rather large tree so my sister and are are probably 10-12 feet apart. She stands up and looks over at me with a funny look on her face and says to be, "I dont want you to freak out, but there is a severed hand by your feet." I remain calm, not being the panicky type but already reaching for my phone in case I need to call 9-1-1 and ask "is it real or fake?" Also calmly she goes "I can't tell from here."

So I do the most logical thing and reach down and grab a long stick and start poking it to dig it out from under the downed tree as all you can see are bloody fingers and where the wrist is "cut" off. I finally get it out and we realize its a fake hand Halloween decoration.

No Gas Today? by CindyLou1983

I was so excited to go to my first geobash. I stopped at the gas station in our little town to get gas. I went in and prepaid for $50 gas then went out to my car and drove away. One mile down the road my low fuel light came on.

I had to drive 3 miles before I could turn around. When I got back to gas station there was another car at the pump. The attendant shut it off hoping I would come back. I went in and explained myself. They looked at me like I was crazy!

Stick 'em Up! by Bill P

One Spring my girlfriend and I decided to take a weekend geocaching road trip. We stopped at one cache which was near an entrance ramp to the freeway. The grass was fairly high and grasshoppers were bouncing all around as we disturbed them walking through.

My girlfriend was in front of me and was walking gingerly with her arms up not wanting the grasshoppers to jump on her, and I was behind looking at the GPSr.

A couple cars pulled off the road and were motioning to her asking if she was okay. We suddenly realized that it probably looked like I was holding a gun on her, leading her into the woods and she had her arms up like a prisoner.