I have a new obsession! Er, hobby. (Actually, both terms apply just fine.) And now, of course, I'm going to tell you all about it.

So, have you heard of geocaching?

I heard about it a while ago, and thought it sounded very interesting. I forgot to look it up, though, until I saw it on Law & Order. I went to the website and became completely hooked. It's a game played with GPS (Global Positioning System) units, and since Joe has been wanting a GPSr for a long time, and I now wanted one, too, we went to REI and splurged a little. We have a really cool one now! It may not be bright pretty colors like some of the models, but it has a color screen and works as a compass. Its name is Sulu (Star Trek, anyone?).

For those who may not know what it is, here's a quick rundown...

A GPSr (GPS receiver) communicates with satellites to know its own location. You can enter in coordinates of a place, if you know them, such as the latitude and longitude of the Space Needle in Seattle. Then your GPS can guide you there, telling you how far you are from it, which direction you're heading, etc.

Geocaching is a game where players hide caches, usually little boxes, in various locations and post the coordinates online. Other players see if they can find the caches and once they do, they sign the log book inside, writing who they are and when they found it. If there are little knicknacks inside, they can take one and leave something else, or take nothing and leave nothing.

After we befriended Sulu, Joe and I decided to take him out for a spin! We quickly grabbed coordinates of a nearby cache, thinking we might have a chance to find it before it got completely dark outside. Joe drove while I watched our progress on the screen. A clue related to parking was "Windport." I didn't know what a Windport was, but we kept our eyes open for anything related to it as we navigated around. Not seeing anything, we parked where we thought we were pretty close and started walking. I looked down the hill beside a private building that would lead me into a gated community. Joe looked down there, then at me and said, "You're going down there, aren't you?"

"Yes," I said.

"Well I can't let you go down there alone!" he said after me and followed me down there, telling me more than once, "You are so crazy!" as I gleefully headed towards the destination. We didn't get too much farther before we realized we were on a pretty steep hill. Joe didn't want to have to climb back up it, and it was getting dark fast. We headed back to the car.

I stayed up really late with Joe that night as he did some work. And I just felt so blah at the idea of going to school that I decided not to. Joe said, "If you stay home, are you going to go geocaching?"

"Definitely!"

That night, I had dreams about going geocaching with the contestants of Survivor: Palau and a few people from Chemistry class. They kept finding all the caches, and I didn't find any. I was mad, because it was MY first time out - how dare they steal my finds? I said to myself, "I KNEW I shouldn't have invited them!" Ha!

I did stay home, and I did go geocaching. I spent a little bit of time shaking off the guilt this morning, for being such a horrible student to just play hookey for NO reason - the horror! I don't know why I put so much stress on myself sometimes. Getting outside with Sulu helped the anxiety slip away, at least.

I visited three different caches. One was at the park really close to my house. I pass it when I walk the 3 mile loop. I drove up there and couldn't see how to walk down the steep hill. All the kids and parents around made me feel self-conscious, so I decided to try again later. I left for location number two, and completely missed the street, so I went right ahead to the place Joe and I had looked the night before. I followed the exact same path which led me through lots of prickly brush (note to self: wear long pants next time!) only to see that the cache was straight ahead, 130 feet away... Straight ahead would take me right into a ravine! I looked up above the other side of the ravine, and saw a street, and thought if I could just find that street, I might be onto something. I got back in my car, and I DID find that street, and it was called (drumroll, please) Windport! I was so proud of myself! I then proceeded to hike through more brush until the GPS said I was within TWO feet of it. I picked up rocks, sifted through vegetation, all to no avail. I took some pictures and headed on my way.

The next location, I had a tough time finding. I parked at a City Hall building, and walked around there a bit, sorting out where I needed to go. I finally saw the path across a busy street. So I moved my car closer, then got on the path, which was a horse trail. I walked and walked, feeling excited about the pretty vegetation, but nervous about being in a new place, not knowing what was up ahead, if there were snakes around, etc. It felt very "Blair Witch" for a little while. I ended up taking a wrong turn at the fork in the path. I headed all the way back to take the correct turn, and saw a lady near the dead end of the path, clearing out rocks for better horse riding. She said hello and we talked a bit. Sulu said I was 50 feet away from the cache. I looked around at the narrow path and couldn't figure out what to do. I felt weird that she was there, and didn't want to seem too suspicious, so I decided to try another time. That path wiped me out. I must have walked at least a mile and a half with that one! And trail walking is really different on your muscles than street/sidewalk walking.

It started to rain, which made me think my geocaching afternoon was over. Then it let up right near home, so I went back to the first park again. I did see a way to hike down there, so down I went. I searched for a long time before finally giving up. I decided not to do that one again, since there were broken beer bottles around, and it seemed dangerous. When I checked it online later, to see if there were more clues, it said that one had been removed! I'm glad I didn't look for it too long!

So, no caches found, but a lot of great hiking, and fun times were had, and that's what matters most. It was a really fun afternoon! Joe wants to see if we can find the Windport one (as do I), so we're going to check it out again soon. I'm glad he's interested in it, too. We're going to have fun with this whole geocaching thing!