Do Your Friends/family "get It"?

[+Erwinia of B & E]

We have been geocaching for quite some time now, and talk endlessly to all our family about our adventures. However, my wife's parents just don't get it at all. They are from Indiana. I have never been there, but they tell me there are lots of Geodes to be found there. So, the other day, we told her father we were going out geocaching. He told us we should just go to Indiana, that's where they all are! We have tried to explain it to him several times, but he just has that image of geodes in his mind, I guess. Anybody else have any funny stories about people who just don't get it?

[+KerryG]

When I explained it to my wife, she said "its sounds as dorky as those old men walking the beach with metal detectors looking for buried treasure".

 

I tried to explain that its not about the treasure, its more like a high-tech hide and go seek (didn't help my cause one bit).

 

So I tried to explain that its about the hunt, not what you find (so whats the point? again, didn't help me any)

 

So I explained that I find it interesting to find all these nature trails, wildlife sanctuaries, and parks around here I didn't know existed (got me a little further, but no real progress)

 

So I ended up just saying its just another hobby and this one gets me out of the house so she can have a few hours of peace and quiet, that sold her on it.

Edited January 5, 2004 by KerryG

[+pnew]

My mom doesn't get it at all. My dad gets interested when there's one within 500 ft. My brother doesn't really care for it and my friends think I'm crazy. crazy is only skin deep.

[+DustyJacket]

My sister didn't get it until she visited for Christmas and I forced her and her husband to go on a 5 cache hunt.

 

Now they get it.

[+OzGuff]

Since I started (Sept 1, 2003) I have started my sister (and her family), my sister-in-law (and her kids), my father-in-law, and three friends (and their families) on the long road to geocaching addiction. Trying to explain this activity to the uninitiated is impossible; you have to take them on a few hunts--then they *may* get it!

[+gallahad]

.... Trying to explain this activity to the uninitiated is impossible; you have to take them on a few hunts--then they *may* get it!

Couldn't agree more. My wife, not what you'd call a "tecky", didn't understand it until I convinced her to accompany me on one of my early geocaching excursions. After the second find she wanted to know if we had enough daylight left to try for a third. Now she understands it - and she can spot 'em quicker than I can.

[+RobRee]

every person that we have introduced to geocaching loves it. we introduce them by taking them on a hunt. i don't bother explaining GC to them until we are enroute. we look for caches as a family, and it gives us a good, "clean" fun thing to do. all of the kids love it. my wife is hooked. my dad (66) is hooked, and just bought a maggie meridian.

 

once people get out and try it.. they can't stop.

[+Old Joe Clark]

I like the "deep woods" caches. (sorry I don't get towards Charlotte more) My wife won't even enter the woods. She says the woods are full of "criminals". She goes shopping. I tell her the real "criminals" are behind the cash registers. The only "criminal" in the woods is way out in Gig Harbor and he's one of us.

[+2Wheel'in]

I must confess that originally...I "didn't get it". My wife brought the idea home from work...they use the GPS system for rescue/recovery, and some of her co-workers were Geocachers as well. I had/have been using a GPSr for quite some time, but not for geocaching...so, eventually did some research on the subject and we went on our first hunt -- Success!! , and as they say, "The rest is History". I spread the affliction to one of my co-workers (who jumped in head first and never looked back), he in turn infected another co-worker and both parents. Sometimes words alone are not enough...but if you can get them out there in the briars and mud, get their pulse racing with a find -- well, you remember the feeling. We're all getting older, but we don't have to grow up.

Regards,

2Wheel'in

[+bigredmed]

Most of my personal friends and family get it. I go caching with my niece on occasion and have gone out with my Dad. My brother in law found some as well.

 

Fun game once you show them how it works.

[+Halden]

My dad gets it (he introduced me to it) My in-laws think I am nuts. My wife thinks it's just another of my quirks.

[+briansnat]

My wife gets it and enjoys it. The rest of my family and friends don't, other than my 4 year old nephew, who I took on a few hunts. He tells me he wants to be a geocacher when he grows up. I told him he'd better find a rich wife.

[+Cat'N'Geo]

My Parent-in-laws get it, they have several finds of their own (Hi Fitzy!!!), my sis-inlaw get it, most of the rest of the family still scratch their heads over it. One friend we took out for it, she really couldn't handle the outside aspect of it.

[+GeoGryffindor]

 

I tend to find it hard to understand people who don't get it or are not interested in it after trying it.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

We explain it as an activity that gets us out of the house as a family. We have the opportunity to teach the kids about respecting the outdoors.

[+Sparky-Watts]

Does my wife "get it" (geocaching, keep it clean, smurf-boy)? No. But at least she tolerates it, so I guess that's good enough for now.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Does my wife "get it" (geocaching, keep it clean, smurf-boy)? No. But at least she tolerates it, so I guess that's good enough for now.

Hard to 'get-it' with a bad back...

 

If I was injured, I know the wife wouldn't get my going out to geocache

[+Sparky-Watts]

Does my wife "get it" (geocaching, keep it clean, smurf-boy)?  No.  But at least she tolerates it, so I guess that's good enough for now.

Hard to 'get-it' with a bad back...

 

If I was injured, I know the wife wouldn't get my going out to geocache

Yeah, she questioned my ability to go caching the other day, but almost in the same breath asked me to help her carry the mattresses down from the upstairs bedroom into the recently remodeled master bedroom!

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Does my wife "get it" (geocaching, keep it clean, smurf-boy)?  No.  But at least she tolerates it, so I guess that's good enough for now.

Hard to 'get-it' with a bad back...

 

If I was injured, I know the wife wouldn't get my going out to geocache

Yeah, she questioned my ability to go caching the other day, but almost in the same breath asked me to help her carry the mattresses down from the upstairs bedroom into the recently remodeled master bedroom!

You're not alone in that...I think all women are that way!

[+cacheKidds]

My parents really like it. My dad has owned a GPS for a long time and thought it was fun. He took a church group out to geocache in Mississippi last year.

[+rusty_tlc]

Does my wife "get it" (geocaching, keep it clean, smurf-boy)? No. But at least she tolerates it, so I guess that's good enough for now.

Be patient, Mrs. rusty took a while to warm up to geocaching. She still isn't interested in the GPS but wants to beat me to the find. I see a new GPS in the future, as soon as she figures out I have an edge.

 

(I aint going near the get's it discussion, I get myself in enough trouble without trying.)

[TahoeJoe]

Most of my friends I have taken geocaching with me have become hooked and end up buying a GPSr and becoming Geocachers.

Edited January 5, 2004 by TahoeJoe

[+ZingerHead]

Nope. Most of them think it's silly. I've won over a couple of converts, but I've had more of them describe it as a great way to wreck a hike. I haven't come up with a good explanation for geocaching. Telling people you are going out to find tupperware in the woods, and that you have the exact coordinates for it, sounds tedious to most people. So I've stopped boring everybody with it.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Does my wife "get it" (geocaching, keep it clean, smurf-boy)?  No.  But at least she tolerates it, so I guess that's good enough for now.

Be patient, Mrs. rusty took a while to warm up to geocaching. She still isn't interested in the GPS but wants to beat me to the find. I see a new GPS in the future, as soon as she figures out I have an edge.

 

(I aint going near the get's it discussion, I get myself in enough trouble without trying.)

My wife doesn't care to learn how to use the GPS either, but she had no problems hiding it from me the week before Christmas!

[+Johnnie Stalkers]

Ani and I started caching together, she definately gets it even though we have slightly different cache tastes. She really enjoys Multis and puzzle caches. I can tolerate multis and puzzles, they are fun, but I am never so happy as I am standing in a foot of mud, soaked to the bone, scratched up and exhausted with a 50mm ammo box in my hand! I think they call this arrested development. I get to be a kid jumping in puddles again and no one yells at me. Shifty is 4 and he loves it so long as I don't walk him more than 2 miles.

 

Took my dad and brother out while visiting for Christmas, they both loved it. Pretty much everyone else think I am crazy. Wish I lived closer to little bro, we'd cache together.

[+4leafclover]

My parents only "get it" as far as the fact that the kids enjoy it. But I may get my dad to go few times, and I think that will create another addict.

[+mozartman]

My wife thinks it's a little wierd, but she likes that I like it... she went on one cache hunt with me and actually found the cache before I did! ...and still didn't get hooked, go figure... However, she is very interested in cache placement and often comes home with little containers for micros! The rest of my family... I don't think they get it...

[AJK]

My wife made me swear that I wouldn't tell any of our friends about it. I took no notice obviously. We were with the same group of friends on New Years Eve. One if them was actually crying with laughter:

 

New Years Day - I had her and 4 other friends enthusiatically digging in the snow and ice (cache 1) and hiking up Mt Stanton (cache 2). I wouldn't be surprised if one or two get GPSrs.

 

I also took my family while down in Florida on vacation - I was very surprised that they "got it", except for my mother - where I inherited the geek gene. My mother bought an etrex before leaving, and found a cache requiring a mile of kayaking -

This cache

[+seeker22]

My wife is an anticacheite! She doesn't get it even though most everyone in the family now gets it. She says I'm obsessed and it's coming between us. Hopefully she was a little drunk that nite and just stressing the point. Anyone know a good divorce lawyer?

[+JegMag]

I think my Mother sort of gets it. Although she will ask if we are going out 'gouging'.

 

JegMag

[+wildearth2001]

My dad (who has to drive me to all the caches to far to ride, or on dirt roads) only thinks of caching as pain. I make him walk alot, cain't wait untill I drive in a few months and don't need him though. My mom only lets me do it because she finds intrest in the little "treasures" as she calls them i bring home, usually a role of pennies or something. She also thinks we are all litterer's and wants to throw away my room full of contaners and cammoing materials, ideas.

Edited January 6, 2004 by wildearth2001

[+CubDenMom]

My husband didn't 'get it' till he actually came along with us one day. He now gets it (and genuinely had fun on a few!), but thinks that this should maybe be a one-cache-a-month kinda thing

 

He's always saying, .."but don't you have other things to be doing today?"

 

Well, DUH! <G> "But I'm only gonna do ONE.......this *morning*, anyway! Hahaha

 

What is there to "not get"?????<innocent look> LOL

[uperdooper]

my 2 brothers get it. they introduced me to caching. my husband kind of gets it. he will go on some hunts with me. everyone else already thinks i find strange things to do and that is fine by me. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

[+Team GPSaxophone]

The wife is trying to explain our list of possible names for our new dog to her sister. She called us 'freaks' when we told her TNSL, Geody, and Trinket!

 

The sister-in-law obviously doesn't "get it"