Roadside+Relics

=**Roadside Relics**=

As the sun peeked through early Sunday morning clouds, a band of misfit geocachers were eager to begin their quest. The misfits consisted of three first timers, Maribel, Meredith, and Vitaley, and two well experienced geocachers, Robert age 9 and Thomas age 12. The first timers were fortunate to have these two pro geocachers on their crew. Robert and Thomas were outfitted with backpacks which held food and water. Their pockets were full of trinkets and previously found travel bugs. Maribel had grabbed a few counting chips since she loved math but other than that the only thing the first timers had brought was their cell phones.

They decide to search for the nearest geocache. Maribel manned the wheel as Meredith attempted to navigate them toward their destination.

The first cache, Under the Dome, led them to a water tower. Everyone searched around the dome. The first timers held their breath waiting for the GPS on their cell phones to signal the exact location. Robert and Thomas warned them it wasn’t that simple. It was then they realized it wasn’t going to be that easy. They widened their search. After kicking over and stomping through countless piles of pine straw and fallen branches, a shout was heard. There it was their first cache! It was hanging on a tree like a booby trap. They immediately took it down and opened it to see what was inside. There was a log sheet and a few trinkets. Maribel traded a counting chip for a bracelet. Feeling exhilarated, they were ready to look for their next cache.

The title of the next cache, Hear me Roar, quickly led them to realize that their destination was Food Lion. They scrambled back into the car and headed for the lion’s den. Robert and Thomas had found other caches at different Food Lions, so they had an idea of where to start looking for this one. They gave Maribel and Meredith a clue that made finding the cache easier. If it wasn’t for them, Maribel and Meredith would still be there looking for it. There it sat, in a small pill bottle, tucked under a parking lot light. They signed the small log sheet that was tucked in the container and headed back to the car. Maribel and Meredith were feeling like experts after finding this cache. They decided their next cache would be a harder level.

They looked at their phones, and searched for another nearby cache. Maribel found one which met the requirements. The difficulty level for this cache was more than the others. Eager to prove they were no longer newbies, they headed toward their third cache, The Watchful One. They slowly pulled into Spout Springs Fire Department. The clues indicated the cache was in plain sight, and to be aware of muggles. They all looked at each other, puzzled. What was a muggle?

“Google it!” Robert exclaimed.

Muggle: a muggle is a non-geocacher.

“Oh!” they all exhaled.

Meredith decided that she would keep a look out for muggles. She stood on the other side of the fence as the rest of the crew tramped through underbrush, thorns and trees. Immediately Maribel noticed a security camera facing towards the back of the fire department. She looked into it and began posing as if she were at a photo shoot.

After several minutes of searching, the crew grew weary. They were beginning to lose their steam when Maribel found a deep dark hole. It made an excellent hiding place since it was filled with spider webs. She was convinced the cache was in there. After much debating between Maribel and Vitaley about who would stick their hand in the hole, amazingly Vitaley somehow convinced her that the cache wouldn’t be in there. Still standing on the other side of the fence, Meredith kept reciting the clues in her head, when a light bulb flickered on.

“Check inside of the camera!” she yelled.

Success! Thomas opened the camera and pulled out the cache.

Three caches later, Maribel, Vitaley and Meredith were no longer muggles. They decided they would do more geocaching in the future, but not without their crew.

The Crew



Cache #1

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Cache # 2

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Cache # 3

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Geocaching 2nd Grade Lesson