New Fun - New Sites

David called earlier this week and during the conversation brought up Geocaching, the activity that involves you heading out to a set of coordinates to find a cache of 'something' that someone has taken the time to hide for your searching pleasure.  He shared the fun he was having with Hannah, the two of them going out to look for these things.  Not exactly being totally booked I looked into it a bit on the web and then ordered a handheld GPS device which just so happened to arrive today.  I followed David's advice for a beginner and chose a cache that wasn't too far away, had been found recently, and wasn't too small in size.  I got the coordinates off the Geocaching website, jumped in the car, and took off to find it... and I did :)  It was located near an old historic courthouse building that is either on or next to a cemetery in front of a small church.  I guess an experienced searcher would have seen right where it was before I did but once I noticed the rock that just wasn't like the others I flipped it over and found the cache.

There's the rock turned over.  I did follow the 'rules' and replaced it just like I found it.  I guess I'll learn as I go and today I learned to bring gloves for turning rocks over.  I turned over a number of them and was met with some yucky stuff.  Worst was an incredible red ant city under one rock and I had a couple of them get onto my hand and have their way with me before I could brush them off.  Oh well, what's an adventure without some adventurous happenings :)

Here's a close-up of the cache container.  The people hiding these things evidently go to a lot of trouble.  This is a real rock that's been hollowed out to hold this plastic tube, not some piece of styrofoam.  Again following the rules, I opened the container, pulled out the log, entered the date and my initials, and put it all back again.

After finding the cache I wandered through the cemetery a bit.  Back in CT I loved going to the cemeteries to find old headstones and the like.  Here, I don't really see them around and this was my first visit to one.  Different, for sure, at least at this one.  It appears as though the owners of a large, family-type plot take effort to 'wall' it off for themselves as the pictures below attest.  Also something I've never seen before was the use of small gravel to cover them.  I'll have to investigate more.  A few photos for you:

Some individual headstones and the 'walled in' family plots.

The small church is up the hill yonder there.  The old courthouse building is out of sight to the left.

So, something new to do that should get me out of the house and seeing new things, both of which I enjoy doing.  It was fun today and I look forward to more of the same :)