When looking back on all the different years I've traversed in life and wondering if I were to rank them, how 2023 would fare. It would certainly not be near the bottom. It does have great arguments to be in consideration for the top ten and maybe even top five. But rankings aside, 2023 does have one thing that will forever be marked in my memory. And that is for the first time in three years, it felt like a normal year. By that I mean the thoughts and threats of Covid did not plague my mind. Many days I went about as if it didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, the aftershocks, repercussions, and the way our world has changed because of it are still there and still apparent. Which goes the same for every major human calamity. But 2023 was truly the first year for me since 2020 that Covid was an afterthought. In celebration of that, I wanted to close it out with a recap of life highlights that 2023 brought.
January is usually a coin toss for excitement. Some years, a key life moment happens and others it feels like a short hibernation. Well something happened this year that was 10 years in the making. I wrote two letters to myself in 2013. One from my 2013 self to my 2023 self, and one from the perspective of my 2023 self to my 2013 self. I never thought an experiment like that would last that long. There were definitely times when I needed to hear good things that I wanted to rip that letter open and comfort myself. But I held off. When January 1st, 2023 rolled in, I opened that 10 year old envelope and read it live on Facebook. That proved to be a wonderful experiment to see how my life was and what it became. To see some of my dreams from 10 years ago come true and the encouragement I gave myself really come in clutch. A long project that was totally worth it.
I've mentioned numerous times on this blog before about the hobby of geocaching. What I don't always mention is the community it creates. This game literally takes people from different walks of life and unites them in a way that standard norms wouldn't. We're a pretty tight knit bunch that always has room for more. An exceptional part of this hobby is the social aspect it creates. Every year there are local events and national events that draw geocachers to socialize, discuss geocaching, and to simply enjoy life a bit more. There are a handful of monthly events in Northeast Ohio, but this year, we decided to do something a bit more extravagant. We kept those monthly events, but decided to do one event every week for the year and call it 52 Card Pickup. Each event awarded you with on playing card from the 52 card deck. Those cards will be used to create whatever poker hands you can make at the end of the year to get chances to earn some cool prizes. It was a crazy idea as we needed enough people to host 52 events and there was the thought that who would be willing to attend that many events each month and the whole year? Geocachers that's who. The host list filled up super quick and the locations were spread out all over Northeast Ohio. To watch this crazy plan unfold throughout the year was going to be a real treat.
Being part of this community also lead to a unique opportunity. Since geocaches are hidden all over the world and are meant to bring you to new places you haven't been, geocachers tend to travel far and wide. One member of our community, George Markusic, likes to plan and go on multiple trips throughout the year. He opens them up to whomever can make the time and expense to go. I pulled the trigger on my first one this March. The trip was planned for the E.T. highway out in Western Nevada. The E.T. highway is Nevada's state route 375 that runs from Las Vegas to Tonopah and runs near Area 51. It's two lanes through miles of desert, open range, and mountain formations. Our purpose for going was the first power trail in geocaching history was placed there. A power trail is hundreds to thousands of caches placed the minimum distance apart allowed by the geocaching organization. So if you enjoy finding a lot of geocaches in a shorter amount of time than normal and want to boost your finds, that's what this is for. Nine of us flew from Cleveland to Las Vegas. We then acquired rental cars and drove to the starting point of the E.T. Highway. It was sunny and beautiful for our first day. We saw aliens, amazing views, and found 500 caches on day one.
We started day 2 on the western side of the state. The weather turned on us becoming cold, overcast, and snow flurries flew. We completed all the caches along the paved portion of the highway and in order to get the rest of the caches hidden out there, we had to go on unmarked dirt roads into the desert. As we went higher in elevation, the snow picked up. We were forced off the dirt roads so as not to get stuck. Day 3 the sunshine returned, but it was super cold. We returned to the dirt roads as we had to go deep into the desert to get the oldest active geocache in Nevada. I saw more epic rock formations, wild horses, and the views were still incredible. We made it to the oldest and after some decent rock climbing, we made the find. But everything went downhill from there. The dirt roads were super soft due to all the precipitation. We had three rental cars and two of them were probably not meant for desert dirt roads. Needless to say, we got one of them stuck with no cell service and 20+ miles deep. We had no choice but to get it unstuck. Through a lot of pushing and pulling, we freed the car. We couldn't go back the way we came and had to go down a different road. While that one had a bit firmer dirt, we had to cross four water live water crossings. That was a trip. Took us over an hour to get back to the main highway. What's an adventure without a little drama?
By day 4, the snow became problematic. We decided to pause the E.T. highway and drive south to get away from the snow. We ended up caching in a plethora of historic and old goldrush towns, still in the snow. We had made it 70 miles south and decided to stop for lunch. Then a plan was formed. We were 30 miles from Death Valley, CA, so we went for it. We finally cleared the snow, but as we entered Death Valley, we were greeted with rain. One of the driest places in the continental US and it was raining. No matter because once we reached sea level, it was sunny and 65! And Death Valley had views to die for. We even ate ice cream which we got from an oasis in Death Valley. It was a much welcomed twist to this adventure.
When I woke up for Day 5, I was told to pack my bags as the snow had officially won. We would be abandoning the ET highway and headed for greener pastures. We left Tonopah and drove all the way to the Arizona border. We cached through Arizona and up into St. George, UT, where we would be staying for one day. Why here? Because George made the call to visit Zion National Park. And what a call that was.
We eventually had to get back to Las Vegas, so we spent the final day driving and caching back there with a detour to the Hoover Dam along the way. Overall we ended up with a little over 1600 cache finds, many highs (6,000ft above sea level) and lows (20ft below sea level), tons of pictures, and plenty of memories for a lifetime. What an epic trip that was.
When April appeared, my longtime high school friend, Ryan, and I were about to embark on take 2 of our attempt to see a NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Our first attempt was in 2020 and well, I'll let that year speak for itself. Easter weekend we drove from Cleveland down to Bristol, TN. We stopped at the border of TN and VA and took in the sights. The next day we drove down to Knoxville to be tourists for the afternoon and took in the views from the Sunsphere and the park built for the World's Fair back in the 80s. We then drove back to Bristol to catch the truck race. Then, Easter Sunday we rounded things off with the Cup race. This weekend was quite unique in the fact that NASCAR turned the track into a dirt track for the weekend. They'd been doing it for a number of years, but this one was the last. I got into NASCAR in 2001 and after twelve years, I finally made it to a Cup race.
April also kicked off some new baseball goals I had set for myself. The first was to attend one game every month from April-September. The second was to see four games that included the last four MLB teams I had never seen play live (Rockies, Brewers, Mets, and Rangers). The Rockies came to town the end of April and it was a cold, rainy day for a baseball game. The Guardians didn't get the W, but I checked the Rockies off the list.
I took a travel pause for the month of May but ended up hanging out with a lot of friends, going to numerous geocaching events, and adding another baseball game to the streak. My favorite season came calling and so did June. The cherry tree in my back yard produced a bounty of fruit and I decided to host a cookout/cherry picking day. I ended up BBQ'ing for 34 people that day. I ended up going to two Guardians games, both against the Brewers, which left the Mets and Rangers left to see and my monthly streak remained in tact.
My next adventure would take place the week after when I flew back to the the west coast, but this time it was to the Pacific Northwest in Portland, OR. My purpose for doing so was to visit Jesse, who had moved there recently. It was a long flight, but worth it as it's always a blast to visit people in new areas. In a few short days, we did an hour long hike that led to a scenic view of the river that borders Washington and Oregon, ate lots of delicious food, visited Powell's book store (the largest independent book store in the US), and Jesse was even kind enough to drive me 40 min to the site where the very first geocache was hidden. I did accidentally end up missing on a 20+ year old cache because I didn't realize it was nearby. Oh well. Portland was quite the experience.
July almost never disappoints. It starts off with Independence Day and everything else elevates from there. I participated in our annual summer youth conference that I been attending since 2004 and have not missed one yet. I tore a big hole in my shorts not realizing how flimsy they were when I crammed a giant metal water bottle in my back pocket. Thankfully I located some duct tape and patched them for the rest of the day. I also had the privilege of attending Hassan's (former co-worker) wedding about the same time. Thanks to that invite, I have been to at least one wedding every year since 2014 (2020 does not count). But in all the weddings I've had the pleasure of attending, I was not prepared for an intro to the wedding party like the one that occurred here. The party came in via DJ intros and then they were followed by massive drums and intense music. This went on for a good 10-15 min before everyone was seated and food was served. This is one of the many reasons I love weddings. Congrats again Hassan!
Ryan and I rendezvoused again, but this time to make a long awaited return to the Big Apple. I hadn't been in nearly four years and I haven't been to a Met's game, so this was the perfect excuse to go back. My trips to New York always have memorable moments and this one was loaded with them. On the first night we met up with some of Ryan's friends for dinner, but also to remember a Ming. In 2019, Ming was a stranger to me. But he extended the offer to Ryan to bring a friend to his wedding. After that adventure, we were strangers no more. The kindness he showed me that weekend wad incredible. The fact that he still mentioned me to Ryan over the years was a sign of a caring person. I wish I could've gone back sooner, but Covid and life had other ideas. Sadly Ming developed cancer and it wasn't caught in time. He passed almost exactly one year ago from the moment of this writing. He will be missed and meeting the other people he called friends was a nice way to honor him.
The morning after, Ryan and I split to do some things on our own. I met up with Sam Chen and got to meet his son. We wandered central park for a while before parting ways. I geocached more of NYC before re-uniting with Ryan. We eventually grabbed a subway all the way to Queens because we had a Met's game to go see. We had to wait out a short rain delay, but we ended up getting a full 9 innings of baseball in. I always worry about a rain-out because that means another plane ticket and missed opportunity. The Met's lost extending my record for the home team of 2 wins and 10 losses for MLB games I've attended outside of Cleveland. But I got to check the Mets and Citi Field off the lists.
The last day snuck up on us, but it had moments that I will speak of for years to come. Before this trip, I had been to NYC three times prior. The first time I made sure to visit Ground Zero. The second time I happened to be close, so I stopped by again. The third I went with a group, some of whom had not been there yet, so I found myself there a third time. I decided that if possible, I would make a point to visit Ground Zero if possible each time I find myself in NYC. Why? Because I'm an American who still has some pride in this scared country. And I realize the cost that many men and women paid through that horrible event. So to be there and pay respect is something I feel to do.
I got a double dose of Chen bros as we were able to meet up with John before our evening plans. It was in that moment I found out his wedding was going to be in San Diego in 2024, so guess where one of my adventures will take me next year! After we split, Ryan and I had one last thing to experience. We were going to the top of Rockefeller Center a.k.a. The Top of the Rock. We did have a bit of time to kill so we stopped in a restaurant for a break. Ryan and I were shooting the breeze and I mentioned my trip to Australia. The server overheard and jumped in. Turns out she was an Aussie who had moved to NYC for a change of pace. I had a blast sharing stories of my travels down under and hearing about her life there. Eventually Ryan and I had to get going and on the way out I said "Aussie Aussie Aussie!" and was met with a boisterous "Oi Oi Oi!" Great, unexpected moment. By 9PM, we found ourselves at the top of the Rock. I had been to the top of both the Empire State building and the new One World Trade Center before, but this one was a real treat. The view was absolutely amazing, especially at night and worth every penny to go up there. What an incredible way to close out another awesome adventure.
Can't close out July without discussing the Midwest Geo-bash. Each year, hundreds of geocachers descend upon the Wauseon fairgrounds in Ohio for five days of camping, geocaching, events, contests, and a whole ton of fun. This was the first year I stayed multiple days. And I had a blast. lots of late nights around campfires, lots of laughs, lots of geocaches, and I also participated in a Texas Hold'em tournament for geocoins and ended up placing 15 out of 40. Not bad for my first ever tournament. The Bash has become a must do on my list for each year. And The day after the Bash ended, I kept my Guardians baseball streak alive with a game for July.
Our annual family trip that happens every August came next and this year we were back in Wisconsin. But this visit would be a bit different as it was the first time we wouldn't be staying with family (but we would still see a lot of them) and the first time my brother Tim would not be with us. We rented a large cabin way out in the woods, but really only slept there. The list of things we did include going to Interstate Park on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border for a day, drove over 2 hours to Gooseberry Falls in Minnesota, stopped by Lake Superior (and touched it), did a lot of fishing, lots of fires, food, family and cats. By this point my state visited count for the year was in the double digits (final count at the end). But the year wasn't over yet! Oh and August also held an important milestone. The 22nd marked the 20th year I've resided in the Buckeye State. Two whole decades. Crazy.
I squeezed in a ball game in August before the calendar turned to September. But once it did I completed my two major baseball goals for the year. I attended a Guardians game vs the Rangers in which the Guards blew them away 12-3. I checked the last major league team off the list as I had officially seen every MLB team play a game live (most at Progressive field of course). I also finished the regular season streak of at least 1 game a month April-September. I felt accomplished. But baseball wasn't done for me yet as I had two more rodeos up my sleeve. The first came on the 23rd when I attended my final Guardians game of the season. The playoff-bound Baltimore Orioles were in town and I nearly witnessed my first no hitter live. John Means had not allowed any Guardian to record a hit going into the 8th inning. He ended up making one mistake as Andres Giminez clobbered a home run. I was glad we didn't get no-hit, but was oh so close to witnessing a rare feat live. I had another problem. If I'm going to make it to every MLB ballpark in a reasonable amount of time, one a year isn't going to cut it. I reached out to some friends in Chicago and asked if I could visit and if they'd be interested in a White Sox game. I got the affirmative and on the last weekend of the baseball season, I drove to Chicago and got to witness one final game with 9 other people, the most to ever join me on my ballpark tour. Ten games, three ballparks, two goals, and one pretty fly baseball season. And on my way back to Cleveland, I stopped in Indiana to find the oldest geocache in the state and make my 7,000th find. Milestones baby.
October was a month that had a big life shift. My parents sold the first house they ever bought, the one I had lived in the longest (a little over 12 years), and the one they lived in for the last 17 years. Circumstances became very favorable to do so and thus it was time. It wasn't the first house I lived in and I don't consider it my childhood home, but for 13 years of my life, it was home just the same. Taking one last walk and turning in my set of keys was bittersweet. Another chapter has ended and a fresh one had begun.
I took another month off from travel in November, but enjoyed all the fun local events and get-togethers I had with friends and family. Especially the two Friendsgivings I attended as well as the first Thanksgiving in my parent's new place. That brings us to December. And while all the holiday festivities and the Christmas season are something I always look forward to, the highlight for this month was being able to spend Christmas with my immediate and extended family in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lots of driving, but also lots of joy.
If you've made it this far, I thank you and appreciate you. Being able to look back on a year of life and share it with those willing to take the time to read it is truly a blessing. Overall I went on nine trips, set foot in 14 states (NV, CA, AZ, UT, TN, VA, OR, NY, WI, MN, IL, IN, MD, & PA), four of them for the first time, made new friends, reconnected with ones of old, had highs and lows, and made many memories to last a lifetime. Here's to the dawn of a new year. Many well wishes and blessings to you all.
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