When javapgmr in an online forum asked last week for suggestion for his 5,000th find, I proposed GC3P9BJ - "javapgmr's Rock Bridge Cascades" (you can read about its history there.) When my wife realized she needed a "J" for "Z Alphabet Challenge" (GC3NF5T), she offered to go along as the official photographer. Here's a portion of what he wrote:
...Number 5000. Wow, what a trip! It seems like only yesterday I found my first cache (a Virtual "Falling Springs" ) that was owned by MyOtis. That was in May, 2005 and here it is, September 2012 and I logged my 5000th. I've learned a lot but most importantly, I've gained a new set of friends that I would never have met other than through Geocaching. Along the way, I've found so many places that I would never have visited and things I would never had done if it wasn't for the quest to find a smiley. I've come a long way and Geocaching has been the push that got me here. I want to especially thank the Cache Owner Jim for placing a cache at one of my favorite places in Southern Illinois and to his wife Laura for making the trip down with me to find it. I truly do appreciate it.
When I grow up, I want to write logs like he does. I truly count him one of my new friends ever since we met in person at the "Shaw Me the Cache" event last spring.
At the end of their journey, javapgmr gave my wife a whole bunch of cache containers and this is one of them.
If, when you drive away from this cache, you look across to the golf cross, check out the body of water. Do you see "Illinois"? A non-caching friend pointed it out to me two days after I got my first GPS. And now it's kind of like Geocaching to me - a fun little secret treasure that the masses rush past without even knowing about.
If you can't find "Illinois" and want in on the mystery, let me know.
Cache on!