The+Reyes+Sqad

"Spooky Geoaching Adventure"

It was a dark and cold night. The sun was setting and very little light illuminated our path between the gravestones. Tree branches cast their shadows over the graves. It was November 2nd and in parts of Mexico it was “All Souls Day” the last day of the three-day celebration known as “Dia de los Muertos.”

That day in Mexico, families would go to the cemetery to decorate the graves and tombs of their relatives and to be with the souls of their dearly departed. They build private altars tnks, as well as photos and mementos, of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them.

“However, I digress, back to our spooky adventure.”

How did a mother and her two sons arrive to a cemetery on All Souls Day? Geocaching is the answer. Unlike Pokémon Go, Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

Now our Geocache exploration did not begin in a cemetery, but in my house and a small neighborhood park a little less than a mile away. I convinced, no more like coerced, my sons into joining me. Ariel asked me, “What in the world is Geocaching?”

“It’s like Pokémon Go, but better,” was my answer and went on to explain the details. We jumped in our car, put in the coordinates into Google Maps, and drove off to our destination – Nonna’s Nano by Numbers. Once we arrived to the location I switched my phone to compass mode and followed it to the designated spot.

In my mind I had the idea that we would find a large box in the ground or under something. I became frustrated when the directions kept taking us to a wooden post that had nothing attached it, or roots where a cache (box/container) could be buried in. The boys and I stepped away from the post and looked at surrounding trees, went into the playground and looked in and around it. We found nothing.

I calmed down, pulled the up the cache activity details, and to looked at them with a clearer mind. I found that there was a hint: 1166 divided by 53 and we did the math, which gave us a 22. We got ovehat contain the favorite foods and drirly excited and began to look at our surroundings for the number 22. Could it be a mailbox? A street sign?

We stopped and focused our thoughts once more. We looked at the details and name of the cache - Nonna’s Nano by Numbers. Could there be another clue in the name, too? The cache details said the size of the cache was xs – extra small.

“Why didn’t we think of that before?” Caleb and I said out loud. We went back to the post and looked up and saw that there was a series of numbers tagged on the post and smack in the middle was the number 22. Caleb, who is much taller than I, looked under the tag and saw a tiny tube. It was the cache.

“We found it, oh-my-gosh, we found it,” we yelled! Caleb reached under the tag, felt for the tube, and pulled it out. He also pulled out a small rubber pencil topper that was next to the tube, a trade item. Yippee! I thought.

I said over and over “we should have looked at the clues from the start.” It was in the clues – Nano is small. We were thinking big and not small and we totally bypassed the numbers. We opened the container and logged our data into the mini scroll. We commented on how cool the experience was, what we would do differently, and decided at that moment we wanted to do some more Geocaching. We couldn’t wait for another day to do it again. In the excitement, we didn’t notice that the sun was near to setting time and jumped in the car.

INTERLUDE - The show will continue in ten minutes. If you'd like, you may leave your seat, take a break, get a beverage and snacks (maybe even a potty break).

Excitedly, we looked for the next closest geocache on the map. This second one was just as close to our house as the first, but on the opposite way. Strangely though, I saw that the cache was near a cemetery and called Ramsey Walkers Series #1 ("walkers" as in The Walking Dead zombies), but I thought to myself it couldn’t be inside the actual cemetery, could it? I voiced the thought to my boys, they actually thought it would be cool if it were inside the cemetery. Off we went.

One more we parked as near to the cache as possible, in this case by the sidewalk outside the cemetery. As we began to follow the compass we noticed that it wanted to take us into the cemetery. I told Caleb that I couldn’t be and it must be just outside of the fence. Who would place a cache inside a cemetery? Plus, I really didn’t want to go inside, it was getting dark and it just felt creepy and disrespectful. It’s the final resting place for someone and who were we to disturb the site.

“Come on mom we can do this,” Ariel said. “We now know what to do and we will find it much quicker.” The boys convinced me and we quietly walked in the cemetery. It was darker by this time and the air was crisp, with a touch of fall around us. The graves and the flowers upon them looked pretty in a way. We followed the compass and this time the clues.

To the common passerby we must have looked like lunatics with a smartphone in hand and pointing it out in front of us. We spent only a few minutes following the compass. I, however, got sidetracked with the gravestones and the names upon them, when Caleb yelled, “mom I found it!”

This cache container was a mossy green and camouflag ed into the trunk of the tree. It looked liked it belonged amongst the graves. The container was small but much larger than the first. We found marbles, coins, and one small Converse sneaker on a keychain, and the data scroll. We logged our data and traded items.

As Caleb placed the cache back, Ariel shared, “when have we ever done anything that ends up taking us to a cemetery, this is pretty cool.”

As we walked out of the cemetery that night and said goodbye to those resting in peace, we agreed that Geocaching is truly an adventure. We declared that the Reyes Squad would continue to Geocache in their city of Fayetteville and beyond, no matter how spooky the adventure maybe. =

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P.S. Here's a video and picture montage of our "Spooky Geocache Adventure."

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GeoCaching Lesson Plan: