Geo Bonding

Our personal tag line is, “Geocaching: bumanfam’s best family day ever.” In a past blog entry, we’ve elaborated on why this is so, having had a full day of outdoor fun without even one complaint from the bumanfam Kids, numbers one through three. We’ve probably also mentioned that, when we started, the rule was that there would be no Geocaching unless the whole family was present, and that the same rule was quickly tossed out when we realized that this was too much fun to forbid its practice just because we couldn’t get the five of us together at the same time. We’ve also discussed how bumanfam Kid #3 loves to ride in the backpack carrier during the wooded hikes, frequently leaning forward to whisper into bumanfam Mom or bumanfam Dad’s ear, “I love you!” Certainly it’s been told that bumanfam Kid #3 also asks to go Geocaching several times a day (and she’s a whopping three years old). Well, the saga of how this crazy game/sport/hobby thing provides the bumanfam with some great family bonding experiences continues, this time for bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Kid #1. The story can be heard using the player below, or read by clicking on the "Read More" link below that.



It started out simple enough: the allure of an event big enough to draw the attention of cachers from all over the Midwest and beyond, compounded by the appeal of sixty permanent caches placed for the event, and aided by the draw of camping was simply too much for bumanfam Dad to ignore. In 2007 we had to pass – it was the same weekend as the high school play that bumanfam Mom was directing in her new employment, and bumanfam Dad has a certain background and training that lend assistance to such ventures. 2008? Same problem! But wait – the event date changed! Drat – so did the play date – to the same date, of course. Fortunately, bumanfam Mom was ready to make a deal: program the lights and sound for the production and train some students to run them, and the bumanfam boys could go play for the weekend! A later decision would keep bumanfam Kid #2 at home, setting up a one-on-one father-and-son adventure for bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Kid #1.
We left for the event on Thursday evening with two other cachers. The plan was to cache all night long on our way to the event, an eight hour drive without the caching. All night didn’t quite pan out, but we got a few. Friday morning we added two new states to our cached-in map before setting up camp at the event. We briefly attended a pre-event event Friday night before settling in to our sleeping bags at the campground for a good night’s sleep. The event involved two competitions, one for individuals in the morning, and one for teams in the afternoon. We were in the team event, so we had the morning to go caching on our own. The other two weren’t ready to get up, so it was just us, father and son.
We’d gotten hold of an additional GPSr for the weekend from CaritaCacher, bumanfam Mom’s mom (we’d given it to her as a gift) and bumanfam Dad had a brand new GPS-enabled PDA, so bumanfam Kid #1 had his very own GPSr for the first time. He’d picked up the basics of its operation pretty quickly, and we had a great time going from cache to cache. The location of the event was beautiful. It was early spring, and most of the flora was not yet out of dormancy or had just begun. The park itself wasn’t actually open for the season, and this event was therefore special. We hiked in some woods, along some trails, and near a lake and some streams. The birds and chorus frogs were singing, we spotted deer, and you just couldn’t see bumanfam Dad behind the smile on his face. Several times, and without any sort of prompt, Kid #1 said simply, “Dad, I love you!” or, “Dad, thanks for bringing me here!”
At one particular cache, bumanfam Dad decided to pull one over on Kid #1. The cache location was pretty obviously in a fallen tree trunk, covered by some bark and leaves. bumanfam Kid #1 gave a feeble attempt to look there, but passed it up. So, Dad grabbed it without Kid #1 noticing. Dad turned his back, opened the cache, and was signing the log – the whole time encouraging Kid #1 to keep looking. At one point, Dad dropped his PDA and Kid #1 picked it up and handed it back, still not noticing what Dad was doing! Dad was able to slip it back into place while Kid #1 was exploring another possibility only inches away – again without noticing. When bumanfam Dad finally could no longer contain his laughter, he pointed out the whole event to Kid #1, who had a great laugh about how Dad had managed to fool him. It’s now bumanfam Kid #1’s favorite caching story (along with how he was able to return the favor on another part of the trip!).
After we’d shared lunch back at the event headquarters, it was time for us to take part in the team event. We were just about last in line to get our coordinates, and we had problems getting them loaded into all our GPSrs. We actually missed the instructions and official start of the competition. That’s okay – we weren’t in it to win it, we were in it for some fun. Once we actually got into the woods, we quickly located our first cache. To our dismay, it was already out in the open, opened, and there was no punch. At each cache you were to find a unique punch with which to log your find on your scorecard. Disgruntled, we signed the logbook, traded some stuff, and headed off to the next cache. Same situation! At the third, we ran into some other contestants and they said a word that sparked a light bulb in bumanfam Dad’s head; offset. We’d noticed that there were some numbers and such written on the outside of the ammo cans at both the first locations, but had ignored them. They, of course, were bearings to the location of the punches. About this time, bumanfam Dad quickly discovered how his new PDA did waypoint projection (our other GPSr did not at the time, the functionality has since been added), and he was bolting through the brush, yelling at Kid #1 to catch up. Suddenly, bumanfam Dad noticed Kid #1 sitting on a log, frustrated and in tears. He was trying to figure out why Dad was heading off in the wrong way and what the heck a waypoint projection was. Time for a break!
We sat there on that log for a while. bumanfam Dad explained to bumanfam Kid #1 just what a projection was, and that Kid#1’s GPSr simply didn’t do that. We spent some time learning more about it with Dad’s new toy. We discussed that Dad had gotten a little excited to have found the solution to his frustration, and thus didn’t notice Kid #1’s frustration building. After a true heart-to-heart, and some water, we were ready to head off for some more caching, at a much relaxed pace. Some of the finds made us smile, some made us take note so that we could perhaps replicate the hide method, most of them went unfound by us, but we had a great time, meltdowns and all!
That night, after having a great feast at the event’s banquet, we were sitting on a picnic table bench watching a slide show of photos taken during the day’s activities, and bumanfam Kid #1 kept pushing and tugging at bumanfam Dad’s arm. Finally, the realization came that what was wanted was some closeness. bumanfam Dad put his arm around Kid #1 and we watched quietly, both elated with the day. We slept well that night, and the next day we cached our way back home. We only found something like thirty-seven caches that weekend – way below our hopes – but it didn’t matter. The weekend couldn’t have been any more perfect for a father and his son.
The icing on the cake came when we were only a few miles from home, after dropping off the two friends who were with us, when bumanfam Kid #1 took a moment to thank his dad for an awesome weekend, and suggest that bumanfam Dad take bumanfam Kid #2 on a similar private weekend adventure soon. He got it! He fully understood that what had happened that weekend would be something he’d treasure forever, and that his brother should be so lucky. The weekend’s activities could have been anything, really, but for us, it was geocaching that got the two of us out together for a quintessential father-and-son bonding experience. Thanks, Dave Ulmer!