“I’m bored.” sighed Reese. Her sisters nodded in agreement.

"But we really shouldn't be bored with this beautiful view in front of us." Riley declared.

"Yes, it's pretty but it doesn't do anything." cried Reese.

“Ok, I have the solution, a NEW solution, a NEW adventure!” declared Cooper.

Riley responded, “Coop, I’m not sure about your adventures.

One time you had us all crawling under your bed

in the middle of the night! Remember that?”

“Yes, wasn’t that just awesome fun?!?”

Coop retorted. Campbell spoke up.

“Maybe we need to ask Gram to help us

come up with an idea.”

“Nope.!” Cooper was determined. “It’s something that I learned all about in school. It’s a real adventure!”

“Ok, what is it?” the girls all responded at once since they all really were bored and needed something, anything to do!

“GEOCACHING”

A cloud of silence seemed to envelop the girls. No one wanted to admit they didn’t know what geocaching was so no one spoke up. Finally, Riley asked the question: “What the heck are you talking about? What is geocaching?”

Cooper, obviously pleased with himself for coming up with a new plan, explained. “There is an official website that tells you where to find the caches. It’s kind of like hide and seek everywhere but not really.”

Already becoming impatient, Campbell sat up, stomped her foot and said,

“Well, what is it??”

Cooper went on. “A cache is a small waterproof box, like a Tupperware box with a good seal. Inside you’ll find anything – always a logbook and pen and then some other trinket. It can be a toy car, a little game, a deck of cards. You get the idea. The website gives coordinates for you to find each one. Sometimes it just leads you to the area and then you must search. Once you find it, you open it, sign the logbook and see what’s inside. You can exchange it for something else, if you want. Sounds cool, right??”

Cooper was really hoping this new idea would catch on because it sure sounded like a real adventure to him.

Reese piped up, “G-O-Cash. Funny word. Will we really find cash?? How do we start? We can’t take a computer with us for directions.”

“Duh, I have this!” Cooper held up his iPhone.

“There’s an app for that!” Cooper cracked himself up and couldn’t help laughing.“

Ok, let’s give it a go with this

smart-aleck here.” Riley

nodded toward her brother

 with a grin.

“Cooper, lead the way!”

And so they began.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Reese waved her

arms. “Can we bring Chloe?

She would be a great treasure finder?”



“NO!” they all shouted at once.

And so they began (again.)

Coop clicked on the app and put in their location. Immediately tons of ideas showed up. He picked one and the directions were given, along with some hints.

The first one was easy. The clue told them to start near the water tower. Then a hint was given -

Cache is on the back west side of the guardrail, behind the post.

Quickly they found it and couldn’t wait to open the box. Inside was a little logbook but no pen. Riley pulled one out of her backpack. “Just in case.” She said. Coop logged them in and then they looked to see what the treasure was. It was three shiny little metal solders.

“Oh sweet” declared Cooper. I think I’ll take one solder and replace it with my rubiks cube.” The sisters thought that was a great idea and their enthusiasm was building.

Cooper checked his app again for another one and they took off. The one that they chose was a unanimous choice.

The four, this time, were directed to a lake.

"Oh my. Do you think it's under water?" asked Campbell.

"Let's look around and see if we can find anything. Coop suggested.

Well, Cooper and Campbell,

not afraid of a little water -

and thinking it would be fun -

started wading around looking

for who-knows-what.

No sooner had they come to

the shore empty-handed,

when Campbell and Reese

found a new way to

search the lake!

Again, nothing was found and they came back to shore. Meanwhile Riley was walking around and looked out on the dock.

There on the end of the dock was a rope hanging in the water too heavy for Riley to lift. She called for Cooper to help.

Together they hoisted

a very large anchor.

They huffed and they puffed

as they worked together.

On the very bottom of that wet barnicle-covered anchor, a green bottle was attached. Quickly they pulled it up and set it on the dock.

"Do you suppose someone put a note in it

and are stuck somewhere on a desert island

and need our help to rescue them?"

Campbell asked in all seriousness.

Reese wasn't sure but Riley and Cooper burst

out laughing. That hurt Campbell's feelings.

"Oh Campbell, sweetie. We're sorry. It's just that the bottle was tied to the anchor so we're pretty sure it's part of a geocache. "Riley soothingly said. "Here, do you want to open it and see what's inside."

Campbell nodded and proceeded to shake out of the bottle a note, a pen and a toy fish.

They all decided, after signing the note log, that they would leave the contents alone. No trading.