This is a traditional cache in memory of my best friend Chris who passed away in August of 2013. Turtle was my best friend’s nickname. Turtle went up a tree branch to retrieve a cache in Brazos Bend State Park one day so that is where the title of this cache came from.
After a heart transplant, bone marrow transplant and after numerous infections he finally made it to his final destination: heaven. While my geocaching, hiking, camping, skating, and biking buddy will be missed, I look forward to the day I see him completely healed worshiping at the throne of grace in heaven with Jesus.
I want to share this short story he wrote from the perspective of his hiking poles while he was recovering from one of his many illnesses.
Memories of a hiking pole
I remember the day I met the chubby guy. It was spring in Houston. The R.E.I. store was buzzing with activity. There I was part of a matched set of hiking poles, an engineering marvel, ready to conquer nature. The chubby guy pulls me off the rack, dividend hot in hands. He didn’t look like a mountaineer, but it’s not like I could say anything. In a few minutes I’m in a sack with some dehydrated food and on my way to suburbia.
What the chubby guy lacked in fitness he made up for in enthusiasm. He loved being outside.
We traveled all over Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. I’ve gotten to watch the sunset from the south rim in the Chisos Mountains. I have spent the morning with the chubby guy and his wife in an unnamed canyon by campsite#23. We have been lost in the Sam Houston National Forest and poked around in the Texas Hill Country. Who could forget that afternoon in the rain on the Ouachita trail counting daddy long legs in the tent? The chubby guy tried to go somewhere every vacation and long weekends. We had a lot of fun, and at least he wasn’t always poking me into holes like his wife does with hoer poles. Then, one day, I heard the chubby guy planning a trip to New Mexico. Real mountains! That is what hiking poles are made for. We never got to go. The chubby guy decided to have some minor surgery instead. Oh well, maybe next year. I just hung around, under the camelbacks waiting to go.
The chubby recovered slowly. He seemed to be having trouble breathing. Looks like we won’t we spending Christmas in Big Bend, but there’s still Easter. If you have ever see the desert in bloom it will take your breath away, but I digress.
The chubby guy got real sick. He doesn’t leave the house much anymore. He’s not so chubby either. Easter came and went. I still waited for the next hiking trip.
Then one day we went for a car ride to the R.E.I store. Oh no! Is he taking me back? No, he bought a rubber cap to fit over my tip. The chubby guy meets his wife for lunch in the park sometimes. It’s so good to be outside. We mover pretty slow these days, but it sure feels good to be moving.
The grocery store isn’t Base Camp, but I’m the coolest cane in the house.
I don’t know if the chubby guy will ever put me on his pack again. If he does, I’m ready.
The hiking poles sit in the closet now. Waiting...........
Please list any DNF so I can check on this cache. This cache is a large enough for swag. There is a prize for the first to find!!!!