Labor Day Geocaching Mystery

Well, leave it to me again to not take a lot of pictures of our fun Labor Day! At least I got a few. CJ and Jen McMillan and their kids came out to spend the night on Sunday night and we spent the whole day with them on Monday.

Sunday night we played games late into the night. Monday morning Jen woke us up with the yummy smell of bacon and pancakes. The weather was so beautiful that we just had to get outside. So, we decided to take the kids Geocaching, because they love it so much. We tried a few tough ones around town and then took the McMillans to a few of our kids favorites. I took pictures at the Pirate's Treasure cache.

The kids had so much fun seeing what was inside the real treasure chest. We didn't bring anything to trade so we didn't take anything, but the kids had fun checking it out.
Someone left some fake Halloween blood in the cache and the kids got some on Quincy's shoe. She was not happy about having "real pirate blood" on her flip flops and refused to wear them any more.
Here's the troop. From left to right: Carter is holding Skye in the back walking toward CJ, Gabby, Sierra, Corban, Bump, Quincy, Jen, Jessica and Savannah.

Gabby had to have a picture with her BFF Sierra. Gabby taught Sierra how to ride a bike while they were together. How cute is that?

So, we decided to try a different type of geocache. There are some that are more like treasure hunts where you find one clue and then it leads you to a different clue until you finally find the actual cache. We went to the area where the first clue was supposed to be and we just couldn't find it. The sprinklers were on in the field next to where the cache was supposed to be and we kept getting soaked while we tried to find where in the heck this clue was located.

CJ and Jen's boy, Carter, is 8 years old. He really went exploring through the bushes and all around. Then he yelled that he had found something. The kids had been yelling that the whole time, but this time he came and got us and said that he really had found something in the bushes. We followed him over to where he had found something and I watched him start to pull out a large blue blanket. He opened it up and said that he found a gun. We just thought that he had found some garbage or a toy gun or whatever, but then he started to lift out what looked like the butt of a rifle.

I was shocked and told him to put it down and not to touch it. Then I yelled at the others that he really had found a gun in the bushes. The guys checked it out a bit without touching it and then we decided that we should call the police and have them come and take the gun. I wouldn't want my kids to find a gun hidden in a bush, especially if I wasn' t around.

It was Labor Day so the Police Station desk wasn't manned. So, I called the County Sheriff Dispatch and they sent a policeman right over. The policeman got out his camera and took lots of pictures and asked us questions. I filled out a witness report and we hung out for a bit to see what the gun looked like.

It was a pretty nice rifle with a scope and a tripod. He said there was a loaded clip in the gun, but the chamber was empty. The gun had been there for awhile because it had gotten a bit rusty. He thanked Carter for doing the right thing by letting his parents know and by calling the police. Then he let us take a picture. He said that there were quite a few deer that would come into those fields and it was probably just a poacher or something. Then he gave the kids all a free kids meal certificate for Del Taco.

Here's the gun, Carter and the policeman. You can see the blanket on the road behind them.

As we were loading up the kids the policeman asked for Carters help again. I guess that when the policeman started looking through the blanket he found another smaller rifle and wanted Carter to show him how far back into the bush the blanket was pushed so that he could check for anything else that might have been left. When Carter showed him the policeman found a black knit hat/mask and decided to take a closer look around for anything else.

How strange to find 2 guns and a black mask wrapped in a blanket hidden in a bush along side a dirt road! It was definitely a mystery!

We ended the day with a dutch oven dinner, brownies and more games before the McMillans had to leave. We had such a good time! We were all worn out and slept soundly. What an exciting Labor Day!