Geocaching

The cache is not at the listed coordinates

(but it is a place to meet up and drive to the cache location)

I met my Onkle Ole's good friend Groal recently for coffee.  It had been a long time since I had seen my Onkle.  Faithful readers will remember that Onkle Ole is a great traveler.  When he comes to the area, he'll tell me the most fantastic stories.  As I've grown older, I began to doubt him and even teased him about them.  I'm afraid he might have taken too much offence the last time.  So I met with Groal to see if he'd heard from Onkle Ole recently.

"Maestro Osaf," I said as we met at the door.  He is a great musician of the old school and insisted that I, his junior, treat him with great respect.  He's also a little hard of hearing so I repeated, "Maestro Osaf, it's good to see you again.  How are you doing?"

"You're Ole's young nephew, aren't you," he replied?

"Yes Maestro, and I wanted to talk to you about Ole.  May I get you something?"

"Yah, you know what I like I think?"

So I ordered him a cappuccino, made in the old way, and we went and sat down in a couple of comfortable chairs.

"Have you seen Onkle Ole lately, Maestro," I asked?  "I haven't seen him since a Christmas Party over a year ago."

"Well," he replied, "I have gotten a number of post cards from him over the years.  Ole sure likes to travel.  Do you know he was once in Nashville?"

"What was he doing there," I asked?

"Oh, a little research for me.  Did you know he once met Elvis?  Now don't looked so shocked.  I know you are his favorite nephew and all but he didn't tell you everything.  After all, Elvis was a little before your time I believe.  You liked the Beatles and all that rot back then."

I nodded embarrassedly.

"Here's a card from Charlton, and another from Florida."

I asked, "What was he doing there?"

"There was more research I asked him to do in Grantville.  I got another card from him in Bristol, oh the stories he told about that town."

"Maestro! "

"What? Oh!  I must have been dozing off some.  Let's see, where was I?  Oh yes.  Did you know I even got a card from Portland recently?  Something about Blazers and Thunder."

My heart sunk. 

"China was another place I got a card from Ole.  It was a beautiful picture of Ole on the Great Wall at sunset.  Here look."  Groal showed me the card.

"Nice picture.  Onkle Ole sure looks young there."

"Here's another card he sent from Florence where he studied some sculptures"

I saw another card in the stack. "I see he went to a Premier League match in Manchester.  Did he see Beckham then?"

"I don't know, but he also mentioned something about Norwich.  Here's one where he visited Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon.  And here's another one from Columbus.  He must have been there shortly before he ended up in Detroit to help out one of the auto makers.  I can't remember which one though.   That reminds me of a joke.  Do you want to hear it?"

"Oh no," I thought as I know that both he and Onkle Ole had the same sense of humor.  So I said with some trepidation, "Ok."

"Do you know why they hunt elephants in Alabama?"  He started to giggle and I know what was coming. "Because their tusks are looser."

I quickly asked, "Where's this one from that has all the snow and ice on it?"

He gave me a dirty look and I knew he wasn't pleased.  "Greenland," he said gruffly!  He started to get up, stopped for a second and said, "You better go see your Onkle Torvald if you want to know where Ole is now."

I was stunned.  Onkle Torvald?  Why would I want to see Onkle Torvald?  Onkle Ole and Onkle Torvald hadn't spoken in years.  I had only met him once when I was quite young and he frightened me something terrible.   Brrrrrrr.

I looked up to ask Groal what he meant by that, but he was gone - out of sight.

Well, that's all I could get.  Although I'm not sure, I noticed on one of the cards some instructions that seemed to indicate a bison, a trail, and something like ducking under a small branch or something.  A big warning about not bushwhacking or Onkle Ole's prickly nature would kick in.  It also indicated that better parking might be found to the southwest and, if there, look forward before exiting the vehicle.