If you want to see places you normally blow right past, go on a geocaching poker run. We hit eight different local businesses, and every stop had a cache waiting. It’s a pretty clever idea. The businesses get people through the door, geocachers get another smiley on the map, and everyone gets an excuse to spend the day wandering around instead of doomscrolling.

One stop had a winery with a giant wind turbine towering over everything. Another had some seriously cool metal art made from old farm equipment and scrap steel. There was even a TARDIS little free library because apparently the Doctor got tired of saving the universe and started handing out books in rural Ohio. Throw in a Norfolk Southern train that decided to remind everyone who’s really in charge of your travel schedule, and you’ve got a pretty decent day.

That’s one of the reasons I like geocaching. You end up finding places you’d never have a reason to visit otherwise. Small businesses, hidden attractions, weird roadside art, and little local gems that most people drive past without ever noticing. Turns out there are some pretty interesting things hiding in plain sight if you’re willing to chase a GPS instead of the nearest fast-food drive-thru.

By the end of the day we’d collected caches from all eight stops, picked up our poker hand, and had a camera full of photos. Not every cache has to be halfway up a mountain. Sometimes a great day is just hitting the back roads, finding a bunch of containers, talking to good people, and proving once again that geocachers will happily drive miles to look under a piece of fake landscaping. It’s a weird hobby, but it’s our weird hobby.