A Geocaching Adventure

Geocaching is secret, so the uninitiated will not find and destroy the cache.  That is why is it always best to have a good excuse for wandering around with a GPS device, usually on public property.

One day, we discovered that a bunch of brand new geocaches had been announced over the state line in Arkansas, so we quickly grabbed our gear and went to find them, hoping to be first and get the honor of "First To Find."  We found a couple of them, but one was kind of hard to find.  It was some place along the fence row of a rural community center called, I think, Illinois Valley.  This little building also doubled as a place for church meetings.  It was a hot summer afternoon with plenty of sunshine left but a storm was moving in, and the cloud cover was interfering without GPS satellite reception.

I was scouting the back yard of the community center and Friedrick was working along the fence row, looking for some clue of the hidden treasure.  I heard him talking and came around the corner.  An elderly lady was holding a box of Ritz crackers like a book in her arms, and asking what he was up to.  "Oh, we are just having a look at this fence."  She must have thought we were surveying for an insurance claim, because she said, "That farmer who owns the fence... his tree is down across the property line."  She was tattling on him for not cleaning up after the winter ice storm of January 2009.  She told us his name and so I dutifully wrote it down.  And she sort of confessed, "Our church uses this community building for Vacation Bible School.  It starts in just a few minutes."  That was when Friedrick said, "Are you ready to call it a day?  We can come back and finish up some other time."  I nodded, then inquired about a good restaurant nearby.

We headed to the truck and loaded up.  That was when I was stung by a wasp and squealed in a most undignified way.  As this particular wasp was now down the armhole of my blouse, Friedrick was helping me retrieve it.  And we realized we looked more like a married couple than two insurance surveyors or engineers working together.  By then, the parking cone and reflective safety vests that made up a part of our "cover story" didn't jibe with the fact that we were both sitting in the truck groping after this wasp that was crawling on me.

We quickly solved the problem, buckled up and pulled away, just as a man was walking up to the car for a visit, as if we didn't see him just about 20 feet away.  When we got home  and logged our "Did Not Find" we discovered that we were not the first ones there who had been scared off by VBS volunteers that day.  Those poor VBS volunteers must have wondered why all the suspicious strangers were showing up with GPS units in hand!