The fame of our superhero team (myself, the Untrackable Geodad, and Sioncat the Trackable Geokitten) has been spreading! We strike fear into the hearts of many an evil cache, and bring hope and joy to travelbugs imprisoned everywhere. In fact... we have been deluged by applications from eager wanna-be superheroes. We have conditionally accepted one of these, on a probationary status, of course.

 

Introducing: the Sionuvi!

 

 

 

Her nickname is Claire, because she speaks with an Australian accent. At least at the moment. Obviously, for this photo, she has borrowed the famous Sombrero from the geokitten. We have high hopes for this newest member of the team; her superpower is always knowing where she is, and the ability to tell others in many different accents! Plus, she is specially equipped to detect the existence of a geocache, and chime annoyingly.

 

(Between you and me, I also have dark suspicions of her actual motives, but we will get to that.)

 

But enough of that! Let's get to the caching portions of the Chronicle! This past June has seen an increase in trips – with the geodad off visiting relatives, I decided to take the Sionuvi out for some solo adventuring. Just her and me.

 

First, we went north! Up by Norfolk, Crofton, and Fremont, NE, around Memorial Day. I found a fair number of caches – including one named Kitty Killer, I was glad the geokitten was safe at home – but did not get very many pictures. It was very windy that day, and I was out in the country without a hat. The wind kept slapping my hair in my face. Some friends of mine in Norfolk put me up in their trailer for the night (thanks, Lighthouselookers!) and cached with me until the wee hours... much fun was had by all. I got so totally lost and turned around while trying to get the night cache... and there were often reflectors that were not man-made. They moved. Eeeee!

 

I did get this one pic, in a park near Crofton.

 

 

On a complete side note - several of the caches I got in Norfolk are now disabled – June has been the month of storms and serious flooding in Nebraska. Many of my caches are underwater. So are a lot of others. Bridges have been wiped out, roads closed, campgrounds and parks completely flooded. This used to be a nice campground by the Missouri. Now it is Lake Haworth. Because of storms like this:

     

Yes, that is a grill sticking up out of the water!

 

The next weekend, I decided to see how the Sionuvi would handle going west, to Hastings, Harvard, and Lincoln, NE. She did well! 50 caches were found and logged that weekend, though it was a real struggle reaching that number. It was very late and I was very tired when I got back from Lincoln.

 

Again, I did most of my caching out in the country – despite the recent weather, the roads out west were nice and dry, and even the network of dirt roads were great to drive on. This wasn't the case closer to Lincoln, alas, I thought my teeth were going to rattle loose! I stayed overnight in Hastings at a nice campground on the outskirts. While I was there, I was able to add something extra to the superhero armory, see a beautiful sunset, and the next day, watch a storm coming in:

 

 

I'm not even going to THINK about my attempt to go east into Iowa. All attempts at caching in Iowa fail. The forces of evil are very strong there. It will take greater preparation and stronger allies to bring them down. And south will wait for the trip on July 4 to Independence, MO.

 

So... with south and east blocked, what did that leave? Why, northeast to Valentine, for the annual Cache – N – Splash event! This was the one I'd been waiting for!

 

It didn't disappoint, either. There were fellow cachers and early morning walks in the woods:

  

 

 

splashing around in the waterfall at Smith Falls State Park like a child:

   

and some time for reflection.

 

 

But in the end, I always knew I'd end up here:

 

 

The event itself was a lot of fun. There were a lot of familiar faces, and some not so familiar – it was great to meet some of the cachers from South Dakota who came down for the trip. I was hunting a cache in Government Canyon, with no luck, and heard voices approaching in the distance - “I think there's a path here!” Grinning, I leaned against a tree to wait for the relief help to arrive. Sleuthmeisters, if you are reading this, “Yes, there's a path here! And thanks again for the help!” We found the cache together, traded phone numbers, and later on, hints – they were headed in, I was headed out.

 

I ran into other cachers, of course – Valentine was crawling with them! Some by prearrangement (thanks, catsnfish!), and some by accident (BBMJ, you FTF stealers! Grrrr!) Some STFs, one co-FTF with catsnfish, several DNFs, and just a lot of fun, topped off by great food, COBBLER, and turtletrax cake at the picnic afterwards!

 

I even picked up a Father's Day gift for the geodad there – he's native to SD and loves the Black Hills, so when jedicachers showed their new Black Hills / Mt. Rushmore coin, I bought one for him. He correctly identified it as a geocoin the moment I gave it to him, too. Good for him! Had to pack up early the next morning, and left the tent drying while I found 3 or 4 more caches in Valentine – then it was off to home.

 

And into a very bad storm raging over Bellevue. Not AGAIN. But I got home in time to take the geodad out for Father's Day dinner at a great German restaurant, despite the weather. And snagged 47 additional caches that weekend... I can almost taste that 2000 finds coin! (Metallic, in case you are wondering.)

 

Oh! Yeah, I haven't explained my suspicions of Sionuvi yet, have I? I'm half-convinced that she's a plant or spy, sent to get me arrested or kill me... Cases in point:

 

A)       Sionuvi → “Turn right on Cowboy Trail.”

           Sioneva (thinking) → “That's a hike/bike trail. Are you kidding me?”

           (repeat at least six times)

B)        Sionuvi → “Turn right on road.”

            Sioneva (thinking) → “I'm in the middle of a BRIDGE!”

 

I don't know... I'm going to have to keep a close watch on her... but if I survive until next Chronicle...

 

CHEERS!

 

(P.S. Forgive the lack of movie quotes for this one. It's a temporary lapse.)

By Sioneva

 

 

 

 A strangelet is a hypothetical object consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter. The term "strangelet" originates with E. Farhi and R. Jaffe. Strangelets have been suggested as a dark matter candidate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments(2):

1. love your stories, you are so funny! I have a fellow cacher i take on trips too, her name is sheila...she speaks with a nebraskan accent and tries to steer me wrong too!

   Saturday, June 26, 2010 vicki

2. another enjoyable read :-) I have one of those little fellows sitting on my dashboard, her name is Stephie, named after my life long friend back home..which cant tell right from left

   Saturday, June 26, 2010 Ulla