First geocaching expidition today, FOUND BUG IN FIRST CACHE!

www.geocaching.com


So the first geocache we decide to go to is at a place we've been to many times. Never knew a cache was there. So we get the coordinates, and off we went, with many small things to put inside the cache.

We're looking everywhere, reading the pages we printed out from the website about the spot. My daughter keeps saying "what does virtual mean?" I say "I think it means pretend?" But, it doesn't dawn on me, until twenty minutes later, twenty minutes being bitten by horseflies and cutting up our legs on pricker bushes while my daughter keeps telling us from the van "you guys... I think the cache is the view!", virtual means that there IS NO cache at this place!

We're laughing about it on the ride home, but now we really want to go to a cache. So, we get some new coordinates, for a place that isn't just a 'virtual cache' (they are listed as 'virtual cache' or 'regular cache'), and off we go again.

After a great hike up a great wooded path, we come to our very first cache. I saw it and just yelled "there it is, yeh! There it IS!" I let the boys (my son and his friend, my chick decided not to go with us for the 2nd try) get it, because I know their excitement about this was something they'd been looking forward to and something KC had worked so hard on (he learned the GPS and was our leader for the excursion.)

We open up the cache, it's shoebox sized and plastic so that it's weather-tight, and we're amazed at how much stuff is in it. The boys pick up something and I immediately see the silver tag on it. My heart leaps up to my throat. I'm thinking, what are the odds of finding a travel bug in the first cache you ever find?

I'm either the luckiest person alive, or some type of universal God decided to really make our day, because I read the tag and sure enough, it's a travel bug!

So, we log into the small plastic-bagged notebook, and take the bug with us to bring an hour's drive away this week. My dad is both shocked and thrilled we found the bug, and is going with us to replant it in a cache he knows about in his town. We put a cool toy car and some post note tabs and a bracelet inside the cache.

We went out for icecream cones to celebrate. It was a lot of fun, and we can't wait to go out again tomorrow to find another cache. We'd planned to do this once a week or once every other week, but we had so much fun today, we're going to go again tomorrow, and with an even bigger group.

If you're looking for a fun thing to do with your kids this summer, or even as an adult with some friends, the geocaching is fun, cheap and interesting! :) It's geeky good fun!