Geocaching with "thepaytons"

One of the reasons I wanted to place our first cache at church was because we’re there very often and I would have many opportunities to check on the box itself and see if it needed maintenance. One of the problems with caches is that their owners don’t check on them, and, as with many things, water is a cache’s worst enemy.  Sometimes they get wet and yucky, the log book is soaked so you cant’ sign it, and the swag inside is moldy. I didn’t want one of my caches to get ignored, so I checked it out. It had been a bit of time since I had, and we’d had a few rainstorms in the interim. Sure enough, either the waterproof box is, instead, water resistant, or the lid wasn’t properly closed a time or two.

The packaging for the yo-yo (which included instructions) was covered in mold and, with the dampness, had opened up. The crayons looked very suspect, and the Atlanta Braves parking receipt was beyond hope (and not very healthy to be near, I imagine). So the yo-yo packaging a those two other items just had to get thrown out.

I got out some cleaner with bleach and we wiped down everything else that could be saved.

I also got as much of the mold as I could off the inside and outside of the box.

Having thrown some things out, we replenished the cache, put the log book in a new bag, and packed it up to be placed back in its spot tomorrow.

If you have a cache, please do regular maintenance. And for those of you who do maintenance on other peoples’ caches that you find need them, many thanks.