www.geocaching.com

So I have decided to fill you all in on this thing called Geocaching. I've spoken about it a few times but have not gone into depth because honestly it is hard to explain without sounding nerdy! the best way to explain it is to send you to the scene of the crime. www.geocaching.com This will tell you most of everything you may have questions about and what it is involved.

Chris's 3rd GPS

 

a found cache with the boys

Okay so that is the technicalities of what it is, and I'm trusting that you actually clicked on the link and read it:) Now, what brought us to this hobby? It started in 2008 when Chris was doing his internship for his MDiv at Midwestern in Colorado. One of the pastors we worked with mentioned this to Chris and it piqued his interest. So of course we went out and purchased a cheap little GPS device and thus started our www.geocaching.com adventure (you like the wink wink nudge nudge there).  It took Chris a while to really get into it but once he did he did it with gusto. At first it was just finding random caches around home and then he figured out that this was lots bigger than just an "around home" kind of thing. He bought the premium membership, which allowed him to have access to more caches, special caches, challenge caches, events and more. And all this led to us having way more adventures than either of us ever imagined. The one thing I regret is that www.geocaching.com wasn't part of our lives when our boys were younger--oh well now we have our grandsons and they LOVE it.


Out on a limb, over a creek for a cache

Because of www.geocaching.com we have seen things we never would have seen, gone places we never would have gone and done things we never would have done, and gotten more bug bites and poison ivy than we would have normally. Chris enjoys it because it gets him out and about. He travels on occasion with his job and so he spends a lot of time in hotel rooms. He doesn't watch TV when he travels, unless there is a Chiefs game on, so this offers him the ability to get out of his room in the evening. The places he travels for work are generally not very exciting but with www.geocaching.com he can go out and get exercise and fresh air. We have taken some interesting trips all planned around www.geocaching.com.  Sometimes entire weekends are devoted to this hobby. As long as he gets me coffee I'm generally pretty easy to please.

I love pretty coffee

Trips to Nashville have been prolonged because of this hobby, and I might add reluctantly on my part!! When we go to Nashville I generally want to get to Nashville.  I cannot tell you how many miles we have put on various vehicles because of this hobby, and not one mile would I take back, well maybe some of those on the way to Nashville. This weekend, for instance, we put ~1000 on the little red car mostly driving around Illinois.

www.geocaching.com may seem silly or a waste of time to you but for us it is chance to get away for a little time together. It is the opportunity to visit new places or to see parts of our city that we wouldn't normally see. Chris has caches in Germany, South Korea and Canada. We saw a part of Hawaii we wouldn't have seen if not for caching. Now that the little boys have found out that this is a fun thing for them too to possibilities are endless! It is so fun for them to find a cache and get excited about it, and they love to leave the SWAG in caches that are big enough for it, their SWAG of choice is little plastic dinosaurs.

Jacob and Caden are quite the little cachers

Jacob and Caden are quick to ask grandpa to go out and find a www.geocaching.com. Jacob will usually set a certain number of caches we should find and he's pretty good about keeping track. Whenever you have to chance to spend time with the people you love most in the world it is not time wasted. So if you are the tiniest bit intrigued by this you can download a GPS app on your smart phone and try it out. You'll have to depend on a good data plan for accuracy but it's worth a shot. We've met interesting people and have seen some interesting things all because of this hobby. Find something you love to do with the people you love and you will find yourself better off. And may you stumble on a place you've never been.


The highest point in Kansas