WWFM IX

 

Little by little the Charleston geocaching community is growing!  Finally!

Yesterday was the 9th annual World Wide Flash Mob which was the brainchild of Sonny and Sandy of the Podcacher Podcast.  My friend Mike (gundark2000) bravely organized and hosted the event.  We went back and forth on the Charleston Geocachers Facebook page about what kind of flash mob we wanted to have and we finally settled on the theme of "Bubbles in the Park."

I really wanted the WWFM to be my 600th geocaching milestone.  I only needed 3 more caches to reach my goal and Mike only needed 3 more to reach 300.  We met at White Point Garden on the tip of the Charleston peninsula at 11am so we had a bit of time to cache before setting up for the event.

I really didn't think out my wardrobe very well.  If you think that each cache has to be at least 500 feet apart and the fact that might not even find one and have to move on to another... well, flip-flops aren't really suited for that much walking.  There was no way we could drive to the caches either.  The Spoleto Festival was happening and traffic downtown was crazy!

We started off in the park and I got a cache that Mike already had then we took off to the other side of the park to find one I've searched for before.  We looked for a while with no luck.  When we checked the last couple of logs there were several DNF's (did not find) l logged.  We decided to move on.

As we were walking I started feeling one of those weird sweating episodes building up.  Ever since my thyroidectomy I get these bouts of becoming totally overheated.  It can be 60 degrees out and all of the sudden I will just start pouring sweat (but it's more like water!) from my glands.  My skin gets cold and clammy and it's absolutely uncontrollable.  I never know when it's going to happen and this was one of those times where I wanted to avoid it because it can totally ruin the day!  That on top of wearing flip-flops I bailed out. I told Mike that I was about to fall out.  He was walking so fast and I knew how much more we would be walking!  I told him to go ahead and I would meet him back at the park.

I had a prime parking spot right on the Battery at the site for the WWFM IX and went to cool off in the air conditioning of my Jeep.  Once I cooled down I moved to the wall of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument and sat there for an hour or so.  There was a really nice breeze coming off of the harbor and the temperature was perfect.  I sat and watched and listened to the tourists come and go.  That's always a fun thing to do.  I like hearing them talk about Charleston and the beauty and history of the city.  There are a lot of misinformed tourists running around the city.  It takes every ounce of effort to not jump in their conversation and take them on a tour!  I was really wishing I had my Nook and a blanket with me.  It was the perfect day to relax in the park and read.  Instead I did some Facebook surfing on my phone and played Words With Friends and Solitaire to pass the time.

Around 12:40 Mike came back after running around South of Broad and said there were so many muggles in the area that he had no luck finding any caches.  I was so thankful I didn't go with him!!

Mike grabbed the WWFM IX supplies out of his car and came to my Jeep where we finished creating the swag bags for the event - the rules, logs and the official WWFM IX "meal" which was a bite size Laffy Taffy!  I think the normal "meal" is chocolate but Charleston is way too hot to be toting chocolate around!

As 1pm drew closer we could see more and more people hanging out around the area.  At 1pm Mike put the buckets down at ground zero and chaos ensued!  Everyone grabbed their bags, filled out the logs and started blowing bubbles.  I was the photographer for the event so I was running around trying to take photos.  We had such a great turnout!  Mike would call out the cues for everyone... first was to eat the "meal" and next was the raffle.  I won a Pathtag!

 

 

  

 
The final part of the event was the official photo.  I soooo wasn't prepared when Mike called out for the group photo!!  I hurried and put the camera on the tripod and moved the setting to wireless remote but I didn't have time to set the lighting or anything.  I had 50 people staring at me and waving to the camera - ack!  I tried to run up to take the photo with the remote and it didn't work.  Then, I tried to use the timer and that didn't work.  I finally just took the photo of everyone else!  Mike ran down to take a picture of me with the group but for some reason the photo didn't take.  Oh well, the story of my life!

 

After the event a couple of us hung out and chatted for a bit.  I love meeting new cachers and I love how the community is finally coming together!  Hopefully the word will spread in the area about caching because the more new members we have the more new caches will be placed! We even had several people come from out of town for the event!  So cool!


I told Mike that the next Summer WWFM we have should be at Waterfront Park.  We can all bring beach wear, our floats, beach balls and we can all wear floaties and play in the fountain.  He looked at me like I was crazy!  We shall see!