So close... to GC70

On our way back from the beaches of South Carolina, we drove through Charlotte, NC to visit my sister in law. It just so happens, that the oldest active geocache in North Carolina, and also the oldest active puzzle cache in the worlds is right there in Charlotte, GC70. And while our trip was not really about geocaching, I jsut had to take the family by this cache, even if it meant an hour less time with my sister-in-law.

We pulled up at the parking lot and headed off. As we approach GZ, we notice an excavator swinging its arm around and scraping the ground. My GPSr is telling em the cache is just past the excavator. I try to see if I can get around it in the woods, but after a bunch of thrashing around, I finally decide that there is no way to get to the cache lcoation without going through the active contruction zone. I am so bummed, and I was a little taken aback by how bummed my kids were too. I guess after being in the car all morning, the prospect of a cache with some toys in ti was very exciting indeed, and not being able to find it was a big let down. And I hadn't loaded any other local caches, so there was no back up plan. We all made sad faces, except for my wife, who just laughed at us.

 I found out later that the construction crew was aware of the geocache and was friendly, even allowing some cachers to walk through to make the find, and supplying hints when they couldn't find it. If only we had just had the guts to ask...