"You can't stop the Signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere and I go everywhere." - Serenity
The original idea for this cache was scribbled on a cocktail napkin in 2008, as we prepared to host GeoWoodstock VII in nearby Bell Buckle, Tennessee. That cocktail napkin sketch was later transcribed into "MonkeyBrad's Big Book of Ideas", and promptly forgotten. My "Big Book of Ideas" is a frightful tome with mostly pie in the sky plans, but occasionally something interesting falls out of it. Most of the more interesting things I have done, started there as a sketch or a few sentences outlining an idea, but mostly ideas go there to age and see if they die on their own, or cling fiercely to life, like this one did. Kinda reminded me of that line from Serenity, thus "Can't Stop the Signal" was born.
A couple of months ago I was flipping through sketches looking for something else when I stumbled upon this one again and it just begged to be picked up. So I took a look and had a few ideas on how to improve the original concept, got distracted and went on about my day. But the idea wouldn't give up and leave me alone. So I sketched it out again, this time filling in details, adding to and subtracting from the original. Once I had it roughed in I put together a list of things I would need to pull it off. Didn't seem all that daunting, I had some of the tougher to get materials in the shed and knew where to get the rest. So I slowly began to accumulate parts, till I was pretty sure I had everything I needed to get started. Liam and I took an afternoon to play and lay things out and came up with a good working design. I figured out how to "make it work" and headed off to the hardware store. We spent the better part of the next day "successfully testing designs that did not work". It was great fun with blowtorches and welders and other implements of destruction but ultimately doomed to failure, so back to the drawing board and back to the store. My second attempt worked like a charm and within a week I had the major portions ready for assembly and paint.
Painting was another matter entirely. Something about this project must have made those fabled Seattle rains curious as they came to visit us...over and over...and over...and over. What should have been a three day paint job, stretched into two weeks as I tried to get coats in between the incessant rainstorms of this unusual summer. Finally, as I put the last clear coat on the cache, I knew we were ready to install. Liam and I made one more trip to the store to get the necessary tools and hardware, loaded up all of our gear and headed to place the cache.
So here are the things you actually need to know in order to seek this one. It is placed with full permission, just off the parking lot of my office. We request that you hunt this one during daylight hours as the local deputies make heavy use of this area in the evenings, but it is not a big deal to hunt after dark, just be prepared to answer some questions if the deputies are here. If you encounter any employees or law enforcement, just let them know you are there seeking the geocache. Other than that, this is a pretty straightforward cache, surprisingly straightforward for one of mine. Go to the coordinates, find the cache, sign the log. It could not be easier.
Feel free to take pictures and post them, I am pretty sure this isn't going to be a secret for very long. If you enjoy it, please consider throwing a favorite point this way as the cache is terribly fond of them, as you will see.
If you take a trackable from this cache, be sure to log it promptly on the site and keep it moving! It's only fair to the travel bug and geocoin owners!
Enjoy, stay safe and Happy Geocaching!!
Signal the Frog is a Trademark of Groundspeak Inc. Used with Permission. All Rights Reserved.
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