Adventure Sunday: Storm Chasing & Geocaching

(Eric fromBubba's place thanks for this pic, we don't get snow in Phoenix)


(a coming haboob--duststorm)


(atomic sky)

When asking yourself what kinds of adventures you can partake of, I have a lot of things the regular person who is not a Josh Gates can do to liven up an otherwise routine life. It's also free or very low cost. We've talked in the past about exploring cemeteries and watching documentaries, photographing abandoned sites and doing your own ghost hunting.

Today, let's talk about a couple of interesting things that you might be equipped for right now if you own a cell phone or GPS and a camera; geocaching and storm chasing.

You don't need to live in Tornado Alley to appreciate chasing a storm. Getting some rain coming your way? Get in your car, go to a high place and get a good view of its arrival. How about icicles hanging from an eve? Snowflakes silently dropping against a floodlight? A tree bending in the wind? Take photos of people's reactions to the weather; children jumping in a puddle, ducking into doorways from the rain, hair blowing wildly...

Here, when it's monsoon season, the storms are brutally intense and since there are no hills or trees to block the views, you can get into your car and chase down the action to film it. A coming haboob like the one above is a dense orange opaque cloud that you can see engulfing things for miles before it hits you and it only takes minutes to knock you over where you stand.


What is geocaching?

(Wikipedia) Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (tupperware or similar) or ammo boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek.

You want to grab your GPS and go looking for these treasures? Go onto this site where people post the ones they've hidden and the coordinates. You can also leave caches and post them. If you have a techno kid who isn't into adventure, this will get him into it. If you are a techno kid, this might be the way you can get excited about an adventure.

Now, I've given you two good springtime adventures, add to that reading about new subjects, watching documentaries, exploring cemeteries and photographing abandoned sites and you're getting your adventures geared up for the warmer weather explorations to come!

Please report back if you take any of these adventures. I want to hear all about it and so does everyone else with envy!

Check what's happening at the other sites:
Hug-a-Blogger (bloggers socializing site)
Sharon Day (author's site)