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Did You Try To Convert A Muggle?


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While reading another post about introducing new people to the sport I started thinking about a person who will never ever go caching with us again, nor would we invite his sour behind. I figure lots of you have stories about a bad caching trip with a newbie, share them, we could all use a laugh.

 

I will try to keep our story short. We are friends with a couple who hike and camp allllll the time. Hello...have you heard of this incredibly fun game called geocaching? They were all up for it in the beginning. We planned to take them to an event about 2 hours away. We were a caravan of 3 cars, we all had radios and had a lot of fun on the way that morning, felt just like Cannonball Run. Got there, got signed in, everything was wonderful. You should know that the event was called "A Three Hour Tour" when I say that 10 minutes into it the complaints started. While this may be a surprise for the men, I'm sure it will not be to the women...the complainer was the man(who is i might add only 25 years old in very good health). Never in all my life have I seen such a whiney, pitiful, sissy-fied, make everyone else around you miserable human being. The snide comments and the grumbling under his breath lasted throughout the day. Even after I not so politely asked him to shut the heck up and try not to ruin the day for everyone he kept on. Made the day lousy for everyone in our group. We happily put him in his car when our 3 Hour Tour-ture was complete. Our friend got to drive him home and listen to him complain for the following 2 days. HE will never be invited to do anything fun again! Those of us remaining went on to climb the mountain pictured on the Ohio State Seal for a cache. Bad day gone good. :)

 

Share your stories, I'm sure there are some great ones.....

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Yep. Not everyone shares the "enthusiasm".

 

I've introduced a couple of muggle-friends to geocaching and the method that works the best for me is the "surprise" method.

 

Here's how it works: whenever you are with a friend (out for a walk, hike, on the way to the movies, etc.) locate a cache nearby and whip out your GPS. Tell your friend you need to make a little detour and then when you get within 50 feet of the cache ask them to help you look for "something". Tell them to look for anything "out of place" such as a pile of rocks or a hidden container. Once they find it they will freak out and start asking you all kinds of questions. (that's how I was introduced to caching too)

 

The ones I've told about geocaching ahead of time didn't seem to be as enthusiastic as the others and I pretty much experienced the same thing that you did.

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Just took my girlfriend out this last weekend. She's such a homebody. The first one we stopped at was a virtual on flat, dry ground with a walk of about 300'. The temp was in the mid 50's. She wanted to stay in the car while I went and got it. I told her this was about as easy as it was going to get. Finally, I convinced her to come with me and she wanted to bring her purse. :) There was no one around and we wouldn't be gone more than 5 minutes. I managed somehow to convince her to leave it in the car.

 

The next one I parked along the side of the highway on the extra wide shoulder. She got out on this one and I started going the wrong direction. About 30' from the car I realized this and turned and headed back toward the car. This time I couldn't convince her to come with me. There was a small hill up a grassy slope which was slightly longer than the way I took. Neither of which were particularly long, as we had parked about 250' from the cache.

 

She got out of the car for the next one because there was a historical bridge nearby (we both have degrees in history), and followed me about 100 feet back into the woods but didn't want to go up the easy 100' to the top of the small hill. She waited at the bottom.

 

The last one we walked about .2 miles down a road and horse trail before I figured out I had to take the last 300' off trail. I pretty much ran the 300' feet ducking in and out of trees. She couldn't figure out how to make it past the first couple of small branches (i.e., twigs) so she stayed behind and waited.

 

In all, I saw some pretty neat areas and a couple of nice views. She saw horse manure and the inside of a car.

 

She may or may not go with me again. Probably some of the history related ones she would do, but not pure nature.

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That's funny KState, because seeing nature is actually what convert us muggles (my wife and I). When visiting my brother-in-law in North Carolina last August, while he told us about the GPS and "find/hunt" aspect, emphasized the beautiful park and nature trail we would go on and honestly, that is what I like most about the game; it's an excuse to go to some nice parks and nature areas that I may not either otherwise know about or knock myself out to go to. We now use it (at least when it's half-way nice out weather-wise :huh: as an excuse to get our kids some more fresh air and exercise beyond the playground.

 

Of course, I've always been a bit of a mapping and geo-nerd :) who always wanted a GPS so this gave an excuse to justify one with the sweetie-pie :) .

Edited by hairymon
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Help! I've created monsters!! :( I told my parents what I'd been up to and they jumped on caching like a starving dog on a sandwhich :( It took all of 48 hours before they were nabbed by U.S. Border Patrol after setting off alarms on the Texas/Mexico border! Apparently it took almost a half mile of walking in the wrong direction to realize their coordinates were getting worse :unsure: Now they call me at least 3 or 4 times a week since the first fateful trip. Oh, well! At least they're out doing something in their retirement ;)

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Okay, this isn't quite on topic, but I'm desperate.

 

A teenage geocacher in my area told a fellow student about geocaching.com. Now that other student is posting false finds with snide comments on caches (not only in our area). What can be done?

Edited by edchen
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Okay, this isn't quite on topic, but I'm desperate.

 

A teenage geocacher in my area told a fellow student about geocaching.com.  Now that other student is posting false finds with snide comments on caches (not only in our area).  What can be done?

You could report it to GC--but since they get so many emails a day, the faster thing to do would be to email one of the local reviewers for the area and let them know what caches to look at.

They can check into it from there. I wouldn't expect immediate results (they will want to make sure that the logs are bogus and that you aren't just having a joke on the person)...but they will know what is up when they start getting complaints from cache owners, etc.

Edited by Team Neos
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I have a slightly different story. We were in Leonardtown, Md looking for a cache near the kayak launching area. While we were there a family pulled in and we started talking....us explaining geocaching and them about the waterways. We never thought much more about it. Jump ahead 6 months and I want to place a cache on church property. In order to get permission, I must talk to the church council. So, I start my this is what geocaching is and there's the dad from that day in Leonardtown!!!! His only question was did I find the cache...which I didn't. :( He was all for it and with little effort, I have permission. Now, I just got to get the cache out there. :unsure:

 

Terri

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Team Guisinger, what exactly were his complaints? Did he just think the whole concept was stupid or what? Sounds like a real sourpuss! :antenna::antenna: Glad you decided all future trips would be SANS Grumpy! :ninja:

 

Happy Caching!

Lori V.

TeamVilla5

Team Guisinger, what exactly were his complaints? Did he just think the whole concept was stupid or what? Sounds like a real sourpuss!  Glad you decided all future trips would be SANS Grumpy! 

 

Grumpy is the keyword! While all I actually heard was "I'm a big fat crybaby sissy-man with no sense of adventure" I believe his complaints were actually about the game, he thinks it's stupid. His back hurt, his feet hurt....and trust me he's in great shape. And above all, he wasn't getting his way and didn't like that a bit. In the beginning I felt bad for his girlfriend, that she was dealing with him because of my great idea. Over the months I've discovered, that's just how he is, it wasn't just geocaching. He would've been complaining if he were walking around picking up $100 bills.

 

We've learned that hubby and I enjoy geocaching best when we're alone. It's a great way for us to spend quality time together. We like taking the kids, but we really enjoy going by ourselves. When the kids have playdates we find ourselves jumping in the car for a quick trip.

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Hi all,

 

Just a twist to the topic. :blink: but I've tried to explain the theory and practice of geocaching to and elderly man in my local town Here in Western Australia. He is one of the caretakers of a historical homestead at which I would like to place a geocache. So I figured I would explain how it all works to him then ask for permission to place the geocache. I think I must have scared him when I started talking about satellites because he still hasn't given me an answer about placing the geocache. :unsure: Oh well I will just have to try a different approach. Any ideas?

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Several of my coworkers and I were discussing "New Years Resolutions" a few weeks back and of course, weight loss and exercise came up (as always!)

 

I made mention to a few known outdoorsmen that I was looking into doing more hiking/biking again to shed some pounds, and found an interesting angle at motivation. Handed out a few "brochures" I printed from GC.

 

Talk about creating a monster? I'm getting about 20 questions a day about what GPS to buy and "Did you know there's like 20 caches within 2 miles of the office?!?"

 

Guess what is quickly becoming the most popular activity during lunch breaks? :unsure:

 

I just logged my first find last night, and hope to hit a few tomorrow if the weather holds.

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Several of my coworkers and I were discussing "New Years Resolutions" a few weeks back and of course, weight loss and exercise came up (as always!)

 

I made mention to a few known outdoorsmen that I was looking into doing more hiking/biking again to shed some pounds, and found an interesting angle at motivation. Handed out a few "brochures" I printed from GC.

 

Talk about creating a monster? I'm getting about 20 questions a day about what GPS to buy and "Did you know there's like 20 caches within 2 miles of the office?!?"

 

Guess what is quickly becoming the most popular activity during lunch breaks? :laughing:

 

I just logged my first find last night, and hope to hit a few tomorrow if the weather holds.

20 caches within two miles of the office? Wow you are in some lucky area....living just barely north of NYC there's only about 2 or 3 within two miles of my home. Within 10 miles is a different story however <_<

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Yes, I have. I recently introduced my friend (now known as "TheJackal") to geocaching. I have been in the sport since last spring and I had not told him of my hobby that I share with my dad (BomberJohn) b/c I didn't think anyone else would really understand geocaching. One day talking about it with my mom's boyfriend around him, he heard and asked about it. After explaining everything to him, he was very enthusiatic about it and he now goes with me to caches whenever he can.

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