+Choachy Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 I mentioned my plan several months ago here, but yesterday was the day! -------- I put Operation Ball N' Chain into action yesterday. Here's how it went down. We're not hardcore geocachers by any means, but when we get time to get out, we thoroughly enjoy it. Well I thought, what a nice way to propose. I got with some friends, and encouraged them to bring up the fact that we should go hiking Monday morning(yesterday). My (now)fiance is all into the idea and excited, so I tell her I'll take the day off. I wake up Monday morning, get an ammo box from a friend, and begin filling it. I fill the bottom with a dozen worth of rose petals, then I place 2 beanie babies in the bottom that look like little bride and grooms, wearing their dress and tux. Then I place one last rose in their laps, and put a wedding picture frame in with them, and a picture of us along with a card, that I wrote a nice message in. I left early yesterday morning, headed out to a nice spot on the trail that overlooks the water, took my GPS, and planted the cache. I recorded the coordinates to the 'fake location'. Also the night before I saved, edited, and printed out a fake page that was identical to those that I printed out to go along with the surprise. I told her we would do 2 or 3 caches that day. I planted hints all over the page, but she never caught any of them. If she had decrypted the clue, it would have given it all away, but I took that risk, and she didnt. So I go to at about 11 am to pick her up. By the time I get there, Ive already had the friends who were going with us call and cancel. So its just us. We head out there. We're following the gps as it leads us out there. We get to the spot and I say its right in this area, but she is determined that its on the opposite side! Using some quick thinking, I encourage her to come to where I am, and look, and she finally finds it! She had asked me earlier why my backpack was so full. I told her it was because I had my raincoat in there. She didnt fully buy it. As she grabbed the cache, I opened my pack, and layed out a blanket on the ground. Which we later found to be on an ant hill. DOH! She sits down, opens the cache, and smiles, and says "I think you had something to do with this". She pulls the items out one by one, reads the card, looks at the picture and frame. Then I look at her, and say "You should probably stand up now". Then as I began to tear up I pulled the ring out of my pocket kneeling on the sharp rock in my knee, and I dont even remember what I said, but it was short and to the point. Thats what the card was for! And she said YES! We stayed there for a little while, then headed back to the car. I had one more surprise for her. We went to see her family, and my family. Then I told her that we were going to dinner, and I wouldnt tell her where. We change clothes, and leave, and when we get there, I tell her to cover her eyes. What she couldnt understand is why I let her see the place, then cover her eyes. I'll explain that in a second. We arrive at a place called Tony's Pasta Shop that is in a museum district overlooking a bluff view of the river. We've been there before, and its a small quaint place, and very yummy! When we arrived, the hostess leads us upstairs to the dining room, and sitting at a long table are 9 of our closest friends that I arranged to join us. Thats why I had her close her eyes, so she wouldnt see their cars, . It made me so happy to have them all there for dinner and to enjoy that day with us. The restaurant doesnt stock champagne(only wine) so I had some taken there earlier in the day and chilled until dinner, when they brought it out for a nice toast. And of course I wanted to foot the bill for everyone, and to my surprise it wasnt too bad for 11 people, champagne, and desserts! It was well worth it to have all of our friends with us. Needless to say, Im a happy man! My time, your time is limited, but time itself is unlimited. Quote Link to comment
+cachew nut Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Choachy:Needless to say, Im a happy man! Yeah well you're still young. How about posting the fake cache page on the web so that we all can see it? Oh yeah, congratulations, kiss the bride for me. Quote Link to comment
+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Choachy: Needless to say, Im a happy man! Some of us older people are happy too. Congratulations Sheesh, I need the box of kleenex. Quote Link to comment
+Huntnlady Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 A romantic! Yes, please let us see the fake cache page. Could I place it and your story on my cache web site? That is so wonderful. Deer laugh when they hear my name! http://www.geocities.com/cacheinon Quote Link to comment
+AmericanSpirit Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Glad to hear that worked out for you. Tried something like that myself, the cache had a little switch that would trigger a one of those digital voice recording chips from radioshack saying will you marry me, and a device to raise up the ring when the cache was opened. Unfortunatly she got mad during the hike and after some colorful words on how she really hated hiking etc...the hunt was terminated. Of course stupid me had put the ring in the cache so the whole day i was paranoid till i could retrieve it. Ended up taking her to dinner in philly and phantom of the opera. Best Luck Phil Quote Link to comment
+Choachy Posted June 3, 2003 Author Share Posted June 3, 2003 Yes, Im at work now and had intended to post the cache page I made. I'd be glad to let everyone see it. Huntlady, sure you can! I'd be honored for you include this story on your page. AmericanSpririt...wow! What an engineering marvel, only to have it fizzle out like that. I too was very paranoid about the ring, so I just kept it in my pocket. I'll get the cache page posted asap. It was my original intention to leave the cache, and try to make it an official geocache affiliated one, but there is already a cache very close by which I enjoyed so much a while back, and introduced me to this beautiful spot. My time, your time is limited, but time itself is unlimited. Quote Link to comment
+opey one Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 How sweet! And I'm not being sarcastic. Congrats to you and the soon to be wifey! Ah! The beauty of Geocaching Quote Link to comment
Northern-Lights Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Congrats!! My bride and I have been married for 21 years now.....and it get better every year!! Hope you have a long and happy marriage!! If God is your co-pilot, it's time to change seats!!! Quote Link to comment
+DustyJacket Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Good job. You put a lot into all that. I didn't do 1/10 of that stuff when I got engaged...... DustyJacket Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case... Quote Link to comment
+smithdw Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 That was cool. Congratulations. "The best way to accelerate a Macintosh is at 9.8m/sec/sec." -Marcus Dolengo Quote Link to comment
+Brian - Team A.I. Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Tickets to the honeymoon in another cache, perhaps? Give her a 'gift' at the wedding with the coords to another location where the tickets can be located. Brian Team A.I. Quote Link to comment
+Dread Pirate Roberts' Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 *sniffle* That was really sweet. She is one lucky lady! Quote Link to comment
+GeoFrake's Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Congratulations! I hope you and your bride to be have a wonderful life together. Sure wish I had thought of something like that. Quote Link to comment
+TMAN264 Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Very cool! I recently announced our pregnancy by filling an ammo can full of diapers, and gave it to my folks telling them I thouhgt the cache contents were innapproprite! Congrats to you, I have been married 9 months, and love it (except that she doesn't like geocaching!). Make a sanity check. Quote Link to comment
SquirrelGPS Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 That is such a cool story!! How great for you and for her. I need a kleenex now. You guys will remember that one forever. Squirrel - Sherri Quote Link to comment
+Choachy Posted June 4, 2003 Author Share Posted June 4, 2003 Ive posted the cache page that I used as the 'fake'. Before I give the address, I want to thank and give credit to Carolina Moon(and the boys) for use of their page, and partial page content. Their cache which was what led me to this nice spot is here: The Enchanted Forest of Bartlegaugh. Ive posted the page I used here: Enchanted Forest cache page. As I mentioned earlier, I planted hints all throughout the page, but were probably so vague she would have never noticed. I even read the description to her on the trail as we were walking. The only real give away would have been the Additional Hint being decrypted. The link to decrypt the Hint does work on my page. The little hints and changes: After changing the coords to the spot where I planted the cache, I changed the cache ID to her future initials and birth year The name(cache owner) Tiridan Palm is an old joke that she didnt catch on to Vague but section about heart, imagination, and dreams Vague again, but the section about 2 paths crossing to become one, and happiness And definitely the Encrypted Hint. And lastly, the difficulty...this was definitely worth 4 stars. My time, your time is limited, but time itself is unlimited. Quote Link to comment
+RobRee Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 great job. i think the whole thing was cool. esp the parts you doctored to make it look real! great job all around. congratulations on your future together. 13 years and still happy! robbie A family that Geocaches together... eventually gets wet. required reading My first bible Quote Link to comment
+joefrog Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Excellent job, and congrats! Looks like the preparation paid off for you! Joel (joefrog) "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for ye are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!" Quote Link to comment
solohiker Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Congratulations! How about posting your Bride's picture as your Avatar. You know she isn't going to let you keep that ugly dog. You are young now... some of us stay young. Good Job. Quote Link to comment
+Choachy Posted June 4, 2003 Author Share Posted June 4, 2003 HAHA! That ugly dog is actually hers! Yes, it was made very clear to me that she comes as a package deal. Its either both of them, or neither! So yes, Im inheriting a 99 pound yellow lab. But he is awesome, so I dont mind. Im going to post some pics of what the cache looked like tomorrow, and if you're all lucky, a picture of myself and my beautiful fiance. Well you can at least cover me up. Oh, and Brian, thats a good idea about the Honeymoon tickets in another cache!! My time, your time is limited, but time itself is unlimited. Quote Link to comment
+Huntnlady Posted June 5, 2003 Share Posted June 5, 2003 Okay, I've got the story up on my web site. Choachy, you can email me if you want some editing done on it.- Huntnlady Geocache Proposal Deer laugh when they hear my name! http://www.geocities.com/cacheinon Quote Link to comment
+Kouros Posted June 5, 2003 Share Posted June 5, 2003 Jolly good for you, and a fantastic story to boot! Well done! ------ An it harm none, do what ye will Quote Link to comment
+mornin'glory Posted June 5, 2003 Share Posted June 5, 2003 too cool! you're invites could be cache pages. congrats to all three of you! Click to subscribe to ozmtngeocachers if you cache it, they will come. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.