The Caching Bag: Clowning Around in Wauseon Ohio

Monday, July 30, 2018

Clowning Around in Wauseon Ohio

Was the circus in town or is the geocaching community made up of a bunch of clowns?

I guess it's a little of both! "Circus" was the theme for this year's Midwest Geobash 2018!

TaGeez and I rolled out early Saturday morning for a little geocaching fun. This is the first time in seven years Team Free Range Lobsters wasn't parked in a corner camping spot due to a few scheduling conflicts. I was feeling their absence but also looking forward to the upcoming adventure.

Never fear, though, because it wasn't long before the caches cheered me up!

I don't normally do this, but this post is full of spoilers. Be warned! They are a hoot!

Hmmm... not sure where to begin looking

We arrived before the campgrounds truly stirred so we grabbed a cemetery cache, a new Virtual, and then hit the event caches along the outer perimeter.

Kudos to the hiders this year for sticking 100% with the theme.

One of my faves was Team Doxie's TB Hotel. It looks small, but it probably stood around 4" high!

Here was a highlight of the day! Met this Sweetie from back home in the swag picnic line. Caching Fire looks like he enjoyed meeting her, too.

A fun group. I think these cachers will go far :)

Not much swag this year. We bought the usual package with the souvenir t-shirt, but we missed most of the trackable and pathtag trading. We also missed out on seeing Signal - apparently his costume went missing in transit so, somewhere, there's a naked geo-frog roaming around.

Outside the event store and trackable tables were several of the LAB caches. There were 2 sets of 10 new ones this year, and I think I enjoyed them best so far. I'd love to see this one as a geocache (again).

Hey! More like-minded weirdos! Did you notice Fire's dashing clown collar? Yes, I'm a weirdo, too.

rootee2t, y2kcompliant, and Team GMMP with Caching Fire on the midway

More lab caches and geocaches. I could feel the stress of the prior weeks seeping out of my fingertips and dissolving into the beautiful, blue day. Of course the year we don't camp the weather was stunning!

We stopped by Madame Fortune for a quick fortune and LAB cache answer. TaGeez won't tell me what his cards mean, but he stepped away with a joyous glint in his eye. Hmmm....

TREASURE HUNT! Best deal in town!

We ran into June17 and Hawaii Vi for the second time that morning so we joined forces to clear out the rest of the fairgrounds. We didn't notice any clowns walking around without shoes, though...

There's a reason this camp site won the decorating contest. Profile picture time!

We struggled over finding the last LAB cache. No, I didn't add the arrows. They were there, and we still almost missed it. Here's my geocaching hat.

Unbelievably, by around noon we had picked up our swag, cached out the campground, finished 20 LAB caches, completed the Treasure Hunt, perused the vendors and had that amazing brisket baked potato from the Outlaw BBQ food truck. Now what? We had hours until closing ceremonies so we loaded up the car and headed out for some cemetery geocaching.