Our geocaching debut got off to a rough start.  None of us knew what we were looking for...we'd get in the right general vicinity, but couldn't find the treasure.

 

And of course, in the bright sunlight it was difficult to see our phones which had all the directions on them....

 

Our first stop was a total failure...we were frustrated and I think Kim was already over the whole activity.

 

Our second location...failure again...ditto for our third destination. Nothing, nada...

Four fairly intelligent people...why couldn't we find the cache???

 

Not ones to give up, we drove to our next location, a small park overlooking the sound.

 

John and Kim glanced around, then quickly gave up and took a seat to enjoy the view.

Barb and I kept searching...

 

...and SQUEALED with delight when we finally found it, hanging from a cup hook underneath a picnic table!

 

A tiny little container with a rolled paper log inside...

 

...where we added our name HoosierGrayFoxes and date under those of the previous finders.

 

Motivated by our success, we enthusiastically drove to the next location which appeared to be near this group of trees on Radio Island, where we've never been before.

 

Searching...

 

AHA!!!

 

Camouflage...tricky, tricky!

We were PUMPED!!!  Two for two (we weren't counting the initial three stops when we didn't know what we were doing...)!

 

John found the next one....

 

...the fishing line gave it away.

 

Three for three!!!

 

Our hunt led us to some gorgeous spots we'd never visited before.

 

We disturbed this lovely white ibis looking for his lunch...

 

...and a pair of cruising cormorants.

 

Found it!  Four for four!!!

 

Lots of other folks have also found it...long before the HoosierGrayFoxes.

 

Can you believe there's a cache hidden on this telephone pole???  We looked it all over and were about to give up...

 

...until John happened to mess with this metal plate...it was magnetic and the cache was under it!

Five for five!!!

 

We were ready to head back to our condo, but decided to retrace our path and give ourselves a chance to redeem those intial three failures.

Barb found this inside a light pole piece in a drugstore parking lot.

Six for six!!!

 

Back at our initial second stop, Kim found the cache under an innocent bench.  Seven for seven!

 

Ditto our last (first!) stop...

 

John and Kim had walked by that bench a dozen times when we first began. Never thought to look under it...

 

We were feeling really good about ourselves...eight for eight (even though 3 of those took a second look)!

 

We also learned a new word associated with geocaching.

"Muggler."

These folks are mugglers.  Presumably innocent folks that happen to go by when you're searching for a cache.

Apparently there is "muggler etiquette"...although we definitely didn't follow it on our adventure.

Mugglers can be "dangerous"...they may call the police if you're looking suspicious or, if they're malicious, destroy the cache.  So when one is geocaching, they need to be on the lookout for mugglers and act nonchalant until they pass by.  

But since we didn't find any of this out until later, back at the condo, I'm pretty sure we broke every muggler-deceiving rule.

Oh well....

 

Lots of fun and laughter on the rookie geocaching expedition...

...of the HoosierGrayFoxes.