Geocaching Adventures, Once Again

We really had not been geocaching since our trip to Cincinnati in May. First, there was the recovery from my new hip and then it was packing, sorting, throwing...you know...in preparation for living in the camper while waiting for our new home to be completed. Now that things have slowed down...sort of...we have been back to looking for hidden containers holding a small piece of paper.

We have been working on two geo-projects in the area. The first one is a series of 81 geocaches, each of varying degree of difficulty and terrain. When it is done, (if ever) it will be a 9x9 square of smileys. Right now it looks like this:

The other project was the SD State Bird.We finished it this week. We spent (by choice) 3 or 4 trips on county roads to turn these Wherigo caches into smiley faces. Geocachers who worked on it the day it was released took 8 hours to complete. We aren't doing 8 hour days of geocaching anymore.

Both of these projects were fun because it got us out of the city & camper and onto country roads. There has been a lot and I do mean A LOT of rain in the Sioux Falls area, so many ditches have standing water. That means it is also very green. The crops look good and the grassland areas are lush with tall green grass. There is just something about driving the countryside and enjoying the bounty of His creation.

The following photos are from one of our excursions on the 9x9 square project. These caches often were as much of a challenge to find (the container holding the piece of paper) as they were to solve, as each of the 81 caches is a puzzle. That means first we worked the brain cells before we went out to look for the container, which sometimes worked the ol' body.

tall grass, swamp & slough areas

Hubby contemplating going in the culvert

he did and it was

this guy met us on the road

loved his expression as he watched us approach

the cache owner also loved putting the containers 

on signs, we did not find this one the first time

we came back a second time with the correct

Tool Of The Trade...8 inch bolts for climbing

not a lot of flowers on these back roads

this cache owner LOVED hiding containers in culverts

with all the rain we often thought the containers were

washed away...not so

he is also 30 years younger than us!

one just had to go far enough into the culvert to find it

and he did!

we are not done yet, but so far there have been no 

'fall-in-the-water' mishaps

There is supposed to be a photo of Hubby's reliable water foot wear, but for some reason it isn't here. But the climbing the sign photo does a good job of showing the boots.

My computer is back at the doctor. This post was to happen on Thursday, but the computer wasn't cooperating. They tell me it is OK now, but we are out of town, so I will pick it up on Monday.