I have been pretty quiet in March. It is mostly because we are staying put this month. We have found an ideal hidey spot near our Son’s family in Gilroy California. We are perched on top of a knoll just at the west city limits. The knoll is surrounded by the municipal golf course, and the summit is the Gilroy Elks Lodge. We are allowed to stay seven days then we have to do something for three days before we can come back. While we are here we are helping tile a bathroom, when we are away we don’t. On our sabbatical this week I think we are going to go to San Luis Reservoir about 40 miles away near Los Banos CA.
Our work hours are very flexible. Any day that provides a little sunshine and a promise of a couple hours without rain we go off bicycle riding. We have worked out five, ten, fifteen and twenty mile loops. Some routes are very hilly, and some are nice and flat. It all depends on how sunny it will be and how long between showers. This weather radar is really super for predicting rain squalls. The weather is typical spring weather and many days have some rain. We have been able to ride half of the days since we arrived here and right now we have ridden 500 miles so far in 2006.
So what does all of this have with “Hide and Seek?” NothingÂ…. The “Hide and Seek” is part of a new hobby we have taken up. This hobby gets you out into the fresh air. It makes you use your head to solve puzzles. Often times it involves hiking. It is a great family activity. It is a treasure hunt with a high tech twist. It is called Geocaching.
This is a new sport, it has only been around since the year 2000 when the government removed the select availability, signal degradation, from the GPS signal. Now there are about a quarter of a million active caches placed in over a hundred countries. The locations are published in places like Geocaching.com. The caches are placed and maintained by people like you and me for everyone to seek and find. One of the reasons to place a cache is to direct people to a scenic spot that they might have never visited otherwise. Today we sought out a treasure in a small county park about two miles from here. The park is called Ohlone, and tells about an ancient culture that made their home along the Uvas River at this spot. Below are a couple pictures of this site.
You can also look up our record of finds by going to Geocaching.com and clicking on the “Hide and Seek a Cache” side bar. At the bottom of that page there is a “find” box labeled “Caches found by username” Type in our username, “gdinsmore” and you can read about the six caches that we have found so far.
I am wondering how many of you have heard about this before I wrote about it? If you have, how about replying to this Blog and let me know what you are doing, and how you like it.
Now we will close with love for all and ask you get out and smell the roses, after all, life is a journey, enjoy the trip.
Gary and Judy
