Smithsonian NMNH GeoTour

Groundspeak had announced last month that souvenirs were being awarded for GeoTours, as long as all of the caches in the GeoTour were found (minus any archived ones), not just the number required to complete the GeoTour. At that time, they were unsure about archived GeoTours. Imagine my surprise when the souvenir for the archived Smithsonian NMNH GeoTour popped up on my profile page.

The Smithsonian NMNH GeoTour was filled with unexpected, yet pleasant, surprises from the very beginning. When I started geocaching in 2015, I came across the Smithsonian NMNH GeoTour. It seemed like something I could do, being a new cacher with two jobs - one full-time, the other almost full-time, and one other really time consuming hobby. It consisted of nine caches, six of which were in Washington, D.C., and the other three were each a reasonable drive away. The reward for completion of the GeoTour would be a badge for my profile page.

So, in September 2015, after doing some Internet research, Tom and I took the train down to Washington, D.C. and I started the GeoTour. We found all six, and in October, we went to Gettysburg for a ghost tour and the "CINMAR: South Mountain" cache. Then, in December, while my parents were visiting, we included the final two caches in the GeoTour in our day of caching, which took us to Washington, D.C., where we were able to find eight different cache types in a single day. I filled out the passport, did what I had to do to get it to the people that needed to get it, received an e-mail with a link to the badge and placed it on my profile page with pride. Wouldn't you know it, about a month later, I received a geocoin in the mail.

Like I said, this GeoTour was full of unexpected, yet pleasant, surprises.