"Busy Day" in Dayton

I can't believe that summer us coming to a close! Time for at least one more adventure! So, early yesterday morning, off I went to Dayton with Lorna (WikidKriket) and Corey (SnakeyLicks).

Where to? The Boonshoft Museum in Dayton, OH for the GPS Adventure Maze. According to the site:

Get lost in the GPS Adventures Maze and learn how to find your way using GPS!

You'll learn about traditional and modern navigation, explore ways GPS is used, find out where the technology is heading in the future, and discover geocaching, a family-friendly treasure hunting game in the great outdoors.

As a geocacher, it's a way to learn more about the sport we love, counts as a "find" (since you have to locate the prize - the exhibit) and an excuse to get together & meet other cachers from all over the country.

For a day adventure, it wasn't the smoothest of beginnings. The coordinates took us to an unfabulous back door of the museum, and, after make our way to the front, one of our party walked into a pole, drawing blood.

SnakeyLicks & WikidKriket

But we made it! Heading up to exhibit hall, we were each given a game card and spent the next hour solving puzzles, finding caches, and learning the history of geocaching.

We had great fun and quickly secured the codes to move room to room.

In the end, you had to take the clues you gathered on your game piece to determine "where in the world you are". My game piece had me in Puntas Arenas, Chile. Here's Corey enjoying the rest of the museum.

If you are new to my blog (it's a quilting and caching blog) and have never heard about this fabulous game/sport/hobby, visit my post here.

So, what did I mean by a "busy day"? This was called an "Event/Maze" cache. On the way in, we met some new caching friends over a "Traditional" cache - we used our gps to find a treasure box (called a "cache") in the woods. After the exhibit, we enjoyed a "Letterbox" cache - based in another popular hobby called "letterboxing", we followed instructions and not coordinates to find the treasure box.

There are about a dozen different types of caches - the variety keeps the game interesting - some being much more difficult to complete than others. And so far we managed to "find" some of the hardest already! As the day was young, my group decided our mission in Dayton was to complete a "busy day" - successfully log six or more different cache types in a day.

Here we are at a "Virtual" - one of the rarest types, you must locate a specific historical marker or object and answer questions to get credit for the find. This is a sculpture of the Wright Brothers' bi-plane in downtown Dayton.

Lucky for us, there was an "Earth" cache right across the street. Earth caches teach the cacher a lesson on geological formations or occurrences. To gain credit for the "find", one must answer questions based on the location and normally upload a group picture to prove you were there. Here I'm goofing around with my sister in front of the Hydraulic Jump.

Afterwards, we tried to complete a "Multi" cache but failed. A Multi cache will require you to go to one or more locations to gather coordinates to find the final stage, the cache. We gathered our clues - on a haunted bridge - but the final alluded us.

In a panic as darkness and rain were setting in, we scrambled to find one more cache type to complete our "busy day". Luckily, a nearby "Puzzle" cache advertised itself as super easy so we made the 3-mile trek over the river. A Puzzle cache is exactly that... Solve a puzzle and the final is revealed. Sometimes you have to gather clues from nearby signs or solve a crossword puzzle or decode a cypher. Luckily for us victory was ours around 7pm with the final cache in hand!

Here is my geocachding.com screenshot - the smileys show I found six different icons in a day.

For those that know me well, I'm sure you've noticed the number in the upper right corner. This week I made my 1000th find!

Thank you for letting me share my Busy Day with you!

Happy caching!

Elisa

P.s. Please note that all definitions above are my own interpretations. I love this sport. If you'd like to learn about the other types of caches or more about geocaching, please visit Geocaching.com. I am not a paid endorser - I'm just a geo-nut!

P.p.s. Yes, and I'm still a quilter. More finishes to share this week!