Geocoinfest 2013: Part 1: Lab Caches

I recently attended the Geocoinfest Mega event in Las Vegas, NV.  A big draw for the event was the possibility of finding an elusive "Lab Cache".  These are caches that are still being tested by Groundspeak's R&D people (what a job!), but count towards your find totals.  More importantly, you get the Lab Cache icon (shown at left).  They are a VERY new type of cache and to my knowledge, this was the second event they had been offered.  To check out the Lab Caches, see the Geocaching blog post here. The caches were published a few days before the event, so I was able to check them out ahead of time.  The theme was "As Seen On TV" and the GPS coordinates took you to various places around Las Vegas that had appeared on television shows.  I wanted to hit these before the Mega event got going, and I wanted to cap the virtual Munzees on the Vegas strip, so I was up before dawn to get this done before breakfast.  I left my hotel room and logged the LPC in the parking lot just as the first rays of sun were peaking over the mountains.


  I then headed to NW Vegas to a place called The Road Kill Grill (website).  This place was featured on The Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri back in 2012.  A recent blog with some pictures is here (link), including the one shown that I <ahem> borrowed from the blog since my picture didn't turn out well.  The place was closed, but the gate was open and some workers were prepping for the day, so I followed the arrow on my GPSr into the parking lot and up to the counter.  I saw a small poster with the Groundspeak icon and knew that I had found the code word.  I won't reveal the code word here, but it was simple enough.  I had noticed that there was a traditional cache here as well and happened to be a few feet from where I had parked (cache page).  It was a small container under an obvious geopile next to the fence.  I signed the log and returned to the car and suddenly two men came around the fence and up to the geocache.  They were chatting there for a few seconds and I assumed that they were fellow geocachers, so I got out of the car and introduced myself.  They were not geocachers.  One of them was none other than the owner of the place, and Food Network star, Chuck Frommer himself!  He's a friendly fellow and he and his colleague were asking about the geocache.  Groundspeak had asked for permission to put the Lab cache at his place, but he really had no idea what it was all about.  He did want to know why there was suddenly a steady stream of geocachers coming to his place to eat!  So I told them about the Lab Cache and why it was so special, told them about the cache outside their place, and explained the concept of geocoins (since we were all attending Geocoinfest!).  He asked if there were a lot of geocaches in Las Vegas, so I pulled out my c:geo app on the phone.  There were a dozen or so caches nearby on the map and it took a few minutes as I panned out for the map to refresh.  "Wow, that's a lot," he said.  Then, as the map refreshed and plastered geocache icons all over the three mile radius of his store, his comment was, well... this is a family blog, so I'll just say it rhymed with 'moley brit'.  I told him about some of my caching adventures in other countries (which will be appearing in future posts) and he was just flabbergasted that this was happening all over the world.  Both of them were going to look into the game and we could, potentially, have two new players.  I love when that happens!  Sadly, it was too early for lunch so I had to leave The Road Kill Grill without sampling their fare.  However, I got the code and I got the icon, so I am no longer a Lab Cache virgin!