The time has come again, Geowoodstock time. All eyes and GPSr's turned to Texas, where everything is bigger. The Texas Geocaching Association took up the challenge and went all out to provide several days of fun activities culminating with the official GW4 event on May 28th. Leading up to this event was the Chili cook off night and Snoogan's project, One Degree of Separation.
Photos from GW4
Event Day--various shots from 5/27.
R.O.B.s Run 19 cachers headed out to Benbrook Lake near Fort Worth Friday morning.
The event officially kicked off at 5PM however by 8AM the pavilion was teeming with geocachers. Registration was still underway by the volunteer staff members whom put in many tireless hours making sure everyone was set up and had their welcome kits, T-shirt vouchers and Geocoins. The Groundspeak store was open and contained a plethora of T-shirts, hats, pins, signal dolls, and many of the other items regularly sold on their website.
At the pavilion there were several coin vendors selling their coins as well as some special tables such as the Today's Cacher table. Free copies of our first 2 print editions were available to everyone. In fact, we donated 500 magazines to the event.
One of the most interesting and much anticipated sights was the OCB or the Original Can of Beans from the very first stash hidden by Dave Ulmer. This relic was in a hermetically sealed glass case. Along with this piece of Geocaching history was a display of the first 2 GPS receiver models, which appeared large and clunky compared to today's technology. The curator of this traveling museum is Jeff aka Team360 and he also raffled off a replica of Original Stash Tribute Plaque According to Team 360, while security seemed light, he hinted that there were special agents and snipers in strategic locations in case of any trouble.
Many travel bugs made it to Geowoodstock, approximately 2200 of them according to Snoogans - the travel bug master. They were organized into boxes by regions according to each one's documented goal. This made dropping off and picking up the travel bugs a simple yet efficient affair. Of course there were also hundreds of unique travel bugs spotted - on people, cars, hiking sticks, banners, t-shirts, pets, and even children.
In addition, a large number of the controversial "pocket caches" were present, including one from Iraq with memorabilia from our forces currently stationed there. This unique cache (an ammo can) was also accepting items which will be forwarded to those still serving in Iraq.
A pair of surprise visitors to the event were none other than Darth Vader and one of his storm troopers from the Star Garrison. The 501st Legion (aka Vader's Fist) is a worldwide Star Wars fan club celebrating the Star Wars universe using costumes and props, in particular those of the Stormtrooper characters, Imperial forces, and other various "bad guy" characters. This was a delight to children and adults alike as people lined up to pose for photos. Rumor has it that Geowoodstock V will be held on Coruscant.
Many children participated in Geowoodstock and they had their own special program called Treasure Island. Baggies of geo-swag were given to all the children. There was the requisite Geo-Bingo game, with unusual requirements such as Indian leg wrestling having a stranger show you their big toe. This made for some interesting sights.
While there was a steady crowd at the Pavilion throughout the day, most people took advantage of the late afternoon start time to spend the day caching in one of the various suburbs of the Metroplex. With over 4000 caches hidden throughout the Metroplex, the term "a cache-rich environment" is quite an understatement.
Serving dinner to 700+ people is no easy feat, however Dickey's BBQ made it seem like a walk in the park. With a 2 station set-up, dinner was an orderly procession and included beef brisket - slow cooked 16 - 18 hours, so tender it falls apart, marinated, smoked chicken with vegetables, rolls and delicious peach cobbler for dessert.
Welcome speeches were presented by our host for this year - 9Key speaking for the Texas Geocaching Association and JoGPS, who is widely known originating the Geowoodstock concept and is the principal person responsible for choosing the host of this esteemed event from year to year. It was JoGPS who announced that a new special icon has been created, named the MEGA Event Icon specifically for event with 500 and greater attending. Staff members from Groundspeak once again attended the event, Nate and Shauna did their best to meet as many people as possible.
For the first time at Geowoodstock, a silent auction was held. Donated items included unique cache containers, camo'ed containers, unactivated geocoins, and some geocaching themed artwork. Competition at the tables was stiff and some folks stood right at the auction sheets to the very last second to ensure their bid would be the winner. I'm think I even saw a few elbows involved at the end!
Raffle tickets were sold throughout the event and prizes, including geocoins, Garmin accessories and caching gear as well as rare coins like the Serial Finder coin were among the goodies available to the lucky ticket holders.
It's hard to say exactly when the event ended, it seemed to move to multiple after-parties in the campsites area of the park. Multitudes of cachers were seen migrating from campsite to campsite talking, laughing and finding temporary caches. There were notable caches such as the micro hidden inside a Christmas tree, or hidden inside a bear lawn ornament. There was even a M*A*S*H cache, an ammo can painted white with a red first aid symbol.
Once again, Geowoodstock proved to be all about the numbers - of friendships rekindled and new friendships forged; of chigger bites on your ankles; of smiles and laughter; and of course along the way some geocaches were found.