Take me home

#108's awesome camo

On our way home from our 5 cache day, we noticed a cache that was recently placed in a park not far from our house.  We pass it everyday, twice a day, going to and from work and hadn't noticed its placement just a week or so before.  In it, there was a travel bug that was headed to its final destination, which happened to be Tecumseh, my hometown.  I made puppy dog eyes at Shane and he agreed to stop, even though it was cold and getting dark fast. We ran (literally) into the park to try to make the find before we lost daylight.  We were hugely unsuccessful.  I was so disappointed, since I so desperately wanted to take the TB to its home and deliver it to its goal.

We had stepped right over it

Shane, being the real trooper he is, agreed to get up with me in the morning to try again.  I woke with the chickens, so to speak, and greeted him with coffee to get him going.  We went back to the park and, after quite a hunt, he made the find.  It was brilliantly camouflaged and we suspect we likely stepped on it without knowing the night before, given its location.

Take me home!

The travel bug was there, waiting for us, and ready to head home.  Its goal had been to go to Tybee Island, Georgia and return to its owner in Tecumseh. It was released in June of 2009 and had taken about two years to get to Georgia.  This was the day it went home!  (To read about its journey to GA and back, click here.) We immediately headed for Tecumseh to grab breakfast and to determine where to leave it.  We looked for caches owned by its owner and messaged him to see where he preferred it be left.  He did indeed want it left in one of his caches, which was located behind his home.  The challenge - it was a puzzle cache. The puzzle included a crossword with clues about income tax and history surrounding it.  It was a great learning experience and a lot of fun.  We then had to take our answers and apply a code to get the information we would need to obtain coordinates.

Incredible set up!

Once we had solved the answers, we headed to his home to make the find and leave the bug. After a search on site, we determined what the cache was, but not how to get into it.  The owner let us try for a while and then came out to rescue us.  As it turned out, we never would have gotten it on our own.  It was motorized! Without giving too much away, let me say, this was the coolest cache we have seen yet.  He told us that he had seen one similar in the Carolinas and worked with another local fellow to build one in his yard.  This was the second version, as the first was not water proof, which was a problem.  We were absolutely gobsmacked at how cool and inventive this hide was! On top of that, we were priveleged to be able to take a travel bug to its final destination AND meet the owner.  WHAT A WORTHWHILE EFFORT!

Find #110 on a nearby bench

Having fulfilled our mission, we went into Ann Arbor to run a couple more errands. Shane wanted to go to a different location of the same store we always go to for a change in scenery. While we were there, I searched out of curiosity to see what caches were in the area. In doing so, I discovered that a cache we had made an attempt on before had been replaced after being stolen shortly before our first attempt. We had to try again to correct the DNF we had logged. I hopped out of the car and looked where it had been hidden previously, without luck.  As I was walking back to the car, I thought to check one more place (different from the original location) and I am glad I did!  It was right where I suspected!  I logged our find and we headed home for the day, totally satisfied with our completed mission and yet another day well spent together.