Day Ten of Vacation – Part 2 – GEOCACHING

Geocaching has hit our home. Mike got a Garmin eTrex Vista C for Christmas and the kids got a Garmin eTrex. Mike spent spare minutes the last few days learning how to use the GPS units and I spent time asking questions of friends, like: “What do they mean leave something in the cache – what?”

To those who aren’t familiar with geocaching, it could best be described as a cross between 19th century treasure hunting and 21st century hide n seek. A cache is hidden. The owner of the cache logs onto http://www.geocaching.com/ and lists the coordinates of the cache, how hard it is to find, encrypts any clues they want to leave and gives a description of what they placed in the cache. You choose a cache, enter the coordinates on your GPS and set out. When you find the cache you sign in the log book, take anything you want and replace the items you’ve taken with like items. When you get home you go to the website and log your find and comments.

This afternoon we headed out to try to find our first three caches. I’m not sure how Mike picked them. I was all for finding the level 1 caches but he found the 3.5 ones for us. I think he picked the interesting sounding titles. We went to one that was outside a military cemetery in the really old section of town that we didn’t know existed. That cache was right near the road and Josiah found the actual Altoid container that was full of goodies. Arielle and Nolan voted to take a squishy, water-filled palm tree and we left a smiley face Italian Charm. I had navigated to this one and Mike had driven. Since I had no clue how to read the directions on Mike’s GPS I suggested that I drive to the second one. We headed out to find our second Cache in high spirits.

With Mike reading the directions – it does NOT say “turn right” etc….it’s an arrow headed towards a destination and you get to guess which way to turn and WHEN – I headed back onto the loop. We were surprised to eventually find ourselves back in our own neighborhood. This cache was called Chapel Hill and we couldn’t remember any chapel near our home…..but….if you go to the end of the dirt road and then hike about a mile on a dirt road and then take off across the cactus/mesquite infested plain….you see a lovely view of a chapel on a hill…and you find our second cache. Josiah AGAIN is the one who first spotted the hidden cache. This time we took a lens cleaner and left a bracelet. On our way out of this site we saw 5 deer. The sun was setting so we decided to save cache number 3 for another day. This one promised ducks and water…..THIS I’ve gotta find!

We had a BLAST with this. It’s family fun. It’s cheap. It got us outdoors and to two new areas of town we’d not seen before. We all enjoyed trying to follow the coordinates to the hidden container. I think this sport appeals to families with one or more outdoor-loving techno-geeks in them….we have several. {grin}

Some things we observed: In AK they grow fern…in TX they grow all manner of prickly vegetation. In AK the ground would have been covered in snow this time of year and in the summer you’d have to deal with Grizzlies. In TX the ground was covered with cacti, the weather was a wonderful 70* or so and in the summer you’d have to deal with rattlers. I, De’Etta, am planning more park and grab caches and mall caches for the summer….AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Personally, I learned that there are dire consequences to trying to “brush” cactus thorns off your pant leg with your hand. My hand was covered in the nasty things. Then I tried to bite a few thorns out of my hand and got a thorn stuck on the inside of my lip. We’ve decided to gather a geocaching backpack with water, Band-Aids, tweezers (for pulling thorns), garbage bag to haul out cans, bottles and such that we find etc. Stacia will ride in a back pack.

Below are some pictures of the adventure! {No, we didn’t take a family picture today. Tomorrow I will venture to Wal-mart and buy white t-shirts and then we’ll head out to find scenery for a picture}. Pictures won't upload will try again in the am.