Since many of you don’t Geocache I thought you may be interested in another aspect of that pastime. It’s called a Cache-In-Trash-Out (CITO). The event I’m going to tell you about took place in 2004 but I feel it’s still interesting. I hope you enjoy this and may decide to take a closer look at Geocaching.
I would like to tell you about a fun and profitable time my wife and I had at a Geocaching event. This one was called a “Cache-In-Trash-Out”. It was at a large city in Central Iowa and was a bit of a drive for us as we live in extreme Eastern Iowa. I had never been to one before and it sounded like fun. A Geocaching club in that area had made arrangements to clean up a piece of land that was officially a park but had never been developed. It was right next to a shopping mall. The plan was to get a number of people together, clean it up and then later place a Geocache in it.
I had planned to go but my Beautiful and Usually Charming wife had other plans and was going to stay home. Knowing that I wasn’t in any shape to be bending over all day picking up junk off the ground I made a broom handle with a nail in the end so I could stab the paper and other junk to pick it up. Since my wife wasn’t sure what she was going to do I made one for her also.
It was a bright shining morning and I was getting ready to go and when she changed her mind and started getting ready. We were on our way to try something new and hopefully going to have some fun along with the work. Upon arriving we were welcomed by a great bunch of men, women and even a few teenagers. I am not a group type of person and at first felt like a fish out of water but soon the friendliness of the group loosened me up. After a while when everyone that was coming should have been there the person in charge explained what he wanted to do and why.
The park, and I use the term very loosely, was a long L shaped piece of ground with a creek running through it lengthwise. Being next to a mall parking lot you can imagine how much junk there was. The bags were passed out and everyone went their own way. My wife and I separated and I headed for the creek as I had knee high boots on and most of the people didn’t. My wife decided to work her way along the parking lot and street where there was what looked like a truck full of paper and trash. That was the last I saw of her for hours. I was up and down hills, in and out of the creek and fighting my way through all kinds of brush. Doesn’t even sound like fun, but it was. I was meeting all kinds of people that had the same interest as me and I was having a great time. Along with the trash I managed to find a few useful items which I kept. Most people would have called them junk but treasure is in the eye of the finder 
. The only thing I can remember of the “Treasure” I found that day was a pretty nice kitchen knife and a couple of pretty marbles but there was more. I just don’t remember what they were. Maybe they weren’t such a treasure after all if I can’t remember what they were. What do you think? Anyway, toward the end of the day I was finally working within sight of my Beautiful and Usually Charming wife and I could see that she was starting to wear out. About that time there was a little excitement when someone found some “Real Treasure”. They found a dollar bill. Darn, if I would have been just a little sooner, maybe it could have been me. A short time later I happened to look at my wife and I saw her bend over, pick something up and stuff it in her glove. I knew that look. She had found something and was very pleased with herself. I know because it is the look she gets when she finds a “Lucky Penny” or “Lucky Nickel”.
At the end of the day there were refreshments (there were cold drinks all day) and a few drawings for prizes. We were two of the lucky ones. My wife won a “T” shirt and I won a very nice battery charger for AA batteries, which is just what my GPS uses. It is the type of battery charger that can be plugged into the car power outlet or into the wall. Great, I was VERY happy with myself. The only thing that bothered me just a little was my wife was still wearing her gloves. Strange. Oh well, no big thing. She probably doesn’t want to lose her nickel and she doesn’t have a pocket to put it in. Hmmmmmmm.
Well, the day is over and after comparing GPS’s with some folks, talking about who knows what and in general just relaxing we headed for the car. I thought my wife was going to explode by the time we got to the car. She ripped off her glove and I saw it was more than the usual penny or nickel. It was paper. So, she had found a dollar. That ought to make her happy for a long time. Then she handed it to me. It wasn’t a dollar. It was a fifty dollar bill. She told me it had been all crumpled up and was just laying there. I was shocked. She was the person that wasn’t going to come with me. I asked her why she didn’t tell everyone what she had found. I thought her answer was great. She said “That other lady was so happy she had found a dollar, I didn’t want to ruin it for her.” What could I say? She had done exactly the right thing, in my way of seeing it. This way everyone was happy.
I haven’t been to a CITO since and I got too busy to even do much Geocaching for a couple of years. When it gets warm I’m going to try to spend more time having fun and less time on my addiction, Computers, so I plan to have some new stories to tell you about the Great and Wonderful Sport of Geocaching. I have a few more stories from the past that I will work in once in a while so if you are interested in Geocaching, stop back and see what’s going on.
I hope you have a Great Day
Bob Jones