Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
elaborately camouflaged or just a simple piece of Tupperware. In addition to a paper log,
the cache may contain “swag”—cheap trinkets that finders can swap. The latitude and lon-
gitude of the hide are posted on the Web, and anyone with a GPS receiver is free to find
it and sign the log with their name (or, more often, their geocaching “handle”). Most will
return to
Geocaching.com
and post a log there as well, describing their experience.
Neverhavingfoundageocachemyself,I'malittleskeptical—cansomethingthatsounds
somuchlikeaBoyScoutmeritbadgeactuallybeanyfun?TheonlyGPSdeviceintheJen-
nings home is “Daniel,” the low-end Garmin navigator suction-cupped to the windshield
of our car. Daniel is actually the name of the English-accented voice we've selected the
device to speak in; the factory default was “Jill,” a high-maintenance-American voice that
wecan'tstand.Whenyoumakeawrongturn,Jill'serrormessageof“Recalculating!”isan
aggrieved sigh. Daniel's “Recalculating,” by contrast, is in the calm, silky tones of an old
family chauffeur. He never judges you. (Actually, our Daniel hasn't said “Recalculating”
since I figured out how to hack into his text files. He now says, “You turned the wrong
way, dumb-ass. Just do what I say,” which is a source of endless delight to the backseat.)
The kids treat Daniel like a member of the family. A few months ago, as we were walk-
ingthroughascience museumexhibit aboutGPS,Dylansaidwistfully,“IwishDaniel was
here. He'd
love
this.”
Wedon'thaveahandheldGPS,butIrememberwhatJeremyIrishtoldmewhenIvisited
his office at Groundspeak: “Geocaching is a trick to get kids to go outside. That was our
original mantra.” I'd love to see Dylan out exploring the woods behind our house, follow-
ing ants and building forts and damming streams on a sunny afternoon, but despite our
best efforts, he's a true child of the twenty-first century: send him outside, and he'll just
stand there
for twenty minutes with his nose pressed against the sliding glass door, like the
world's saddest garden gnome.
But nerdy kids are often big geocachers. Imagine: a treasure hunt just like the ones in
topics, only there are hundreds of them within a few miles of your house! To an adult, the
search is its own reward, but for a child, it seems too good to be true that the search's end
is often a trove stuffed with green army men, Happy Meal toys, plastic jewelry, and other
priceless treasures.
My wife thinks it's worth a shot. “Dylan will do anything if you give him a twenty-five-
cent toy at the end,” she says. “That's why he's always asking when we can go back to the
dentist.”
“Apparently it's totally catching on now that so many people have GPS devices in their
phones,” I tell her. “
Look at this list
of famous people who geocache. Mia Farrow, Wil
Wheaton, Ryan Phillippe. The drummer from Poison.”
Mindy actually seems interested for the first time. “Wait, he goes geocaching with only
one arm?”
“From Poison, not Def Leppard!”
