What Have You Put Your Spouse/mate Through?

3.9k · January 10, 2004

What have you put your husband/wife/mate/friends through while Geocaching?

My wife likes to Geocache more than I do, but unfortunately for her I'm the take charge guy. I mean I do wear the pants in the family (I say this knowing she never reads the forums.) therefore I lead, and boy have I led us into some adventures. :tongue:

I've led her so far back into the woods, I swear you could hear dueling banjos off in the distant. Made her walk a narrow tree trunk across a swollen creek, just to find out the cache was actually on the side we just came from. She is so scared of snakes I think it caused the anxiety attack that put her in hospital for the weekend. Also there was the trip placing a cache were we rode bikes and she fell into the ditch and couldn't get back up. That one is still funny! Took her through some briars where she came out looking like she had been sorting wildcats. Made her bushwhack through heavy brush, just to find out that the trail was 100 feet to our right.

Lord knows I love her and I don't know why she keeps enduring this!

So what have you done to yours?

El Diablo

Edited January 10, 2004 by El Diablo

4.4k · January 10, 2004

In her words TOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

1.7k · January 10, 2004

Spent all our money on GPS receivers, geo-swag, hiking stick :tongue: , camelbak, fatboy, and a new camera. And much, much more.

I also have her walk on dirty, uneven ground, and even climb slopes.

(My wife is a "level ground" sort of person.)

And, she ended up with a tick embedded in her hip the day after I came back from caching and had ticks everywhere.

Edited January 10, 2004 by DustyJacket

3.5k · January 10, 2004

Took mine on a half-mile walk back to a cache while she was 8 months pregnant. She handled it pretty well. I can't help but think she didn't want to encourage me too much, though. Can't you just imagine it?

"Oh, c'mon honey. The contractions are 12 minutes apart and we're 8 miles from the hospital. Besides it's only a 1/1 cache. Just honk the horn if you have any problems, I'll be right back!"

Bret

4.8k · January 10, 2004

A little bit of role reversal from what I normally see (but maybe not as much here). I'm a woman and am the outdoorsy one and like long hard hikes etc. I took my boyfriend and 13 year old son on a bushwack up a mountain after a cache. I loved it, but I think they would have rather been back at camp roasting marshmallows. Actually, I think they would have rather been in a resort hotel room or at home playing Nintendo. I'm not sure why they agree to go camping in Colorado with me each year, but they keep doing it. Yet they have plenty of compliants.

3.8k · January 10, 2004

El Diablo, you tickle me!

This is a great topic.

BTW...I'm spouseless! :tongue:

1.2k · January 10, 2004

I "suggested" she get me an eTrex Legend for my Birthday for about a month.

I've been late a couple of times because I had to find "Just one more Cache"

Used her as a test audience for my signature card.

Nothing that she won't recover from. :tongue:

8.4k · January 10, 2004

El Diablo, you tickle me!
This is a great topic.

BTW...I'm spouseless!

Me too, but geocaching, or an interest there of, should be on the resume, of the next Snoogstress. I don't want any potential offspring being born part muggle.

Sn gans

2k · January 10, 2004

My wife loves geocaching. She's glad I actually park and look for a cache once in a while. Breaks up a long offroad trip pretty well. I'm thinking she will like it on highway road trips too.

Then;

She:Honey could we stop at the next rest stop?

Me:Do you have to? We're averaging 60 MPH for the day if I stop now that would drop to maybe 55.

She:

Now;

Me:Do you need to stop soon?

She: Not raelly.

Me: Well there's micro at the next rest stop, mind if we stop anyway?

She: If we have to. :tongue:

3.5k · January 10, 2004

should be on the resume, of the next Snoogstress

Just trying to picture a Snoogstress is tough enough, but now you want me to picture *the next one*. Mark, maybe you should do away with the resume process? :tongue:

8.4k · January 10, 2004

should be on the resume, of the next Snoogstress
Just trying to picture a Snoogstress is tough enough, but now you want me to picture *the next one*. Mark, maybe you should do away with the resume process?

Low blow. Well "I" wasn't going to be the one to let the cat outta the bag, but let's just say that I hope your new arrival takes after your side of the family. (ummm, where geocaching is concerned. )

Edited January 10, 2004 by Snoogans

2.6k · January 10, 2004

We were searching this cache together. We bicycled about 20 km to the cache site, and we were supposed to search the cache and go to a restaurant after that. The first part of that multi appeared to be quite difficult, and as it later turned out, the coordinates were a bit off.

The walk in the dense forest after the bicycle ride was pretty rough, and we were already hungry when we came. Ands so were the mosquitos. All the couple of million of them. After more than an hour we still hadn't found the first part, and we started to be REALLY hungry, and hunger affects especially my wife's mood, so after I still refused to give up, she decided to go eating without me and I promised to come later 'very soon'.

About half an hour later I heard her calling me in the forest, from totally weird direction. She had got lost on her way to bicycles. So I had to guide her there, and I was still eager to go back to the cache side, she persuaded me (not very violently) to ride with her, which I finally did.

I found the cache a few days later. That time without trying to kill my wife by anemia and starvation. :tongue:

3.1k · January 10, 2004

I mean I do wear the pants in the family

That's exactly my wife's problem: she always wears shorts when I take her caching. Every time, she comes back with her legs ripped to shreds.

January 10, 2004

My wife found this site for me, now she regrets it. :tongue: I am getting yelled at already this morning for being on the forums. LOL

D

Upinyachit

1.1k · January 10, 2004

Ani has to tolerate my constant pursuit of the perfect sig item. Now I have employed her as my Sig Item R&D assistant. She gets to do the finishing work and testing on the things that roll off my workbench.

She has to tolerate my absence when I am on the forums, caching or seeking coords for a new cache to place. (this takes up about half my day )

She has to endure a constant stream of crappy cache ideas. "Oh! we could put one in that sewage line and call it crappy cache!" So far out of 3,962 ideas I have one that may work out ok. Hope I get approval. :tongue:

She has to tolerate the money I spend on swag and accessories.

If I am going to be honest she enjoys this as much as I do. She takes the long hikes. She works through the puzzles. She gets muddy, dirty and damp. She does it with a smile. I love ya Ani!

The most difficult thing either of us puts the other one through while caching is stopping to eat lunch. If that girl asks me to stop for another bagel sandwich I am going to scream. Really, aren't you pretty much obligated to do a McToy pickup while caching?

January 10, 2004

I've never put Sarah through anything that bad. When the going gets tough, she finds a comfy spot to sit down and stays there giggling, watching me deal with rocks/slopes/thorns, and often takes pictures of my troubles to pass the time :tongue:

Oh... and she offers "helpful" advice.

3.8k · January 10, 2004

Not much more than many hours alone, but she loves to read, and loves to knit, so it's not like she doesn't mind it. :tongue:

She calls herself a Geocaching Widow.

3.9k · January 10, 2004

I don't even know where to begin...

My wife started out fully enjoying geocaching as much as me. Now the mere mention of geocaching prompts an involuntary roll of the eyes. It's not that she hates it so much, she actually despises it completely. Yesterday I had to pretend to get lost in Orlando Int. airport to grab a virtual. I'm driving around going "oh **** I made a wrong turn somewhere, hey look it's the plane for that virtual!" She didn't buy it. But I did get the cache. I think she will start to like it again once the weather warms up. She really did like it when the caches were in beautiful locations. It's the bushwhacking and mud, and long hikes and ones in residential areas, urban micros, etc... She loves 1/1 traditionals, virtuals & locationless. Every time we see an American Flag she says "oooh take a picture and log it". (I'm happy to say I still have not logged that one.) Oh, and she only likes those when the weather is 72-81 degree with a nice warm breeze from the South South/West. But through it all she has endured the overspending for swag, ammo boxes, GPSrs, and other related items including a jeep. And that's just the stuff she knows about. I kinda think she knows about the other stuff too but lets it slide. She puts up with the fact that we can't go anywhere without me saying "I just need to make a left over here and see something", she has dealt with broken mirrors and the sound of branches scraping the side of her brand new TrailBlazer (pre-geojeep days), She has tolerated being questioned by police and withstood the arduous task of finding and removing ticks from me in places I care not to mention here. And don't even get her started on the time I spend in these forums. Anyway, thats just a few examples of what she has to put up with. I'm sure there are those who have it worse but few that have it better than me! :tongue:

This is from our trip to Disney...

No that's not me on the right!

January 10, 2004

TAKE NOTE ALL YOU SINGLE MALE GEOCACHERS OUT THERE: I don't have a spouse, but I have dragged my teenage daughter along on a dozen caches.

We were trying to find Zero Declination, and I got the coordinates for part 2 all wrong. They led me to an open space area 8 miles away. When we got to the open space area, the coordinates said the cache was 1 mile. Stephanie said she'd stay in the car and read. I optimistically told her I'd be gone 30 minutes. Well, when I got there, the area was really rocky with plenty of places to hide a cache, but the coordinates were wrong, so of corse there was no cache there. I searched and searched, I was determined to be FTF. Time got away from me, and when I finally gave up 2 hours had gone by. When I got back, Stephanie said, "Mom, you took forever, I finished my book!"

Okay, so it wasn't really funny, but now she either asks me for realistic time estimates or she makes sure she has sensible shoes on and goes with me, because she never fails to find the cache right of the bat and then says, "Now can we leave?"

January 10, 2004

I made my dad so sore he couldn't walk right for a few weeks, I made my mom start collecting little "trinkets" and she puts them all over he house for me to find!!

24.7k · January 10, 2004

My wife has a 5 cache limit. After that she's done. To bring her on a cache day that involves several hundred miles and a dozen or more caches takes some work and things like picnics and dinner out. But since she finds them better than I do, it's just part of the strategy to keep the skunk ratio low. Besides I rather like her and enjoy the dinners and picnics.

January 10, 2004

In our house its the oposite. I am the one has to badger the husband into going. I then give him the GPS and let him lead. He is not a follwer. I like having him along on the more adventurous caches, he is more limber and can get to the more chalenging places and I have follwed him for some great adventures but most of the time I cache alone.

He plays games on the computer while I figure out cache puzzels (though he has helped ocationally) I by the swag. I print pages, its my GPS.

He doesnt mind if I go off by myself but insists I bring the cell phone in case of a misstep.

He does go to Event caches with me and doesnt seem to be mind being Suziq husband.

2.2k · January 10, 2004

In the early days, my wife went caching with me frequently. One of the more enjoyable caches that I did with my wife was one where we brought along a bottle of wine and planned to watch the sunset over the ocean from the cache site. Our timing was off and we got there a little late after the sun had already set and it was dark by the time we got to the cache. We still had a great time and we finished off the bottle of wine before we got back to the car. Here is a picture of Mrs. Rocket Man at the cache site:

She has somewhat lost interest now. I think it is because of some of the long hikes I took her on after telling her it was just a short walk to the cache. I have led her up a few rocky inclines and drug her out for a couple of nighttime FTF's when she was already settled down for the evening in her PJ's. The good news is that she still likes to cache when we are on vacation because she realizes that it takes us to interesting places that we would not otherwise know about. RM

January 10, 2004

She has tolerated being questioned by police

Ummmmmm JMBella.. I just happened to slide over to the cache log page and you said ......

Left: Swiss Army Knife

Ummmmmm.. why did you leave a knife?...

I know.... totally off topic.. sorry

January 10, 2004

Well Ironman hasn't "made" me go on any caches. I'm a willing participant in our andventures. Our head butting starts when he starts to mention a new vehicle and a new GPS. He keeps whinning that our F-150 is to big to get in some of the cache spots. So he wants to get a jeep or a little Geo Tracker. I'm thinking great I can have a new car to drive. But alas, the F-150 would be mine (which isn't bad at all) and he gets the new vehicle. Which with his traveling to work he will wind up with the factory warrenty expired in just a few months. The GPS, yes his looks like a dinosaur compared to the GPS we sell at the store I work at. To me if it still works don't buy a new one! HMMMM a new anniversary gift? NAH, he would tell me that there is a better one that he has been looking at.

January 10, 2004

lauren gladly endured our "coldest day of the year trip to high point" today. it was about 2 degrees with a steady wind up there. of course we grabbed two caches while we were there. she's a trooper

January 11, 2004

After my first 100 finds, I hid a cache in poison oak & all the leaves fell off so I could not tell. When I came home my wife gave me a hug, I said I was a little dirty and sweaty. We both did the predison thing and she was in bed for 3 days with P.O. covering most of her body. I know what poison oak looks like now!!!

Don

1.1k · January 11, 2004

Way tooooo funnny!!

I can see a lot of other couples have been in the same boat as us. Or we are in the same boat with them. Whichever it is, this has been a kick for both of us.

Where to start?

1) Red has gotton stung on her butt two weekends in a row. Several hundred miles and a few hours drive from home.

2) She had to have some new footgear after stepping into an unseen human "landmine" in Montana.

3) She has learned how to sleep laying down on the pickup seat between caches.

4) But she has learned how to read topo maps, learned how to use easygps, watcher and the Mag 330 & 315.

5) She has learned not to believe me when I say something like: "I'll be right back; Just one more; not to far off the road; a short hike; We need to make a fast stop for a few cache items; Lets go for a short drive; etcetc"

But I have figured out the magic words to get her out and about.

"Red lobster or Moe's"

She packs the bags as I load the gear and out the door we go.

logscaler

January 11, 2004

I planned a lunch stop of clam chowder on a cold rainey day. It was across the street from one micro and 2 blocks from another we didn't find cause I transposed 2 numbers in my gps and when we walked to where I thought we should start we ended up right in front of where we had lunch!

I came back another day with the right coordinates and still didn't find it. It is somewhere below 2 layers of bridges and a pedestrian walkway.

edit: I have been reminded of when I had her enter an out house to make it look like I was waiting for her to use because someone was parked close by eating lunch at the boat launch parking lot. Meanwhile I wandered with gps and found it and signed the logbook. When she came out I gave her the log book to sign and made her find the hiding spot to put it back While I blocked the view of the lunchers.

Edited January 11, 2004 by ironman114

January 11, 2004

For my wife it's a love/hate relationship. She loves it when I take her to parks to look for caches. She's even gone on a few night caching runs with me. But the part she can't stand is me being on the forums ALL THE TIME according to her. Honestly, I don't think 4 hours a day is too much. I read more than I post anyway. She just assumes that if I'm on the computer it has to do something with geocaching and its nag, nag, nag.....

"What's that, dear? No, I'm just emailing my grandmother...."

January 14, 2004

oooohhh I have to reply to this one. I took my husband with me ONCE. I had just started caching and I was still a little bit to far from the cache and was standing by some brush contemplating. He looked at me and said "I am not going in there" That is ridiculous. There could be snakes or something. (We live in TN with poisonous ones)

We did find the cache after driving around the brush but he wasn't as enthused about it as I was.

And he's supposed to be the outdoorsy one. Go Figure. Needless to say I do most of my caching alone now.

2.3k · January 14, 2004

I don't even want to go here!

2.3k · January 14, 2004

Well, let's just say that my wife has a lot less love for "my" hobby than I...

3.9k · January 14, 2004

She has tolerated being questioned by police

Ummmmmm JMBella.. I just happened to slide over to the cache log page and you said ......

Left: Swiss Army Knife

Ummmmmm.. why did you leave a knife?...

I know.... totally off topic.. sorry

Whatta you smurfin care!?

Did I say knife? I meant Swiss Army Tool. That was before I knew Knives of ANY kind were not allowed by GC.com. I have since repented and changed my evil ways and it will never happen again. I truly hope you can forgive me. :unsure:

3.9k · January 15, 2004

Whatta you smurfin care!?

Did I say knife? I meant Swiss Army Tool. That was before I knew Knives of ANY kind were not allowed by GC.com. I have since repented and changed my evil ways and it will never happen again. I truly hope you can forgive me.

I agree...what were you thinking??? A swiss Army knife...I mean tool is way to expensive to leave in a cache. Stick to the ones you can pick up for 2 or 3 bucks.

El Diablo

What Have You Put Your Spouse/mate Through?

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