Geocaching

It was a ridiculously busy Monday for me today. First it started with a quick visit to the dentist for Chancho. He's finishing up his last visits for his root canal. From there we took a trip to CUNY John Jay, the best criminal justice college in NY. Chancho is signing up for graduate classes, they're free through the lovely NYPD. It was a long drawn out trip. Chancho didn't make an appointment to meet with the guy so we had to wait for him to be free, but people kept showing up for their appointments so we got pushed back. Finally some other guy decided he would be able to chat with Chancho and it turns out that he just needed to fill out an application and we could be on our merry way. We also were able to fit in our movie night, or rather movie day. We watched I Love You Man. It is definitely a guys movie, but yet still funny and entertaining when in the right mood. The movie ended so early that we had so much time to kill. It was really the first time that we had free time to do whatever we wanted. Some guitar hero was played, but that didn't last long at all, our fingers started to cramp up. Here enters our new found hobby: Geocaching.

"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."

I learned of this through my brother, I've heard of him talk about it over and over again, but never really understood it or thought that it would be something I would want to do. However, in the middle of boredom and spontaneity we set out on our first Geocaching adventure. These are normally supposed to be done during daylight ours, but we figured we'd give it a shot in the dark anyways. The way it works is that off of the main website, after you sign up, you are able to see all of coordinates that people have hid their geocaches, or treasures. I wrote a few of these coordinates down that were nearby our location, thanks to their nifty finder tool. People that hide these containers can write whatever they want along with the coordinates, a clue, history, facts or tips. The first set of coordinates that I punched in had this clue along with it "face the guard and re-tree-v it." We got to the location thanks to our GPS and searched around a bit, but didn't find anything. I think that if we had flashlight it may have helped. It was just a road and off to the side was a guard rail and some trees, but nothing else. Normally these are done in the woods and off of trails in parks, but I guess because we do live in a growing city we have to use what we have. Not giving up so easily we punched in the next set of coordinates and continued on to our second find. It brought us to a park in the middle of the city and from where I was standing it was telling me that it was in the fountain. The fountain was empty, they turned it off for the season, but we didn't see anything in there. I'm not really sure what we were looking for, as they don't tell you, but I think that it usually is a lock box or something that can hold paper and a pencil so that you can write something down once you find it or leave something behind. None the less we didn't see anything. That's when we decided to call it a night. It was cold out tonight and we definitely weren't prepared for it. At least we were able to try it out and it was fun. I think we'll need to get a hand held GPS rather than a car one so that we'll have a better idea as to where we're supposed to be standing or walking. It was fun, if you're into doing things outdoors, you should give it a try and it's something that the whole family can do. It's a treasure hunt on a much larger scale! I cannot wait until we can do a longer one in the woods and actually find something.

Quote of the Day:  "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."