First day of fall and it's a beautiful one.   As seems to be usual at the equinox, we were treated to a heavy rainfall last night.  I don't know if there is any scientific reason for this or even if it is statistically accurate, but it seems so to me.   The skies were clear and sun was out today.   That made it a perfect day for geocaching.

Geocaching is really the perfect combination of things that enjoy and motivate me.    First, the hidden caches take you to lovely parks and other outdoor venues like this one I found today in New Garden, PA.

Second, the technology is intriguing.   I'm now using iCaching on my Mac to organize the database of caches after downloading from Geocaching.com.   The app on the iPad and iPhone now enable searching for nearby caches, locating the exact spot, and logging the success or failure right from the field.  This is so much easier than the various scraps of paper needed when I started this hobby in 2004.

Third, there is the lure of keeping up stats and setting different goals.   Geocaching.com has greatly improved the reporting so I now can know the distribution of caches with regard to difficulty and terrain, which days of the week I'm most likely to find a cache,  the list of states and countries where I've located caches, and many more.

As of today,  I have 1612 caches in 19 countries and 22 states.   I didn't realize  know I'd been in 19 countries!