Hello everyone. My name is Eric Bond and I live in Searcy. We moved here about 3.5 years ago because of an unexpected change of jobs that totally took us in a different direction. My wife and I met here 20+ years ago while attending school and then we moved on. It has grown a bit in the time we were away but we really enjoy the area. I've gotten to explore quite a bit more of it than I ever would have thanks to your efforts.
I first learned about geocaching in 2007 when I muggled two really cool caches while on an ATV trip in Taylor Park, CO. I was messing around a big rock outcropping in the middle of a valley when I spotted an ammo can. Curiosity was all over that. I opened it, found the log, swag and a log book. Not quite knowing the situation, I signed the log book. The next day, I found another ammo can behind an old gravestone in an abandoned cemetery elsewhere in the area. Both have now been archived, but I was able to find Pretzel's Play House and logged it online. I was intrigued by it all but wouldn't come to understand how it all works until years later. Thus the big gap in my caching history.
My second foray into geocaching came in a formal way in 2012. After moving here, some local, casual cachers in Searcy got me to register. My next find came when I took a Cub Scout Pack camping in Maumelle Park and needed one more activity for the day. It was a great find and all of the scouts signed the log while I explained what they would need to do to retrieve swag from it. Still, it wasn't enough to really say I was bitten by the bug.
Finally, in August of 2014 while out in Colorado visiting my in-laws, I would say I was truly bitten by the geobug. What a great excuse to grab the kids (wife still doesn't "get it") and run outside to enjoy nature and a treasure hunt. Each kid has a swag bag in my vehicle with trade items ready to go. Needless to say, they prefer non-PnG caches with lots of goodies inside. Santa brought each of them a trackable in their stocking this last year and my son has built a Lego creation and launched his TB. I can't convince my daughter to do anything with hers. She thinks it is neat and wants to hang onto it. Oh well. Time will tell.
So thank you to everyone who places and who maintain geocaches. It's kind of hard for me to get too far out and into many of the other geocaches in AR but I must say a special thanks to Pat for covering Searcy and give us a great taste of the sport. I tried to grab as many as I could as fast as I could and only now regret that strategy as I am trying to maintain a daily streak. I have started placing a few caches as part of giving back to the community. Batters Up about killed me but it is oh so rewarding to have the final in hand. While I've placed a few PnGs, I want to place caches that have a significance about the area, are a bit of a challenge, or are just plain fun.
Thanks for humoring me and hope to see you sometime out there or at an event.
Eric
aka bondebond
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