Today was a good day for caching. We found 8 of 9 today putting us up to 133. Missed the last one because it was further out of the way on our ride home than I had expected. We had a good outing today; we got to see a lot of history and have fun as a family. We saw a funny looking animal art structure, visited a place that has an albino squirrel, got to see some burial cairns from the early 1800's, visited a school house from 1884, visited a famous bank from the 1930's and even got to show the kiddos how to roll down hills on an old golf course. We left the house at 10:30 and didn't get home until 7:30. I know, 10:30 on a Sunday - we should be in church - I agree but read this post to find out why we now have time on Sunday mornings.
Cache highlights: an old pioneer cemetary where they used burial cairns (stone formations) to either bury or memorialize the dead. The earliest marked grave is 1854.
In our caching adventures today we found the benchmark at the Ponder State Bank. History has it that this once robbed by Bonnie and Clyde and I know it was really used in the 1967 film "Bonnie & Clyde". It's still there but now someone lives in the building. If you blink you'll miss it (the town of Ponder, TX).
Just outside of Ponder is a ghost town called Stoney. We visited the still standing school house from 1884. The cache was in place and a good find. It's pretty cool to step back in time a see some history.
Probably the best part of Geocaching is that it's something we can do together as a family outside. It's something that all the kids (8 mo., 2, 5, and 7 years) can do and it's fun for us adults too. Our last find of the day was a prime example. It was a pretty easy cache located on the now defunct Eagle Point Golf Course at UNT (history). More than just finding the cache we were on land that was originally designed and layed out for a golf course. There were two nice elevated tee boxes near the cache so we showed the kids how to roll down the hills. It was a BLAST and if anyone saw us they probably thought we were a little whacko but hey, we probably are and it was a good time anyway. This is just one more reason today's caching adventures made for an excellent day.