Sharing the Love

It's been a LONG time since we've been out caching. And even longer since I blogged about it. That's me and my attention span. But today Taz had a day off from school and we finally got back out "treasure hunting." This time we took some friends along!

We had planned to spend the day somewhere indoors, but fall in Central Ohio is nothing if not unpredictable and we've had a glorious Indian Summer this past week with temps around 70. We quickly ditched our indoor plans for a chance to spend some time outside.

First we hit a cache nearby at a local school playground. Since it was the first time our friends had been out caching I was happy that a) we found it and b) it was big enough to hold some loot.

 

We found this cache using the iPhone app from Groundspeak. It worked pretty well. I noticed the compass was a little quirky - pointing in different directions (away from the cache) when we were near. But it got us reasonably close enough to find it. If I were going to the woods or something I'd definitely rely more on the Garmin, though. I downloaded the free trial version which only locates the three caches closet to your current location (a nice feature). The full featured app is pretty steep as iPhone apps go - $10. While it's awfully nice to have the map feature (which cuts down on driving aimlessly while trying to look at the GPS and figure out which friggin street to take to get where it's pointing**), it's still not a replacement for the traditional handheld GPS unit. And like many iPhone apps, the reviews indicate it's quirky and crashes sometimes. While that's an annoyance when you're trying to find a restaurant review or Google whether or not dogs can look up, it's a bit of a bigger deal when you're wandering around the woods with young children in tow. And it doesn't provide the actual coordinates so you could plug it into your GPS as a back-up. THAT would be a terrific feature.

After that we headed back to the same Metropark that we had visited years ago with lofty goals of looking for the three caches there. One was the same one we'd found before, but I was the only one who even remembered going much less where it was located. Elf was only about 5, Taz was 2 and Xena wasn't even around yet. I figured I was the insurance policy that the kids would find another cache. I handed the older ones the GPS and let them lead the way. Turns out they didn't even need me and found it like old pros.

The reality is that it wasn't really their first time caching. See, our kids are lucky enough to have the best PE teacher EVER. Thanks to him, the school was able to get some grant money and purchase a few GPS units which he's been using to teach the kids about geocaching. They've taken them out and looked for caches that he's hidden at the school! All I remember about PE was running laps and nightmarish, for me anyway, "fitness tests". Oh, and that it was ALWAYS the class that blew my GPA. (Not that I'm bitter.) Anyway, my baggage surrounding elementary PE is a whole other post for a whole other blog that I'll probably never write so never mind. Today reminded me, once again, that our kids are having a totally different experience. For that, I am eternally grateful.

Caching with a toddler in tow always adds a degree of difficulty so it's not much of a wonder that I have absolutely ZERO pictures of the kids with the second cache. Or that we abandoned our plans to hike the whole trail and look for the others in favor of heading back to the car to get lunch. The woes of sore feet (that whole 1/2 mile from the car to the cache) and obsessing about food reminded us that flexibility was a key tool in this whole endeavor. It also reminded me about why, perhaps, it's been years since I did this.  

It was an awesome way to spend a day off enjoying the beautiful fall weather with some great friends. And I really hope that the dust doesn't settle back on the Garmin before we head out again.

Fellow shutterbug and the leader of the other half of "Team Squeekels."

** A quick check into Google maps and I discovered you can take the GPS coordinates and input them instead of an address to give you an approximate location.