My First Geocache

Now I am going to tell you all about this, but I can't tell you were it is! Ha! There are hundreds of "caches" in Richmond alone....and there are thousands and thousands worldwide. Anyway, I searched the website, www.geocaching.com and there were several within a short distance of our house.

Each listing has the coordinates and a dialog about the cache, sometimes the there are a lot of hints and sometimes there aren't. The main idea is to put the lat/long in your GPS and then find the hidden treasure. My first was a "micro" meaning that it is not a traditional cache (a box of items that you take something and then leave something) instead it is very small and usually only has a sign-in log. So, I set off knowing it was something really small....I searched for about 20 min. and found the clue, but stood there without any idea what I was looking for. Now one of the things you have to be aware of are "muggles", the public watching you and the fear is they will get the cache or destroy it....so you do not want the public to figure out what you are doing.

So, I didn't find it...I returned home very deflated....I talked about it and then Carol gave me a suggestion, so I set out the next day and found it! It was a little wooden plug that was in a knot in a tree that had been hollowed out with a little metal capsule inside. It was very, very clever in it's design. I looked at this the first time and thought it was a branch that had been pruned!

So, if you want to get out in the fresh air and go treasure hunting this is a really fun thing to do!

Geocaching....Another Fun Thing!

You know how I love a gadget, well, while searching around my new GPS I came across an icon that I did not recognize....Geocaching. I went to the Garmin website and read about it...and man, this is right up my alley....Treasure hunting via the the internet and GPS! Can you believe it?

What you do is go to www.geocaching.com and register (for free) then you put in your zip code (or the zip code where you will be traveling) and a list of "cache" sites will come up near the zip code you entered. you will get the lat/long and some clues and off you go to find the "cache" (treasure)....once you find it you then sign a logbook, take something and leave something....I found out there are several with 1/2 mile to my house!

Since I just found all of this last night at 9pm, I do not have all of the details but if you know me...you know I will have ALL of the details within a very short period of time. You know this might even enable me to get a little bit more exercise! (stay tuned, I am going to find my first cache as soon as it stops raining!).....

PS. I will be posting more entries...thanks for hanging in there for the summer!