SPOILER ALERT!

Within a few hours of hiding my first geocache, someone found it! And many more have found it since:

I also thought that I should probably post pictures of the actual cache for when I’m old and lost my memory.

So fun!

I’ve been asked about the cache name and hint, purple tree. Well here’s the story, as best as I can remember.

Story of the Purple Tree:

The cache is attached to a bench, as you can see above. The bench is sitting directly under an eastern redbud tree, which has a beautiful purple blossom that completely covers the tree in May/June.

When I was first courting the second great love of my life (2GL), we both worked close to the park where the cache is hidden. It was May/June and when I saw the tree covered in those beautiful purple blossoms with a bench under it, I thought it would be a great meeting spot for an afternoon coffee with 2GL.

So I asked her to meet me at that bench in the park by giving her the exact geographic coordinates, and even provided a link in Google Maps that pinned the exact spot. Alas, 2GL claimed that she was terrible with directions and maps, and insisted that I give her qualitative directions. When I thought about the best way to describe where I wanted to meet her, I simply replied “just meet me under the purple tree.”

We would meet often there even after my courtship and the blossoms faded away, and we always referred to it as the purple tree.