Columbia, SC

50 miles from home.

We were up early and on the road to Columbia to meet Donna’s sister Sandy, her husband and his mother. They drove up from Florida and came here for the same reason we did, to meet with a cousin of theirs from western Canada that they hadn’t ever meet before. The Canadian contingent was in South Carolina visiting some of the cousin’s husband’s family who live in Charleston. There were nine of us at the table for lunch at California Dreaming. Only Donna, Sandy and cousin Margaret were actual blood relatives (the same great grandfather), but it was a lively fun group to have lunch with. It was over all too soon and everyone promised to keep in touch and drop in on each other if we were ever anywhere near each other.

After lunch Donna, Sandy and I went and tried to grab a couple nearby caches with hopes of dropping off a travel bug. Wouldn’t you know it, but we couldn’t find the first one we attempted. It was a regular size and in a garden by a SCDOT building. After a few minute of looking we attracted the attention of an employee. She asked what we were up to and Sandy, who just learned what geocaching was, gave her a briefing. We had just about given up when a women who works at the credit union came out for a smoke break and asked if we were geocaching. She probably knew what we were up to because she is always out grabbing a smoke when people come poking around in the plants.

After that we went over to the state capitol building to complete a sure fire cache, a virtual one. With a virtual cache there is no hidden container to find, it usually entails emailing the owner a photo of you in the location or the answer to a question that can be there.

We had three caches picked out for the Charlotte area, but spent so much time with family that we crossed them off the list and headed straight for the hotel. Mark, lunch was also so big and late you dodged a bullet, that we didn’t have the room for Razzoo’s either.