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Park Weirdos


9Key

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If you've found more than a couple of caches you've probably encountered "Park Weirdos". These humans(?) differ from your co-workers and relatives in that PWs can be found in any park in the world, at any time of day.

 

While geocachers might be classified PWs by other park visitors, we all know that we're perfectly normal. Right?! [:lol:]

 

Over the next few weeks we'll examine a few of the common types of Park Weirdos, as observed by 9Key.

 

Week 1:

 

* Parking Lot Staring Guy - this PW is the most common type. They sit in their car and stare at nothing and everything, all at once. Normally, their car windows are up even though its hot oustide. As you drive in, park, and exit your vehicle the PLSG will never glance, wave, smile, or otherwise acknowledge your presence.

 

It is likely that after encountering a PLSG you will return to your car to verify that you locked the doors. Still, the nagging thought that they might *not* be locked will haunt you the whole time of your cache hunt.

 

Until next week! [:o]

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Yes, Yes I HAVE seen one. Just yesterday while I was in NJ doing a few caches there was a guy. He wasn't in his car though, he was standing next to it looking into through binoculars. Now this wasn't a park parking lot it was behind a grocery store where there is access to parklands. At first I figured he was bird watching. But that didn't make sense, why not just go into the park for that. And as I walked past him I took notice as to the direction he was looking. Now I can't be positive about this but I'm 90% sure he was trying to look in someones window in a condo complex next to the park. I think this qualifies as PLSG as well as a few other categories.

 

Can we talk about MATTS next? (Man Alone Talking To Squirrels)

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How about the aimless loiterer? You know the type... They stand there, and move about a very small area, occasionally shooting an intent stare at you. They never leave the small area (usually less than 50' square) and it invariably is right where you need to be to retrieve the cache.

Aimless loiterer... thats can be me, when I'm waiting the muggles to leave the site so I can go for the cache. :lol:

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* Parking Lot Staring Guy - this PW is the most common type. They sit in their car and stare at nothing and everything, all at once.

Yeah....I saw one. He cupped his chin between thumb and index finger. It made me think I'd almost caught him picking his nose. It's best not to make eye contact. :lol:

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* Parking Lot Staring Guy - this PW is the most common type. They sit in their car and stare at nothing and everything, all at once. Normally, their car windows are up even though its hot oustide. As you drive in, park, and exit your vehicle the PLSG will never glance, wave, smile, or otherwise acknowledge your presence.

 

Should we specify which way he has parked? Cause if he backed into that parking space................

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I haven't encountered many PW's but I have encountered many PPWB or Park Police wanna be's. The people that see you exiting bushes from the cache and give a judgmental stare and hurry along down the path to call the police because they are so sure you're doing something wrong back there. PPWB tend to be mothers in either a mini van or SUV with the soccer ball sticker on the back that is almost the size of a real soccer ball.

 

The ones I encounter more than anyother are LOG's or Lonely Old guys. You do a polite exchange of "hi there" or "hows it going" and 20 mins later your still inching away trying to detach yourself from the LOG's ramblings.

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I haven't encountered many PW's but I have encountered many PPWB or Park Police wanna be's. The people that see you exiting bushes from the cache and give a judgmental stare and hurry along down the path to call the police because they are so sure you're doing something wrong back there. PPWB tend to be mothers in either a mini van or SUV with the soccer ball sticker on the back that is almost the size of a real soccer ball.

 

The ones I encounter more than anyother are LOG's or Lonely Old guys. You do a polite exchange of "hi there" or "hows it going" and 20 mins later your still inching away trying to detach yourself from the LOG's ramblings.

How does that guy manage to be in every park I am in? You'd think he moves slow but I can be all alone staring at my GPS then BAM, there is old guy with his little dog and a can of beer....and a story....without a point....or an end....

 

Edited for humor. :lol:

Edited by Johnnie Stalkers
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OK, how about the BEITSGSHN? (Bought Everything In The Sporting Goods Store Health Nut) These are the vastly overweight people that have decided to lose some weight through exercise, but have only managed so far to lose most of their life savings. They have it all from the $350 running shoes, the $200 running outfit, the $200 MP3 player, to the $500 runner's watch.....and you only see them walking from their car to the nearest bench or the nearest snack machine.

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OK, how about the BEITSGSHN? (Bought Everything In The Sporting Goods Store Health Nut) These are the vastly overweight people that have decided to lose some weight through exercise, but have only managed so far to lose most of their life savings. They have it all from the $350 running shoes, the $200 running outfit, the $200 MP3 player, to the $500 runner's watch.....and you only see them walking from their car to the nearest bench or the nearest snack machine.

I think there is an actual equation that some people follow to where the greater the amount spent towards a hobby increases the will in order to continue that hobby.

 

$>N=M Amount spent is greater than the need equals motivation.

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Here is another park weirdo (or shall I say park weirdos). The couple that meets in the park for a lunchtime rendezvous. They are usually in their 40's or 50's, the female is invaribly a chubby blonde and the two are necking like they were 16 year olds on their first date. I often wondered how they'd react if I walked up with my camera and snapped a picture. I bet I can make a quick $50 if I offered them the film.

 

Anyway, I think we can call these people Lunchtime Cheatin' Couples, or LCC's.

Edited by briansnat
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Then you have the PPPPP otherwise known as the Park Porta Pot Pooper Patrol. These are the people that hurry intot he porta pot after you have gone in there to make sure you were not doing anything illegal in there. They may be related to the PPWB's.

 

:lol: What parks have you been hanging out in??

Edited by briansnat
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Then you have the PPPPP otherwise known as the Park Porta Pot Pooper Patrol. These are the people that hurry intot he porta pot after you have gone in there to make sure you were not doing anything illegal in there. They may be related to the PPWB's.

 

:lol: What parks have you been hanging out in??

That would be a city park in the "ritzy" part of the town. They are the type that look down own people who are not in their financial stature. God forbid a lower class "commoner" like myself take a dump in THEIR park.

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Then you have the PPPPP otherwise known as the Park Porta Pot Pooper Patrol. These are the people that hurry intot he porta pot after you have gone in there to make sure you were not doing anything illegal in there. They may be related to the PPWB's.

 

:lol: What parks have you been hanging out in??

That would be a city park in the "ritzy" part of the town. They are the type that look down own people who are not in their financial stature. God forbid a lower class "commoner" like myself take a dump in THEIR park.

Well you do look like McGyver. Maybe they thought you used some duct tape, chewing gum and bodily fluids to turn the Porto-Potty into a thermo-nuclear device.

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Encountered PWs on a rare weekday-morning cache excursion in Tucson. I can be slow on the uptake, so all of the men sitting in cars and loitering in the park struck me as odd but not too remarkable. As I got out of my car they all gave me an unpleasant stare. Fetched the cache, and on the return to the car the scales fell from my eyes--the city had found it necessary to post big signs quoting the laws against Public Indecency and Lewdness along with the fines for said behaviors :lol:

 

Geocaching can be an educational experience.

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* Parking Lot Staring Guy - this PW is the most common type. They sit in their car and stare at nothing and everything, all at once. Normally, their car windows are up even though its hot oustide. As you drive in, park, and exit your vehicle the PLSG will never glance, wave, smile, or otherwise acknowledge your presence.

 

Wow - I've seen this! I assumed it was a drug deal waiting to happen, but who really knows? PLSG's are extra creepy when they are in the park at night!

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* Parking Lot Staring Guy - this PW is the most common type. They sit in their car and stare at nothing and everything, all at once.

Yeah....I saw one. He cupped his chin between thumb and index finger. It made me think I'd almost caught him picking his nose. It's best not to make eye contact. :lol:

Just flash the 'Geocaching sign'. If he looks at you funny, he's not a Geocacher

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Edited by CO Admin
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Cheyenne WY seemed to have a lot of these when I was last there. The first park I went to had the guy sitting in the car, an old guy sitting on a bench just staring, and a transient living in a tent by a creek. The second park had a guy sitting at a picnic table just staring at everyone. I haven't noticed that so much here in Nebraska.

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Why not? We did our first 3 locationless caches yesterday. Talking about ideas, Ani suggested a 'mime locationless'. Which sparked a whole long discussion about 'people oriented loctionless' caches. Mounted Police Officers, Homeless guy in a green sweater, Clowns, Congressmen, guy in a chef hat, guy dressed liked Neo, Harley guy.......This seems like so much fun.

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By "Park Weirdos" are you referring to the type at Reststop Park Caches, or are there other weirdos too?

 

RobertM

Geo 34, 39F-X, 40A-N, 101

No doubt there are other types. I always eat lunch at a park, unless there is a fresh cache around. Rest stops are a whole other can of worms.

Funny you should mention it though, I happened across both of those threads this AM.

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And then there are "The Burrowers", those men that lay on the grass or sand on their stomaches. Usually during the summer in proximity to park benches or favoured sunbathing area's. "Burrowers" are often affiliated with that other park menace, "Bushwackers".

 

And then there are those that just wander through parks claiming to enjoy the "fresh air" and the "exercise". . . FREAKS!

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Living in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, we I thought we were a wildlife reserve for oddballs, and I'm definitely flypaper for freaks -- even my daughters have commented on it.

 

We have your parking lot staring guys, your officious busy bodies, urban outdoorsmen (love that one!), drunks, druggies, chatty old men. Surprised nobody's mentioned the gifted conversationalists -- the ones who can carry on a long chat even when nobody's talking back. They're everyplace around here, shouting and carrying on.

 

The most memorable encounter came two summers ago, on a trail at about 7,500 feet in Fresno County. Out with our family and my brother's, we met an old codger on the trail -- 70ish -- and thin as a rail. He was wearing walking shoes, socks, and a leather loincloth. Think Ronald Reagan in a thong and you're beginning to get the idea. From the back side, it looked like he was wearing a shoelace. It's my practice to say "howdy" on the trail, but I gave this one a pass.

 

I may qualify as a weirdo myself, because I'm apt to stare at birds through binoculars anyplace -- even in parking lots.

 

Happy trails.

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Warn: (0%)warn0.gif

:o:lol::PB)

My field research for this topic has concluded.

I went to the park and ate, read an week old newspaper to avoid staring into space.

 

No wierdos of any description, I guess the 40 temp+windchill factor may have had something to do with that. :P

No offence, but going to a park and reading a week old newspaper is looking weird to me. Someone walks by and looks at your newspaper. They see it is last weeks. They know that no one would want to read old news and so they automatically assume you are there under false pretences / looking for action. Or that's what I'd think anyway. And sitting there in freezing conditions reading the old newspaper. Now that just makes it all the more obvious. Honestly, don't be offended by my post, it's just the way I see it.

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I see PWs all the time, but I work for Jefferson City MO Parks & Rec. There are some really duzzies out there!

 

#1 crazy thing happend one time I was going out to one of our picnic pavilions about 7pm on a summer evening. There were 4 guys, one on the roof of the pavilion, one on a picnic table right next to the roof edge and two on the ground. They were trying to put picnic tables on the roof. They already had a couple up on top when I got there. They were lifting another table up when I pulled up and the two on the ground got scared and let go of the table. The one on the roof was pulling it up and was suddenly left holding the bag. It pulled him off the roof and he fell to the ground. He landed head first and didn't look too good. His buddies were laughing as they ran off. I called 911 and they didn't believe me at first and thought it was a prank call.

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No offence, but going to a park and reading a week old newspaper is looking weird to me.  Someone walks by and looks at your newspaper.  They see it is last weeks.  They know that no one would want to read old news and so they automatically assume you are there under false pretences / looking for action.  Or that's what I'd think anyway.  And sitting there in freezing conditions reading the old newspaper.  Now that just makes it all the more obvious.  Honestly, don't be offended by my post, it's just the way I see it.

Hummmm, your right.

Maybe I just need some therapy. I never use to be self-conscious about it until I read this thread. :mad:

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