Last weekend we attended an annual geocaching event - the
GONIL picnic. GONIL stands for Geocachers of Northeaster Illinois.
I don't know what the official attendance count was, but I do know that 150 geocachers logged in as attended, and then they had extended family and friends there as well, so there were easily several hundred people at the party! And it's always a good time.
First you visit the registration table where you pick up a name tag and sign the log sheet...
This is Dina, who is the GONIL president.
They have a table set up for travel bugs (TB's). Some TB's are just for trading, but each year there is also a TB race to see whose TB logs the most miles in one year....
These are the TB's I'm moving along for other cachers.....
Louie bought me my yearly GONIL coin...
You can't have a picnic without food - we had some wonderful grill masters who stood and grilled hot dogs, sausages and hamburgers all afternoon. Everyone who comes to the picnic is asked to bring something, whether it's side dishes, desserts, drinks, chips, whatever. I have to say that people were very generous and there was a lot of food - good food!!
My favorite thing was KerrillB's cookies - I ate several....
We took a break in the action and walked over to grab a geocache....
We had a great time just sitting and talking to other geocachers....
The highlight of the day for me was meeting fellow geocacher
Ans. Ans lives in the Netherlands and has been reading my blog for quite some time. We became FB buddies and when I heard that she was going to be in the states and at the picnic, I knew I had to meet her. I got lucky and just as we pulled up Ans was standing and talking to my mom and dad. I was really excited to meet her...
So Ans, I'm glad we finally got to meet in person. It was such a pleasure to talk to you and so far, you're the blogger friend I've gotten to meet who lives the farthest distance away! I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip here.
Unfortunately, we had to leave and go back to work, but after we left I heard that the cupcake truck showed up....
They also had a magician there performing some tricks, a blindfolded race, and then after all that they had a geocache poker run, with 50 new geocaches that had been placed especially for the picnic. In all I'd say the picnic was a huge success and a lot of fun, as always.
Before we left we had time to join in for the group photo....
(photo courtesy of Pam Imholz. Do not reproduce without permission)
If you have a chance to attend a geocaching event or picnic, I strongly urge you to go. It's such a good way to meet other cachers and get in on the fun.
