[NEED YOUR HELP - PROPOSAL CACHE!]

If you go down the route of a prearranged adoption, be sure to include this information in a private reviewer note in order to address the "Cache Maintenance" and "Cache Permanence" guideline. Sample text:

 

Originally, I'm using this cache as a means for proposing to my girlfriend. But, we live in New Jersey. So, my maintenance plan for this cache to remain in place for the long term is to adopt the listing to a local geocacher. Flask lives in Vermont and is universally recognized by the geocaching world for her recent ascension on the Vermont leaderboard, as well as for having North America's sweetest smelling kneecap. She has agreed in advance to this post-publication adoption plan.

 

Of course, you would want to replace these details with the information for the local geocacher you actually select. Hope this helps.

 

It absolutely helps! I appreciate it! This is all great information to soak in. Thank you so much.

[NEED YOUR HELP - PROPOSAL CACHE!]

Why not do all this like you've planned and then offer the cache up for adoption?

 

Btw-this all sounds AWESOME!!

 

Definitely swap out the container. And keep it for a keepsake afterwords.....swap in swap out...

 

oooo I like the adoption idea. I just read about that earlier today in the forum. If I can find a cacher near this location that's willing to, I would love it to live on! Thank you.

[NEED YOUR HELP - PROPOSAL CACHE!]

I encourage you to review the listing guidelines very carefully, especially the provisions about Cache Maintenance (since you live so far away) and Cache Permanence (since this sounds like a temporary cache). Your published cache on Geocaching.com will be available to everyone, and the type, size, etc. should be accurate for what the public will be finding. If you want to swap in a "private cache" for a very brief period of time for your special occasion, that would be fine. Good luck!

 

Wouldn't this make a great lab cache? After all marriage is an experiment.

 

Lol - BRILLIANT! Hahaha. Love it.

[NEED YOUR HELP - PROPOSAL CACHE!]

I encourage you to review the listing guidelines very carefully, especially the provisions about Cache Maintenance (since you live so far away) and Cache Permanence (since this sounds like a temporary cache). Your published cache on Geocaching.com will be available to everyone, and the type, size, etc. should be accurate for what the public will be finding. If you want to swap in a "private cache" for a very brief period of time for your special occasion, that would be fine. Good luck!

 

Thank you for bringing up an excellent point about cache permanence. I think that point, alone, may foil this whole idea. I wouldn't mind leaving it to stay for public enjoyment but yes, we do live far away and we visit about every or every other month during the summer and fall. Hmm...

[NEED YOUR HELP - PROPOSAL CACHE!]

It's a cute idea, but you made your surprise a little "public" here. I think your best bet for a co-conspirator would be Kathy. Maybe have her put out a "fake" ammo can for people to "really" find (and log) and then swap it out before you guys arrive?

 

Thank you for your feedback. I wanted to include as much info as I could so it can be a community effort. She isn't on the forums at all, that's why I was able to go into detail here. Also, I included my name to help refute the new user/lurker idea in that we cache all the time and have 250+ finds.

 

I do like your idea of swapping out one for "mine" and then back to the other one. It's an excellent suggestion.

[NEED YOUR HELP - PROPOSAL CACHE!]

Hello all,

**This is a second account because my girlfriend and I share my main one. My real name is: FiveFingers82**

 

This is my first time reaching out to the community that I've been a part of since 2008!

 

My girlfriend and I live in central NJ and Bennington, VT is our favorite town. I introduced her to caching a year ago and she absolutely loves it. We've discussed getting married in Bennington so what better way to propose than through an engagement cache?! The downside to this is that it's a 5hr drive one way and there are no days set between now and then that she's going to be away so that I can get up there and do this. I know she will melt if I (and we all here at Groundspeak) can pull this off. It'll be amazing and I can't wait.

 

I have all of the bits and pieces together for the cache, itself. Here is what I would like your help with, Groundspeak! Do I have any volunteers? I do have some specific requests and I would absolutely appreciate any and all help.

 

Target proposal date = mid/end of July 2014.

 

1) Can anybody get to Bennington, VT? Specifically a very small restaurant called Papa Pete's? 1104 Woodford Rd, Bennington, VT 05201. I would love to hide a cache somewhere at or immediately nearby Papa Pete's.

 

2) Would someone be able to find a nice hiding spot for a reg size (ammo box) container and grab the coords? My girlfriend and I have become good friends with the owner, Kathy, and I will be contacting her to ask her permission for placement on their property (if there is an available hiding spot) and let her in on this whole thing because we would be heading there to eat and celebrate after I propose to her. Even though we live 5hrs away, she knows us by our dog/dog's name more than she does ours! Haha. She is a wonderful woman.

 

At this point, I will have all of the ingredients to publish the cache as a mystery cache. Does anyone know if it's possible to change the cache size/type once you have created one? I haven't placed any of my own caches yet, so please forgive my naivety. I feel like she would want to keep the container and its contents so I think it would be best to do it as a mystery cache. Perhaps later it can be switched to a physical cache.

 

Now, here's where I need the community's help -- Can you all please go crazy logging it as found? I'd like this to appear as legit as possible as a real cache since she does it so much now and reads all the logs, etc. I'll post a link to the cache page once it is up and running.

 

For those of you (like myself) who love reading background stories...

 

Here’s a quick background – my girlfriend is an expert in literature, she’s a professional writer, and she works as an editor. She has read just about every poem and children’s book ever written. Her favorite novels to read and write about happen to be war-related, specifically Vietnam. “Birches” by Frost and “Where the Sidewalk Ends” are very dear to her. We geocache all the time. I introduced her to it after we met and we have always done it together. Recently, she began geocaching on her own in the down time between work and tutoring (English) and has become obsessed with it. I love it!

 

Switching gears…my belief is that every person deserves to be proposed to, man or woman, it doesn’t matter. She already did to me several months ago and I’m finishing up my surprise for her. She knows that she’s getting a ring but she doesn’t have any idea how. Mwahahahaha. That’s where this all comes in.

 

GOAL – combine the things she loves into a proposal where the proposal is in the form of a staged geocache. I found a Vietnam-era ammo box to use as the cache container. I have purchased a set of 10 birch slices about 4” diameter. I’ll use some of them to write this message on (we have a wood burner; the rest will be coasters at home!). I'm hoping to be able to creatively tie together some of the lines from Birches, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Where the Red Fern Grows in a way that makes several short statements about our common goals and love of nature/creativity/playfulness and ultimately asks her if she wants to do that with me forever. I will burn a large number on one side (so they’re read in order) and then the message on the other.

 

I have saved all of the love notes, letters, and cards she has written me over the past two years so the ammo box will be filled with our love and the ring will be on the bottom of it all.

 

I'd love to hear any feedback or ideas! This is going to be incredible if it all works out.