Cachin' Wisconsin....West Bend Cache Ba$h

Way back in January (before I knew Scott was coming home on leave) I decided to attend the West Bend $1000 Cache Ba$h, in West Bend Wisconsin. Cash prize giveaway for caching - my 50th birthday weekend - all good. Shortly thereafter I invited my sister, Deb, to join me as she has done some caching herself. I also invited a caching friend from here, also named Deb.

So Thursday was the day...picked up Deb L. at 7:30 a.m. and we were on the road after a Mickey D's breakfast stop and an ATM stop. We cached along the way in Michigan and Indiana. Our favorite cache along the way was one in Indiana called KA-BOOM - it was near a fireworks store and was an ammo box with a pringles can decorated to look like a firecracker, with notation that the log was inside. When we opened the can, out popped one of those snakes on a spring...after we screamed, we laughed. Probably won't ever pass a fireworks store again without thinking of that one. Also did about six caches at one shopping area, most centered around a Bass Pro Shop that was there.

Headed into Illinois, and the tollway. Slow going at first with construction on 80-94. And the tolls - my how they've changed. I-PASS is the way to go now, apparently - if you don't have one, you have to go all the way over to the right side for a cash booth. And the prices have gone up and are even different depending on the booth - we paid anywhere from 80 cents to $1.50. I think Deb L. thought it was funny that I was so verbal about that - but I grew up traveling the tollway a couple of times a year or so and still remember the Pay Toll One Mile, Cars 30 cents signs. And oh, yes, the baskets are gone, too. If we were the lucky kid sitting behind the driver, we got to throw the toll into the basket.

No real delays around Chicago other than 80-94, so smooth sailing. Didn't cache much except a few at the Oases until we got to the Gurnee exit, did three there. Then headed up into Wisconsin and by then we were getting tired and pretty much just wanted to get to the hotel. After we arrived, checked in, we walked across the street to Applebee's and ate dinner. After dinner, we both logged our cache finds from the day then went to bed.

Friday morning - woke up, ate the hotel breakfast, and had a few hours to kill before the new caches were released and registration opened at noon. So we decided to go for some nearby caches, then went over to the park and did some caching there. Our first one was at the park's playground. Just couldn't find that one so went to the next two which were both pretty mosquito-guarded. Then decided to do one more - it was on an island, I volunteered to wade across. A team of a dad and two sons soon joined us, it took a while but the dad finally found the cache. Then we made our way back to the park, registered, then decided to go back to the hotel and shower, then pick up my sis Deb who arrived at 2 p.m. Once we had sis Deb checked in, the three of us set out to do just "10" caches - the new ones all had 10 as their prefix. We had to collect a stamp or codeword from each one to prove we were there, and received tickets to the prize drawing based on how many caches we could find. We managed to find 27caches on Friday, even though there was some rain, mostly light though. There was a meet & greet at the park but we decided to keep on caching anyway. Came time for supper, we were going to grab sandwiches and take them back to the room, but then I saw a Noodles restaurant and I had a coupon for a free birthday meal so we ended up there. I had Wisconsin Mac & Cheese, Deb L. had stroganoff, and sis Deb had buttered noodles with meatballs. Again, spent the evening logging finds. Sis Deb had some trouble getting the wifi so went to the lobby. She met several West Michigan cachers down there without me even introducing her!

Saturday - today's goal was to get me to 3000 finds. I knew we couldn't do it on just 10 caches, and the tickets were only good for prize drawings, not the cash prize, so we were doing anything that came our way that wasn't going to give us a long walk. Definitely a numbers day! We were all over but managed to get me to 2996 by the time we came back to the park to turn in our cards just before the deadline. I grabbed two more caches while waiting for the prize drawings, and logged the post-bash party before the bash, which made the event my #3000 cache find.

We passed the time while waiting for the prize drawings by doing a little cache shopping, pathtag trading, and visiting with other cachers. We didn't win any cash or prizes, but had a good time. Went back to the hotel to clean up, then stopped by the Post Bash party (another event.) I had logged that I would be having my 50th birthday the next day, so they had a special prize for me - a book called "The Joy of Geocaching" which was autographed by the authors. Very good book! We didn't stay very long at the party as it was quite crowded and the bar didn't serve any food other than Tombstone Pizzas so left in search of better food. We ended up at Qdoba for mexican food, then went back to the hotel and (you guessed it) logged our caches. Had 39 for Saturday so it took a while.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed over to the Breakfast, a third event for the weekend. Enjoyed some pancakes then did the turkey shoot which involved finding four plastic wildlife creatures and figuring out the closest coords. Didn't win that either, oh well!

Oh, when we came out to the car at the hotel, I discovered that sis Deb had decorated the car with balloons, "50" written on the windows, and over the hill streamers. She made me a sash out of some of the streamers, and I got to wear a Burger King crown as well, proclaiming me the birthday girl. Had received the crown the day before, and the counter guy actually sang Happy Birthday to me when I received it....

Then back to the hotel to load up, check out, and head for home. Said our goodbyes to sis Deb, I'm really glad she could join me though I think it'll be a while before she does another event, at least a huge one like this one. Left the balloons and other decs on the car all the way home, at first when people honked as they went by I couldn't figure out why, then the "oh-duh" meter went on and I waved back...

Ended up with a grand total of five caches on Sunday. First was the breakfast event, then one in Wisconsin to drop off a coin that wanted to stay in the area, then an Oasis cache in Illinois, then one in Indiana when I needed a driving break, then an event in Portage, Indiana that other West Michigan cachers had told us about. We didn't get there in time to search for the new caches from that event, but we visited about 15 minutes and so received the smiley anyway. Got home about 7 p.m., then Steve and the boys took me to Outback for dinner.

Got a new digital pix frame from Steve, a Deutschland license plate that said GEO CACHE on it and a Transatlantic Council Wood Badge patch from Scott, and a beautiful card and a promise to buy me a massage certificate from Eric. Plus a cheesecake for birthday cake.

A great birthday weekend. You only turn 50 once, right? : )