My Garmin EMap handheld GPS receiver was just delivered yesterday and I was eager to join in the fun I had been reading about on the geocaching mailing list for the past several months. I had practiced with the unit for the last day, doing the obligatory tracing of my route to and from work. I saved several waypoints - our house, my sister's house, and several nearby caches from www.geocaching.com

Dina, my wife, Zach, Samantha, our dog Mac and I clambored into the car and took off towards our first cache site - "Prairie Woods" near Island Lake, Illinois. We all had our responsibilities. I was driving, Dina was navigating with the EMap. Zach and Samantha were busy deciphering the scrambled clue on the cache data sheet we had printed out from the website and Mac was fogging up the windows.

The data sheets from the web site include a small reference street map that helps get you in the general vicinity so we knew where about where we wanted to go. I didn't print out a more detailed view of the side streets, however, so once we got within a mile or so of the cache location, I made a few back road turns hoping they would take us near enough where we could park and have a short walk. The kids had decrypted the clue which told us that it was tough to park in the area, so when we ended up on a quiet road north of an open prairie grass area with woods to the south, we stopped the car and got out.

There it was! What a thrill to go to the exact spot of some random point on the face of the planet (OK - it was only about 10 miles away from our house). We saw a small Tupperware container filled with treasure and a note welcoming us to the cache. The rules of the games are log your visit, take something and leave something. Zach took a firestarting kit and left a plastic manta ray. I didn't see a log book, so I wrote a brief note on the welcome sheet. We sealed up the container for the next geocacher and headed back, through the wet grass.

  This cache was rated by its creator as fairly simple - both in the terrain and difficulty in locating it. For first time geocachers, however, it was a great introduction to what will be many fun, outdoor adventures!

Check out our adventures - Caches we've sought:

• Prairie Woods
• Beverly
• Red Bridge Wonder and High & Dry
• CliffCache (South Dakota)
• Dutch Clog
• Chicago Geocachers Picnic
• Dutch Clog - Redux
• Twice The Nature
• Check Point Charlie Brown
• Semper Fi, Drury Lane & Row, Row, Row Your Boat
• Country Address Park Stash (Florida)
• Danielle's Treehouse Cache (Florida)
• Trailside
• Flood Plain
• Kennedy's Cache
• First Chicago
• North Branch Cache
• Conways' Cache (Missouri)
• Junk Pile Treasure
• Keebler's Cool Cookies (Indiana)
• Buffalo up the Creek
• Volo Bog Surprize
• plus many many more! (got tired of writing logs... <grin>)

Come find the caches we've hidden:

• Heron's Crossing
• Invasion of the Flatlanders
• Shine, Little Glow Worm