For Christmas in 2005, a Garmin eTrex Legend GPS receiver. Shortly after getting it, I registered with Geocaching.com and got started looking for caches. After finding a few, I never looked at the world the same again. It seemed that somewhere, lurking out there under every rock, in every tree, there was a cache waiting to be found.
So why am I bringing it up now? On one of my early trips, I took my brother-in-law. He is a pragmatic guy, but he’s also an outdoorsman. He was skeptical. Why waste money to buy a device that helps you find dumb stuff? On our trip, we happened to find a cache stashed in the burned out remains of an old log home. All that was left was the stone basement. The idea that this tool could take you places you’ve never been before hooked him hard. He became a regular fanatic! Long after I had given up on the hobby, he still contacted me, telling me about his latest GPS purchase, all the cool maps he’s downloaded, caches he has found, etc.
He came up to visit this weekend. Naturally, we were compelled to go. We tromped around in six inches of snow looking for small canisters containing baubles that nobody wants. But we were in a graveyard that has got to be the coolest graveyard around! I love graveyards. Someday I hope to spend a lot of time in one. But, alas, I can only dream. Anyway, I’m hooked again. I’ve fired up my obsolete unit and expect to go on hunts at every opportunity.
It really is fun. Give it a try! … But who am I talking to? LOL! I might as well be talking to the dead.
We used to cache all the time, but honestly, for the past couple years we have only found about 10 total. This doesn’t mean that we really suck at caching; we just sort of stopped. We really enjoyed it but honestly we were getting a little irritated because they wouldn’t be there. They wouldn’t be well maintained. It seemed like people just started sticking caches in places that had no real meaning behind it.
When we tried to integrate ourselves into the geocaching community, we just didn’t seem to fit in. It seemed so “clicky”. We still get our traveling and exploring fix just by searching online and finding things to do. I must confess I use the geocaching site (virtual caches) to find unique and interesting places to visit. I do miss it sometimes and maybe someday we will get back into it. I don’t know.
I love graveyards. Someday I hope to spend a lot of time in one.
HAH!