Geocaching

So last night I watched a movie that had been sitting in my Netflix queue for quite some time: Splinterheads. Basic synopsis: the carnival comes to town and a lady splinterhead (not a carnie, because there is a difference between the two) cons a male townie at a gas station. He then goes to the carnival and runs into this splinterhead, and a friendship develops through their unconventional quirks. The splinterhead, whose name is Galaxy, finds solace in living on the road, for it supports her hobby: geocaching. Now while watching this movie, I thought this term was made up for sake of plot, but I had to pause it and investigate. It’s a real thing.

Geocaching is explained on this website where you download longitude/latitude coordinates for a treasure, and then proceed to find said treasure. When I say treasure, I mean what some may see as junk, but it’s actually a beautiful concept.

Bounty

You download the coordinates, find the general area in which the coordinates lead you, and then search that area on your own to find the vessel in which the bounty would be found. It could be cleverly difficult to find, or blatantly obvious. The treasure inside is not for you to keep. Sure you can take something out of the box, so long as you put something of equal or greater value in it’s place, but you cannot take the whole box. After finding the bounty, you can log onto the website and log your experience. Some of the items in these boxes are trackable, which means you can take it out, replace it with something of yours, and then find another cache to put that item in, and then document the switch on the site. Each box also has a log book that is to stay with the cache.

I have not tried geocaching yet, mostly because I don’t have a GPS, but I am so very eager to try it. I could see this changing my life. On road trips, I could see myself making a small detour to find a rurally hidden cache, or maybe even a few caches. Probably a few. I could see myself going on road trips for the sole purpose of geocaching.

Who wants to supply me with a GPS? Who wants to go on a treasure hunt with me? I now know what to do with my free time. I even found about 35 geocaches less than 3 miles from my own house on the website! Lets find them all!

They say there's one in one of the pyramids! I'm going to find it.

Oh yeah, and the movie Splinterheads is actually pretty good. I mean like 3.4/5 stars, I’d say. In my opinion, of course. But then again, I loved The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, as well as Mystery Men, so wtf do I know, right?

Love, Drea.