Caching in Opelousas

I begun my geocaching career in February of 2005 after finding the website by accident. Being that there was only one geocache within 20 miles of my home, I wondered if this was going to be the sport for me.

Other attempts at hobbies were not as successful. I enjoy Scuba Diving, but in landlocked Tennessee, that sport is difficult and can be very expensive. Still play Paintball on occasion but not has active as I once was. Still own several firearms and shoot on a regular basis. However, with only about 120 feet in my backyard, I am limited just shooting a .22 rifle and small handguns. I have to go somewhere else to fire the .308 Saiga.

I had only been geocaching a couple of weeks before I departed for my long-planned trip to the Florida Keys. Cachers will notice my US map on the itsnotaboutthenumbers site and ask why only one county in Florida is colored. It's simple, I was very new to the sport and looking up caches on a route was difficult.

Returned from Florida and begun to take caching a little more serious. While in Jackson, I stopped at Target and purchased a Garmin Legend. With that new GPS, my production increased with over 30 finds in the month of April.

In May, I was ordered to attend a NCO school at Camp Shelby, MS. This time, I printed off several pages of caches around Camp Shelby. I show up for school with the intention of caching in the evening and then told that this school requires students to be restricted to the barracks. This time has been my longest caching drought since I begun caching. I had planned to visit my cousin in Opelousas, LA when I left Camp Shelby and did have some cache pages printed of the Opelousas caches.

Arrived in LA and met with Jody and he drove me around Lafayette, LA and later we traveled to Opelousas and on the way, we stopped at a Cajun Restaurant. I only stayed one night and the next morning I got up and introduced my cousin Kathryn and Jody to the sport of Geocaching. Our first cache was Jim Bowie Live Oak, followed by Twin Oaks and Fun in the Park. Kathryn and Jody was amazed of the GPS and the game being played worldwide and with geocaches so close to home. Even though I would not have any finds on the way home, I decided that this was going to be the sport for me. Last month, when Kathryn and Jody were in town, I showed them my 1K coin and thanked them for their assistance that morning in Opelousas. Kathryn and Jody have not officially taken up the sport of geocaching but do report to me that they take visitors to the Jim Bowie Live Oak cache.