-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This micro is out here in the middle of a major shopping area. Good luck!
This little bison tube is hidden in the middle of a pretty busy shopping area, where you can buy just about anything that might be carried at any number of retail establishments. Not to mention all the food joints in the same area. You shouldn't have any big trouble finding this one. A bit of stealth will be required, though, to get this one out, signed, and replaced.
The "'til you drop" part is sort of a reference to a cache like this that a few of us hit last winter on a "100 caches in a day" challenge. I think it was DJHobby, Mouse!, Geomafiosa, Mickey4Jes, and me. Temps were around zero degrees when we set out. One of the earlier ones on the run was a similar bison tube to this one. It's lid was secured to a fence around a cemetery up in Morgan County. The cache was one of the few that Jess actually got out of the car for. "I can do it, I can do it" she said as she brushed me back from her fumbling efforts to get the cache. Sure enough, she unscrewed the container from the lid, which stayed attached to the fence, and promptly dropped it into a deep snow bank. We looked and looked, but the cache was gone. Only later did we find out the whole story behind this hide:
That cache had been a keep sake owned by a couple long before the invention of geocaching. In high school, they would leave little love notes for each other in the little metal tube, hiding it at various locations. When he got back from WWII he returned to Morgan county with the little tube still hanging from the chain that held his dog tags. It had been his good luck charm through out campaigns across the North of Africa, up through Italy, across Europe (including his stint in the hellish cold of the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne), and ultimately throughout several assaults on remote islands in the Pacific prior to Japan's surrender. True to his word, he proposed the day he returned, they married, and had a child... the light of their lives. The child grew into a skilled outdoorsman, hiking the trails and learning the skills of the woods. Tragically, the man that child grew into was killed during a heroic rescue during his service as a fireman for Morgan County. He was able to save a nun, three orphans, and the dog, but not himself. They buried him in that remote cemetery, and left the little metal container hanging from the fence. From time to time the old couple would visit the grave, leaving notes to their lost son in the little tube. Years later, when Geocaching came along, they saw this as a way to bring good people, people like their son, to this spot. They knew he'd like the type of people involved in caching. Time passed. The old man had always been there for his beloved wife, but fate is a treacherous task master. The cancer spread from his lymph nodes to his lungs, and then to his spine. He spent his last days in an oxygen tent, unable to feel his legs, every breath an effort. She sat by him every day, watching the man who had defined her life fade by the hour. In moments of clarity, he would clutch her hand. "The cache... tell me its still there?", he'd ask, each word a struggle for breath, his pale blue eyes searching her face. "Of course, my love", she would lie. You see, she had seen the logs. She knew that Mickey4Jes had pitched the priceless heirloom into the weeds. But the words reassured him. And maybe carried him a few extra hours. Not long after he passed, a few friends and family gathered in the remote Morgan County cemetery to bid the old veteran farewell. The old woman waited as, one by one, the other cars pulled away. The young minister who had driven her to the grave site noted that, perhaps, they should head into town. The light was fading. "I need just a minute", she asked. The clergyman silently nodded, and, in tottering steps, she began to make her way to the edge of the cemetery. He had no idea what she could be doing, walking toward the fence. As she came to the woven wire fence, her already fractured heart finally broke completely. There, where they had hung it those many years ago, was the lid to the little message tube that had carried them so far. The memories flooded past her. Good times and not so good times brushed by; a flickering montage of the best and most bitter sweet of moments. The minister started as he saw her fall to her knees. By the time he got to her side, she was gone... He had no idea what the small metal lid was, hanging from the fence; her blue veined hand gently resting on the fence just below it. Nor did he notice the dis-connected lower half of the tube, laying in the grass just below. If only... If only Mickey4Jes had taken a few more moments. If only she had taken the time. If only there hadn't been a "til you drop" that bitter cold winter day.
Geez... you read that whole thing? Jess did drop that cache in the snow. The rest of the story is total BS. This cache here is to help her on her attempt at 100 caches in 100 days...
Thanks for looking!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nobhg rlr yriry