Memorial Day Run of Fun

Sorry for the long delay in posting, being a full-time dad, dog walker, geocacher & blogger really eats up the free time that is available to anyone. However, we are back with a vengeance and ready to get rolling. Now that the nice weather has finally arrived, caching is kicking into high gear for Team Hopp.

So I was lucky enough to have my holiday weekend start on Thursday afternoon and last all the way through Tuesday morning. Sometimes I just love my job! To make things even better, my new GPSr that was on backorder finally arrived. I'm now the proud papa of a Garmin 60CSx, and I can honestly say that while I love my iPhone and it did allow me to start geocaching without any initial investment, I love the new GPSr even more. Out and about with the new toy in hand, I managed to pickup quite a few caches, including my very first Multi and Earth caches. My other notable achievements of the Memorial Day weekend are introducing my mother-in-law to geocaching, getting some college friends addicted to caching and bringing the wife out of retirement and back onto the trails. She's a trooper, even though she had worked a ton of hours including the entire holiday weekend, after she got home on Monday we went out and found GC1BQGR, our first Earth Cache. The park that it was located in has become our family favorite, which in my opinion is one of the best things about geocaching. We headed back out this morning and grabbed the three traditional caches within the park. Also, while out and about, we spotted the rare and elusive wild geocoin. As we stalked our way to the final cache in the park, avoiding the tick patrols endlessly searching for us, we came upon an ammo can and inside was a tiny beauty; TB2EA1G




I've also learned that an essential tool for geocaching, especially in an urban area, is a stroller loaded up with little geo-pirates. The kids are an amazing deterrent to Muggle attention. While I would normally be looked at with suspicion if I was poking around a park or play area alone, with the boys there it seems perfectly natural. If I need to check something out, I can just roll the stroller up, give the kiddos a snack and check out whatever it is that needs to be checked. Anyone that passes by just looks at the boys and smiles, completely ignoring me and my explorations. If I happen to be poking around in shrubs or trees, I can just tell them about plants or animals and people assume that you are just out teaching the kids about nature. Perfectly acceptable, now a couple of grown adults doing the same thing is a little suspicious but hey that's the world we live in. To make this weekend perfect, since tomorrow is my wife's day off we are planning a little caching roadtrip assuming that the weather cooperates. As long as I've got my family, nice weather and new caches to find I'll be a pretty content individual. Hope to see everyone out on the trails, good night!