Two+is+Better+Than+One

 Geocaching? What in the world is Geocaching? These were my first thoughts when given this assignment so therefore my great geocaching adventure began with much speculation of the "sport". When assigned this project I had never even heard of geocaching and I could not wrap my head around what it was a why people spent time doing it. After a little snooping I discovered that geocaching is a pretty common hobby and was surprised to find out how many caches were hidden in places I never could have imagined.  The next thing I knew I was hooked. I downloaded an app on my phone and created an account with geocaching,com. My next thoughts were whether or not there were actually caches hidden near my house and when I could go "hunting". Needless to say I was very surprised to find out that there was a cache hidden about a half a mile away from my house on the outskirts of Dunn. I could hardly believe it. Then the excitement started building so I searched more. Eventually I discovered that there were at least five caches hidden within a five mile radius of my home! Wow! I was shocked to say the least. How have I lived this long without realizing that people actually went geocaching and that it could be a fun and educational way to spend my free time.  Since they say that two is better than one my next step was to convince my fiance to be my "treasure hunting" partner. I used the term "treasure hunting" to convince him to do something he had never heard of. Next thing I know we're in the car headed out to hunt out some caches! The excitement was building as we drove to our first hunt site which was only about one third of a mile away. We arrived at our destination still a little skeptical about the whole thing; seeing as we were at a gas station just of Interstate 95. We grabbed our smart phones that were doubling as GPS systems and started to hunt!

 As we got closer to where the cache was supposed to be we quickly realized that the whole "treasure hunting" thing wasn't going to be as simple as we thought. We hunted, and hunted, and hunted with no luck. After looking for about a half an hour I was completely convinced that there was nothing there and that there was no cache to find. When going back to the app on my smart phone I read the description and comments of the cache and found that the cache had been damaged. We figured that maybe the cache had been removed since it was damaged. With much disappointment we decided to move on. We were going to explore some of the other options our town had to offer! So along we went still a little skeptical but hopeful that our next hunt/s would be successful and that our "treasure" would be uncovered. Unfortunately our next two hunts were once again unsuccessful. After two hunts with no luck I was beginning to convince myself that I was a terrible geocacher or that maybe this geocaching thing was just a very well played trick. Obviously geocaching wasn't for me. By this time our adventure had lasted about two hours and it was beginning to get dark out. I was almost ready to quit but my soon-to-be husband convinced me to try one more location. When we pulled up at a local fast food restaurant I was thinking that there was no way we could find a cache here. Why would there be a cache hidden in the parking lot of one of the busiest restaurants in town? Despite my many doubts I got out of the car with my GPS ready and began walking toward where the cache was supposed to be hidden. I was still very unsure what a cache would even look like or how big it might be. We walked around looking just about everywhere not even knowing exactly what we were looking for. After searching a while I was convinced that we were going to be unsuccessful once again. Above me the street light that lit the parking lot had come on to light the lot in the imminent darkness. I guess you could say I had a bright idea when I thought it could be stuck somewhere on the light pole. After examining the pole I found that there was a small space between the metal base of the light pole and the concrete of the parking lot. Stuck in that space was a small magnetic box. Could this be what we have been searching for? My fiance grabbed the small black box curious has to what it was. He opened it up and guess what? It was exactly what we had been looking for!





 With excitement we pulled out the piece of paper inside of the box. Logged on the paper were all of the geocachers that had previously found it. Relief! We were finally successful and had found our first "treasure"! We pulled out a pen and made our mark on the log to prove that we had been there and had found that cache. We were both very excited and couldn't believe that that little black box had been there so long at a place we frequent quite often. We placed the cache back where we had found it so that future geocachers could find it too.  We couldn't believe it! This "sport" has been out there and we had no idea. I can say that we have become obsessed with geocaching. We really wanted to go back and find the caches that we couldn't previously find now knowing a little more about what we were looking for. Unfortunately it was dark out and our great adventure had to be over for the day. We left the site of our first find determined to find more caches in the future.  Our journey started with either of us having any idea of what geocaching actually was and we finished with a new found hobby. We vowed to go back and find the caches of our unsuccessful hunts andto go on more hunts in different interesting places. We're hooked and I look forward to doing a lot more geocaching in our long future together!

 My Geocaching Lesson Plan. __Mapping the Seven Wonders of the World__. An introductory lesson for seventh grade Social Studies