-- March 07 2003, Florida Vacation and the X-MAS 2002 Geocache --

I wasn't feeling well over the winter, suffered from nutrient/mineral deficiencies and all the problems that come from that. I was sick of the cold weather and snow. We had way too much snow in Maryland (26" in one storm!). It was time for a change.

I got better and I went to Florida with my father at the end of February went to visit my grandparents. I had fun there but even there, with the nice unseasonably warm weather, and actual (!!) sunshine, I still needed to get out and do something.

So I showed my grandmother and father the GPS and told them about geocaching and got my dad to take me to the closest (true) geocache in that region -- X-Mas 2002.

It's a Christmas themed geocache in 80 degree weather but who cares, it's a box in the middle of nowhere to find and something fun to do =).

We went on the 7th of March and it was a hot day but not too hot. It was a great change from sub 50 degree weather and snow on the ground in Maryland.

We missed the turns a couple a times because it is hard to find unless you find the one road that leads in the backwoods area where the cache is at.

This area is all roads that circle around and go nowhere not to fast. There are no houses or telephone lines, just old paved roads now covered in grass and lots of junk dumped off into the forests and sides of the roads. My grandfather thinks it might be from a failed planned community that went bankrupt before it could finish developing there. There are some trails through the forests in the area but I did not have time to explore them. (See if you can find the BBQ Grille in the middle of the woods :)

We almost gave up and didn't get closer to it than .17 of a mile but eventually found the right road and parked within 300 ft. of the cache (at least that's what my GPS told me).

The cache was a very short walk away and I signed the log, TNLN and then my dad came over, signed the log and took a Christmas ornament for the tree (now in the attic, it's artificial) and left $2 (since we didn't really plan on going geocaching and didn't have any actual objects to trade.)

All and All, we had fun (got my dad hooked :) and enjoyed the weather very much.