New Year's Resolutions: More Caches

That was the theme of the Geo Meeting I hosted Saturday night in Myrtle Beach (GC2K29A).  For some time, I had toyed with the idea of a "make and take" workshop for geocachers. After much consideration,  I decided to have a meeting and just ask everyone to bring a cache for the door prize table.  Geocachers LOVE door prizes.. and new caches to put out!  More caches to hide and more caches to be found.

I began scouring hardware stores and flea markets for cache containers weeks before the meeting.  My daughter came home for a visit and was enlisted to make a stencil for my ammo cans.  I must say, I assembled an impressive amount of caches.  Ammo cans, magnetic key holders, electrical plates, pinecones with attached bison tubes, and a bird house with the hole plugged with a pill bottle.  I also pulled some of my unactivated geocoins for the prize table... one of my personals, a TNLN, a Signal, and a Travel Bug Tag. I was ready!

My sense of readiness hit a wall, though, when I got an email from the South Carolina Reviewer that he would be in town and would like to come to my meeting.  Really?  I mean, REALLY???   Our Reviewer is the man behind the mirror, a mythical person everyone knows but few have met.  I don't know of any meetings in my caching area (Columbia, Camden, Florence, Charleston and Myrtle Beach) that he has attended. I was more than happy to honor his request to not tell anyone he would be there.  But, the pressure was on.  The bar had just been raised on my event.

Monday before the meeting, I had 40 people signed up for the meeting.  The banquet room at Sticky Fingers only held 25.  "No problem", my laid back restaurant manager said.  "You can have the whole left side of the restaurant."  I pulled a few more coins and a few more lock n locks, and a couple of flare tubes for the prize table.  A gift for our honored guest sounded in order.  I grabbed a stenciled ammo can and began stuffing it with coins, pathtags, and a Starbucks gift card.  Now, I was ready. 

Camo Gift Can

The day before the meeting, I was up to 55 people planning on attending.  A rare coastal snow storm was being called for.  I baked a pan of baklava to add to the prize table, pulled even more coins from my collection and wrote my "speech" to the crowd.  What was I going to do with 55 people?  Secretly, I hoped that the snow would keep most of the people away.  Friday night, my reviewer noted on my event page that he would be there.  Eight more people responded that they would attend.  Don't they know it's going to snow?

Snow flurries and bitterly cold weather didn't stop 63 cachers from coming.  My first cachers, a group of friends from Florence, arrived an hour ahead of time.  We filled up one side of the restaurant and were a routy, happy group.  Cachers caught up with friends they had not seen in awhile, made new friends and swapped stories.  We applauded one another and sang Happy Birthday at the top of our lungs. Our SC Reviewer was greeted warmly and enthusiastically.  Everyone left with a door prize, a full belly and a smile.  My meeting was a success!

Cachers From Near and Far Attended