BooBooBee’s 20th Cachin’ Anniversary series: 二十
The Central Coast certainly wouldn’t be what it is without the Chinese immigrants who excelled at tunneling, among other skills. Without them, would the train ever connected along the coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco? San Luis Obispo had its own Chinatown, headed by Ah Louis whose namesake store served as its heart of commerce, banking and information for Chinese workers and eventually their families. The Chinese, who at their peak were one in ten SLO city residents, called the neighborhood centered on the 800 block of Palm Street Tong Yun Fow, or Chinese People’s City.
By the late 19th century, local elected officials ran Chinese laundries out of town. the federal Chinese Exclusion Act passed, denying Chinese citizenship and limiting most immigration (that lasted until 1943), and according to local historian Dan Krieger, by 1920 there were only 200-300 Chinese resident in the city. During and after WWII, most left. By the 1970s, Chinatown was limited to Ah Louis store on the corner of Palm and Chorro streets, Chong’s Candy Store in the little brick building across Chorro Street, and the Gin family’s Mee Heng Low restaurant. I lived just down the street in my very early years, and remember buying candy from the ever-smiling Richard Chong. Throughout childhood and well into adulthood our family birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations were often held in the large dining room upstairs in the Gin family restaurant. 
To commemorate our family’s 20 years of geocaching, we put out 20 caches for release on 5/18/2024. Can you find them all?
We began geocaching in May 2004, invited by BooBooBee’s dad because GC.com and Jeep had teamed up for a promotion that offered a chance at winning a Jeep. At the time, we were driving a ’79 CJ-7 she’d built with her dad long before the arrival of our little ’cachers. It was worth a shot to enter the giveaway. I found my way to the website, then, using just the map and local knowledge, our preschoolers and I found our first. And we were hooked!
Geocaching has provided us a shared activity we’ve enjoyed as we traveled the states and beyond. At times, we felt the pull of the numbers game, but other family activities quickly replaced our hunting time, so we focused our finds on more purposeful targets. Geocachers around the world helped us find interesting, educational, even awe-inspiring locales we likely wouldn’t have found (and enjoyed) without the game.
Now the kids are grown, BooBooBee has picked up the pace on hunting, and we’ve really appreciated the new life breathed into our shared game by relative newcomers Dr. Grackle, Rhono, PokiPowers, LisaWisa, and Chummyfungus. to name a few. Some have really upped the game with puzzles and gadgets.
While far less creative, this 20th Anniversary series aims to give them a bit of a hunt to add to their numbers game in scenic settings while also, we hope, providing some smiles along the way.
Happy hunting!
CONGRATS TO I_Kitten, Arisokittens and PokiPowers for the FTF along this trail! Thanks for playing along!