Brenda aka Sequoia_2 Reporting In

Woohoo - Guest Blogger, Brenda aka Sequoia_2, is in the house and sharing some of her experiences at GeoWoodstock X.  Photo too !

Let's get right to the story !

Brenda aka Sequoia_2

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Did they know, 10 years ago while they were eating their Happy Meals, what the future will hold? Did those 75 people that got together for an event on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky have even a smidgen of an idea of what they started? Fast forward 10 years to 2012. GEOWOODSTOCK X!! Now a mega event, Geowoodstock attracts people from all over the United States and the world! Eight of these people have been to every Geowoodstock since the beginning! They are known as the "Elite Eight".

Finally! May 26, 2012. GEOWOODSTOCK X! As we drove up to the park, members of the special olympics were there directing us in which way to go to park. We made a donation and continued to our parking spot. It was still early, so we were fairly close to the front. We made our way toward the event area and when the field opened up in front of us, we saw the Geowoodstock X sign up on the hill! It was awesome and it was like looking at the Hollywood sign.

 Tents were set up everywhere for learning events, vendors and games. We didn't know where to start first. We toured the vendors first and made sure to visit the Boy Scouts and their tent to purchase water. Beyond the vendors, there was a area with sidewalk chalk set out. Everyone was signing the sidewalk with their caching names. How fun! We wanted to check out the big Geowoodstock X sign, so started making our way over. Along the way, we came upon the "LOG". A giant wooden 3 dimensional X, so we made our mark. There were many great wooden cutouts displayed all around the grounds, making for fun photo opportunities. 

Opening ceremonies began with a barber shop quartet singing the national anthem and the Boy Scouts presenting the United States flag. After the opening ceremonies, we walked around some more checking out what they had to offer. We played a few games of "Pluck a Duck" where you chose 3 ducks out of a pool of 100, hoping to pick one of the 5 numbers that were previously written down. The prize was a pathtag. I won one in the morning and my daughter won in the afternoon. We also played a game called "Pitch a Cache" where you had to toss 2 lock n' locks into a hole not much bigger than the cache itself. The prize for this game was a compass, and my daughter, Lil' Tumbleweed won this game also. Oh, and did I mention there was a WEDDING at Geowoodstock X this year? Yeppers, there sure was! Signal gave away the bride and the ceremony was beautiful. If you were lucky, you got to meet 

 Jeremy Irish and have your photo taken with him. If you were REALLY REALLY lucky, you got a Jeremy travel tag! We were really really lucky. We got to meet him and get the travel tag! There were many other "famous" cachers there, including the Podcachers and Clayjar. Clayjar invented the rating system used by Geocaching.com to rate the difficulty of the cache. If you have never had a chance to listen to the Podcachers, you can check them out at www.Podcachers.com. You are in for a real treat! Lunch at Geowoodstock was a catered BBQ, offering BBQ brisket, grilled chicken, vegetarian and a kids lunch. We had a chance to volunteer here as meal ticket takers. Even Lil' Tumblweeed was allowed to help out. I have never seen so many hot and hungry cachers in all my life. Our alloted time went by very quickly and the next thing we knew, our replacements were there. We spend the afternoon walking around and talking with cachers and discovering travelbugs. Oh, and one big thing I forgot to mention....NO LITTER! The trashcans were full, but the grounds were clean! CACHERS ARE AWESOME PEOPLE Geowoodstock X was a blast and we can't wait until Geowoodstock XI! We already posted our intentions of attending and we hope to see YOU there !