3IEE Mega Event Day and More!!

If you read my last blog about the 3IEE mega event weekend, you will know that the night before I came up to the exhibition grounds to check in so that when I arrived today I could get right to work.
Mrs. GO! Team and I had woken up pretty early after going to bed equally as early so we could make the drive up here to start our shifts.
While Mrs. GO! Team didn't start to much later, I had to start at 8:30am and help with parking.  Being one of the first to arrive I got to choose where I wanted to be, so I chose the VIP parking area.  This was actually kind of fun, as I got to map out how I wanted the parking to work.  I had designated my own handicap and vendor parking area, and created a nice parking grid for the VIPs (a status purchased when registering online!
It was while doing this that I got to meet Jeremy Irish (see history of Geocaching HERE) and his family.  The best part was that he gifted me a personal trackable which looks like the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who inside his TARDIS that says "GEOCACHING" where it would say "POLICE BOX".  Jeremy, if by chance you are reading this THANK YOU.  It was an
honor and your gift was unexpected and appreciated!

Unlike when we went to Island Spirit in 2012, I had an agenda!
I had been thinking the day before how I could use the fact that there was Mega and a regular event the same day and go try and beat my previous record of 6 cache types in one day.  Looking at the map of the Cowichan area I realised I could beat it by only one because were no Webcam, Wherigo or Virtuals in the area that hadn't already been done by me.  This meant 7 types would have to suffice!  So after I finished my parking lot shift I booted it down to my car to get out and find a Traditional, Multi, Letterbox and Earthcache.  Personally I felt like I wasn't going to make it before I had to be back, but I surprised myself and had it all done and back at the Exhibition Grounds in just over an hour.

So it was a good thing that my running around took as little time as it did, because I was able to get
back in time to start my shift on the Trackables Table.  This was the best part of my volunteering, as
it allowed me to discover tons of trackables when there was none to bag and tag.  I shared this shift with lookernl, and I think we rocked it here.  I allowed myself to work an extra 30 minutes because with me using the shift to my discovery advantage I felt I owed it to the event coordinators that I actually put in the extra time.  But when NavyAviator arrived to relieve me I happily left, because it was time for me to spend my money on some trackables  at the Landsharkz and Worldcaching booths.  I bought myself 2 trackables, a 2014 HQ Logbook Coin and a Achiever Coin from the Seven Souvenirs of August.  And I got Mrs. GO! Team a Gift of Love suncatcher trackable and a trackable tag, both featuring her favourite mascot Signal the Frog.


Some of you may be asking where Mrs. GO! Team was during all this!?  Well the answer is simple, she could be seen walking around talking with friends and spending time with the various dogs that were at the event.  But when she was working, you all saw her as a certain green mascot giving hugs and high-fives to everyone!



The rest of the day progressed naturally as I visited with friends old and
new, swapping caching stories and caching up.  Soon enough came
time for the prize draws, where the lucky winners won great items from the various vendors participating in the event.  Chris & Helen from Landsharkz drew and handed out the rewards, and all the while I snapped a few pictures.  And then to my complete surprise my ticket number got called, and I won a couple of great geocoins from Landsharkz.  There were many other winners of course, but sadly I didn't catch who they all were.  But all the prizes were pretty cool, and I am sure everyone that got something will enjoy it very much.

After all the prizes were given out everybody lent a hand to clean up and setup for dinner.  Mrs. GO! Team and I didn't purchase meal tickets at the event because we had our minds set on the Nachos Grande that is served at our favorite local restaurant called The Dog House. So once the event hall was set for dinner we rushed out so that we could eat and be back in time for clean up.  We got our food very fast and ate at a decent pace and when done we headed back; however, when we returned the clean up was done.  So to make up for missing it we lingered and did a little loading for Landsharkz instead.  And that was it, the Mega was done!  But not the whole day, as there still was the night event "3IEE - Waning Harvest Moon Flash Mob - GC5CC0V", and the two night caches we planned to do with G-Force and A-Team which would give us the seven cache types for the day.

When we arrived at McAdam Park some cachers were already in the area waiting, so we took the
time to team up with MARICKY and Mr. Wilson to grab a couple of quick caches in the area.  When we finished that we meandered over to mill about on the trail near GZ.  Not too long after NavyAviator (the event CO) showed up and set up his table, all the while we the attendees chatted and made plans for that night or for the following day.  It was then that we gained two more people (Neltra & tadrew) to join us for the night cache expedition that we were going to do afterwards with G-Force and A-Team.  That's when the whistle blew and all descended down to the table to sign the log for the event.  We were then instructed set up along the little hill and arrange ourselves for the group photo, a few snaps of the camera and the event was done.  Back in the parking lot our night cache team quickly discussed our plan, and then headed toward Shawnigan Lake.

Our team met up at the Shawnigan Lake Legion Hall to start our night quests.  First on the list was "The Cache-Keteers Night Games- HAGX - GC4X75G", which literally started right there.  This was a fun walk through a wooded area that had BMX obstacles to go under and around, which also led to a power cut and its connecting service roads.  We had lots of fun walking through this area and seeing all the beetles that were crawling about, and the cache was a quick find at the end.  After that cache we zoomed on over to our last one called "Something Wicked This Way Comes -Night Cache - GC49GWP".  This one was a bit shorter than the last one we did, but you really had to pay attention to the instructions and your intuition, as there are quite literally firetacks (reflectors) everywhere. This trail was very rooty and one would have to watch their footing while walking here, it was a fun walk and this too once we got to the end was a quick find for the team.  After a quick attempt to find a nearby traditional (we had to DNF it) we made our way back to the vehicles, said our thanks and good-nights, and headed our way home.

This marks the end of the 3IEE Mega Event part of the weekend!
There were a few more activities the next day, and I will save those for my next blog entry.

Thanks to all the volunteers at 3IEE, without you the event would not have moved as smoothly as it did.  A super huge thanks to the coordinators, your planning skills and ability to put said plans into action are out of this world.  Thanks also needs to be given to the COs of the various satellite events, you helped make this weekend be a little bit more diverse and that much more fun!  And to the attendees you all were so much fun to meet and chat with, thank you for coming out for this fun and educational event.  And lastly to our night cache team, thank you for the great adventure!

Stay tuned for more to come!