Caching Florida

Knot a Pine #13

On our way home from the Health Center of Pensacola Jake, Tigre and I often hit a couple cache spots.  It's helped us explore the streets of Pensacola a bit and learn a few basic geocaching tricks.  We rarely get to go exploring deep in the woods but it's still fun.  I love the feeling of finding a tiny container and signing our name on the logsheet.

Bullseye

The "treasures" that we find aren't anything to write home about but I still like to trade items when we can.  We've gotten mardi gras beads, army men, plastic footballs, bracelets, scissors, etc; we've left firemen figurines, army men, bracelets, money, McDonald's toys, and Burping Tuna stickers.  It's not about the treasure though.  It's about honing my ninja skills and it's about the journey.  It's about exploring the town that we're vacationing in.  It's about feeling the orange, clay-rich dirt on our fingertips.  It's about looking amongst the Florida flora.  It's about the things that we experience on the way.  Teamwork. 

 

 

Cantonment is A-1

We're looking forward to coming back home and hunting around our hometown.  Camping and hiking are our favorite passtimes.  Caching in the beautiful woods of the Pacific Northwest will soon be on that list as well.  The excitement will be the same but the feeling will be different.  Geocaching in the Washington rain should be a unique experience for sure.

Newest short story prompt: 

What kind of treasures do you find while geocaching?

Follow the Yellow Brick...

Jake and I have been geocaching so that I can get my big booty out, into the real world, and off of my computer.  Well, that's not all true considering I use my new Windows phone to navigate but it's as close as I'm going to get.  Baby steps.   

Tomorrow is our day off which means Jake wants to go hunting for gun shops and I want to go hunting for..., Tupperware out in the middle of the woods.  As uninterested as I am in firearms (I know I will kick myself in the upcoming zombie apocalypse), this will probably be a good experience for me.  I don't know much about guns and being knowledgeable will be good for upcoming projects, stories, and the occasional mugging.  Research counts as writing, right?

I will admit, I have been less dedicated about writing.  I fully intend on remedying this today by spending the rest of the today writing up a storm.  I will sling words.  Believe me, adverbs will fly...

Caching in on going out

A writer's job is very sedentary.  We sit a lot.  Because of that, it's very important to get up and get out every so often.  "But I don't wanna!  I just want to sit and write and read and surf the interwebz..."  No.  Getting up off of your tush is a necessity and it will reward you two fold:

1. It will ensure that you won't be a fat slob.
2. "Write what you know" won't help you if you don't go out and experience the world a little.

It also aids during periods when you get stuck.  Fresh air is good for the lungs and soul.  There are plenty of reasons that come to mind.  Because of this, I fully intend on sharing my experiences with you, in hopes to help inspire you to get out and do something as well.

Yesterday, I introduced the topic of geocaching to my boyfriend, Jake.  He had never heard of the term before (to tell you the truth, I think he thought I was making it up).  As defined by the website, geocaching is "a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices.  Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at the location."  Sometimes there are logbooks to sign.  Sometimes there are items to trade.  There are more that 1.75 million caches around the world since the start of the project back in 2000.  Jake was thrilled.

We have planned a test-run with a small cache located somewhere in Pensacola, this Sunday after Jake and I get finished at the gun show at the Pensacola Fairgrounds.

The minimum requirements for going on one of these GPS adventures are (1) a free membership on the website, and (2) a GPS-enabled device (like my new Windows 7 phone).  Armed with my smartphone, we will be trekking out to find our treasure on Sunday in hopes that Jake will continue to fall further in love with a hobby that we can do together.  I only learned about it myself a couple years back but am thrilled to re-fall-in-love with it.

If we do have a great time, I'm thinking of compiling a geocache specific day-hike backpack. filled with:

• Dollar General Items for trade
• a $1 Item
• a $5 Item
• a $10 Item
• Garbage bag for "Cache In Trade Out"
• "While searching for caches, geogachers collect litter along trails and properly dispose of it."  While normal Cache In Trash Out Events are larger gatherings that focus on cleaning up or beautifying the area, Jake and I plan on doing this for most -- if not all -- of the trails that we go on.
• First aid kit
• Handy wipes
• Paper towels
• Rubber gloves
• Pen
• Extra Socks
• Protein bars
• A couple bottles of water

Have you ever gone geocaching on before?