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Ain't it just too cool, the things ...


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...that come to one as a result of participating in an online activity such as Waymarking?

 

1: - I just sent off an email to a cousin of mine, whom I discovered through Waymarking. I had, a few months ago, approved a Waymark from a Waymarker in Finland, noting in the private message space that I believed that I had ancestors who had emigrated from the area from which the Waymark originated. After the exchange of a couple of emails it transpired that he and I were directly related, not once but twice through two different lineages of his family. We turned out to be fifth cousins once removed and sixth cousins once removed.

 

I thought that to be, and still think that to be, just TOO COOL! Now we correspond regularly, apprising each other of the current goings on in our little corners of Finland and Canada. This particular example of Tool Cool is a major perk of being a category officer, BTW.

 

2: - I now have a good friend in France. I no longer recall exactly how it was that we initially came into contact, but it also may have been the result of our being category managers or officers. Now we too converse regularly, keeping each other apprised of the news of our daily lives, albeit sometimes quite pedestrian and mundane. Admittedly, not every day in the life of a Waymarker is noteworthy. At least not in the life of this Waymarker.

 

3: - Just last week I received an email from a published writer here in British Columbia asking if she might use photos of, believe it or not, Benchmarks I had submitted to Waymarking. Though her previously published works have been of a nautical/seafaring bent, her present work in progress is to feature --- --- wait for it --- --- Benchmarks, manhole covers and other items of historical interest one might encounter while looking down in the province of British Columbia. Her intention is to use many of the Benchmarks I have had approved in the province, as well as many other items, in the compilation of a book to be entitled At Ground Level. The name should be self explanatory.

 

This is not the first time that I've received requests for permission to use my photos in a magazine spread, pamphlet, travel guide, or even a book. It is, however, the first time I've received a request for the use of many photos from many Waymarks, as well as other information contained therein. Again, just Too Cool!

 

So, what has Waymarking given back to you?

I'd like to hear your stories of the unexpected and the barely believable.

 

Keith

Edited by ScroogieII
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Thanks for the upvotes, folks, but this wasn't intended to be a soliloquy.

What?!?!?! Has everyone left the room? Does no one have a "story of the unexpected or the barely believable"?

 

So, what has Waymarking given back to you?

 

Edited by ScroogieII
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Waymarking has brought me a new true friend across the Atlantic, and I hope the pandemic won't prevent me from actually going to meet him.
Thanks to Waymarking, I discovered new contacts from all over the world, and thanks to them I discovered places that I did not know.

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On 6/6/2021 at 6:19 AM, Becktracker said:

Just driving and walking through the landscape, noting that everything has a history and a story behind it. Were before I just would have driven past, now I remark all these little places and this gives me a whole new dimension to the outside space I didn't know before.

 

14 hours ago, The Snowdog said:

I have a few "remote" acquaintances now through Waymarking. Might meet one or two of them someday. But mostly Waymarking (and geocaching and benchmarking) takes me to interesting places that I would not have otherwise visited, and I really enjoy that.

 

These two have managed to capture The Essence of Waymarking - a newfound appreciation for our surroundings. Along with that comes the insatiable desire to trek ever further afield, to learn just what is over that next mountain. The people we meet along the way, whether on the road or while at our desks, are simply beautiful bonuses.

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Since we've started with Waymarking last autumn, we learned a lot more about our own town, which we are living in for 22 years now. Sure, the great attractions like the world heritage Castle Augustusburg, the Max-Ernst-Museum and some of the buildings on the local monument list were already known, but we didn't take a look at the other buildings in the town and also didn't know about the history of them. Posting a waymark required us to investigate further on the (old) buildings and things we had seen during our walks through the city thus giving us a new (historic) point of view on our town.

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Ain't it just too cool, the things we found by accident...

Most of these were found by making a wrong turn or went way out of our way.

 

Zortman, Montana We went from Billings north just to find a "Z" Welcome sign round trip 330 miles. It was a Sunday and returned to Billings to find a Foucault Pendulum

 

Wrong turns = Happy Accidents: Junk Design House We were just driving by and found this interesting yard.

Next stop , I think was the most surprising as we never expected to ever find a Red Telephone Box Wrong turn (one block before our planned turn.)

 

Electric Palm Trees This is something we had come to believe that we would never find. After five years of searching we stumbled upon this palm grove purely by chance.

 

 

 

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Well, I can't add a stunning story like the initial ones, but:
Together with Mrs. PISA and my brother we made a one-day bus tour to an icecream factory. On the way we made a stop in "Kirchschlag in der Buckligen Welt". The group of around 40 people walked through the small town and on the way I discovered a beautiful chronogram. We were in the middle of the group and of course I stopped to take pictures of it. I told my brother, that this was a chronogram and how it works. A woman of our group who was (estimated) 10-15 years older than me, also stopped to see why I was taking photos. So I explained it to her also. It was surprising to me that somebody of my age (or older) wasn't familiar with chronograms. I thought that everybody of my generation knows them. Anyway, this story shows, that information, interest, etc. about old things can be spread even to people who have never heard of Waymarking and will most likely never use it.

 

And talking about finding waymarks by accident:
Mrs. PISA and me sometimes make a small tour through our hometown Vienna, to find some geocaches and new waymarks. One day, the weather was great, so I grabbed my camera and we visited some geocaches and I took a few photos for new waymarks. After quite some time, we were starting to get tired and decided to go home now. We were between two tram stations, and although one of them was closer to us, we decided to walk to the other one. We walked through an area that we usually only pass within a tram and suddenly we stumbled over "Eh da". I never expected to find a waymark for that category in my hometown, but a few days later I learned that there is a similar one (even closer to where we live), but I will leave that for other waymarkers.

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9 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

It was surprising to me that somebody of my age (or older) wasn't familiar with chronograms. I thought that everybody of my generation knows them.

 

And, if I recall, you didn't find many, or even any, in the Waymarking community who knew of them. Yovrs trvly is in that grovp, and YOU KNOW from whence came his only svbmission to that category. Thanks again, Andreas!

Keith

Edited by ScroogieII
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9 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

Anyway, this story shows, that information, interest, etc. about old things can be spread even to people who have never heard of Waymarking and will most likely never use it.

 

How true! When we were about to embark on a Waymarking adventure we would often spend days, weeks, even months researching everything possible along our intended route. Upon arriving in a town, standing around on Main Street taking pix of historic buildings, etc., we would occasionally be approached by one of the natives, asking what we were doing, and why we were doing it.

 

As often as not, our response would contain information on the object in question that the local was unaware of, and they had lived there their entire life.

Keith

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On 6/8/2021 at 1:12 PM, ScroogieII said:

As often as not, our response would contain information on the object in question that the local was unaware of, and they had lived there their entire life.

Keith

 

And the opposite! I was photographing an old country church in Kansas (which became WM12RXN) when an old fellow pulled up to check on us. We got to chatting and found that he (among many others) had helped construct the addition on that building right after they all got out of the service after WWII. He knew the full history of the church (his parents had helped build it, over a century ago) and had lots of stories to tell and I wish I could have stayed more than the hour that we did.

Edited by The Snowdog
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16 hours ago, The Snowdog said:

 

And the opposite! I was photographing an old country church in Kansas (which became WM12RXN) when an old fellow pulled up to check on us. We got to chatting and found that he (among many others) had helped construct the addition on that building right after they all got out of the service after WWII. He knew the full history of the church (his parents had helped build it, over a century ago) and had lots of stories to tell and I wish I could have stayed more than the hour that we did.

 

And some days are gold...

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Another story about a coincidental find: Today Mrs. PISA and I were visiting a fleamarket of a church. We had almost not done, because it was raining every now and then, but then the sun came out, and we gave it a try. On the fleamarket, I didn't find anything of interest and Mrs. PISA two nice (but IMHO overprized) books. I was a little disappointed, but there's a nice bakery close to the church, called "Zuckerkringel":

 

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I've never been in it, but Mrs. PISA has and she told me that their cakes and cookies are delicious. So, we decided to go in and buy something, when suddenly I noticed this:

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We walked in and asked about the little blue door on the outside and the seller told us, that she sometimes organizes courses where children learn to bake cookies and the little door is for her "helper", a small dwarf. And she told us, that on the other side of the wall, there's another door:

 

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As soon as the photos were taken and the cake was bought, we left and I checked the category "Wee Folk Fairy Doors". There were no waymarks in that category in Austria and it also included gnomes, dwarfs etc. Sooooo, I have never seen such a door in person and I will have the first waymark in that category in Austria. WooooooHooooooo!!! :D

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On 6/11/2021 at 9:03 AM, PISA-caching said:

There were no waymarks in that category in Austria and it also included gnomes, dwarfs etc. Sooooo, I have never seen such a door in person and I will have the first waymark in that category in Austria. WooooooHooooooo!!! :D

 

I repeat - ... ... And some days are gold.

Helluva Find indeed!

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