Treasure Hunting in My Backyard

While writing a literature unit lesson for a YA book (Crystal Brave by BK Bradshaw – it’s fantastic!) I needed a bit more information than the usual website sources could give me. The subject – Geocaching.

The only person I know personally that geocaches is 500 miles away, and I haven’t seen her for years. I couldn’t burden a Twitter or Facebook stranger with the kind of stupid newbie questions I was bound to ask. I like to do stupid all by myself, thank you, where no one can see, point, and take photographic evidence.

Finding a small "Cache & Dash" by the roadside

Long story short, the kids and I hopped into the car and set off to find a nearby cache. After much checking of data and crashing through the underbrush, we located it (happy dance), and found the “treasure” of gumball machine toys, fishing lures, business name memorabilia, and the all-important log sheet.

I’d say we’re hooked on this geocaching thing, but I definitely have to get a handheld GPS (the car is not accurate enough), and trade in my crocs for hiking boots! (And by the way…just between us, we’re calling this “field research”, not writer procrastination.)