ORIGINAL LESLIE

The main geocaching mission of the day was to find the first multi-cache in the UAE, the Arabian Cache. (GC1582H)

We headed out to Hatta/Oman yet again; took our sweet time though, since US-A-RABIA already snatched the FTF sometime during the week. How he managed to do this smack bang in the middle of the week I have no idea, as it's hidden wayyyyy out in the middle of the desert off the border of Oman...

So we arrived at the first leg to find the hidden cointainer rather easily to get the coords of the final treasure. Truly the most impressive cache I've come across thus far in the short time that I've been doing geocaching! I had a field day with this one: Felt as if I won the lottery!

What I was searching for though was Original Leslie.

I heard about Original Leslie just the day before from a caching friend, geoCRAt who wanted me to grab this Travel Bug on his behalf. What was it? Well here's the story, but first, here is what I believe a poem that was written for Original Leslie:

The Dark Horse Lady: On the back of a stallion, over the fields of hay, The dark horse lady rode until that dreadful day. Braids of red hair blowing in the wind, Jeans that haven't been washed since I don't know when, She rode hard and steady, with courage and lots of guile. She was always rough and ready, definitely her style. A mouth that would rival a sailor's, she spoke the simple truth, To figure her out completely would take a well trained sleuth. This "Buffalo Gal" will be sorely missed by all who knew her well, And if she ain't in heaven I know she'll be runnin' the folks in hell. I remember her ridin' that black stallion she raised, Pure poetry in motion, and all were surly amazed. The folks who came to the "Rancho Not So Grande" remember her well, Because the ride they had was truly straight from hell. The world is better off that Leslie was once among the living, For she gave us all a lot, and just kept on a giving. So, to Leslie "The Dark Horse Lady" I bid a fond goodbye, May you keep on riding hard, that dark horse in the sky! By Saddletramp Lee, Lee Young.

About this item: Leslie died in June of 2004. Friends of hers created a Travel Bug in honour of her; a well-sealed container of ashes of Leslie Hicks, who was apparently an accomplished outdoorswoman and horse-handler that lived in the town of La Veta, Colorado USA.

Original Leslie's (TB) goal set up by her friends was to travel all around, especially to travel across oceans and see movie shoot sites for Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Lord of the Rings. Eventually she should be buried deep in the banks of the Arkansas River of Colorado.

Well at first when I heard about "the ashes of the dead woman" that I had to retrieve I thought.... Okay then, but after reading the story behind the story I kinda appreciated the idea behind it all. So this is for Leslie. May she live long as a TB and may she bring many a meaning to everyone that move her along to see the world!

(Reference to Original Leslie on geocaching.com: TB12046)