ONE THOUSAND GEOCACHES!

It was exactly four years and eight months in the making: ONE THOUSAND geocaches found!

Geocache find #1,000 came on the last weekend of summer, as Danoshimano and Kritter! headed out for a two-day excursion to Huntsville and ultimately Burk's Falls, where they found some really interesting things and cleared the entire village of caches.

First stop was Huntsville where Kritter! (aka Kristin) expressed slight concern that we were staying at the Super 6 motel. Seems she had experience at one of these in Maine on a different trip. (Turned out to be fine.)

After a quick "rest stop" cache just south of Huntsville we went on to (an extremely slow) lunch by the river, then it was tour-of-Huntsville time. Our goal was to find 12 geocaches, bringing my total finds to 999 which would set up the main event for Sunday morning. Several parks, beaches, and train stations later we found the premiere cache of Huntsville, the aptly named "Bee U Tiful View" high above the town near the Lion's Lookout. A truly georgeous spot.

With seven finds and one DNF (Did Not Find) under our belts, we headed back to the hotel for a rest period (but only after some ice cream, of course). After checking in and relaxing a bit, we headed out on foot to find a couple lamp post micros in the parking lots surrounding us, then drove to some other nearby hides. By dinner time we had 11 finds. After a nice dinner we made a visit to the local chocolate emporium and loaded up on treats for everyone.

Sunday morning saw us back in historic downtown Huntsville for breakfast, then we headed up to Burk's Falls. Another rest-stop cache along the way brought the total to 999, then we arrived in Burk's Falls and headed west. Our target: Screaming Skulls.

The cache I picked for #1,000 is located on the edge of artist Peter Camani's 300 acres and home and it really has to be seen to be appreciated. We found the cache quickly, then started wandering around the artist's fields, and courtyard. Kritter! and I were both very impressed with the various sculptures and Midlothian Castle (the artist's converted 19th century farmhouse).

After spending an hour and a half exploring Camani's creations, we headed back to Burk's Falls for lunch and a walking tour to find every single geocache in the place. (I think there were 5 or 6.) As we headed south we made a few more stops for a few more finds in some interesting spots.

By the end of the weekend the total find count was 24, which is the most geocaches I have ever found in a single weekend. But in the end it was the great father-daughter trip that made it truly wonderful.

Note: Special thanks goes to Team Royal of Burk's Falls, who I don't know personally, but who placed almost two-thirds of the caches we found together on our trip.

Thanks for the caches, Team Royal!