A couple months ago my kids and I came across something in Antioch that made me think I ought to do a cache called "Batmobile". I didn't do it right away, though, so over the following weeks an idea formed for this Batman-themed cache series. Initially I was going to place all the caches in appropriate places around Antioch, but in the end I decided to showcase as much of East Contra Costa County as possible, limited only by my imagination and area saturation. Each placement makes sense to me, and if you examine the surrounding businesses, geography, etc. it may make sense to you. No, they're not all the best looking or most prestigious areas of our county, but it's important to me to remember they're parts of the whole.
Your ultimate goal in this series is to find the Batcave, which is at the following mystery coordinates: N37,5A.BCD W121,5W.XYZ. Each of the other eight caches in the series -- all of which can be viewed here -- contains the numeric equivalent of each letter in the coordinates. Replace the letters with the appropriate numbers, and you've found the location of Batman's secret headquarters. GOOD LUCK!
AXIS CHEMICALS
Axis Chemicals (Ace Chemical Processing Inc. in the comics) is a fictional chemical plant in the first Batman film and in DC Comics. It is famous for being the plant where the Red Hood -- the man who would become Batman's deadliest enemy, the Joker -- fell into a vat of toxic waste, dyeing his hair green, his skin chalk-white, and stretching his mouth into a hideously permanent grin.
Little is known about the chemical plant before the Joker's transformation. However, in "Batman: The Killing Joke", the future Joker worked as an engineer there, and later quit to become a failing stand-up comedian. He was contacted by a group of criminals to rob the plant (with his knowledge of its workings), and agreed for his wife and unborn child. The plan failed when the Batman arrived, and the Red Hood, terrified, fell into the vat of waste. He escaped and found that he had been transformed into the Joker.
BAY POINT
Bay Point was previously known by several names including Bella Vista and West Pittsburg. In 1993 a vote was held by the League of Women Voters in response to the bad reputation the area had gained, including a front page article in which a Sheriff's Deputy decried West Pittsburg as a cesspool. Those over the age of 18 were allowed to vote on renaming the area Bay Point.
Hard feelings about the name change were evident and vandalism did occur, mainly on the sign welcoming you to town, in which the words Bay Point were crossed out. The sign now proclaims "Welcome to our Community" and in recent years (as more people have moved into town and harsh feelings have died down) Bay Point was added to the bottom part of the sign.
THE CACHE
As you may have read, the original cache was lost in some shenanigans involving the fire department, the sheriff's department and the bomb squad. Too long a story to go into here (see the logs for the full series of events), but suffice to say the replacement needed a new location, new log, and just for good measure a new Two-Face PEZ dispenser for the first to find it in this spot. Dirt/gravel shoulder parking is available. Keep an eye out for cars and trucks because there's not a lot of space, but it's mostly a pretty deserted road. I have also been notified that thistles or brambles have grown in the area since I placed the cache, so be careful in your approach.
Congratulations to Sobershrek for the original FTF!
