We learned about geocaching at Easter dinner in 2004. A dinner guest casually mentioned a game he'd heard about: People hid treasure in the woods, posted the geographical coordinates on a web site, and then others could find it using a Global Positioning System satellite receiver. We're a family of computer/science/gadget geeks who also enjoy doing things outdoors, so we were intrigued. I was very surprised to learn that there was a geocache hidden very close to the house, in a spot we'd walked by many, many times without noticing it! On April 14, 2004 I took another walk and found the cache: Woodstock GL45C4K by PepperMill 6-Pack. How cool was that!
Well, it didn't take long for the rest of the family to lose interest. I cached on and off for the next few years, and began again in earnest when we got our dog Max. He's a great caching companion, even if he does manage to find deer bones and disgusting things to roll in sometimes.
So much has happened in the last 10 years. I try to stay on top of scientific and technological advances and am amazed at all the new inventions and discoveries that have come along in the last decade. Just think, 10 years ago none of these things had happened:
Google introduces its beta release of Gmail, an email service.
New Jersey Representative Rush D. Holt Jr., a nuclear physicist, introduces a resolution to the United States Congress to designate February 12 as Darwin Day in order to recognize the importance of sciences in the betterment of humanity.
SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft.
Scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland announce that they found a particle believed to be the Higgs boson. Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am tweets "happy 'god particle' day."
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane makes its first rocket-powered flight.
Scientists use the BICEP2 telescope to observe evidence of early gravitational waves, created fractions of a second after the Big Bang.
NASA's Curiosity Rover is lowered to the surface of Mars by a hovering, rocket-powered sky crane.
Steve Jobs announces the first generation iPhone.
The Arduino Diecimila, a revolutionary open source hardware and software prototyping system for artists and hobbyists, is released.
NASA's Curiosity Rover analyzes the first drilled sample of Martian rock and finds water, carbon dioxide, and oxygen.
The Association for Computing Machinery celebrates Alan Turing Year, recognizing the life and work of the English computer scientist and cryptanalyst.
IBM's Watson supercomputer defeats two humans on the quiz show Jeopardy.
The International Astronomical Union redesignates Pluto as a dwarf planet.
Unix Time passes 1,234,567,890 seconds. A Google Doodle is created to mark the occasion, and parties are held around the world.
The cache was hidden a ways off a trail in a nice area for walking. There are 3 golden dollars for the first three finders. I've started it off with a few trade items, including 10 of my new Pathtags! I had these minted to celebrate 10 Years of Geocaching! Feel free to take one if you collect them, or trade for one of your own. Just don't be piggy!
10 Years of Geocaching!
Thank you to MacCrew for the geocaching container and thank you to Selmarat for vetting my science facts!
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.