A brand new cache was hidden right around the corner from my house and I wanted to be the First To Find really bad.
The Youngest Island Boy and his Dad didn’t want to go so the Island Girl and the Oldest Island Boy and I drove to the park.
Just as we got to the top of the hill another car pulled up so I took some pictures of the kids and the car pulled away.
No Muggles around now so the hunt was on.
The GPS didn’t seem very accurate at all but the Island Girl kept saying it was by a particular picnic table. We looked a little but I kept walking farther along the sidewalk.
We walked up and down the bush line not getting a good reading for about 30 minutes and then the same car pulled back in.
I was convinced that they were Muggles so I told the kids we’d go find another cache and then come back.
The Island Girl kept saying we needed to stay and hunt anyway.
As we were getting in our car I got a good look at the little boy getting out of the car and recognized him from pictures on the geocache site finding Ft Walton Beach caches. Then dad pulls out a backpack and a GPS and we knew for sure they were hunters.
Island Girl is saying "Don’t leave – they’re going to find it first" and "Didn’t you say cachers meet each other this way all of the time?"
I just didn’t know what to do so we drove on away. I wasn’t sure what the protocol is for looking in the same place at the same time with another team you don’t know.
So we drove away and they got the First To Find.
After getting home and reading the log I see they were Team Gravelshot and I wish I had talked to them as they cache this area a lot and our boys are about the same age.
Next time I will stay and meet whatever hunters I run into instead of leaving and letting them get the find. I have a thing about approaching strangers that I'll have to get over but once I get that under control this shouldn't be a problem.
After finding the Mossy Cove Cache we returned and the Island Girl had the GPS and it took her to the picnic table area she had been saying it was at earlier.
We beat the bushes pretty well and then she yelled "I found it!"
Her first find!
We were the 2nd in the log.
The Island Girl was very excited about her find and kept saying that if we had looked around that table better when she wanted to the first time we would have found it before Team Gravelshot got to it and we would have been first.
She’s right.
Now that she’s had her first find she’s getting the fever like the rest of us. As soon as we were back in the car she wanted to know where we were going next.
Yeah! She’s hooked.Labels: Staying
