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Adventure Awaits

 

SLAGA's monthly challenge incentive has been taking place over the last 12 months. Adventure Awaits was launched in October 2023 with a simplistic challenge of finding 5 traditional geocaches and attending one event during the month.  But the challenges increased in uniqueness and difficulty as the months progressed.  They've provided a means to enhance the geocaching experience for members and inspired many geocachers to enjoy this fun outdoor hobby in a new and different way.

There are only a few days left for those wanting to complete this month's challenge (September '24), which is the final month in this inaguaral 'year.'  This month's challenge is to find four St Louis 'theme' titled caches and one event.  (Cache titles could include STL, Rt 66, Arch, Gateway, Blues, Cardinals, Forest Park, Queeny Park, Mississippi/Missouri Rivers, etc...you get the idea.) 

To recap our past months winners, they are once again:

October '23   Rouseabouts

November '23   stevendede

December '23   Geokid12

January '24   3nina

February '24   Java1369

March '24   vorlon40

April '24   deancmeredith

May '24   MrsSpongy

June '24   Uga_Mom

July '24   brantole

August '24   Su&Sco

September '24   ???

Lucky for all us that participated, whether we won a single month or not, one of the original guidelines for the Adventure Awaits challenge stated that a Grand Prize Winner would be drawn from all qualifying monthly entries from October '23 through the September '24 and announced at the Fall Picnic.  While some cachers participated all 12 months, and will get their names in the drawing 12 times, a few cachers were only able to submit qualifying entries one or more months, so they'll get their names in the drawing the number of months they participated. 

Now that the time is near for that coveted Grand Prize drawing, join us at the SLAGA Fall Picnic to be held on October 19, 2024 at Kirkwood Park (GCAXXFZ), when the WINNER will be announced!  Also during the picnic, a survey will be handed out regarding the SLAGA Adventure Awaits challenge.  Please take the time to fill this out as it will be helpful in determing the future of this type of SLAGA incentive. 

Remember folks...if you participated in any of the monthly challenges, your name will be in the drawing as many times as you entered.  In the end it's the 'Luck of the Draw' that will determine the Grand Prize winner!.  And that lucky geocacher will be awarded a $50 gift card! 

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During the month of endless sizzling summer days, Su&Sco/Susan Bevis, with the help of her husband Scott, geocached her way to the August Adventure Awaits monthly challenge win! With the interesting challenge of finding an event cache plus five caches, one each starting with a letter in our group's acronym, she had her work cut out for her. But Susan made it look easy and qualified for her win with the following geocaches:

                               GC673HN             S  hort Circuit
                               GC7T9D2              L  ouis's Statue
                               GC99Z5R              A  wakening II Virtual
                               GC8C4H1             G  nome Home #1
                               GC995HV             A  merican Thunder 
                               GCAVXYV           Marian's Happy Hour 
 
Adventure Awaits August SU at Awakening
 
 
When asked why she and her husband chose those particular geocaches for the challenge and why they chose to participate in the Adventure Awaits, Susan said, "We had already found all but Awakening II Virtual, Gnome Home, and Marian’s Happy Hour Event when we became aware of the August challenge. Since we were in the St. Louis area for doctor appointments and were caching anyway, we decided to make a try for it. It seemed like a fun goal, and we like challenges and goals in geocaching. This was actually our first attempt at completing a monthly challenge and we're happy to complete it. We were kind of surprised to have been chosen."  
 
Susan and her husband began geocaching in May of 2010, but a couple years later, Susan's bilateral lung transplant put a near halt to her caching career. But after rest and recovery for several years, she finally returned to hunting caches and really stepped up the game in 2020. To date, she has found 5526 geocaches, including a cache in the Bahamas. With her renewed enthusiasm in caching in the past four years, it's not a wonder she opted to attempt and then won this August challenge.
 

Some of Susan and her husband's favorite geocaches are: state oldest, FTFs, geoart, state stars, and puzzle caches. As with many cachers, Susan mentioned that geocaching has taken them to so many places they would never have visited if not for the game. In response to whether there was a memorable geocaching experience, Susan shared this story.  "On a canoe caching trip at Lynnville Lake in Indiana, we pulled over to sit by a waterfall at the far end of the lake and take a break. Before getting back into the canoe, we walked over the falls to take a selfie. I slipped and fell breaking my right hip. The resulting evacuation by emergency boat and ambulance ride resulted in a partial hip replacement. This has slowed my pace, but not my enthusiasm."  Sadly however, Susan did comment, "I can't count the number of broken bones that I have incurred" anymore.   

Other interests of Susan's are photographing nature and grandchildren and spending time with her sidekick Scott, whom she takes geo-vacations with across America.  She also enjoys reading, watching crime shows, and "even at my age, I still like to color with Crayolas, chalk or pen."  She and Scott serve as greeters in church weekly.  They also participate in several other Geocaching organizations and "enjoy meeting, talking, and geocaching with geocaching friends."

It was a wise decision to complete the August challenge, and enter qualifying caches, that led this duo to their sizzling win. Now the SLAGA community gets to extend a huge CONGRATULATIONS TO SUSAN AND SCOTT!

 

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Some position shuffling this past month, here are the current standings of the 2024 SLAGA Travel Bug Race!

SLAGA 2024 TB Race

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 "July is a POP of Color, a Burst of Sunshine,

and a Promise of Adventure," 

as is SLAGA's July Adventure Awaits Winner, 

brantole (Lena Dowers)!

brantole july24 Adv Awaits 

Congratulations to Lena on her spectacular win and gift card prize.  She began geocaching on the 4th of July 2010 and was immediately hooked. She chose to participate in the SLAGA monthly challenges because they keep her motivated to go out geocaching. Lena commented, "I have been participating since the beginning when I was still working full time. Work made it difficult for me to find time to geocache. Sometimes the only caches I did find for the month were the five caches necessary to complete the Adventure Awaits. Now I am working part-time and my cache finds per month have increased! I like the variation of the requirements for each month." 

Lena has over 5000 geocache finds and 32 hides. She has completed her Fizzy challenge, geocached on every day of the calendar year (366 days), and cached in 5 different World Countries. It might surprise some geocachers to know that Lena's favorite type of caches are gadget caches. Her least favorite are Earthcaches.  She loves tree climbing caches, but doesn't much care about getting First to Find. 

Thankfully that was not a requirement for July's challenge. Instead, it was finding caches with at least 5 favorite points (FPs) and all qualifying finds had to add up to more than 40 FPs.  During this July, Lena knew she would be traveling to visit family which would make it very easy to qualify. She was also on a 'mini' mission to find a lot of multi geocaches and most of her multi cache finds had significant favorite points attached to them which also helped.  Her challenge entries included:

GC74ZB6: 50 Souvenirs Challenge  (17 FP)

GCJVBR: Round Mound of Sound  (19 FP)

GC947FC: Cascade- Goodbye 2020  (20 FP)

GCWMDF: West of the Mississippi in Illinois  (37 FP)

GCAN2WG: SLAGA Summer Picnic 2024

When asked about her most memorable geocaching adventure(s), Lena expressed her thorough enjoyment in doing the extreme caches placed by Forest Ghost, such as Grant's Fear Factor and The Architect. ("Thanks Ethan!")  She also fondly remembers  some great geocaching road trips through the years. But said, "Although all the road trips have been a blast, I am truly thankful I took one with my mother driving up through IL, IN, and MI into Canada in 2016."

Lena is a fearless, fun and friendly geocacher and no doubt awaits more spectacular geocaching adventures, not unlike every  SLAGA monthly challenge which holds a promise of a new adventure.  Join the fun and find and submit your entries for the August challenge soon.  

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2 months in and first place distance wise is still sitting pretty. However, much like summertime, things are still heating up!

 2024 07 25 TB Race Standings

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Best of SLAGA, Favorite Caches Placed in 2023

Of the 165 new caches published in the 100 mile radius SLAGA territory in the first half of 2024, these are the top caches, as determined by % of favorite points awarded.

By cache type
 Letterbox   Deeplight   Forest-Ghost   GCAK695
 Traditional   Da Turdy Point Buck!   HiddenCrazy   GCAM3Y8
 Traditional   Jail Time Tom Goes to The Potty   gugandgal8484   GCANHJ5
 Puzzle   Double Reverse Wherigo – Think Outside the Box   Mean Gene   GCAJXKB
 Virtual   Daily Dose of Happiness US #24 Monks Mound   Iamgrateful   GCAJJ7E
 Multi   Graniteville 3 1/2 Stage Multi-Cache   Locola081115   GCARRPH
 Wherigo   Woodland Sprite5   tricks33   GCAQ7NB

 

By overall % of favorite points awarded
 82   Letterbox   Deeplight   Forest-Ghost   GCAK695
 74   Traditional   Da Turdy Point Buck!   HiddenCrazy   GCAM3Y8
 74   Traditional   Jail Time Tom Goes to The Potty   gugandgal8484   GCANHJ5
 73   Traditional   Low Striker   JoeBum   GCAF694
 70   Traditional   A Day at the Dog Park   HiddenCrazy   GCAMPWV
 61   Traditional   One a-MAZE-ing Cache   nan-d1955   GCAKDN7
 59   Traditional   Lady and the Tramp - MtO Gadget #5   knowles5150   GCANXQW
 57   Traditional   Stewy's Nontraditional Gas Station Cache   stewy1966   GCAM8BA
 52   Traditional   On The Beaches of the Meramec   HiddenCrazy   GCAMNFM
 47   Traditional   A Platonic Solid   HiddenCrazy   GCAM3YE

 

Congrats and thanks to the Cache Owners and everyone else who continues to create and support quality caches in the St. Louis area!

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