The first trip out

Last week, I ordered a GPS unit. It came in this afternoon. Apparently our postman doesn't ring the doorbell. Or knock. UPS guy does.

Little background...
Back in 2005, some friends of mine introduced me to Geocaching. We'd get together on a Saturday morning and follow the GPS unit to various destinations. We'd sign the logs and then post them online. It was really fun - especially when we couldn't pinpoint the exact location - some of those caches are extremely small!

Not too long after they introduced me to the 'sport,' we moved to San Marcos. And I just never did get a unit for myself. And technically, you could print out some Google maps with the latitude and longitude and go look for the caches, but for some caches, you really have to have a unit.

So after I played around with my GPS unit, figuring it out and programming some caches into it, I took David and Zada out on some treasure hunting. I was certain that David would like it, but I wasn't sure about Zada.

The first cache we did was really easy. A bit of a Park and Grab (PNG). We got out of the car, and David had the GPS. I showed him what we were looking for and we went right to it. They thought it was great.

Next up was a bit of a disappointment. We found the location, but didn't find the cache. It's possible that it got 'muggled' - some non-geocacher may have taken it. Hopefully not, but we looked hard for it.

So we packed up and headed out to knock out a couple more.

Fortunately they were relatively close together. The first was fairly easy to find, but the second was a multi-part. A multi-part cache is one where you're given some coordinates, and at those coordinates, you get more. I think Zada was really ready to quit on our way to the first leg of the multi-part, but she kept on and really was a trooper.

When we got to the first stop on the multi-part, I wasn't sure what to look for. Fortunately, there were some people that knew what I was looking for and helped me out. What was funny is that they didn't know what the numbers were for. Off to the second leg..

Zada had to pee. And peeing in the woods for guys is fine. Girls, not so much.

We ducked into a secluded area, and I did my best to help her no-go. I think she really doesn't like peeing anywhere that isn't a toilet. I don't blame her, but I sure didn't want her going in the car, and I knew she would...

We found the second part, and headed to the third part. Again, she needed to pee. Again, she couldn't.

The third part was easy to find, so we were off to the final part.

Unfortunately, it was across the water, so the kids had to stay on the bank. I waded across (I wore sandals, they wore shoes) and found it pretty easily. We headed back to the car, and Zada was good to go. Back to the house.

We made it back to the house without incident. The kids were tired. David had a great time. Zada had a good time, but she wasn't digging all the walking.

I had another cache in the GPS, but opted not to find it. It had mentioned hiking, and I know Zada wasn't into that. Plus, hiking in sandals wasn't the best idea for me either.

All in all, I'd say it was a success. I learned to use the GPS rapidly. The kids got to see things they wouldn't normally see. And we got to spend time outside together. And it really didn't feel too hot, either.

I did have one regret, though - for the multi-part cache, I wish I had taken a camera. Next time, I plan on taking it with us.