Power Caching

I had every intention of doing my taxes today. But I got restless and decided to hit the hiking trails in search of geocache instead. I found three on my own this morning while my beloved was in a leadership meeting at our church. Then this afternoon we went out together and found eight more. We got in a lovely walk/hike through Ft. Walla Walla Park.

I especially enjoyed the Botany series. These caches will take you to the places where specific trees, shrubs, vines or plants can be seen. Today we found Golden Currant, Snowberry, Black Hawthorne, Lodgepole Pine and Ponderosa Pine.

There were a couple hides right in town we tried for that we never could locate - too many "muggles" to do a proper search. But no matter. I prefer the hunts that take me out hiking in open areas and away from curious eyes far better than trying to look inconspicuous poking around a very busy intersection.

After a long stormy winter that has kept us indoors more than I like it felt great to get out to stretch our legs, even if it was a bit blustery. We walked a couple miles and got to see signs of spring popping up all over. It really was a lovely day.

Hideaway at a Hidden Lake

I had planned to spend the day playing "Domestic Goddess", getting all the laundry done and doing some serious cleaning from top to bottom here at home. With fall classes starting up, a trip to Arizona fast approaching and a few other irons in the fire I'm not going to be home much for the next month or so. This seemed to be my one opportunity to get things done.

However....I'm so glad I didn't. Life is too short to let it be ruled by laundry.

My beloved had plans to go out this afternoon to the gun club shooting range over by LaGrande to site in his new scope for his rifle in preparation for the upcoming deer hunt. Initially I had no interest in tagging along. I'm really not into guns or hunting or any of that... but after he pulled away I felt so lonesome for my man I called him up on his cell and said "I changed my mind - the laundry can wait! Come back and get me!" Fortunately for me, I have a very patient man who is much accustomed to my fickle ways.

So I real quick downloaded some coordinates for a couple geocache over that way and off we went. We had a blast.

The shooting range is in a lovely spot surrounded by tall pine trees and amazing sky. I had fun running back and forth from the 100 and 200 foot target markers to see how close he got to the bullseye each time. (Fortunately I had good ear protection - that rifle is LOUD!)

Once he got that all done we took off to find the geocache. The first one was pretty simple - took us to a lovely overlook with an old pioneer cabin. The second one, however, was a real gem. Named Hideaway at a Hidden Lake, it took us to a place neither one of us had ever been or even knew was there. Morgan Lake is a beautiful little spot that I DEFINITELY want to return to. Not only did we have a great time finding the cache Larry caught five trout in in about an hour. He kept three for dinner and threw the others back.

Pat B., if you are reading this, I vote next time you and Chuck are up for an adventure the four of us go camping here. Let's plan it, ok?

MUD

We just got back from taking the whole tribe of grandkids out on a geocaching adventure. We've found four so far and will look for more tomorrow. (Trying to give everyone a chance to be the one to find.) We went through one fairly deep section of thick woods that was wet and muddy from recent rain. Grandpa suggested at one point that we backtrack and look for a more defined trail to get to the area where we needed to be so we wouldn't have to slog through the underbrush. Eight year old Ayden piped up "Oh, we are MEN! We get dirty all the time. Just deal with it!" These kids crack me up.

ROAD TRIP

My beloved and I just returned from our long weekend away. We had a great time.

Wednesday night we drove to Hood River, which claims to be the Wind Surfing capital of the world, but to me will always be my old stomping grounds from my fruit tramp days back in the '70's.

THURSDAY - The husband person went fishing, exploring both Lost Lake and Lawrence Lake, while I was in meetings for the American Association of Women in Community Colleges.
He caught some fish, saw signs of bear and generally had a good time. I got to meet with some great women from all across the state and discuss Big Ideas, some which I'm still pondering mightily and may blog on a bit later. That evening we did a bit of geocaching and had a couple really nice finds.

FRIDAY - we went white water rafting near Maupin. It was a blast. We only did class three rapids so there was never anything dangerous or scary - just a fun ride down the river on a beautiful day. Again, at the end we did a geo search, nice end to a long day in the sun. Then we drove on to Redmond for the night.

SATURDAY - we did MORE geocaching, found several and got stumped on a few. Then we went to hear Terri Jentz talk about her book "Strange Piece of Paradise" at the Paulina Springs bookstore. Afterwards we went out to dinner with Terri and a few of the folks from the Bend/Sisters area that she knows. We had a fabulous time getting acquainted and sharing our thoughts about social responsibility, apathy, crime, and reclaiming life after trauma.

SUNDAY - we headed home going the long back way along Hwy 218. We went through lots of tiny little towns like Antelope, Clarno, Fossil, Spray, Heppner, Lexington and Echo. I couldn't help but wonder why people live in some of those spots...what took them there? What holds them? I'd love to go back sometime and interview a few of the locals.

Along the way we stopped at the John Day Fossil Beds and did a nice little hike to see some intriguing geology.

Then we stopped along the John Day River for a picnic lunch. Larry did some fishing (mostly caught TINY small mouth bass that looked like bait, but I guess it was fun for him) and I got to lay under a ponderosa pine tree reading a good book. Finally it was time to call it a day and head on home.

All in all it was a really good trip.

Sissy Camping

My beloved and I just returned from an excellent weekend at Eagle Cap Chalet. When I went up there recently for work I knew I'd want to return when I had time to play and company to play with. So we loaded up the boat on Friday and off we went. We found 7 geocache in the area, one of which near Marr Pond outside of Enterprise. Larry caught 10 trout in about 45 minutes. (caught all of 'em on a black rooster tail spinner that we had taken from one of the earlier cache finds). That was fun. We grilled steaks, enjoyed some hikes and had a lovely time out on Wallawa Lake. No fish biting in the big lake, but our time at Marr Pond more than made up for that.

All our earlier trips up that way have been spent in a tent at the nearby state park. I like camping, but I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the charming little cabin we rented at Eagle Cap. There is something about having a fireplace that lights with the push of a button, a comfortable bed, a bathroom and kitchen to make things cozy. Also we both enjoyed the swimming pool / jacuzzi to relax in at the end of the day. I fear our trusty tent may not get much use in future. I could really get used to "sissy camping".

On the way home we stopped in Enterprise to attend church. VERY friendly ward that made us feel most welcome. Although we were complete strangers we never felt that - rather, we were truly included as brother & sister in Christ as we worshipped together. It was a good meeting.

Now we are home, just kicking back, drinking some sparkling cider toasting each other. I have the day off tomorrow too which I'm looking forward to. Life has been way hectic the last couple months. This bit of down time is a much welcome break from the frenzy.

Hide -N-Seek

Today was a GORGEOUS fall day - just perfect for geocaching. Alas, I had much to do in other realms, so I was not able to get out hunting. But I still felt like I was in the game because I got several e-mails notifying me of folks who had found some of the cache sites I've placed. I've really enjoyed trying to come up with some creative ways to hide or how to do the clues to keep things interesting. I just put out a new hide last Thursday, this time on Whitman College campus, involving a bit of a puzzle.

So even when I am stuck home cramming for a psychopathology exam and working on a research paper, it's nice to know others are out and about looking for my hides.

The Adventures of Flat Chip

This weekend I put out a new Geocache and did some checking on one of my other ones - the Athena Travel Bug Hotel to make sure it was still in place and see what things had been left in it by folks who has found it so far. The thing had five different travel bugs in it which was really fun to see.

In the wild and wonderful world of geocaching, there is a tradition of "releasing" a travel bug, which means placing something that looks sort of like a military dogtag into a cache site for others to find. Each of these dogtags has a unique number engraved on it which can be tracked. The people who find them log on to the geocaching.com website and type in that code so they can record where they found it and leave a message if they care to. Then, they take that travel bug and leave it in a DIFFERENT cache someplace else. The people who originally released the things get to watch the record of all the places it goes. Sometimes the people who find them take pictures of the bug in whatever place where they found it or where they may take it to and post those pictures on the website as well.

Some travel bugs have a specific destination in mind. For instance, I found a Disney bug that wanted to get to Disneyland. Others just want to see how many different places they can go and how many miles they can cover.

The tags can be attached to anything. I've seen them on various toys or small items of interest. The one I picked up yesterday was one of the more creative I have found.

Apparently there is an after-school program going at a school in Maine where the kids have released a bunch of travel bugs and are watching to see where they go. They are learning geography and comparing distances to see whose bug goes the furthest. This one says: "My name is Flat Chip and I am learning about geocaching at Kennebunk Elementary School in Kennebunk, Maine! I hope to go all around the world! Thank you for helping me in my travels. I would love to see any pictures you might take of my journey too!"

When I logged on to the site for that travel bug I got to see pictures people had taken of it placed on a cannon at Gettysburg and a few other cool places it had been.

I personally think this is a fabulous idea. I'm already thinking of several young friends I have who might enjoy designing a travel bug and then being able to watch where it goes.

I went online and read a bit more about the group that is doing this project. Each year they get a new group apparently and start all over with a new set of bugs to release. Once the bugs are out in the world, they can keep tracking them for however long they remain in circulation. I can just imagine these kids growing up, going through high school and maybe even college, occassionally logging on to their website and seeing where their childhood travel bug has been.

I am planning to take this travel bug with me to Egypt when I go there next month. I intend to do a bit of geocaching around Sharm el Sheikh and hopefully will find a suitable spot to leave him there. Before leaving him, however, I will try to get some photos of the kid's bug at the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Then, maybe we'll take one of him on a camel going up Mt. Sinai. Once I drop him off in Egypt, it will be anybody's guess where he will travel to next.

This particular travel bug was released in May of this year. I will definitely be keeping an eye on it to watch where it goes in the months to come.

I'd Rather be Geocaching!

I've had a delightful day traveling along the backroads of Oregon in search of geocache. My husband has a good sense of direction and is willing to do the driving while I sort out which ones to go to next, so we make a good team.

One search led us to the most amazing ELK RANCH. This place is just a few miles from where I live, but I had no idea it existed. I haven't a clue how many elk were there - I'm guessing between 50 and 100. The ranch is pretty big with lots of trees, so I'm sure there were plenty we did not see. But of the ones which were within binocular range it was quite an amazing site. One was right next to the fence when we first drove up, but he took off as soon as I rolled down the car window to take a picture. However, I did snap this shot of a few others that were a short distance away. There was one huge bull that had six points on each side of his antlers. There were many 4 and 5 pointers and a few adorable babies~ !

Another cache location took us by a place where there were a bunch of lamas and then we went up into the hills to find one that led us on a merry hike where we saw lots of birds, flowers and a small snake. (quite harmless)

I'm up to 24 finds now, enjoying visiting places near and far. I still have to learn a thing or two about using waypoints and how to get my GPSr to talk to my computer (windows does not want to recognize it for some reason). So I'm still a newbie at the game. But I'm having great fun. It's a healthy diversion.

I've placed two cache of my own so far. People are just now beginning to find them so it is fun to read the logs to see who has been there and where they've come from.

This truly is an amazing game.

Oh, what a puzzle!

Just got back from an afternoon of cache searching. Rather than head towards Walla Walla for the rest of the clues for Goblet of Fire, I went looking for some multi-cache puzzles over by Pendleton. I really enjoy the challenge of these sorts of hides.

Example - here are directions for one of the ones I did:

Step 1: To start, go to the opening location, sit on the bench, and take in what is being presented. You will need to use the only year located on one of the seals or emblems found above the State of Oregon.

Let the year be represented as “ABCD”
If you add 3139 to the year, you will get “EFGH”. (ABCD + 3139 = EFGH)

To get to stage 2 of this cache, use the letters from above and go to (N) CE° CF.CAF (W) AAG° CH.DDB
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Step 2: Locate the date when the first State of Oregon police officer was killed on duty. This date could be written as mm/dd/yyyy. You will use these numbers and the following clues to create a word which is the final location of the cache. This location is within 100 feet of the plaque honoring this officer.

Use the day of the month and add to it the number of horse thieves in the gunfight killing the first police officer in the State of Oregon. Use the letter in the alphabet that corresponds to this number (for instance A corresponds with 1 because it is the 1st letter in the alphabet). This letter is the 1st, 3rd, and 4th letter in the word.

Divide the number of horse thieves in half. Use the letter in the alphabet that corresponds to this number (for instance A corresponds with 1 because it is the 1st letter in the alphabet). This letter is the 2nd letter in the word.

Multiply the month by 5. Use the letter in the alphabet that corresponds to this number (for instance A corresponds with 1 because it is the 1st letter in the alphabet). This letter is the 5th letter in the word.
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Step 3: Figure out the word, find the word, and find the cache.

Took some doing - especially since the YEAR at Step 1 was in Roman Numberals, which I was a little rusty on, but fortunately my husband knows enough HISTORY to place the appropriate decade and I could decipher the last part.

Some people like crossword puzzles. I like geocache puzzles. We also found a couple standards - and got stumped on another that appears to have gone missing. But at least we were out spending time together, getting some nice exercise and learned a little bit about the history of this region we did not know before.

Gotta love it!

In Search of the Goblet of Fire

I have now logged sixteen finds of various geocache since getting my GPS a little less than a month ago. Some have been very simple. Some have been rather tricky. But now I am up for a more serious challenge. I am in search of the Goblet of Fire.

There is a teacher in Milton Freewater who is an avid geocacher. He has set up a multi-cache challenge that will involve covering many miles for a Harry Potter inspired series of finds which lead up to the final destination called “The Goblet of Fire.” He has placed quite a few cache at various places around the valley. One of his took me three tries to find, so I know better than to assume this will be easy. After all, one of the tag lines from the Goblet of Fire movie is:
"Difficult times lie ahead, Harry."

To find the Goblet of Fire, I must first find four different cache sites that will each give me a coordinate clue.

The four caches that hold the clues are: The Whomping Willow, The Forbidden Forest,
The Chamber of Secrets, and The Herd of Hippogriff.


The four sets of coordinates which I find in these other sites will be the four corners of a big X. The center point of the X is where the Goblet of Fire is.

The description of this cache site says:

“The coordinates listed for this mystery cache are the coordinates for a lookout that is within a mile of The Goblet of Fire. The final cache is rated a 4/4 for good reason. Come prepared with heavy boots, long pants, some drinking water, and a bit of time on your hands. …

This would be an excellent cache to bring your dog on. There is a manmade watering hole less than 500 feet from the cache (it looks like a lean-to). Your dog can run, dig, and be free while you trod along looking for this cache.

If you record all of the clues correctly, the center of the "X" is the exact location of the cache. The final cache is a five gallon ammo container well camoflauged. It is stocked with some very desireable items, but the true treasure is being selected by The Goblet of Fire.”

Judging by the comments logged by other players who have found it (and a few who tried but failed) I’ve got a serious challenge on my hands. Apparently the final hike in will take about an hour and is over some challenging terrain. Also, finding the darn thing isn’t easy. But it sounds doable if I use my head, plan carefully and figure out how to do the routing.

I found two of the four waypoints today. I’m hoping to get the other two picked up on Monday. Then it is on to the main challenge to find the Goblet of Fire. Wish me luck!

This geocaching thing really can be addicting. I’m having a blast with it.

Why I love Geocaching

Someone I know recently asked me to explain why I enjoy geocaching. (He had never heard of the game and was curious what it was all about.)

There are a lot of reasons - but for me, it has five key elements:

1) It gets me outdoors - usually in peaceful, pretty places. Sure, there are plenty of "in town" sites, but I choose the ones that take me by rivers or out to cool overlooks. I like being connected with nature.

2) It gives me exercise. I sit in front of a computer most of the day. Both my work and my main free time activities (reading/writing) are physically passive. They keep my brain active, but my body needs to move. Hunting for geocache is a great way to get me up and stretching, pumping more oxygen, and that's a good thing.

3) It gives me something fun to focus on. I've been told at times I put the A in Type A, being a rather driven sort of girl. While I don't necessarily agree with that assessment, I will admit I can get very caught up in work or task lists at home, being very focused on what I need to do. When I am geocache hunting, I put all that aside and focus entirely on the puzzle of the hunt. It is a time when I allow myself to completely relax and immerse myself in the adventure.

4) It appeals to my techie side. I love technology and seeing how to adapt different tools to use in new ways. I have a pretty cool GPS receiver that I am still learning all the features of. I like the sense of mastery I get as I develop expertise in using it to full capacity. However, it does not REQUIRE technology know how....that's just a fun sidebar for me. Even for someone who is more of a Luddite it is a very doable diversion. A LOT of families take their kids on geocache adventures.

5) It satisfies some of my craving for community. The people who play geocache "talk" to each other via websites and e-mail. After doing it a while, you get to where you "know" who hides the really tricky ones, who does the fun ones, what sort of things to expect. We compare notes about what we've been looking for lately and any particularly fun finds. So, not unlike what I've found in blogging, I've begun to build up some cyber-relationships that amuse me. We e-mail each other back and forth to discuss various elements of the game and read each other's comments on the logs.

Those are my main reasons....

A few others:

It also appeals to my sense of social responsibility. I practice CITO, which stands for Cache In, Trash Out - I almost always take a garbage sack with me and pick up any litter I find on the trails where ever I go. I like knowing that the place is left better because I passed by.

It appeals to my sense of adventure. Some of the hunts are very straightforward. You get a set of coordinates and then just need to find a way to get there and look around for whatever is hidden. Others are more complex. Some require some math calculation, some solving a riddle, or others are multi-phase scavenger hunt with each "find" giving you coordinates and/or clues to the next piece, culminating in the main cache. It's a grown up version of an Easter egg hunt with all the fun "ah HAH!" when you find it.

It connects well with my love of travel. There are geocache hidden all over the world. There are geocache sites hidden in small towns and in major cities. They are in every state in the union and most countries throughout the world. There are even geocache hidden in ANTARTICA. It's fun to look at the maps and think of places where I'd like to go someday to do some searches.

One of the biggest things I like about it is that it is an activity that can appeal to ALL ages. I have eight grandkids ranging from age 6 to 18. There are very few family activities that everyone will enjoy. Do you know a teenager who sincerely wants to play Candyland or a six year old who loves the mall? You get my point. It's just plain hard to involve our whole family in any other kind of activity because there are so many with such diverse abilities and interests. But every time we go to Michigan to spend time with the brood we have our traditional family geochache hunt. It's something they ALL look forward to and all enjoy.

All in all, it's a harmless diversion. It's a cheap date for when my love of my life and I want to spend time together, and a fun way to get to learn about the world. It's a cool game.

If you haven't been geocaching, those of us who play the game call you a "muggle".
Who wants that? Come join the magic. You'll be glad you did.

Geocaching again

I had a hellish day at work yesterday. I came home feeling tired, discouraged, frustrated and overwhelmed.
I was tempted to just sit in the soup of my misery and "endure the miserableness" as Becket would put it. But instead I chose to get my butt up off the couch of woe and go do something to interrupt the pattern.

First I took the dog out for a hike - drove a few miles to where my favorite blackberry patch is to check the status of the berries. They were not quite ripe, so dog and I just walked for a mile or so to work the kinks from the day out.

When I got back home the gloom I'd left behind seemed to still be lurking, as if it had waited for me. So instead of trying to wrestle with the dozen and one "responsible" things I might have done, I just grabbed my trusty GPSr and headed back out. It was really too late in the evening for a geocache hunt. The sun was setting low with only a very short window of light left. But I figured it was worth a try. I got to the coordinates of a cache hide in Milton Freewater and then proceeded to scramble around the rocks to see if I could find the ammo box of goodies that was hidden there.

The sun slipped down as I climbed towards the river. I looked in many a nook and cranny as best as I could and all through the cracks and crevices. However, I never did turn up the cache I sought. I got a little disappointed and frustrated that I could not find the geocache I was hunting for. I had the EXACT coordinates and looked all over the place on either side and just had no luck. Then, to make matters worse, as I was crossing the rocks I slipped and just about went ass over teakettle. But somehow I managed to right myself and get back up the hills not too worse for wear.

It finally occurred to me that it really didn't matter that I did not find the geocache. Doing the SEARCH had gotten me out of the house, showed me a new place that I'd never been, and gave me a specific purpose to focus on for a bit. It took my mind off my worries from the day and got me some exercise. That's treasure enough for me.

I plan to go back when I have more daylight so I can find the silly thing. But I'm learning that this is far more about the journey than the destination. It feels good to get out an about, even if only for half an hour, to play the game.

So the hunt is on... I'll keep looking and eventually may hide a cache or two of my own.

Today I will go back to work and "endure the miserableness" of a particularly tedious project that is not turning out as I had hoped. I will sit through interminable meetings and struggle with the pathological politics of the unhealthy family that are my co-workers. I'll get through another difficult day. One of the things that will make it manageable is knowing my GPSr and new coordinates will be waiting for me when I get back home.

Geocache delight

Original plans had been for my husband and I to head out to Joseph, OR for the blues festival today. But after a LONG, stressful week at work, compounded by some personal stuff going on, I just wasn't up for the trip. So instead we decided we'd make our own good time at some local venues. We slept in a bit (ok, so HE slept...I was awake but resting) and then sorta puttered around the house a bit. Then we headed out to find a couple geocache that were hidden along the Walla Walla river - one up beyond Harris Park and the other at at Marie Dorian park above Milton Freewater. It was a fabulous day for a hike. We did some CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) at the first place - felt good to be able to clean up the trail head and leave it looking natural instead of like a party dump. The hike was a bit strenuous, lots of rocks and fallen trees to climb over and some stickery weeds to navigate. But we ran into a wonderful blackberry patch full of juicy ripe berries and ate till we were sticky and purple. The cache in both places were fairly easy finds...the hikes were more the focus of the day than any impressive orienteering. We saw all sorts of wild flowers, birds, butterflies, and small watersnake. We had a picnic next to the river and played kissy face in a secluded spot in the trees. Found a stone chimney out in the middle of nowhere that made me oh so curious about who had built it and when. Had there been a cabin there? I played out in my mind all sorts of scenarios of who might have lived there and what had become of the place. Later we came home to be lazy, eat watermelon, listen to music and just veg for a while. Now I'm sorta getting my second wind and am about to go do some work in the yard and play fetch with the dog for a while. So, all in all, in the words of a young friend of mine, it was truly a "Lovely Day!"

New Toy on the Way

I've spent more time than I care to admit looking at all the pros and cons of different GPS units. I just ordered a Magellan eXplorist 400 with the Wilderness bundle. It has a 32 MB SD memory card and MapSend Topo 3D software, so it should do the trick.

Hopefully it will ship promptly - it is coming via priority mail. I plan to go up to Joseph, OR with my sweetie this upcoming weekend for the Blues Festival and it would be fun to hunt for some cache up that way while we are there. If our new toy does not arrive in time, we'll probably just take the work one again. Either way, I'll be looking on the net to find some coordinates to see what we want to go hunt. Should be fun!

At church today I was talking with a friend about my newfound hobby. I came up with the following analogy:

In order to be successful at the game of Geocache, you must begin with having accurate coordinates. Likewise in life, we need to know where it is we are trying to get to. Our material culture bombards us with messages saying the way to be "successful" is to have a big fancy house, social position, use the right shampoo and toothpaste and go to the right parties, etc etc etc and then we will be happy.

But Jesus Christ taught us to come unto Him. He is the way, the truth and the light. Christ taught us that the most important law of all laws is to love the Lord with all my might, mind and strength and then, following that, to love my neighbor. So THIS has to be my focus. I must start by having my spirit firmly committed to the right coordinates.

Next, I need to use the correct readings on a GPS to find my way to where I want to end up. When I went out yesterday I was using a GPS for the first time, and it was a borrowed unit I was completely unfamiliar with. Therefore, I did not understand at first that there are different settings. The coordinates I had for the caches I was trying to find were in degrees. But my GPS was showing minutes. I got very confused by that, and because I was watching the wrong sort of numbers I initially went the wrong way, taking me AWAY from instead of toward my goal.

Likewise - the world gives us different sorts of readouts enticing us to follow them. It is all to easy to get caught up in the drive for material success, popularity, or equally superficial pathways. But if I follow the RIGHT voice (the still small voice of the Holy Spirit) only then can I be guided to the true coordinates that will lead me to a meaningful relationship with my Savior.

I need to rely on prayer and quiet pondering to train myself to recognize the promptings of the spirit to know if I am getting closer to or further away from the presence of God.

Then, when I found the cache, I could focus on "What's here for me?" or I could choose to focus on "What can I contribute here?" If I focus on what's in it for me, I'm likely to be disappointed, because the point of the game is the discovery, not the value of the prizes inside. Likewise, when I go to church I can choose to look for how others are going to meet my needs or I can look for opportunities for me to lift others up and to serve. Rather than worry about whether someone else came over to say hello or if the message was well presented, I can make sure that I go out of my way to greet others, especially newcomers or visitors, and to focus my attention and prayers on whoever is talking from the pulpit asking God to help that person to say the things the Lord would have said and also asking that members of the congregation will be able to understand it and apply it to their lives. I will get a lot more out of the meetings if I go with an open heart wanting to contribute than if I am expecting a pay off.

When I put goodies into the two boxes yesterday I had no way to know who would find them. Still, it felt good to know that someone might be pleased to find what I had had left behind. Likewise, when I share my testimony, give prayers, live my Christian life I have no way of knowing whose life may be touched by my actions. But I just trust that in the Family of Jesus Christ we are all edified as we lift one another - I have faith that God can use me as a means of bringing other people to know the Gospel and it really doesn't matter when or who or how. I just trust and have faith.

Maybe this is a bit of a reach to apply Geocache to Christianity, but it works for me!!

FOUND IT!

I just got home from my first geocache hunt. It was a blast! We borrowed the GPS from my husband's work to see if we would even like this before laying out the cash for one of our own. So, I had the challenge of working with a device I was TOTALLY unfamiliar with. In the beginning we had the settings wrong which got us confused and headed in the wrong direction entirely. Found a neat, windy road and saw some deer, but went several miles away from where we were supposed to be. We FINALLY figured out what we were doing wrong and reset the readout on the GPS and then things started to get interesting.

The first find was a multi cache - the coordinates I had led us to a small can that was well hidden. Inside that were the coordinates to the REAL cache. I had walked right by it, completely oblivious, while my husband was trying to get a fix on the satellites. Once we got the GPS working and knew where to look we were able to find it with a bit of diligent looking.

Then we went on to a second site that was just a few miles away...lovely spot I'd never seen before. Enjoyed the peaceful setting and had fun finding the cache.
I had been warned by others that this game could be somewhat addicting - I am beginning to understand why. It got us out of the house to do some exploring - gave us some exercise and had a sense of curiosity challenge as we worked together to solve the puzzle of finding the treasures. What a great date! Afterward we went for Mexican food and talked about what areas we'd like to search next. Yep, I'm hooked. Now I'm ready to return the work GPS and get my own. I can see me very much enjoying this diversion.

Geocatching Adventures

Well, I still have not made up my mind on WHICH GPS unit to purchase, but I've been doing lots of homework into the whole world of geocaching. I found some good info over at Adventures in Geocaching. I'm hoping to do some exploring this weekend. My sister suggests that I try some basic orinteering/navigating with old school tech - MAPS, using the cache coordinates posted on the net and see how that goes before I lay out hundreds of dollars for a toy I may sedom use. Makes sense to me. So I plan to strap on my hiking boots and see what I can see. Should be fun!

Shopping for a GPS Unit

I've been looking around in stores and on the internet for a decent GPS unit. There are all together TOO many choices! I want to do a bit of Geocaching, but I was thinking I might get a higher end unit that could double as a car navigational unit with verbal turn by turn directions. After a little preliminary homework, and an assessment of the bank account, I'm back to looking at basic, no frills, hand held models.

Anyone out there have any experience with these puppies that would be willing to offer suggestions?