We Live In A Truly Small World! Share Your Stories!

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I attended a geo breakfast event today in Hagerstown, Maryland, and I wore a long-sleeved T-shirt which I rarely wear -- it bears images and logos front and back about our Psycho Urban Cache series. By the way, the event was the Memorial Day Weekend M(eat) and Greet, if you are interested; I had a great time meeting new folks and connecting with folks whom I have met before. I left the party, after a few hours of good fun, to head to Shepherdstown, WV to do a bit of consulting for an organic farmer located there. When I arrived at his farm and parked my car, a (very cute) young farm employee whom I have never met before approached me and asked if she could help me. I explained to her that the farmer was expecting me, that I had an appoinment with him, and she offered to walk with me across the farm to meet him. As we crossed several farm fields to find Allan, she turned to read my T-shirt and then, much to my surprise, started talking to me about geocaching and extreme geocaches!

 

Turns out that she had grown up in southern West Virginia, and her father is an avid cacher; she has accompanied him on over 50 cache hunts. As we talked some more, she told me that she had gotten a job working at McMurdo Base in Antarctica for about 5 months last year, and that when she had traveled to Antarctica, she taken a travel bug with her as a favor to her dad and some local cachers from her home town, and she had then dropped the TB in one of the caches near McMurdo Base. We ended up trading caching stories for about twenty minutes!

 

Then, after I left the farm to head toward home, I decided to stop in the village of Shepherdstown to visit the bakery on the main street. It is a well-guarded secret that I have major addiction to apple struedel, and that bakery makes wonderful struedel. As I strolled down the street, still wearing my Psycho Urban Cache T-shirt, two women approached me, and after reading my shirt, asked me a bunch of questions about geocaching. We ended up talking for about ten minutes -- turned out one of the women was interested in getting into geocaching, and, even more importantly, she told me that she has a hyperactive young nephew who is having behavioral problems, and she is hoping that geocaching will be a useful sport and discipline for him.

 

Anyway, what stands out for me about the above tales is that it seems that geocaching is becoming more and more mainstream, and that more and more people, even muggles, know at least a bit about it! This is all very odd and unexpected!

 

Do you have any tales to share about unexpected meetings with geocachers in odd places?

 

Or any tales about folks approaching you in odd places to learn more about geocaching?

 

Thanks in advance for any of your anecdotes!

Edited May 28, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+DocDiTTo]

I was with 3 other Harrisburg, PA cachers running down in Maryland to hit a couple top caches there. While we were in whatever state park "Dark" is in, we ran into another Harrisburg caching family. Purely coincidence. Small world.

 

edit: can't type, need sleep.

Edited May 28, 2006 by DocDiTTo

[+Treasure Hunting Family]

We found out about geocaching and tried to learn how to do it. We set out for our first day and totally didn't figure it out haha. So we posted on a local board. There was a small park in a housing addition by us that had a cache. The owner said he would meet us and help us figure it out. So off we went to meet up. We were sitting there waiting for this mystery person and found out it was an old college buddy. He lived just a few blocks from us for years and geocaching brought us back together.

[+Lasagna]

So... how about when I was just getting into Geocaching and I was having a particularly difficult time with one specific cache so I decide to read the profile of the individual who placed it to see just "what kind" of warped individual this person might be .... click on the profile and up comes the picture of a co-worker who I work with on a daily basis. Absolutely no clue he was into Geocaching!

 

Of course, now that I was aware of his alter-ego, we've since gotten another co-worker into caching and now have redefined the meaning of "lunch hour" so that we can go caching just about every day at lunch.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Funny stories so far! Thanks!

[+Night Stalker]

We are getting new carpeting put in our house. when the individual who was supposed to measure for installation arrived he had a strange look on his face. The first words out of his mouth were "Do you know anything about geocaching". I introduced myself and we had a good laugh. It seems that he had been trying to find the cache that I had hidden in my front yard for quite a while.

 

Told him I needed a geocaching discount before I would help him find the cache though.

 

[+Miragee]

Not a meeting of other Geocachers in a really odd area, but this surprised me. I was on a road trip in Colorado looking for a cache and trying to be "casual" about my presence in that roadside area.

 

A couple walked by and said, "Coordinates are off."

 

Turns out they were also from California. We talked for a while and with a little "hot/cold" hint from them, I was able to find the cache.

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

This is one of our stories.

[+Wander Lost]

A while back we were at one of our monthly geoclub meetings, it was a bit farther north than we normally travel but it was on a weekend so we made the trip. I was chatting with another cacher when a face from the past walked into the room. An old college buddy that I don't think I had seen in 15 years or more came in with her family. We both just stood there for several seconds with our mouths hanging open in shock.

[+Totem Clan]

Before our move from Anchorage AK, back to the lower 48, we had been in contact with a cacher in the Juneau area via email. While in Juneau we went into a pizza parlor and the man behind resgister asked us if we were cachers. Come to find out, he was the husband of the cacher we had been talking with.

[+briansnat]

I found my first cache and not being familiar with the etiquitte, I signed my full name. A few weeks later I get an e-mail from the cache owner asking me if I was related to "X" and "Y" (not their real names). Well "X" is my father and "Y" is my brother.

 

Turns out that the owner was a retired police officer and served in the same town's dept. with my dad and brother, who are also retired police officers.

 

 

Another (this was 3 weeks ago)...

 

I was sitting in the bar of a posh, DC area hotel and at the table next to me was a group of about 10 executive types puffing on cigars and drinking scotch. I heard the word geocaching which piqued my interest in their conversation and I realized they were talking about a geocaching team building exercize they had recently experienced. The guy who seemed to be the head honcho turned to a younger guy and thanked him for coming up with the idea. I meant to ask the younger guy if he was a geocacher, but he was deeply involved in the conversation as it moved on to other subjects and left before I could approach him.

[+Katerbug]

Really enjoying the stories!

My only story is that the geocaching club that I'm a part of on campus came into being after I accidentally forgot I still had my etrex around my neck when I showed up at a party after a nice session of night caching. The second I walked into the room a guy approached me asking if I'd been the girl he'd seen earlier trying(and failing, I was a noob ) to look very inconspicuous while finding a geocache that was hidden downtown near a busy street.

[4wheelin_fool]

I was in a bar a few months ago and someone recognized me from 20 years before, which was unusual, since I was only 18 at the time(boy scouts). After a discussion about many different things, he was about to go and I asked if he heard about geocaching. It turns out that he had found a few of my caches, and we both recognized each others username! Another odd coincidence happened the following day, when I was in a nature center and got into a conversation with someone who was looking for a place to photograph birds. I mentioned geocaching, and it turns out that the person had hidden one of the oldest caches around (which someone else had since adopted). He had not visited the site in a few years and was not active anymore, but I recognized the cache and remembered his username. He was amazed at that fact, and the fact that it was still going! The following week I saw that he revisited his old cache. Both events were so unusual that I was hoping there would be more if I mentioned it more often, but there hasnt been.

[+zahadoom]

Well I just thought I'd add this topic ON whats happinging to geocaching, as myself only just got into it a month ago, but was around during the infantcy with an old e-trex.

 

Here in Southern Ontario Canada, this past week, geocaching was in the Paper 2 times in one week in The Sunday SUN "The 2nd/1st paper in Ontario".

 

Firstly on Sunday May 28th was in Barrie ONT. Kids had found a container "cache" and had taken it directly to the police station. The cop's then evacuated their station supposably and called in the bomb squad.

Even with the spin, it turned out to be a positive story, and no charges were laid, the paper took a positive spin on geocaching and even placed a cache of their own, with a easyly $400 dollar prize for the FTF.

 

Then secondly May 31st, Wednesday, Toronto, ONT. The story was published about the finder of the FTF prize and what he recieved, turned out to be the placer of the so called bomb from the sunday article.

Also he proceeded to place another cache, that was posted offically on Geocaching.com and was printed in the SUN, another positive spin article...

 

Im sure things like this are helping geocaching reach the muggles. I didn't even know about the articles, but people at work who had heard me talking about geocaching, were the ones informing me "Yeah that thing you do with that GPS, there's an article in the paper about it"

Edited June 5, 2006 by zahadoom

[+wimseyguy]

I've grown up with small world encounters being so common that I almost expect them. I have often wondered if anyone from parts of my past-school, work, activites, and organizations, is now an active cacher, but since we all have silly usernames it's almost impossible to ever know. I'm glad to see this thead started.

 

My small caching world experience started Thanksgiving '04. An out of town cacher visiting family here in NC was the FTF on a new hide of mine. Last week I went to Dallas for geowoodstock4, fully expecting to meet other cachers out and about town during the days before the event. I wasn't disappointed. About 12 hours after landing, and before we had even checked into the hotel, we came upon another crew who was already looking for the cache that we had just arrived at. Turns out they are from CA, and one of the group is blue iis, who was the visiting FTF'er on my cache 18 months ago.

[+briansnat]

Here is one more I thought of. I had worked for a major insurance company for 23 years. While there, I had planted a few caches nearby on my lunch hour or after work. I was laid off in Sept of 2002 and shortly after that I started seeing some finds on my caches by a pair of newbie geocachers. Eventually I received an e-mail from one of them asking me what my real name was. Turns out both were former co-workers who I was pretty friendly with. One had been on my bowling team and the other on my softball team. They picked up the game shortly after I received my walking papers.

[+Snoogans]

Even though I have lived in Texas for over 30 years, I still consider Mammoth Lakes, Ca. home. My family that still lives there are cachers.

 

I got an email from a cacher (Ace Flapperhacker) who had found a few of my caches and it turns out he has known my sister and exbrother-in-law for over 20 years. He also happens to be related to Grand High Poobah and I got to meet them both at GW4.

 

Another connection that many locals in Houston are just learning is that Lynn, CCCooper, is related to a local cache team here in Houston.

[+Team JSAM]

I have ran into geocacher twice out of the three FTF's I have thats part of the reason I like going after them even better when you beat them by only a few minutes.

[magellan315]

I was in Albequerque, NM on business, I live in Philadephia, PA, and rented a car on my one free day and headed out to the mountains to find some Geoaches. Towards the end of the day I was driving down from Sandia Crest and still had a travel bug. As I approached a parking lot I noticed that a pick up truck had "GPS" sticker on its bumper, I waited about 15 minutes until the owner came back. Handed off the Travel Bug and had a good laugh.

Edited June 5, 2006 by magellan315

[+LSUMonica]

Here's one that I know of...

 

I got involved in geocaching about 2 years ago and introduced it to some coworkers (surprisingly it was the girls that loved it and not the guys as much).

 

Earlier this year, a family friend (graduated with my younger brother) relocated here (Nashville, TN) temporarily after evacuating New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. While she was temporarily working out of our corporate offices in Nashville, I invited her to join a group of my geocaching friends on one of our weekly dinner outings. After dinner as we were heading home, she asked me about that activity we were talking about at dinner. So having my GPS with me, took her out to find a cache. Needless to say "Dimples" was hooked! She has now relocated to Nashville permanently and actually transferred to my department at work.

 

So now, she and one of my guy coworkers had to go to Boston for training with some other individuals from other divisions in our company. Their final night in Boston, the group splits up to do their own thing. One of the women (a newer employee) decides to head back to the hotel instead. Her boss asked her if she was okay finding her way back to the hotel alone -- she states that she's okay she has her GPSr with her.

 

Of course that pricks up both of my friends ears and one comments "She has a GPS?" Her boss then tries to explain she does some sort of hobby where "she finds things". At the same time both of my coworkers ask "Geocaching!?!" She happened to be a local cacher that just joined our company!

 

A funny story related to that is both of my co-workers have GPSrs but did they bring them on the trip? Nooooo! They have to call me (almost 1000 miles away) the evening before to tell them where they were! They had missed their exit and needed me to pull up MapSource to find a route to their restaurant destination in the North End! They won't live that one down for a while!!!

[+Jennifer&Dean]

Walking through Jackson Square last Saturday, Dean and I were asked by a couple who were walking by if there were any caches nearby. Since I've been working on and off in the New Orleans area since January, I was able to direct them towards the nearest 2. Turned out that they didn't have their GPS with them that morning, but were planning on caching some during their vacation. I know they are from PA and were a nice couple to run into, but didn't catch their name.

Funniest thing: as we walked away, Dean turns to me to ask a question and says "How did they know we were....... nevermind." We were both wearing our tech+nature shirts.

-J

[+paintfiction]

Me and some cacher friends (9 of us altogether) were out enjoying a dinner just the other day when someone walked up to our table and said: "are you geocachers?". All of our mouths dropped open.... it seems this was a newbie family who were out on their very first day of geocaching and just happened to stop for dinner at the same restaurant. They saw all the vehicles with GEO stickers and figured it had to be us as we were the only large group in the place. We had a great time welcoming them to geocaching.

[+Snoogans]

Yep. Just today.

[+BlueWaterVagabond]

Today i found myself on a bridge over the I-95 that was build souly for hiking and equestrian use, it also contains a cache. As i'm searching a car passing under starts honking like mad. A fellow cacher who knew the spot had spotted me making my best attempts at the cache.

[+briansnat]

OK, here is the opposite.

 

I was making a maint visit to one of my caches. It was about a 2 mile hike to a spot that isn't super popular. When my wife and I arrived at ground zero we saw a couple there standing about 10 feet from my cache. The guy was holding a GPS and they were both studying a sheet of paper looking somewhat confused.

 

Well I'm the kind of guy who can put 2 and 2 together, so I walked up and said, "geocaching?" figuring I'd help them out with a hint. They give me a quizzical look and the guy says "What's that?"

 

Turns out they were just hikers trying out their new GPS for the first time. The paper was a printout of a narrative of the hike. Now what were the chances of them NOT being geocachers .

Edited June 9, 2006 by briansnat

[+4HoundsBrewingCo]

Over Memorial Day weekend, the alewife and I were camping outside Grayling, MI at a State Forest Campground. On the way out to get ice, I passed a minivan parked near the entrance to the camp. I looked at the driver, something told me he looked familiar, and when he caught my eye he shouted my name. You know that awkward moment when you see your high school english teacher at the mall and don't recognize them because they are out of context? Well the guy in the minivan was a good friend of mine and the guy that got me started geocaching (Husker). He and his son were on a cache run from Oscoda to Traverse City and had stopped to get a bearing on a nearby cache. Well I am happy to say I was able to derail him with the offer of cold draft homebrewed beer back at the campsite.

 

Cheers!

 

4HoundsBrewing

 

edit to include the illustrious Husker tag

Edited June 9, 2006 by 4HoundsBrewingCo

[+paintfiction]

OK, here is the opposite.

 

I was making a maint visit to one of my caches. It was about a 2 mile hike to a spot that isn't super popular. When my wife and I arrived at ground zero we saw a couple there standing about 10 feet from my cache. The guy was holding a GPS and they were both studying a sheet of paper looking somewhat confused.

 

Well I'm the kind of guy who can put 2 and 2 together, so I walked up and said, "geocaching?" figuring I'd help them out with a hint. They give me a quizzical look and the guy says "What's that?"

 

Turns out they were just hikers trying out their new GPS for the first time. The paper was a printout of a narrative of the hike. Now what were the chances of them NOT being geocachers .

 

I trust you took a moment to do a little evangelizing?

[GoldenDaze]

A few months ago I was flying from San Diego to Washington DC, with a stopover in Dallas. My San Diego flight was delayed, to the point that we missed the connection, the last one of the day. The guy at the ticket counter was re-booking us for the next day, noticed my GC.com hat, and said "Hey, nice hat. What's your geocaching name? Okay, I've upgraded the 4 of you to first class for tomorrow."

[+Thrak]

I went to a birthday party for my wife's older brother. It's in a town maybe an hour away. I mentioned that I had been hiking all morning and he asked my what that was about so I said I'd been Geocaching. I expected the normal quizzical look and thought I'd have to explain to yet another person who would think I was nuts. Instead he just said, "Oh! Geocaching. Talk to him." and pointed to some guy I didn't know. Turns out he's a very well known local geocacher who's caching name I had heard and seen in logs.

 

Better than that though was a log on a cache I did while traveling. I went from CA to OR to ID to MT to WY to NV and back to CA. I did a few caches here and there along the route. One that I did was in Nevada. The log following mine was entered by folks I know from home and says:

 

October 1, 2005 by rock&crystal (3886 found)

This was a nice hide with a surprising view... who'd have guessed there's a river there. A little creepy for us as the sun had gone down, but still warm enough to be snakey. What a surprise it was to find CA neighbor Thrak had been here a day or so ago! Small world! Thanks for the hunt, Rock&Crystal

Edited June 9, 2006 by Thrak

[+wimseyguy]

Walking through Jackson Square last Saturday, Dean and I were asked by a couple who were walking by if there were any caches nearby. Since I've been working on and off in the New Orleans area since January, I was able to direct them towards the nearest 2. Turned out that they didn't have their GPS with them that morning, but were planning on caching some during their vacation. I know they are from PA and were a nice couple to run into, but didn't catch their name.

Funniest thing: as we walked away, Dean turns to me to ask a question and says "How did they know we were....... nevermind." We were both wearing our tech+nature shirts.

-J

Good thing you were there, as the nearest cache is down an alley is too narrow to get any signal anyways.

[+boda]

I had less than 20 caches and was hiking/caching with friends in the desert south of Palm Springs, CA. 113 degrees, but a dry heat. Stopped at a cache on the way back to find a travel bug that wanted to return to Tennesee. My friends were going to TN in two weeks so I picked up the TB (my first) and we agreed that we would trade at a future cache so they could tak it with them.

 

When I checked the TB log the previous cacher had left a note saying that they didn't remember where they put the TB, but would the next finder please email the owner to let them know it was still in circulation. I did that and mentioned that it would be on the way back to TN as per their wishes.

 

I got an answer back thanking me. My email address is my name. The TB owner noticed it and emailed me back asking if I was the same person they were stationed with in the Air Force in 1966. Yup, I was. That's only 40 years.

[medoug]

My brother and I had just started caching with only 3 finds under our belt. At a family reunion we mentioned that we discovered this cool new hobby to a few of our relatives. We noticed that our uncle silently walked to his car and returned with his GPSr and a 3-ring binder full of geocache listings that he had found and planned to find. It seemed that we independently discovered the same hobby.

 

medoug.