Ashley's+Caches

3 Campbell Caches (October 9th, 2015)
After enjoying a “private” lesson of how to use GPS units for geocaching, I caught the geocaching bug. I raced back to my dorm to find out where there were caches on Campbell’s campus. Finding four active caches on campus, I picked two that seemed like they might be fun: one in Saylor Park and the one near Gore Arena. I hurriedly searched for more information about the caches as I waited for my boyfriend, David, to come to my dorm. David was willing to be a good sport and obliged helping with geocaching, this new game I was so excited about. We looked over the cache information online and decrypted the messages. The Saylor Park cache’s encryption said “EGGE 412”. That completely confused us so we continued on to look at the Gore Arena encryption. It said “Magnetic (but not on the camel!)” First, David and I ventured out into sunshiny Saylor Park (honestly because it was the closest one to my dorm). Holding the GPS tightly, I navigated us toward the outskirts of the park. As we came to the road though, David and I had trouble figuring out where the cache was. It was the first cache we had tried looking for so we didn’t know what to expect. The GPS lead us to a light pole that we circled several times, to no avail. We walked up and down the side of the road to see where the GPS would take us. That only put us farther away. Then we had the idea to cross the street! But that idea was put to rest once we saw there were many cars passing by and we realized it would take us farther away. David and I continued to circle the light pole, picking up rocks and trash to see if the cache was underneath it until David saw something. “Didn’t the clue say ‘EGGE 412?’” he asked. I followed his gaze as he said that and saw on the side of the pole a small metal box that said “EGGE 412”. We attacked the box and found the tubular cache inside, feeling confident and accomplished at finding our first cache!

Our next stop led us outside Gore Arena. I had heard about the cache from class and was determined to find it. Sure it may have been hard for my professor, but I bet I could find it! Walking past the camel statue, David wanted to look around the camel to see if it was attached to it. Quickly shutting down his idea, I led us to where the GPS took us. In front of us stood a bench and some bricks. David and I searched all over the bench, the bricks, and the nearby benches but finding this cache was proving to be impossible. We began searching all over the front of Gore Arena, probably looking like idiots as we looked between metal bars on the handicap walkways and getting on the ground to look at the benches. Later we discovered that there are pictures of the cache online and that it’s really small! Maybe one day we’ll find it…

But because I was hoping to drag David along on more geocaches, I wanted to end on a happier note. Whipping out my phone, I found the coordinates for a geocache near Campbell’s online education offices. After plugging the coordinates into the GPS, we were back on the hunt! The GPS lead us in between the Human Resources office and the Online Education office. So we veered off the sidewalk and stared blankly around at the open space in front of us. The GPS in my hands failed to give us any more directions because the buildings were too close together so we began to worry a bit. But after looking around the edge of the online office building, we found a little nook that had a bright orange cylinder in the corner. David went to grab it because I thought the area looked a bit like a place for bugs and spiders but we were excited to find our first cache that had tradables in it! We had nothing to trade with but we signed our names on the log and put it back in its place. Even though there was a bit of a hiccup in our geocaching plans, David and I both realized we had begun to catch the geocaching bug.

2 Calabash Caches (October 16th, 2015)
Over fall break, David and I visited Calabash, NC. After feasting at our favorite local restaurant, Bagel Dock, I pulled out my phone to put coordinates in for two near by caches. As we walked out of the restaurant, we began walking to our first cache… But we realized it was going to be a longer walk than we anticipated so we hopped into the car and drove a little further down the road to a restaurant called Captain Johns. There was a cache close to Captain Johns that said the cache was almost completely wheelchair accessible. The whole drive over to the restaurant David talked about finding the wheelchair ramp and looking around it. We missed our turn and passed a field next to Captain Johns. When we circled back around, David parked close to the restaurant and began talking about looking at the restaurant’s wheelchair ramp to find the cache. “Get out. Just get out.” I said getting out of the car. With the GPS in hand, I steered David away from the restaurant toward the field. There were some trees and tall grass close to the edge of parking lot. The GPS led us to the tree on the corner that had tall grass surrounding the base of the tree. Since we were within 10 feet, we gave up on the GPS and began searching at that tree and trees close by. Eventually David called out, “I found it!” He pulled a small black container from close to the base of the tree. We successfully found our cache!



I  asked David to show me where the cache was exactly and he showed me when he replaced the cache. <span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS",cursive;">“You should put on the log that the cache was in a clever spot.” David said as we began to head to our next cache.

<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS",cursive;">We drove back the way we came, past Bagel Dock and parked next to my favorite place in Calabash, Callahans. It’s a souvenir shop that not only sells beach items, but also has a special section just for Christmas items that is open year round! After getting David to agree to take me to the store later, we began hunting for the cache. This time David actually held the GPS. I may have mentioned that he kept finding all the caches and claimed that this cache I was going to find. That’s why he was stuck with the GPS. He did a good job navigating us through the parking lot to where we saw our encryption clue. The clue said, “No Trespassing- Violators will be prosecuted”. So upon arriving at our destination, we saw a sign that had fallen to the ground. It contained our clue so we looked in the bushes nearby. I saw the cache first and pulled out the clear peanut butter jar from within the bushes. We looked through the contents and signed our names.



<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS",cursive;">Finding two caches and taking to trip to Callahans was definitely a bright spot in my fall break.

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