After school, I picked Drew up and we headed out for a quick dinner date. When we left home, we figured we'd eat dinner, stop for iced tea and come home. I was ok with that. After all, I knew Drew was in pain, we were both tired, it was cold and slightly drizzly. So, we headed to Chick-fil-A for a leisurely dinner together.
After dinner, it was still a tad drizzly but not too bad. We checked the radar and saw no rain in sight, so we decided to go to Notre Dame since we were so close. I'm convinced there is no time of year that the campus isn't beautiful. But I think Fall is my favorite there. With so many trees, you can see beautiful changing colors everywhere you look. We took some photos of the Dome surrounded by beautiful Fall colors and drove over by the lake to get some photos of the Dome across the lake in a couple places. Even though the sky was gray and cloudy, the views were beautiful. Unbeknownst to me, while Drew was waiting in the car while I got some photos across the lake, he was looking at a new app he had gotten that I didn't know about. He had a bit of a surprise in store for me.
Geocaching is like a modern-day treasure hunt. You use your GPS to find treasures hidden all over. Once you find the hidden treasure, you sign the log or register it on an app and put it back where it was for the next treasure hunter to find. My sweet husband didn't know that I was even interested in geocaching until last week. When he found out, he secretly went to work at finding an app that would point us to geocaches hidden around us. While I was taking photos, he was finding out there was a geocache hidden not too far from where we were. So, off we went.
The app said the geocache was near an old footbridge on the north side of South Bend, IN. We drove to the Darden Road Bridge and found a spot to park. Before I continue, let me tell you that my husband struggles to walk on a good day. A little over a year ago, he spent almost two weeks in the hospital and we didn't know if he'd leave there with both legs or not. So, we don't often do things that involve a lot of walking unless there are plenty of benches around for him to take breaks at. The parking lot was quite a distance away from the end of the bridge. But he wanted to go. So we headed off. We searched from one end of the bridge to the other and found nothing. We looked in a couple wooded areas just off the bridge and still found nothing. We were about ready to give up. But then Drew started looking at the app and realized it was showing where he was with a blue dot and where the geocache was with a green dot. We realized we were near it but it wasn't as close to the bridge as indicated.
It was getting dark and cold. But we weren't ready to give up. So, we ventured into the woods. While there were definite trails carved out between the trees, they certainly weren't clear easy trails. But I never said my husband is one to give up or take the easy way out. He plowed right up those little hills, pushing branches and brush out of the way, clearing a trail for me to follow. We almost gave up as it got darker. But he saw we were almost right on top of it. We plugged away and kept going, using the flashlights on our phones to light the way. Next thing I knew, Drew said, "We're looking for something right around here...kind of like THIS!" as he held up a large plastic jar wrapped in camouflage. We had officially persevered and found our first ever geocache! It was thrilling and absolutely exhilarating. By this time, it was pretty dark so we didn't open it to see what was inside. But we found the jar. We felt so accomplished. We logged our find and headed towards home.While I was very excited to find our first geocache, I think I was more proud of how hard my husband worked to find it. To see him plow through those trails was so inspiring. I'm thankful for this new adventure we've discovered and looking forward to our next hunt...with a little more light!
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