Geocaching Revisited – or – My Vizsla is in Spain

As I have noted in previous posts, I am an “on again, off again” geocacher who goes months between activities, then gets a spurt of activity for a bit, and then goes on to other things. I have about six trackables in circulation (see below) and every time one gets moved, I get an email.

Two of my trackables have logged over 5,000 miles.

Enroute to Bovina, I got an email telling me that my Roaming Vizsla trackable was heading to Spain. Here’s the goal that I set:

To sniff out caches in all 50 states (plus overseas if I get a long ride).  Keep me moving along and log my activity.

So Pablo, who found the Vizsla tag in a cache in New York state wrote these comments in the electronic log:

Although this traveler hasn’t made it to all 50 States, I think she might like to come home to Spain with me and visit my dog. We shall see.

I left your Visla in a beautiful, wide open area of Madrid, Spain. Hopefully there is enough room to roam!

Here is the tag and the goal picked up by a Spanish geocacher in Madrid yesterday. He said: Nos lo llevamos para que diga viajando. (We took him traveling.)

I looked at the map to see the travel and as you can see, the trackable made a number of stops in the Northeast before leaving for Spain.

That night at supper, I mentioned the email from Spain and explained a little about geocaching. I had forgotten how enthused our y0ung friend Julie can get but she was all over it – having heard a little about geocaching but always up for an adventure with her kids. I remarked that I didn’t know if there were any caches nearby but after supper, got my iPhone out and saw that there was one across the street and another a few hundred yards down the road at their church. That started things rolling.

Julie bought the app at once and while it was too dark to go out and search, she went home and did some reading and studying and first thing the next morning, both she and her two older kids were ready to roll. They found a two-part cache at the fire station and then had breakfast and with me, found the cache at the church. By now, they had enlisted two more friends who were psyched.

The two geocachers with me as they pause before their next venture. Photo by J. Hilson

So, as we were leaving with the Airstream, Julie and her baby in a running stroller along with four kids on bikes were heading down the road on a half-mile to trek to a local cemetery to try to find the next cache. I think we’ve got another family of avid geocachers in the making. Meanwhile, it’s got my interest kindled again and I suspect I’ll crank up my searching in the next month. I’m at 88 caches found and would like to hit 100 before we head out for the Southwest. Check it out — it’s fun for all ages.