Non-political

This post will be entirely non-political (I'll write a separate one later).

I got the geocaching bug again last week.  It was 60 degrees, I had the day off, and everyone else was at school.  So, I tried the first cache that we never could find and possibly turned my daughter off of treasure hunting forever.  The last attempt ended in her and my wife's trek through thigh/head (depending on height) high weeds to take a short cut to the road as I headed back the .75 mile trail with the boy on my shoulders to get the car at the parking area.  This was preceded by tears, crying, and complaining that the picnic bench was too hard to rest on and many other very funny comments about legs not working.  That was also the second time that day we tried to find it.  Since then, I'd tried many times to get the girl to go with me, but was met each time with refusal.

I now have a new GPS device that is not a car unit and therefore much more useful off-road.  I headed off in shorts and T-shirt and a $2 bill to trade and quickly found some of the squishiest terrain I've ever encountered outside of a bog.  Try as they would, even the SmartWool socks couldn't wick fast enough to deep my feet dry, but it was fun.  I could smell dirt and splashing through mud, water, snow, and ice was very cathartic.  I got back to the same place we had gotten to last time, but this time I had a little bit more precision in my gadgetry and quickly found my first cache.

Fueled by this success and the ability to download coordinates directly to the device, I found some that don't require a hike to reach and are near parks.  I took the kids to a park today and before we went home, I said we were going to look for a treasure.  The girl immediately groaned and started whining and complaining, somehow simultaneously, but I pushed forward and said she could hold the GPS and follow the arrow.  As we waded through large herds of ducks, we got to the location and found the treasure.  Seeing me write our names on the log got her even more excited.  When I asked if she wanted to find another, I got and enthusiastic "Yes!"

There was one more nearby, so we headed there, only to be confronted with some angry sounding geese advancing towards us.  We approached from another direction and were faced down by goats.  We turned back.  I didn't feel up to facing geese and goats with a 2 and 5-year-old.  She does want to go again tomorrow, though.