Geocaching

Today's "new" was one I have been wanting to do for a while now! It was a true adventure!

Okay, so have you ever heard of Geocaching? It's really neat! It's this thing were people kinda hide "buried treasure" if you will. People hide things in random places, like in parks or on the side of the road and you can go search for them! Some are bigger than others and you can look at the different descriptions on the website. All you have to do is put in your zip and it shows you the closest ones that are around.

I couldn't go alone and my friend Luke was in town, so we decided to go on an adventure. I had looked up some geocache earlier in the day and I had seen that there was one in Wyndhurst, which was the little pleasentville spot in Lynchburg.  So we decided this would be our first spot to look. He downloaded the app on his phone and it was a pretty neat app. It showed the compass and the map so see how close you were. The hint it gave was that it was in the middle bush. There is a main round about in the neighborhood and it took us to that spot and we found it pretty easy! I wasn’t sure how great these hiding places were going to be, but this one was pretty easy.

It was in a little container so there wasn't room for much and there really wasn’t anything in there, just some business cards and a punch card for Mr. Goodies which still needed about ten more punches before you could get anything free. What a rip. We didn't take anything out of that one.

We then decided to go to the park mainly because we figured there would be a lot around there and because Luke had never been. I know right? Don't ask me... When we get there, we picked one to follow and started through the trails. We had Jack Jack with us too which was probably a mistake, he was pretty much just going crazy with excitement. It was like he knew we were going to find some buried treasure. And we also found out soon that whoever was holding the phone with the compass on it just got really excited and just started running without really thinking about it.

We finally got to where it was supposed to be, and we just could not find it at all! It was really frustrating and I hate giving up, so we searched around there for a while. Still nothing. The hint said something like "look down and don't be afraid to put your hands in dark places." Well there were several spots like under tree root and stuff, but we couldn't find it. So sad. So we decided to move on.

The next one was pretty close, a little farther down the trail and it was supposed to be near the disc golf course next to the muggles that play there. The hint said it was at the base of the tree. Well I'm pretty sure we found the right tree because there was a big hole underneath it that would have been perfect, but there was nothing there. Bummer! I was getting really disappointed. Were most of them like this where they say where they're supposed to be but nothing is there? We moved on.

Now I don't want to give away where this one was because I don't want you to find it just cause I said it and not because you went geoccaching! But this one was fairly easy to find, and I will tell you it was behind a sign. There wasn't much in there either, a sillyband and some more buisness card things and a Foodlion MVP card, which I did take:) I put a little keychain in there to replace it, it says "I Brake for Chocolate." There was also a little log notebook where you could put the date and your account name. Some people take this thing real serious! But I was excited about finding that one.

Then we decided to see what we could find downtown near the trail next to the James River. On our way there Luke was looking at his phone because some nearby locations automatically update and he got a little over excited. "Oh my gosh! Pull over! Pull over now!" Well I certainly did and nearly jacked up my car in the process. I looked at him and he just said "I didn't know you were going to pull over like that," and looked away and said I could keep driving. Oh gosh.

So we were about downtown and his phone was uploading the nearby spots, but there didn't seem to be anything that interesting and it started to rain so we decided to start heading back. When we were closer to my house, there were a couple that popped up on his phone that looked interesting, so we decided to give it another try.

It was near this random park/pond thing that I never knew existed, but apparently other people knew about it because there were a lot out fishing. It was all pretty open until a line and trees and brush started into the "forest" (I put that in quotation marks because it wasn't all that big to be qualified as one). And that’s where Luke went straight running for and disappeared in a second! As soon as I caught up and jumped through the brush, it was all pretty spacious and pretty in fact.

Well Luke kept running because he had the compass/phone in his hands and ran clear past it. The clue said "this will stump you," and it did for a second because even Luke has his foot up on the thing and didn't even realize it. He found it though:) there wasn't anything real interesting in there, but we left a mix CD of all the songs you thought you could live without!

There was another one close by so I got the compass/phone this time and of course started running:) We started smelling something a little bit “strange” in the air, but we just shrugged our shoulders and kept moving on. I was the one that found this one and there was no hint:) It was in a hollowed tree and we did take something from this one. A little plastic Albert Einstein bobble head. What a find! I wonder what this baby is going to be worth in about 20 years or so.

This "new" was a lot of fun and I will definitely be doing in again! I want to find some for real treasure next time though! And I also want to hid my own geocache somewhere too and there's going to be some good junk up in there too, you can be sure of it!

Deuteronomy 4:29
But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.