“Lucky Franks”

By John (L Frank) and Laurie (denmother) Elfrank

(Published: April, 2009)

On a beautiful day last July, Denmother and I headed off to the SLAGA Summer Picnic at Ramsey Lake State Park in Ramsey, Illinois. As usual we cached along the way, and one area we stopped at was the Silver Lake Area. When we found a cache that was large enough for our signature item (a little plastic hotdog on a bun we call a Frank), we dropped one in and signed the log. We had a great time at the picnic and cached on our way back home.

On 10/28/08, we received the following e-mail from some new cachers from Illinois called the Rabidhounds:

Dear L Frank,

Since our first Geocaching adventure a couple of months ago, I have to tell you that all 3 of my kids have been in hot pursuit of the infamous Signature Frank. We found one in a cache at Silver Lake in Highland, IL (Far Out). We did not have anything to trade, and I would not let them take it without knowing the proper etiquette. Since that time, the Signature Frank has become a coveted item. It has become the Holy Grail of our geocaching pursuits. It cracks me up. The rules we play by... are who ever finds the cache gets to keep the Frank... should there be one inside. I am not sure how many of them you have left in your illustrious career, but my kids are under the impression that they are everywhere! With as many finds as you have, they may very well be right. If you ever come back to the Metro-East to pick up some new finds, the RABIDHOUNDS have put out 4 new cache’s in recent weeks: Spindler’s Vineyard (GC1CZA0), Fuzz’s Corner (GC1 GZAD), FISHON (GC1HB8Q), Born in Bethlehem (GC1HGKP). We are very much enjoying the sport. Cheers.

We loved the e-mail so much, on 10/29/08 we sent this response:

Dear rabidhounds,

That’s too funny! Send us the names of your kids, and we’ll leave some limited-edition personalized Franks for them in one of your caches. ;)

We would also like to invite you to check out the St. Louis Area Geocachers Assn. (SLAGA) website at www.slaga.org. It has all the latest events listed on the calendar. Maybe we’ll see you at the Christmas Party on Dec. 6!

Thanks for the note,

L Frank and Denmother

(John and Laurie)

On 10/31/08 we received the following e-mail:

Thanks for the return note. 16 finds today .... and no Frank. Geez! The Hounds are: daughter Morgan (12), daughter Kate (10), and our son Nick (aka Fuzz - we call him fuzz because of his flat top ...his mom keeps making me give him LOL). Oh, and he is 8. There is a picture of them ...monkeys on the bars in the RABIDHOUND gallery. And, the big ugly guy standing top left on the wood pile is me.

Limited edition Franks would be outstanding! Spindler’s Vineyard is close to home (and to St. Louis) and big enough for the stash of infamous Franks...if I see that you guys have visited the logs, I’ll get the hounds and tell them we have a maintenance call. They will be thrilled... it’s the small things in life that make it good... you know? BUT...Don’t feel obligated... if you make it over... you make it over. I will check out the website and see what’s up with SLAGA. We are new to the sport, but loving every minute. Sometimes I wished it was not so competitive with the hounds... but then again, it’s not everyday you get to see one child deliver a “Schnooka” off of a grape vine just to keep a sibling from crossing the 90th Meridian. We just might see you at the Christmas party. Cheers!

Fellow Cacher,

Mike.

(For those of you wondering what a “Schnooka” is, Mike defined it as the signature wrestling move of Jimmy the ‘Superfly’ Snuka, where he would leave his stunned opponent laying on the mat, and then climb onto a corner of the ring’s ropes, stand up, and dive face down, landing on the opponent in pin position. I can just imagine his kids performing that move out in the woods somewhere.)

So on the 1st of November, we decide to take a caching trip to Highland, IL and find their Spindler’s Vineyard cache. After a little searching, we finally found the cache. It was a great hide. We had put together 3 sets of Franks and included with each one a small card with each child’s name and a gold dollar coin inside a tiny zip-lock bag. The cache was so full, there was barely enough room to put them in, but we managed. When we returned home, we logged the cache find and put in the log that the cache was full and needed maintenance.

The next day, we received the following e-mail:

Thanks so much for the effort and Limited Edition signature Franks and $1 pieces. I logged onto geocaching.com to log our weekend finds and I checked Spindler’s Vineyard to see if by chance you made it over. I am flying to Houston in the morning so if you had visited, we would need to get over there tonight. Morgan walked over as soon as the page opened on your log... she made this gasping sound... and asked “Did they visit Spindler’s Vineyard”? The other two came over immediately and began to question whether or not you may have left a Frank... I told them I wasn’t sure since the cache may be full. Kate immediately laid claim to the potential Frank since Spindler’s Vineyard was her hide. All 3 of them insisted on going and went with me in the dark to open it.

Kate’s Frank was found first, then Nick’s... and Morgan’s was at the bottom. She was obviously on pins and needles awaiting me to dump the remaining contents. When hers finally rolled out... she let out a “YES”!!!! We quickly packed up the cache and put it back in its place. We were walking with the light out since the park was closed... I told the kids the cops could haul us off (prowling around in the dark added to the mystery of it all). We had almost made it all the way back to the truck when Morgan whispered, “Wait a minute, How did they know our names”? I shrugged my shoulders. “They must have researched the Rabidhounds some how”, she stated. Kate and Morgan went back and forth a couple of times on how this could be possible when Nick shouted out that he knows the answer. We were all glaring at him with the “what” look, when he informed us that the infamous L Frank and Denmother must be like Mr. & Mrs. GeoClaus. We all laughed and figured that he must be right. Thanks so much. The kids are very excited about their Franks, and they immediately put their dollars in their banks. I really was shocked how quickly they banked them. We hope your day was as successful as ours.

Mike

We tell this story often, and we just think it is so cute that we decided to share it with the rest of the SLAGA group.

L Frank and Denmother

Kate (10), Nick (8), Morgan (12)