gatorade saves the day.

There’s a weird part of my past that you should know. I was once a member of the boy scouts. I have the membership card and all. It was legit. “But, you’re a female! How could you join the boy scouts?”Such a great question. I was a member of the geocaching sector of the boy scouts. The irony of it all - I never went geocaching with it. But I have the membership card. That was worth it alone. So. I’ve known about geocaching for a long time. But I didn’t actually try it until last year. I had planned an adventure day in July to celebrate Katie’s birthday. We did all of the planned activities, then still had some time to spare. So, I suggested geocaching. I had found the official geocaching app, so we opened it in the parking lot of where we went to get sushi for lunch, and off we went. The first one was a premium cache - meaning we couldn’t see any details of it other than general location because we didn’t have the paid app. But like a true boss, Katie found the cache. It was attached to a stick and shoved into a stone berm. After that, we were hooked. We went on a rampage in that area and found cache after cache. We ended up on the grounds of Harper Community College. There were several caches surrounding a small body of water on the grounds. We saw a few on the map that looked like they were on the other side of the pond from where we parked. So we started walking. We searched and found a few. But this one was evading our grasp. The heat bore down. We hit the point of no return - either go a little further and hope to round the end of the pond and get back to the parking lot or turn back and get to the car the way we came. We had walked all the way around the lake. It felt weird to just give up and turn back - and to add to the dynamics at play in the decision-making process, the hill we would have to walk back on was in full sun. We decided to give up on the cache, but press on and around the far end of the pond. Turns out there was no far end of the pond. It turned from a pond to a stream that flowed through private backyards. Mind you, it’s ridiculously hot. We’ve been out in the sun for who knows how long. We didn’t have the right footwear on. And now we were at an impasse. Katie decided to see if we could ford the stream. So, she boldly walked into the stream. A few moments later, she realized it was too deep. We shared a good laugh as she came out of the muddy water. Then the realization hit us. Crap. Now we have to walk all the way back. We took off our shoes and began the trek. Strength was waning. The sun was still high. Words were few. When they were exchanged, it was about the level of dehydration we were beginning to experience. About 20 minutes later, we finally made it back to the car. I put it in gear and we took off. Katie found the nearest 7-11, and we bought the best and coldest Gatorades on the planet. Never before has a Gatorade hit the spot to this degree. It was literally a lifesaver.So, that was the day we almost didn’t make it out on the geocaching field. We learned some valuable information that day. Never go distance geocaching without fluids during the summer while wearing sandals.