When You're the Search Engine
Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 9:10AM
As promised I wanted to tell you about Geocaching.
Here’s the deal, my buddy came over the other night to watch some X Files. He did not watch it when it was on and we were huge fans, I mean, we named our daughter Gillian.
Anyhow, We are currently enjoying season 6 and each week we will pick a night, watch a few episodes and just hang out. Monday night after two very great episodes my friend says, “Dude, have you ever heard of Geocaching?”
I know I had heard the term but it immediately made me think of Geology, a subject in which I fall promptly to sleep. Sorry guys it’s just not my thing. So I asked him to go on.
He told me about Geocaching and I was sold. Here’s what he said.
“Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.”
Ok, so maybe I pulled that from the website but however he explained it, I dashed to the computer to sign up and find my first cache!
Later that night (11:00) my wife got home while I was putting on my shoes and getting ready to walk out the front door.
“What are you doing,” she said holding back a giggle since she knows I am so bizarre.
“Um, we’ll be back, we are gonna go find something.”
So Matt (Sorry dude but saying “My Buddy” a million times reminds me of that boy doll thing) and I hopped in the car
and drove around to find our very first cache. And when we found it, it was over. I am in. I love it!
I downloaded an app for my iPhone that helps us find them and am already thinking about places I could place
my own cache which will be very cool. Last night I took the kids out and we found a couple together. They seemed to have a good time after we finally found our first one together. It’s tough to find them especially with so many Muggles (people that are not Geocaching) around. You don’t want non-players to find them and remove them or disturb them.
Anyhow, I know some of you are into this. Please share your stories and advice because I am a total noob and would love some direction.
And let me know if you are thinking about checking this out. I would love to hear about your adventures!
For more info check out www.geocaching.com
Reader Comments (6)
Bernard posted about this a LONG time ago. See if you can dig through his archives and find something.
Your Muggles line reminded me of a comment by a parent at CWD when she referred to something about diabetes as magic vs. muggles and had the whole room cracking up! I really need to start blogging that!
Geocaching is so much fun :)
It's really cool to be the FTF (first to find) -- sometimes the cache owner will leave a little surprise in there for the FTF. You'll get to know alot of names in your area...you'll see them online and written over and over again on the logs. Before you know it, you'll figure out who is just waiting for the next cache to post so they can rush out to be the FTF -- it's fun to try to beat them :)
A cache can be be ANYWHERE and they are probably EVERYWHERE you can imagine.
Enjoy the game -- it's a great hobby and alot of fun for families to do together.
PS -- They have "diabetes travel bugs". We always set out to gather those and try to move them around as much as possible.
PSS -- Just remember that if you plant caches, you need to maintain them...replacing logs, checking to make sure they haven't been muggled, and stuff like that. It's a good idea not to plant caches while on vacation (but sometimes it's hard not too!!!!!) because you can't get back to keep them current.
Geocaching is so awesome! I haven't done it for a long time - but I love it, and so do the kids!
My son found the very first one we ever went to look for. We all remember just how excited he was.
So it's basically a game of hide and go seek with these Geocaches as the object of interest. Am I right? What is in them? What is the purpose of finding them? Inform me, Oh great George of knowledge. Sounds like it might be fun. The kids will probably like it.
So I downloaded some caches to my GPS for my car and I'm going to try it out today. The kids are excited! Thanks for inspiring us!
the my buddy line cracked me up! He totally used to have one of those...
(ps. he's totally geeked out about them too...)
I must come along for the next adventure...
<3