Where YOU are the search engine!

So, while on R&R, I found a new and fun hobby that the whole family can participate in - it's called GEOCACHING.

You can read all about it on geocaching.com, but here is my take in a nutshell.

Listed on the website are over 300,000 hidden caches (like little treasure boxes) in the world. They are in almost every country and location you can imagine. The website give you grid coordinates, you find them using a GPS or a map if you're a smarty, and you find the treasure.

I got to do this 5 times while on leave, and it was a blast. My family, fiance, and I got to the first location, got within 100 ft of the cache and fanned out. After a little searching, I found an ammunition can wedged between a fallen log and a stump. Inside were little trinkets/toys and a log book. We all signed the log book, took a toy out, put a new toy in, and that was it. Later, I logged onto the website and marked that I found it. Geocaching.com keeps track of how many caches you have found.

We did the same thing at 3 other places in Sullivan County and even took Jon's family in St. Louis out out for a little treasure hunt. It was a lot of fun, and the kids liked it as well. Treasure hunting is fun! Check out the picture of us finding a cache at Sullivan Lake!

I encourage everyone to give it a try - you don't even need a GPS if you download GoogleEarth on a lot of caches.

Happy hunting!!