If you own an RV, live the RV lifestyle, or are ready for a new RV hobby – we have one word for you: Geocaching.  Geocaching is the ultimate scavenger hunt.  So pack up the cribbage board and the dominoes because your new focus will be: how do we get to the next “Global Positioning System (GPS) Location ‘X,’” to log in our newest geocache?

If the idea of a techie-treasure hunt isn’t enough to inspire you, how about the idea of your own secret code name? Once you have signed up with a geocache website, such as http://www.geocaching.com, and have chosen your code name, you can begin hunting for geocache treasures across the globe and share your experiences with other geocachers online.  You can even begin to plan geocaches of your own to hide along your travels. Geocaching is the perfect hobby for those who live the RV lifestyle.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching takes all of the fun of a scavenger hunt and adds a technological twist.  It has been around for a little over a decade now, and there are over 1,630,000 geocaches spanning more than 100 countries.  There are even caches on Antarctica, although we recommend leaving your RV behind for that particular find!

Rather than hunting around for obscure locations to find your scavenger hunt treasures, you register online with a geocache website.  Then you can look up various geocache destinations and begin your hunt.  The destinations are listed with specific GPS coordinates so you know the exact location of your target.

Next, your job is to find the cache. Using a handheld GPS device, you locate the cache using the coordinates provided by the website.  It’s always an exciting moment when you locate the cache container, whether it’s your first cache or your hundredth. Caches are usually stored in waterproof containers that include a logbook, pen/pencil, and a stamp.  The caches can be large or small artifacts, treats, or little nothings.  The fun is in the finding, right?

Once you have located a geocache, you sign the paper logbook to share your journey with others.  You can take the cache if you want, but then you need to replace it with something of equal or greater value.  Close the container back up and log your experience online. Then it is off to the next cache from there.

Geocaching Is Fun For The Whole Family

Whether you travel in your RV to celebrate your retirement, or to make the best of your children’s summer vacations, geocaching is an activity the entire family can have fun with.  Get out the maps and study the geography.  You can learn about the landmarks you pass along the way.  Many of the caches are found near or around famous landmarks and/or national, state, or county parks which provide the perfect opportunity for learning.

Children love to search for the cache and delight when they find it.  It’s a great exercise for writing as well since you have to fill out the log book and then type your entry online. They are also a good way to get out of the driver’s seat, stretch your legs, and move around.  Geocaching can provide exercise and entertainment along those long lonely stretches of desert byways or the grueling Alcan Highway.

If your RV lifestyle is starting to become monotonous, it’s time to embark on the newest and most exciting of RV hobbies.  Geocaching will provide plenty of fun and many entertaining stories to share with friends and family. Before you know it, the people you tell about geocaching will be ready to get in on the fun. It’s addicting!

This article was written by Bill Turtle at Explorer RV

Creativity, it needs to find a place in my life next to air, food, water and my morning cup of coffee. Living full time in an RV with my hubby and four kids since January 5, 2011 has challenged my creative time. I not only live in 300 square feet of space which hampers my studio supplies, but I am living with five other people elbow to elbow. My creativity was being hampered, until it finally exploded onto the sides of my RV!

I can still squeeze in moments of acrylic painting on my textured canvas when the stars align, the weather is not too humid or too cold, and the wind doesn’t intend to fly my canvas like a kite. Most of my creating is now focused on our public art project “Take Flight”.

We took our Class A RV, stripped off the manufacturer’s decals and proceeded to paint a Monarch butterfly wing outline on both sides of our RV. The idea is to include people we meet with our family journey, and connect people all over the world with our project. We encourage this connection by having people add their colorful vinyl decal to the sides of our RV, overlapping them, filling in the painted black outline. We add their name, where they are from, and three things that inspire them in life. The list of inspirations then in turn inspires others, and the circular movement of inspiring begins.

The project requires 3 ½” circular decals of oranges, blues, blacks and whites (thanks to our friends at www.decalmenow.com) which I can roll up and store behind the passenger seat of our RV. I use our computer to enter the participants’ names on the website. This is a creative project which needs little space, just the time to talk to people we meet, encouraging them to sticker up our RV. It has been fulfilling to see people catch on the excitement of their contribution traveling around the United States! (very inspiring)

Public art is art which can be seen by anyone, free of charge, and enhances our daily living. With this philosophy we want to include everyone in our project, if you can not physically put on your dot, we will add one for you. Just add your inspirations to our list and become a part of inspiring people on the roadways of America, as well as those reading the inspirations at home in their jammies or at work on their computer screens, iPods, iPads, Android phones, you get the idea. Go and be inspiring today!

To add your own inspirations, mosey on over to www.inspiretoinspire.com We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

~Jema

Jema grew up in Brainerd, MN and now travels around the United States with her husband and four children.  She is inspired by nature, creating contemporary acrylic art on textured canvas.  She enjoys sharing her journey through her creative writing through magazine articles and her personal blogs at www.hairintheair.net and blog.artbyjema.com