Geocaching

Our friend Smitty, ever on the lookout for fun things for us to do with the boys, recommended Geocaching about a year ago. This appealed to me about as much as watching a Super Bowl commentary (that is to say, I'd rather be torn apart by wild dogs, slowly, while listening to Justin Burbur). We didn't have the right kind of gps anyway (p.s. Tom Toms are wonderful dashboard Marys for Protestants. They just sit there and do nothing).

Fast forward to Washingtonville, PA where the poplular pastime is to bet on which smoking pregnant woman will go into premature labor first. The walls started closing in last week so I downloaded a geocaching app (c:geo) and we struck out.

Turns out that geocaching is awesome. If you've never heard of it before, there's a good introduction to it here: www.geocaching.com . It's basically a global scavenger hunt. These geocaches, prepared and hidden by other players, can be a small capsule, a large ammo box, or anything in between . So far we've found a bank bag, film case, magnetic box, and all manner of capsules disguised as everything from a screw to a mushroom. Follow your gps coodinates to a cache - it might be hidden in the hollow of a tree, stuck to a guardrail on a bridge, or hidden behind a fake electrical plate in a public park pavillion.



We've found about 20 caches so far, and they've taken us to some of the most beautiful locations in rural PA. Old schoolhouses, cemetaries, covered bridges, downtown areas, and parks. The boys love it, and some of the caches even have a little stash of toys and trinkets inside. They've taken to carrying a little box of items to trade when we find one of these. Sometimes there's only a log to sign, but they still get excited. I especially like the fact that I can filter my search to caches with easy terrain, or ones that are kid friendly, which keeps us from unexpected hikes through the woods.



The boys have decided to leave their own cache at each place we live during our travels. Last Saturday we placed a magnetic "nano" cache on the stop sign post at the corner of the property. According to the online and physical log, 5 people have already found it. We'll place one in Harrisburg before we head south in a few weeks. It's a nice idea, leaving a little something behind everywhere we go.

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