Geocaching

Okay, okay.  So, I've mentioned geocaching a few times.  I formally learned about geocaching back in January during some training I was in for Cub Scouts.  Geocaching is basically a secret treasure hunt using a GPS device, a set of coordinates, and some clues.  The only way to get this information is to sign up for a free account at www.geocaching.com.  Once signed in, you can select a location and see all of the caches that are hidden in that area.  Most are somewhat small...about the size of a film canister.  Caches of that size just keep a small paper to log that you found it.  Larger caches contain SWAG (Stuff We All Get).  Generally it's just small tokens, or marbles, or whatever else you may have.  If you take something out, you have to put something in.  Lastly, sometimes you may find a travel bug inside.  Travel bugs have identification tags and specific routes to follow or places to go.  

Oh, one other fun fact.  People near a geocache but unaware of it are called "Muggles."  It's obviously playing off of Harry Potter, but when you're searching for a geocache you don't want people around to know you're doing it.  They may mess with it later.

So, to make the drive north more fun, we decided to find a few of these along the way.  For our first geocache we were sent to the visitor center in Buena Vista, VA.  Inside we found a birdhouse with our first travel bug.  Our second attempt was a little more authentic.  We had coordinates that took us to a location on the campus of Southern Virginia University. We had a clue that said to look for the tree of life.  Our coordinates led us down a staircase and up to a tree.  Ethan started looking around the tree and here's what he saw:

There was the cache!  So, we pulled it out and signed the log book.  Because this cache was part of a series for that area, there was a question found in the log book.  The question asked for the name of the statue found at the top of the stairs.  Here's the statue:

The family sitting next to "The Whole Armor of God"

Here we are preparing to leave after the find:

We decided to do one more over in Lexington before we continued on our way.  We had the coordinates, and the clue said, "VFW then 10 o'clock".  So off we went.  When we came to the coordinates we saw this memorial:

Then we started looking for a clock.  Nothing.  After looking for a while, Amber mentioned that she thought it might be directional.  When standing at the memorial, we were looking at 12:00; 10:00 would be slightly to the left.  Sure enough, in the bushes just behind the memorial at 10:00 we found this:

She's a smart one!  So, that's geocaching.  It's fun.  It's a way to get out of the car for a while.  It's a chance for the kids to run around:

We did several more over the course of the trip.  One I mentioned earlier behind the U.S. Mint.  Another we did just before returning to Lexington.  This one took us to the Virginia Horse Farm.  We'd have never see it otherwise!

Back in Lexington we picked up a Buzz Lightyear travel bug.  He was racing a Woody travel bug from New York to Arkansas.  Last I checked, Woody was hung up in Norfolk, Virginia.  But fortunately, we were able to give Buzz a boost and get him all the way to Greenville, South Carolina!  Have fun!