My wife and I did our first two caches today. I know with a quick glance through the site that "2" isn't all that impressive, but for us, it was amazing. The first was listed as a 1/1 and it was right on. It was very near our house and we took the advice of a cache blogger, and took the dog. He is ALL about caching apparently, and tried his best to help us find it (he's part beagle) and was underfoot the whole time we searched GZ. I found the first cache, and it was just sort of...there...no hiding involved. I figured since we had a nasty storm roll through the night before that perhaps the wind had a hand in the lack of cover for the cache. I went to sign it, popped open the cahce, and TADA...no paper. No log. Nothing. Just an empty container. So I whipped out my wallet, hoping for a receipt, a post it anything...all I had was my business card. I signed the back and stuffed it in the cache. It dawned on me that it should be hidden since it's at a VERY busy intersection. So I moved it to a better hiding place. It's only a foot or so from where I found it, but it's secure and hidden. Not any harder to find, but at least it's not just laying on the ground. I emailed to owner to make sure he knew where it was and offered to replace the log.
My wife and were totally excited. Laughing like school kids excited. I was ready to head home since we planned on caching, but were still pressed for time. As we were leaving, I was thinking.."okay...I'm hooked" and my wife was apparently thinking the same. We had plans with friends just 20 minutes later and she decides...too bad for them...we gotta get another one. Lol. I practically had to make her go to the first one...and now she's more hooked than me. As a married man, I've learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I told her "let's do it." Not realizing that the next closest cache on foot had a significantly higher terrain rating than the first. I get the coordinates in and off we go...
As I approach the second cache I realize that I'm wearing shorts and the brush is THICK. No big deal. I'm a tough guy. We circle GZ thanks to my gps. And circle. Looking for an entry. I decide to go in regardless. I had to hop a small creek to get there...and I knew that I was hopping a creek right into the teeth of some seriously unruly looking tree branches. no other way to go. I crash through, and land in a small clearing. I search and search and search. all the while my wife (and my mutt) are circling the stand of trees I'm smashing around in like a wild ape. I decide to try and decifer the clue more closely, and as soo as I strike the look-in-the-air-and-rub-my-chin-because-I'm-thinking pose...I spot it. Ten feet up a tree. I start yelping about finding it, and as soon as I do I hear "good, because I've counted 13 mosquito bites since we got here" we're in the south and where there's water...there's mosquitos. I start climbing this tree to get there, and fussing with the cache, when it hits me.... I've forgotten the trials of the day, I'm outside, I'm having fun, I'm with my wife, and for the first time in nearly 30 years, I'm climbing a tree for fun.
I just wanna say thank you. To everyone who has kept this sport alive long enough for me to discover it, thank you. I seriously needed this. I can't wait for #3. Oddly, my wife suggested we go tomorrow morning before work...lol.