It is strange how one little comment can make a huge change in your life.

Case in point: my wife went to a Girl Scout leaders' retreat and while she was there, she met all kinds of different people. They come from various backgrounds and walks of life. So, she was hanging out, kickin’ it, if you will. While mingling, she met a lady from a few hundred miles away. They got to talking, and this lady popped the big question. No, not that one...she asked my wife if she knew about geocaching.

I don’t know my wife to be a liar, so I’m sure she said “no”. The conversation then centered on geocaching and the good times that come with it. They were having a great time; laughing, talking, teaching, and learning from each other.

Meanwhile, back on the home front, I had just finished a ten-hour shift at work and was tasked with taking care of our 9 1/2-month-old son. He was fussy and missed the way mom does things.

"Boo, I heard about this thing called geocaching and it sounds like a lot of fun." A few hours passed. My son was finally in bed sleeping while I sat around, staring at the walls, doing my best to keep my mind from thinking about anything. I was doing a pretty good job of it when my wife came home, nearly skipping through the door. My professional career as a police officer leads me to make constant observations, and at this moment, I could see that my wife had just learned something new and it had her totally excited. She said “Boo” (don’t laugh, that’s what she calls me), “I heard about this thing called geocaching and it sounds like a lot of fun.”

My first thought was, "Grrreat, how much is this going to cost me?!”, as I smiled and said, “Oh really? Tell me about it.” She started telling me caching is some kind of world-wide game of hide and seek using a GPSr. WHOA! Hold on one second, did she just say I’ll get to use my GPSr? Now I was listening and not just acting like it.

She explained how to log on to geocaching.com, so we looked through the site together. I ran to my work vehicle to retrieve my Magellan Meridian Gold and blew off the dust. I got my laptop out and began learning how to upload data to the GPSr. Meanwhile, my wife was setting up our profile and searching for caches in our area. We found a particular cache and decided to try it. I downloaded the coordinates to the GPSr, and, around midnight, we called it a night.

The following day, we loaded up the kid, the dog, and supplies such as a backpack to carry our son, leash for the dog, GPSr, and a computer print-out of Ponderosa. Off we went to an area we knew, but had never hiked.

When we arrived, it was a little cloudy with a threat of rain. We began hiking around the pond in the direction indicated by the icon on the Magellan’s LED screen. As we neared the area of the cache, we checked and found no muggles. We then began looking for the cache. We were in heavy tree cover and the coordinates were bounding all over.

I would look, then my wife would search, each taking care of our son in turn. We searched for about an hour with no luck. Because it was our first cache and the rules were unknown to us, we began to wonder if it may have been buried.

After not being able to find the cache, we hiked away and re-entered the coords into the GPS because, of course, the problem couldn't have been with us. After entering the numbers by hand, I was hopeful again. We followed the arrow on the compass display and as we got closer and closer, the area got more and more familiar.

We were back in the same place as we were before.

Dedicated to our search, I spotted an area that looked a little out of place. I got on my hands and knees and began moving dead bark from the ground around a tree stump. With every piece of bark, I thought surely I would find our treasure.

Then, all of a sudden...muggle!!! He came running down the trail as if he were to steal our find and ruin caching forever. I was on my hands and knees searching around the tree as he came by. Now what do I do? We were caught searching! Fortunately, the unaware muggle just kept running by.

Safe for the time being, I started searching again. I had moved every piece of bark and started over again. I was about ready to throw in the towel and go back to what I knew best, staring at the walls, when I looked to my left at the downed log. You know...the one my wife had sat on several times. The one my son had climbed all over for an hour...not to mention the one I had been working next to for the last 15 minutes on my hands and knees.

I saw the log had a crack along the side. I reached over and grabbed hold of it and Voila; it opened as easily as my kitchen cabinet doors. BINGO, there it was! Excited, I exclaimed, "Found it!" Of course, my wife didn’t even believe me, but when she saw the cache, we both started laughing. We logged our visit and read every entry. What a great hide, one of the best I have ever found to date.

As we walked back to the car with our son and little black dog, the sun was setting. We were covered in dirt and smiling the whole way. Geocaching is the activity for us and we now go as much as we can, thanks to the lady who sat and shared with my wife at a Girl Scout leaders' retreat. She changed our lives.