Mars

Dear Dad,

You always joked that I had a limitless amount of energy, that I could keep going when everyone else was ready to drop. When G3 was born you laughed, “Now you will know what it’s like to have someone push you to the brink of exhaustion.” Well, Dad, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but even though I am getting old and my joints ache and my muscles are more easily strained, my stamina still defeats my young son. He is always ready to call it quits sooner than me. In fact, he told me that sometimes he just needs a rest day. I’ve never been a fan of those. I used to joke that there would be time enough to rest when I was dead, but lately that just doesn’t seem funny anymore.

Anyway, yesterday, I announced to my family that today I planned to go caching with a little bit of hiking thrown in. Kati had to stay home. Its October which means she will be spending every moment of her free time at her sewing machine, racing against the clock to get G3’s costume done by Halloween. G3 said he wanted to spend the day relaxing. I didn’t beg or plead for him to join me. But after breakfast, he changed his mind, saying he wanted to come. I was happy to have his company.

There is an Adventure Lab cache in Waterloo Village. I’ve been wanting to go, but we never seemed to have the time, and when we did, we always seemed to forget that it was there. It’s a restored nineteenth century village along the Morris Canal. Since it’s the off season, all the buildings were closed, but neither G3 nor I cared. We’ve been to so many historic sites, so many restored buildings. We honestly did not feel as if we were missing out. Besides, since it’s the off season parking was free — that’s a nice bonus. And the place was practically empty. That’s a huge win for me since you know how I feel about crowds.  The fact that the leaves are starting to change also added a bit of charm, making for a pleasant backdrop as we walked around the village. The buildings are all in different stages of restoration. There was one mansion that was so run down it looked haunted. G3 really liked it. There were five locations for this cache and we found the answers easily enough for all of them. G3 raced ahead, finding most of them before me then shouting the answers over his shoulder.

Once we completed the Adventure cache we set out on a short hike to find a few traditional caches. They had a pirate theme which excited G3 — remember how much he used to obsess over pirates.  But the mosquitoes were awful. They swarmed us, landing three, four, or five at a time on our legs, backs, and arms. We couldn’t swat them fast enough and I hadn’t thought to bring bug spray. They weren’t too bad while we were walking, but as soon as we stopped to hunt for a cache they couldn’t wait to suck our blood. After three caches we were done, we couldn’t take the torture any more. Our bodies were covered with bites.

Since we had to abruptly end our hike, G3 suggested we do another Adventure Lab cache and he found one only ten minutes away in Hackettstown. It home of Mars Wrigley factory. I’ve lived in New Jersey now for nearly two decades — oh dear shoot me now, I thought one year was bad — and I had no idea the factory was there. What really surprises me is that Kati and I, through the years, have done countless google searches looking for places to take G3. I would have thought Mars would have shown up in at least one of those searches. It never did. But we found it today. However, as per my glorious luck, they suspended tours due to COVID and have not yet resumed them. G3 was disappointed. He had been hoping for a sample or two. And of course Mars made us think of you. How could it not? The Milky Way was your favorite chocolate bar. And G3 knew it. Every year on Halloween, he always picked out all the mini-Milky Way bars from his trick-or-treating stash and gave them to you. Of course, he expected you to share them with him when he visited and you wouldn’t have had it any other way. When Mom and I were cleaning out the freezer in the Mattituck house, we found a ziplock bag with several bars still waiting for you. I suppose they will now have to wait an eternity.

I miss you!