Little Cars and Lionel Richie

I gave away the last of my Jefferson Cipher Wheels (see sidebar) a little quicker than I expected to so I didn’t have any stuff to trade when I found swag-containing geocaches on Monday.  With the help of my son together we painted and put together fourteen (very simple) wooden cars for that purpose.  

There is really nothing to them - just a cut and drilled pine body, poplar axles, and oak plyboard wheels.  When I originally thought about creating little cars I was going to use different shades of wood stain to make the different parts stand out, not paint them.  Also, I thought I might use the wood burning kit and maybe tack on some brass or bronze pieces to fancy-up the units.  

Nope.  Wasn’t to be.  But, hey, doing it the way you see in the pics not only shortened the length of the project significantly (allowing me to use the cars for trade this past weekend) it allowed me and the boy to work together on a project, which is always awesome.   Here's a few pics showing some of the process.

One side...

Then the other...

All Done:

Oh, yeah... the label:

Most of the time that I find caches - whether they are deep within with woods of a park and thirty feet up in a tree or whether they are in the city and are like what you see in the pic on the left (that whole thing is held there by magnets) - the items inside (if any) are usually nothing to jump up and down about.  Sometimes, though, you find cool or interesting stuff like working mini-flashlights or carabiners or Dollar Store toys still in the package.

But whoever left this in one of the caches I found this weekend wins the prize for “Most Awesome Geocache Swag Item of All Time”.  It was so awesome, in fact, I found myself unworthy to do anything other than take the pic you see here.

It wasn't just the tape, it's how it was left behind.  It wasn't merely tossed into the camouflaged ammo box unceremoniously and without thought.  Oh, no.  It was carefully wrapped in a baggie as to protect it from dirt and moisture and to keep it as "mint" as possible for those who found it later.

Well done, Lionel Richie cassette tape leaver. I tip my cap to you, sir or ma'am.