For a geocacher, one of the most fun things is being able to write "FTF" (First To Find) on the log. Many caches are posted on the website late at night or in the early morning and it amazes me that people are out hunting at 3:00am. And now we were about to join the ranks of the midnight marauders.
We quickly gathered the bare necessities for geocaching (a smartphone, a pen and some gloves) and drove to the area where the cache was. Urban geocaches are sometimes tricky because you need to be aware of muggles (non-geocachers who might take or vandalize the caches). I often take my camera just to provide some "cover" for us walking around and getting into awkward positions as we look for the cache. But at 12:30am I was pretty sure there wouldn't be too many muggles around the industrial park area we were searching.
Boy, oh boy, was I wrong!
When we arrived, two police cars were parked in a Circle K parking lot at the major intersection about a quarter of a mile away. Soon a third one joined them, all with their lights flashing. We wondered if they could see our flashlight beams dancing around and discussed which of our friends we would call to bail us out of jail.
We watched the same pick-up truck leave one of the businesses carrying some firewood in its bed and return empty four or five times. I wonder if they were as curious about what we were doing as we were about what they were doing. Who gets firewood delivered in the middle of the night?
A little after 1:00am a sedan came careening into the parking lot where we were and made a fast turn in the opposite direction going around the building. Hmm... that was kind of curious. We never saw them leave.
Around 1:30am a couple of cars drove down the street into the industrial park areas and a little while later returned to exit onto the main road.
Throughout all this activity we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and still search for a "micro" cache in the dark. After we had searched the same area at least a dozen times, I finally found it's hiding spot.
Oh what fun to be midnight marauders AND put FTF on the log!!
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