Tom's Takeover Tuesday - 5/18

Welcome back to what has become more of a late week post than a Tuesday event. Either way, I'll try to keep it between the Tuesdays as far as an update.

There really isn't a whole lot to say about this installment. I spent another week in Everett/Marysville so the main focus was just keeping the streak alive. Mission accomplished!

So other than getting a cache everyday while away from home and visiting the Scuttlebutt brewery just about everyday after work, there was nothing exciting to report...

Except my first two FTF's north of King County!!! That's right, I managed to get FTF's away from home! I have a 10 mile notification radius set-up around my hotel and my unit's building just in case I can beat out the locals. One night after work we went to Scuttlebutt (like I said earlier, this was a fairly daily event.) Once we were done "eating," I noticed 2 caches had posted just inside the 10 mile radius of my hotel. That put them about 14 miles away from where I was, and they had posted 30 minutes to an hour and a half before I left. They were on the same trail so I thought I would give it a shot. With one posting an hour after the other I might still have a shot at one.

I drove to the parking coordinates and found a nice established place where the locals go quading and dirt bike riding. So I began my half mile, mostly up hill hike to the "closest" of the two. Made it to ground zero and pulled out the smiley and FTF #42. I couldn't remember which one posted first, but there were no cars at the parking when I arrived so I went for the second one.

This one was almost exactly 528 ft away from my current location, but the direct route was not feasible (I did give it a good attempt though.) So I backtracked up the trail and found the appropriate fork to follow. This one wasn't just off the trail like the first one so some bushwhacking was warranted. I, of course, did far more bushwhacking than necessary, but I managed to find the container anyway. To my surprise and joy this log was unsigned as well for FTF #43 and a nice two-fer!

That was the only real excitement for the week. Other than that and the Scuttlebutt, I sat in my hotel room and ate pizza. :p

I'm home this weekend so next week's update should be on time. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll post my new puzzle to celebrate our 500th find (a little late, but I've had the stuff ready since before I left.) This one is a real doozy! I found what I needed to make it while solving some puzzles up in Marysville. This should rank right up there amongst the great brain busters in the Kent/Tukwila area.

Thanks for joining me again, and I'll see you next week!