Saturday, February 25, 2006

MiGo Winter Social 2006

This was a very enjoyable 12 hour day! We began by finding 9 caches in the Alma/St.Louis area. It was very windy and cold here today. In a couple of cases I was afraid that the cache contents would blow all over the surrounds. Once we almost lost the lid of the cache container - it blew across the bridge and narrowly missed falling into the river. We were very successful, and found so many so fast it was almost a new record. I'm sure it was a new record for 2006 because we haven't been out caching much at all so far this year.

I used my new ski-walking poles and that was successful too. I enjoyed it, and the poles enabled me to walk along the paths just like a real person. I love it when I can be there to sign the logbook. I look forward to using them more often when the weather is a bit more spring-like.

The Winter Social was well-attended. (See link above) We overheard numbers like 190 adults and 43 children. That's not official. Note to Jana: I wasn't the fattest or the ugliest, but I think I just may have been the oldest. (Family Joke) There were so many darling babies and toddlers there - it's delightful to watch them. WolverineWarriors brought baby Alexis, who is seven weeks and one day old! How much fun is that?!

The main event was a two-hour scavenger hunt consisting of 6 loops - 3 walking loops and 3 driving loops. We opted for driving loops because of the bitterly chilly weather. We did really well, I thought. We did two complete loops and had a lot of fun doing it. We didn't win anything but we really enjoyed it. Dick was especially happy to notice that while we were out driving around, the price of gas in Alma dropped by 2 cents a gallon!

We enjoyed talking to Coychev, Trashcan, Radman, Sleepy Weasel, GeoHills, and UsTwo among others too numerous to mention. We missed DinoDuo - her mom's funeral was today at 1:30. We collected some things for them as souvenirs. Lydia and I had fun cruising the silent auction. All of the items that appealed to me had final bids that were too high. The giant geocoin went for over $160.00!! We were the high bidders on two small items. Both of them were cache containers.

I noticed that there were more men than women interested in the auction, which was amusing to me. At one time I glanced over there and almost everyone at the auction tables was a male wearing a navy MiGo tee shirt and a khaki MiGo hat. There must have been a dozen of them. I think that even the great MiGo quilt had a male high bidder. I kind of wanted the tea set but the other bidder talked me out of it by saying that she wanted to buy it as a wedding gift. I'm such a softie for weddings!

By the time dinner and the business meeting were over it was after 8 p.m. and we were happy to head back to the Comfort Inn, which, by the way, is described as the "upscale" motel in Alma!

It was a day for reflection. While we were doing the scavenger hunt, Susie was at her Mom's funeral, Michigan was losing to Ohio State in basketball, and the price of gas plummeted - all of these concurrently. My mind was pre-occupied by all of it.

This from mgoblue:

Sims Records Double-Double in Road Loss to Buckeyes
Courtney Sims records his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 64-54 loss at No. 13 Ohio State (February 25).