OMG! Seriously? Where is it?

 3 little letters.  They can frustrate a geocacher to no end.  You can be having a great day.  Stacking up those smileys faster than you can get from cache to cache.  And then, just when your day is about over, it happens.  The dreaded "DNF"!

Our day started out perfectly.  First off, we don't get together as a group very often, so that made this day even more special. We were at River Front Park, the sun was out, and we had our list.  Most of the caches were in the park itself, but there were a few downtown we wanted to grab as well.  So the virtual ones are easy.  Read the description, answer the questions and log the cache. The traditional ones are more fun, and even though we like the larger ones with swag, that didn't make this small one any less exciting for this little guy.  He was so excited when he looked under the bench and says "Is this it?"  Well, yes.  Yes it is!  Quickly sign the log and be on our way to the next one.  After finding all the ones in the park, we head downtown.  That's when we see it.  This bench.  On a busy street, muggles everywhere.   Now if you

This bench hid that micro well!

 look at this bench,   the cache name is dead on.  "Sweet   Pipes".  It's almost completely made of   pipes!  So our Spidey Sense tells us,   maybe magnetic? I remember it was a   micro, so a small one.  We get started,     but are in stealth mode.  So many   people,  they are everywhere.   Nonchalantly looking over, under, around   and then under again, the whole time   acting like we aren't looking for anything   at all!  It's hard!  After a while, we take   another look at the cache description and clue again.  As we reread a few of the logs again, we see a tidbit that we had missed.  A previous logger says he got a hint from the garage attendant across the street.  "Someone, quick, go get us that hint"!  Yeah. No. Today isn't his day to work.  Ok, now we're determined, and we start getting a little more aggressive with our searching.  Now is when we start getting the strange looks.  You know, those sideways glances. At this point we don't care.  A 

we literally looked everywhere

couple of us are actually laying on the sidewalk to look under this thing again.  Man, we have tugged on every bolt, screw and nut.  Can't find anything that will move, let alone come off.  We find a lot of other cool stuff though.  Chewed gum and a few Cigarette butts.  I think we checked out every square inch of this stupid bench.  And nothing. I can't stand giving up.  To this day, I hate to quit because I know it's there.  And if I just spend a couple more minutes, I can find it.  Anyone else feel like that? It's so frustrating.  By this time, we had had so many people actually walk AROUND us, that I'm sure they thought we were completely insane.  For one, who lays on public sidewalks?  And can you imagine in today times?  Touching every inch of this bench?  Did we even carry hand sanitizer with us back then?  I don't think we did! We spent over an hour looking for this silly micro before we gave up and vowed to return another day.  I can't even tell you how many times I looked back as we all trudged  away.  Like a bunch of little kids who got tot the candy store five minutes after closing.   

Perfect day!

 

Sadly life happened and we never made it back to that bench.  But it haunts me to this day.  And I 'm not the only one either.  When I told Misty to tell Even he'd be in my next blog post, she said "You doing that bench?" And Cassie is the one who remembered the garage attendant giving the clue!  So, even though it was a dreaded DNF and we never found it, we have a great memory! One that will always remind us that sometimes, even though perseverance does not ALWAYS pay off, it's all about getting together to just have a great day!

*August 18, 2013*