It's OK to ask for help

"Arizona Falls" is a little power generating plant on one of the canals in Phoenix. These falls have been in existance for over 100 years and have been redesigned in the last ten. The location is now a nice place to visit for peace and quiet, or to show the family something different.

The cache info gives a location, and the hint tells one to sit down and enjoy the view if stumped. I knew of the Falls from visiting earlier (prior to geocaching!) so I stopped by today. I went to one spot, and when I looked down to another sitting place, I noticed that a couple was taking advantage of the solitude to share some romantic kissing. I left and went to a near-by cache (no luck there, but that is another story).

After I had given up on the "Old Tree", I returned to Arizona Falls. I slowly walked, and sat, walked and sat and looked, at all of the benches. I opened my iPhone to reread the comments and learned that there was a caching-friendly guard. I saw the guard, but just smiled and walked to the other side of the Falls. I continued my search until I had been there about an hour. As I was turning to leave, I saw that the guard was on his way down the steps towards me.

Should I ask him for help? Or find it all myself (which hadn't happened)? I decided to covertly ask him where one would sit to rest if one had been searching for about an hour and just needed a rest. He looked at me, as if to confirm that I was a cacher. So I added that I just needed to know where the best place would be...given that I had already been here an hour and had sat on all of the benches. He pointed to one of the benches (AHA! The one occupied by the lovers!). I thanked him and he smiled and walked away.

Yes, I found the cache. And I think that there is value in asking for help. Take the time to ask others who may have helpful information. You can stand by the "do it all by myself" rule, or you can learn to give and receive help and make life better for all.

Right Under Your Nose

I've learned that there are things going on, groups forming, movements gathering, and activities happening right under my nose. All of these without me even noticing them. Yes, we live in a hectic and frenetic society and must massively filter to avoid over stimulation. But really, for this one I mean things are happening right under my nose.

One of the first thing new geocachers do is go to the official geocaching site www.geocaching.com and type in their home address to see what is near them. I did this and found a site across the street from my house, viewable from my living room and TV room windows.

The site had been there for over two years and not only did I never notice anyone parking in front of my house to go search for it, I cannot find the hidden cache after nearly ten tries! It's become my nemesis, my white whale.

My take away lesson: Be aware, tune in to new happenings by tuning in to new channels of information. Go to the library and read new magazines, listen to a new radio station, talk to people of different ages and ask what's new and exciting in their lives. Then investigate and educate yourself. I always note that within two weeks of learning something new I hear, read, or see a reference to it.

We are learning a lot

We started geocaching about a month and a half ago. What started off as a small curiosity has bloomed into long discussions of life lessons...too good to lose.