+Glorfindel Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 This thread is dedicated to horror stories of trying to hit an "easy, quick" cache on your lunch break. I was headed to a local cache that was posted a few days ago very near my house and work. There were about 6 logs of guys saying stuff like, "No Problem" and "Found this in under 6 minutes." So I think this sounds like a fun lunch break with my wife and son. We are getting ready to head out and I start changing my shoes. My wife says, "Come on. This one will be easy. You don't have time." Against my better judgement I listened. We get to the spot and my heart sinks as it is one of those hellish spots will no less than 24 perfect hiding spots. Plus this is an area where there are lots of 6 foot tall reeds and where they are laying down it creates even more hide spots. Well needless to say I thrashed around for about an hour, slipped down the creek bank in the mud, fell in the creek (in the work shoes I did not change), stabbed my arms and head a dozen time on a freaking thorn tree, and still did not find the cache!!! I know there are hundreds of stories just like this. Let's hear yours. Quote Link to comment
+Markwell Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 Actually, just did two on my lunch hours in the past week. Although people did look at me funny today when I came back with little thistle seeds all over my dress pants. Markwell Chicago Geocaching Quote Link to comment
+Markwell Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 Actually, just did two on my lunch hours in the past week. Although people did look at me funny today when I came back with little thistle seeds all over my dress pants. Markwell Chicago Geocaching Quote Link to comment
+Metaphor Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 Hey, I work in a public school. What's this concept of a "lunch hour" you guys are talking about? My contract says I'm guaranteed a "twenty minute lunch duty-free period." Do other professions give their employees a whole hour? How do you fill the other forty minutes, especially if the nearest geocache is more than that away? "All of us are standing in the mud, but some of us are looking at the stars." Oscar Wilde Quote Link to comment
+ApK Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Glorfindel:_This thread is dedicated to horror stories of trying to hit an "easy, quick" cache on your lunch break._ No problems on lunch so far. In fact, during a training class a few months ago, the instructor and I went and hit a cache at lunch! The (female) instructor wondered how she'd explain geocaching if anyone saw us coming out of the brush together. ApK Quote Link to comment
+ApK Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Glorfindel:_This thread is dedicated to horror stories of trying to hit an "easy, quick" cache on your lunch break._ No problems on lunch so far. In fact, during a training class a few months ago, the instructor and I went and hit a cache at lunch! The (female) instructor wondered how she'd explain geocaching if anyone saw us coming out of the brush together. ApK Quote Link to comment
+Planet Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 I make my own hours, but my hours are not always my own. Lunch is whenever I get hungry and/or have time. Any caches close enough to visit on a lunch hour around here are going to have to be placed by me. Most are, at the very least, 20 minutes away, and when I plan a cache trip I like it to be a good long time away from the office amd out of town. I did do an afternoon cache with a neophyte yesterday, that went pretty quick. Easy terrain, difficult find, out before sundown. She found it first, as did her sister when I too her out for a first cache. My favorite way to go is more than one cache in a day. Cache you later, Planet Quote Link to comment
+lohroffc Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Metaphor:Hey, I work in a public school. What's this concept of a "lunch hour" you guys are talking about? My contract says I'm guaranteed a "twenty minute lunch duty-free period." Do other professions give their employees a whole hour? How do you fill the other forty minutes, especially if the nearest geocache is more than that away? Perhaps you'll have to do your caching during your 2 week Christmas break or the 12 weeks you get off during the summer... My first lunch time attempt was quite unsuccessful. I went for a 2/2.5 (my first mistake). I spent an hour in the woods and got lost. I returned to work 45 minutes late and quite sweaty. My shoes and pants were also a mess. No matter. I'll be heading back out tomorrow to the same spot to see if I have better luck. dyslexics of the world, untie. Quote Link to comment
+lohroffc Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Metaphor:Hey, I work in a public school. What's this concept of a "lunch hour" you guys are talking about? My contract says I'm guaranteed a "twenty minute lunch duty-free period." Do other professions give their employees a whole hour? How do you fill the other forty minutes, especially if the nearest geocache is more than that away? Perhaps you'll have to do your caching during your 2 week Christmas break or the 12 weeks you get off during the summer... My first lunch time attempt was quite unsuccessful. I went for a 2/2.5 (my first mistake). I spent an hour in the woods and got lost. I returned to work 45 minutes late and quite sweaty. My shoes and pants were also a mess. No matter. I'll be heading back out tomorrow to the same spot to see if I have better luck. dyslexics of the world, untie. Quote Link to comment
Radman Forever Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 How bout a story for a few beginners. We drive as close as we could to this cache. We were just a mile away from it and thought we'd walk up to it, find it, and leave. Well, we have my inexperienced friend leading us through brush, swamp, and fallen trees. We finally get to the cache finding out that we could've driven as close as a tenth of a mile up to it. And then we couldn't back track to our car! We spent 3 hours wandering in the woods while I tried backtracking with my GPS 315 and we finally made it back to my car. What turned from a big day of geocaching turned into a nightmare, and now two of my friends don't want to do this anymore! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! [This message was edited by Christopher A. F. Randolph on September 24, 2002 at 07:41 PM.] Quote Link to comment
+OzzieSan Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 And one on the way to work this morning. mmmmmm lunch hour! Quote Link to comment
+Glorfindel Posted September 24, 2002 Author Share Posted September 24, 2002 Just thought I would post the finale to my opening post. I headed back under cover of darkness this evening with my mag-lite in hand and a good idea of where not to look. Snagged the cache in about 5 minutes leaving me time to go hit another. Night caching is great! Quote Link to comment
+Glorfindel Posted September 24, 2002 Author Share Posted September 24, 2002 Just thought I would post the finale to my opening post. I headed back under cover of darkness this evening with my mag-lite in hand and a good idea of where not to look. Snagged the cache in about 5 minutes leaving me time to go hit another. Night caching is great! Quote Link to comment
BassoonPilot Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 I've done many caches on the way to, between, or on my way home from work wearing my tuxedo and wingtips ... only ever got dirty once. The hardest one I did dressed like that was a 2.5/3. It was a 1/1 that got me dirty, and happily I was on the way home. Quote Link to comment
BassoonPilot Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 I've done many caches on the way to, between, or on my way home from work wearing my tuxedo and wingtips ... only ever got dirty once. The hardest one I did dressed like that was a 2.5/3. It was a 1/1 that got me dirty, and happily I was on the way home. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 I did several lunch hour caches. We'd officially get 40 mins for lunch, but since the job often involved staying late and after hours support, nobody said a word if you were gone an hour or more, as long as you did your work. The first few times I made the mistake of wearing nice shoes and khakis. I had to go back to work and wipe the mud off my shoes and as much of it as possible off my pants. After a while I learned my lesson and if I was planning on going for a cache that day, I'd wear jeans and more casual shoes. Luckily we had a very relaxed dress code. Being in IT, our office never had to deal with the public, or I don't think I could have gotten away with the jeans. Returning to my desk, dripping with sweat and mud on my clothes did get me some odd looks from my co-workers. Quote Link to comment
+CYBret Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 Within a week of buying my GPS, a co-worker and I took off to try to find a cache in a local park. Well, we searched well beyond our lunch hour, and ultimately discovered that the cache had been temporarily removed by the owner (btw, this even lead to the big red "cache temporarily disabled" notices on the cache pages). A couple weeks ago the same co-worker and I took off to do a couple "quick" micros in some area parks. We got back about 2 and a half hours later. Thankfully our hours are pretty flexable and we definitely make up for at other times. And it doesn't hurt that this co-worker is our staff administrator. Who's he going to complain to about my long lunch hours?!?! Bret "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44 Quote Link to comment
+CYBret Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 Within a week of buying my GPS, a co-worker and I took off to try to find a cache in a local park. Well, we searched well beyond our lunch hour, and ultimately discovered that the cache had been temporarily removed by the owner (btw, this even lead to the big red "cache temporarily disabled" notices on the cache pages). A couple weeks ago the same co-worker and I took off to do a couple "quick" micros in some area parks. We got back about 2 and a half hours later. Thankfully our hours are pretty flexable and we definitely make up for at other times. And it doesn't hurt that this co-worker is our staff administrator. Who's he going to complain to about my long lunch hours?!?! Bret "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44 Quote Link to comment
+CYBret Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 Within a week of buying my GPS, a co-worker and I took off to try to find a cache in a local park. Well, we searched well beyond our lunch hour, and ultimately discovered that the cache had been temporarily removed by the owner (btw, this even lead to the big red "cache temporarily disabled" notices on the cache pages). A couple weeks ago the same co-worker and I took off to do a couple "quick" micros in some area parks. We got back about 2 and a half hours later. Thankfully our hours are pretty flexable and we definitely make up for at other times. And it doesn't hurt that this co-worker is our staff administrator. Who's he going to complain to about my long lunch hours?!?! Bret "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44 Quote Link to comment
+Genius Loci Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 Scoring a cache find during lunch hour is a secret joy. It's got all the aspects of regular hunting, plus the extra thrills of trying to finish in a limited time on 'the sly'. In a way, it almost feels like a tryst (am I hooked, or what?). Actually, one of my fellow employees is also a fairly active cacher. Although she's gone on one or two nearby lunchtime hunts, the further ones don't seem to tempt her. But, she can always guess what I've been up to if I sacrifice my lunchtime meal to go caching alone. I think she spotted the burrs on my pants and shirtsleeves last time. Plus, we've actually managed to introduce geocaching to another fellow employee by taking her on a lunchtime hunt. Now, if we could just get the boss to go... Quote Link to comment
mortonfox Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 My only mistake was in trying to fit a cache that was a 40-minute drive away into a lunch hour. I had lots of fun though and even met another cacher at the cache site. Quote Link to comment
Attila Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 It gets pretty hot here in the summer, and so I try to drive as close to the cache as possible during lunch excursions. On one particular cache, I thought that I could take my Jeep up a dry wash to about 100 yards from the cache. I wound up getting it buried to the frame in loose sand. There was no place to hook the winch, so I jacked it up and carried every rock within 50 yards to shove under the tires. Once I got going again, I forgot about the cache and hurried back to the office. 2 hour lunch, sandy, sweaty, hot. My boss just shook his head and passed it off as another one of my kooky hobbies. Quote Link to comment
+barondriver Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 A cacher who did one of my caches recently told me this story. He is a postman and decided to find one that I had placed since it was close to his route. He drove the mailtruck up to the parking area and darted out to get this quikie. On the way back, he notices 2 cop cars parked by his truck...seems that the local police helicopter saw him pull into to the lake and jump out and head quickly toward the cache and had called him in..he got to give the local cops a quick lesson on Geocaching as proof so they'd let him go. Quote Link to comment
+LaPaglia Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 Caching at lunchtime? would that be a Geo-nooner? Lapaglia "Muga Muchu" (forget yourself, focus). Quote Link to comment
+LaPaglia Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 Caching at lunchtime? would that be a Geo-nooner? Lapaglia "Muga Muchu" (forget yourself, focus). Quote Link to comment
stlthy1 Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 42 and retired I can do lunch 24/7 HAHAHA Quote Link to comment
stlthy1 Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 42 and retired I can do lunch 24/7 HAHAHA Quote Link to comment
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