Team Jackson goes Cache Across America

Hello everyone. I just joined this web site fresh off of my first event last Sunday, the NE Arkansas Meet & Greet organized by tech_guy and the missus. I just read about the record 24-hour run and thought I would share a little of what my family did on vacation a couple of weeks ago.

First, I am relatively new to geocaching, having started in May 2006. But it has quickly become a great activity for my 2 boys and I to do together. Sometimes mom comes, like on this vacation, but it is usually us guys. Anyway, one of my goals in life is to travel to all 50 states. So we decided to combine geocaching and traveling to new states for our vacation this year.

We took 10 days and traveled 6,646 miles through 17 states, Mexico and Canada. Along the way, we found a total of 63 caches, with at least 1 in each state or country. In addition, we saw the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the Grand Canyon, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Space Needle, and Old Faithful. In between all those things and the geocaches, we saw a lot of beautiful countryside.

Our route started in Paragould and we drove through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, 10 minutes in Mexico, back to California, Nevada, back to California, Oregon, Washington, Canada, back to Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, back into Idaho, Utah, back through Wyoming, a quick little jaunt into Colorado, back into Wyoming, Nebraska, the corner of Iowa, Missouri and back into Arkansas.

You may be thinking that 6,646 miles in 10 days is crazy. It really wasn't as bad as you might think. I know long trips in the car aren't for everyone, but we really enjoyed it. That said, I don't think we will repeat it next year. But we might target some more states that we haven't been to yet. I only have 11 to go.

Anyway, it was a great geocaching adventure.

I'm jealous! We just made a small circle to Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. We stopped at a "Agritainment" farm north of Sikeston for the girls. I think the name is Beger Farms. They have a 12 acre maize maze and lots of activities. The rest of the weekend was driving which can be challenging with two three year olds.

Geocaching is certainly a great family activity! Glad you had a good time and maybe some day I'll have as much red paint on my map as team jackson!