You Are Dead To Me, Geocache

Looking for something to do this weekend, I remembered my sister-in-law told me about an iPhone app called 'Geocaching'. She told me her and her kids tried this and they loved it.

If you haven't heard of geocaching, it is where you go on a hike to locate a hidden treasure (ie the geocache) using the GPS navigation on the app. There are different sized containers housing the treasure, different ranges of difficulty for the terrain and you can get a hint to help you locate the item.

Since this combined exercise and treasure hunting, I thought this sounded like a great idea! Hubby needed to paint the dining room and I needed to get the kids out of the house.

Let's do it!

After uploading the app, I watched a few videos to give me a more detailed idea of what the heck I was getting myself into.

Me: You guys want to go look for hidden treasure?

Kids: Yeah! Hidden treasure!

So, after picking one that was close to us with an easy terrain and large size geocache, we got down to business. I packed a few things like bottled water, wet wipes, and bandaids. And we were off like a herd of turtles!

After parking somewhat close to the geocache, we embarked out into the wilderness to discover our treasure. Looking at my phone, I see we are only .6 miles from the geocache.

Piece of cake!

We start on the paved walking path, however I quickly realize that the GPS was directing towards the woods so we headed that way. We found a clearly marked path and away we went!

The boys are excited! They are running on the trail. Super eager to find the hidden treasure.

After about 2 minutes, J (4) starts asking if we are there yet. He continues to keep this up until we head home.

Baby L (2) starts to take in his surroundings. Picking up rocks and throwing them is his favorite game.

We walk over a creek bed, curve around a bend, and suddenly we are little higher up. This makes me a little twitchy as the boys now think it a great idea to run close to the edge and Baby L refuses to hold my hand.

Rethinking this whole idea.

But since GPS shows we are getting closer, we forge ahead.

Baby L decides that he doesn't want to walk anymore, so I am now carrying him. We are about .3 miles from the geocache.

We get to .2. Woo hoo! The end is near.

My arm is starting to burn from holding Baby L. Starting to get sweaty.

We keep walking. It now says .3 miles.

Huh?! What the what?

J says his knees are tired and he needs to rest. He sits down for a few minutes.

I know that if I stop that I will never get up again so I say, "Let's keep going J. We are very close. Here, drink some water."

My arms are now numb from carrying Baby L.

After coaxing him to get up and giving him a drink, we are on the move again. This time in a different direction. We get closer, .2 miles again.

Awesome! Back on track.

Keep walking and now it's .3 again. Looking around I try to see a trail in the direction the GPS is pointing but I find none.

Debate whether I should take the kids through what I imagine to be a tick infested, snake covered area. Decide against it.

Tell kids we'll come back tomorrow.

I'm a little frustrated and crabby because I am a hot, sweaty mess.

Kids are crabby because they were promised treasure but didn't find any and they are also sweaty bc it is 1000% humidity.

Next day, take Hubby along with us. Hubby is outdoorman extraordinaire. (Okay, not really. But he is super smart and I know he will get us to the geocache.)

So imagine all of the stuff I mentioned about except now it is 10 degrees warmer, a trillion mosquitoes and there are not very many marked paths.

We finally arrive at the spot where the geocache should be. We look everywhere. We look about 20 feet in every direction.

Kids are whiny. Hubby and I are crabby. Everyone is hot and sweaty. Fighting off the little blood suckers while carrying Baby L.

I think I hear banjos in the distance.

Screw it.

THERE IS NO GEOCACHE.

The only thing we got was malaria and poison sumac.

You are dead to me, Geocache.

PS If you tell me that you love it or "it's so much fun", I won't be held responsible for my actions.