2025 - My Year in Review

It's time for my yearly geocaching review! I don't feel like I accomplished much, but maybe I did? I found less than 200 caches, but still more than the previous year.

I missed out on two official souvenirs, the International Geocaching Day Hider and the GIFF 2026. I overthink putting out caches, so in my desire to put out a quality cache, I missed the window. I actually never put the cache out at all, so I even missed qualifying for the next round of Virtual Rewards. And then, I was on a cruise for the entire period of the Geocaching International Film Festival. I did, however, complete nine treasure collections, two of which had souvenirs, so I decided to make homemade souvenirs for the other seven.
I'd have to say that my favorite part of last year was attending GeoWoodstock in West Virginia and completing the Country Roads Challenge and enough of the Middle of Everything GeoTour to qualify for the geocoin. We visited some really interesting places and I really want to go back to complete the GeoTour some time.
Speaking of GeoTours, we completed the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area GeoTour. Completing the GeoTour in a weekend was quite an accomplishment. That same weekend, we also attended our first Block Party.
My only real plan for the year, besides attempting to get souvenirs and completing treasure collections, would be to cache in a new region, the Dominican Republic. We should be going there on a cruise in the fall, and there's an EarthCache in the harbor as well as one where we intend to go on a shore excursion. Hopefully, the cruise won't be rerouted or the shore excursion cancelled. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to acquire "low hanging fruit" for many years, so I guess I'll have to omit them from my usual plans for the year :-) Have a good one!