Geocaching and More Fun

One of the new adventures we tried with Bob & Kathy is a game call geocaching. The way you play it involves the Internet and a handheld GPS unit. You start by going to geocaching.com and entering in the zipcode where you're located. It brings up the caches that are close to you. There's currently about 300,000 caches around the US, so there's always something close to you no matter where you are. Now you're probably wondering, what's a cache? A lot of people compare it to a treasure hunt, but there really isn't much treasure. People will hide a small container, anywhere from a 35mm film canister to an ammo box, with a log and assorted trinkets. Then they will record the longitude and latitude and log it on geocaching.com. You download the coordinates and load them into your GPS unit and go looking for the treasure. Believe or not, it's a lot of fun!

When we were with Bob & Kathy we looked for about 6 caches and found 5 of them. One we couldn't find. One of the trinkets we picked up was called a "travel bug". This is a special item that is tracked when it's picked up and where it's dropped off. We had picked up one called Tony the Tiger in Bellingham, WA, the mascot of frosted flakes. When we were in Florence we dropped him off. By recording it on geocaching.com we get emails when he moves. The last we heard he was in Louisville, KY.

We also went into Eugene one day, stopping at a few wineries, visiting a hazelnut farm, and having a great lunch in downtown. Eugene is still a smallish town with a lot of the back to earth type of population. On the evening of July 4, we went into the town of Florence to watch the fireworks over the river. We didn't get a very good spot to watch from. but we saw most of a good small town firework show.

We also went swimming in the nice pool, which had special adult only hours. After our hard days of hiking and sightseeing, we would go into the hot tub and relax. We also tried a new sport, pickleball. It's played on a smaller version of a tennis court, only you use wooden rackets and a wiffle ball. It's geared more to us older folks who don't like to chase missed balls. It's a lot of fun and I recommend everyone to try it. Every night we played games and talked about the sights we had seen that day. We barbecued, and cooked delicious healthy meals with Kathy's help.

While Bob & Kathy were at the campground they stayed in a Yurt. This is a canvas walled unit with a wood floor and a full kitchen and bathroom. And it's round. If you're interested in learning more about Yurts, click here: http://yurts.com/default.aspx

It's great inexpensive way of getting a second or seasonal house that pretty efficient.

All to soon their visit came to an end and they left to go visit Bob's brother. We really had a great time and hope that we can do this again in the near future.