Travel-Zurich Card TB

Wow, a second xTF; this one a true FTF with this TB by our side! It was just before I was getting ready to start cooking lunch that not too far away a new listing was published for which I left the den and had a nice adrenaline rush in the morning to be the second finder to sign the logbook. I returned home and cooked us up something good, after which Laura and I went back into the default research mode and working on our laptops. Laura was productive (can't say the same about me) and got some work in, meanwhile I was enjoying a calmer afternoon. We were both just looking at the same screen when I saw this new listing pop up, and when I saw what it was, I shrieked to Laura saying that someone had finally given Nebusice a set of labs, along with a proper bonus. We've been thinking about doing the same but never really got to it.

This felt like a real call to action; how could we miss up on an opportunity like this. There was no one else that could be the FTF. So without hesitation, Laura changed and we headed out. Everything went like clockwork and here the teamwork made dreamwork. Minutes later, we had everything we needed and Laura plugged the numbers into the formula and we headed for this physical bonus. Quickly enough, Laura spotted what the hint was referring to and she quickly got the container and logbook out. And without missing a beat, I was happy that we were first in the empty logbook. This couldn't have gone another way! I stamped in our nick and decided that we'd also leave a tiny TB here for the next finder. This one didn’t fit into the tiny container, so it will travel with us to the east of the country tomorrow, and we’ll say goodbye to each other in the next couple of days. Glad for you to be a part of this adventure!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had some time to think about geocaching, and I didn’t think today would be one of those days. But since I had the morning shift at work today and knew I had to get gas after work, it meant there would definitely be a detour from my usual route. To top if off, I was supposed to pick up Laura from her work, meaning I had a few minutes to spare. For the first time in three weeks, I opened up my GC app on the way around, and decided that I could stop by this very convenient park & grab. I again have to apologize to this TB for not going out enough lately… Times have changed and school and work have taken over. Indeed; the times of daily streaks have gone away and life is a little different without the daily geocaching adventures. I once again feel like an apology is on order, though at least this time Laura and I have a plan for a trip in two weeks. I’m sure there’ll be lots of GC-ing then!

Anyway; back to today. I have a brief note that I solved this listing on September 29th, 2022; it was another incredibly difficult listing to solve, since I really don’t have that much knowledge of the local churches, but a lot of online research and reverse image searches gave me much hope.

One thing which was quite a bummer and made be a little insecure was that the link in the listing to a checker is invalid (just as all locus checkers for a couple of years now). Bummer. Though when I solved this listing, I looked through some logs and images and they luckily confirmed that I had the right location, at least roughly. Today, after getting gas, I drove straight to Laura and my journey took me right next to GZ, where I was able to conveniently park nearby. I got out the car and made it to GZ, which had about 5 dying Christmas trees drying and dumped on the sidewalk nearby. As the hint said, I sat down and quickly enough spotted the container, took it out and only had to agree with all what has been said in past logs. The container nor the logbook aren’t in good condition, and should be replaced by the CO soon…! But, I was happy to take this TB to visit this cache, even though it’s not in great condition, and visit yet another place in this nice country..! Now, back to home, pick up Laura, and see where our adventure takes us next!

So this has indeed been quite strange and weird in many more ways than one. Since this hobby has become something real, it’s been a constant in my life, more than that of Laura’s. During the pandemic restrictions in our country, things really kicked off and with home office geocaching had become a daily activity, something which kept us sane and without which we would have rotted on the couch. Over the past three years, there was never more than a day that we actually took off geocaching. It’s become a constant and a never-distant activity on my mind. But that changed about two weeks ago. We returned back home after a trip to Karlovy Vary and had our current (not real) FI streak up to 178 days (which included Labs), and with a hard hit of reality and the course we’re both doing, I finally submitted and and gave up the last hobby I had left; geocaching. The last find we had logged is from January 9th; nearly 20 days ago. This isn’t our normal…! There’s just been too much going on around that I had to cut off friends and literally only had time for my two jobs and the course; everything in life had been shut off. Even today, I had to rush from 2 hours at work during conferences to head to a dentist and then deal with the two day old hit & run where someone left our car dented. With the day out of focus and myself done with errands and chores for the day, I headed home already tired from the four different roles I had to play today. Because the rest of the afternoon was open ended (apart from the intense pressure of the past-due work), I decided I’d finally break this wierd-non-streak and go for a short walk to also aide my rings. This stash popped up on my radar a few days ago and I thought it sounded like a nice walk even with the snow; it’s always been a nice park for a walk. I therefor detoured and drove closest to this stash, leaving my car by the side of the road and walking towards the labs. Earlier, I visited four Waymarks, here I also spiced it up with four labs. I wasn’t able to go up to the tower since there’s a lock on the door, though I was able to find and answer four labs without issue and that was enough to get the coords to this bonus.

My fingers were horribly frozen but I managed to calculate the FC and then headed that way, following the very clear path which was stomped out by previous finders. Four of five labs were easy to answer, and I let myself be led by the highway to GZ, where I quickly spotted the shiny cache. I always say that 3D prints should be polished both for surface retention and long-levity; here that should be applied double. Nonetheless, with this new cache and our first 2023-hide found, I was happy to spot the container, open it up and get out the little logbook. I checked around but indeed there was no space to leave a TB here in a size-other cache. So I signed the logbook and made this our 6081st overall find. The first find in over 2 weeks, this was a strange return to a normal. Though I found there will be any new streak from here; about two more months of intense chaos are ahead of me and Laura before life returns to something we can consider close to normal. I hope nonetheless that before now and returning to somewhat of a normal, I’d be able to send this TB off into the wild and somewhere it can meet new geocaching friends! For now, it was nice to visit this new cache!

The last stash of the day and the last find on Monday. I would have expected something special after filling in a new field in our Jasmer grid, but this was more of a burden. Either way, glad to have taken this TB to this stash…!

After the easy find, we drove through the countryside to our next destination, and this park & grab was the ideal place to stop with this TB..! Glad we made it to this nice cross!