What do we call this?

[sixpacker]

I am officially hooked but am having a hard time describing this for people. Basically someone will ask me "Hey what did you do this weekend?" and for my close friends I will tell them in detail but for people who are mostly asking out of professional courtesy...what do I say? Is there some term that I can use? I have been saying hiking but I am in an area where there really isn't a lot of true hiking so that is getting some quizzical looks. "Taking a walk" seems so blase'. I really don't always want to go into the whole thing as I am not the best at explaining it...it always comes out sounding a little boring. Any ideas or tips?

[+BrownMule & Jackrabbit]

quote:

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Originally posted by Sixpacker:

I am officially hooked but am having a hard time describing this for people. Basically someone will ask me "Hey what did you do this weekend?" and for my close friends I will tell them in detail but for people who are mostly asking out of professional courtesy...what do I say? Is there some term that I can use? I have been saying hiking but I am in an area where there really isn't a lot of true hiking so that is getting some quizzical looks. "Taking a walk" seems so blase'. I really don't always want to go into the whole thing as I am not the best at explaining it...it always comes out sounding a little boring. Any ideas or tips?

---

 

Just tell them that you do part time work with mapping and GPS and that's what you did this week end. Now me, If someone asks I tell them the whole story. Either they are really interested at the end of the conversation or they think "each to his own". Hey the hobby is honest and fun, I am not ashamed of it in any way.

 

ENJOY THE OUTDOORS

[+apersson850]

In Sweden, orienteering is a well known sport. After all, we invented it. I've practiced that sport since 1972 myself. So, I simply call geocaching tech-orienteering, and everyone understands, more or less.

 

Anders

[+sbell111]

I actually do what you do. If a friend asks me, I go into the whole explanation. If a coworker/acquaintance asks me, I was hiking.

[+Cachier]

"I'm glad you asked." I went Geocaching....its kind of like treasure hunting. If it piques their interest, I tell them as much as they want to know.

 

"When you find it, its always in the last place you look."

[+Cachier]

"I'm glad you asked." I went Geocaching....its kind of like treasure hunting. If it piques their interest, I tell them as much as they want to know.

 

"When you find it, its always in the last place you look."

[+RAD Dad]

I tell them I was geocaching, they of course ask "what's that" and I say, kind of like hide and seek with a GPSr, folks hide something, post the coordinates of where it is, and I go out and find it.

 

ummmm....not sure what to say here....so ummm, well errrr, uhhhh, well I guess that's it.

[+EchoGuy]

Same dilemmas here.

 

If I don't know them well, I also just say we were out hiking. I've explained in detail to my really close friends what geocaching is.

 

They seem to be mildly interested but I'm sure that if I can get them on the trail and out on the Hunt, they'd love it too.

 

Except for one guy and his GF. No sense of adventure. He cannot fathom that it's not what's inside the cache that counts.

 

How many of you are also sick of hearing as the frist question, "What's in it? Is it worth anything?"

[+The Cheeseheads]

I like to compare it to the scene near the end of Shawshank Redemption where Morgan Freeman is out searching for "a rock with no business in a Maine hayfield" and he has to do some hiking to get there.

 

The only difference is where Freeman finds a box full of cash that he takes, the boxes I find are usually filled with little trinkets that I trade for, and logbook to sign that I found it.

 

[BassoonPilot]

quote:

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Originally posted by RAD Dad:

I tell them I was geocaching, they of course ask "what's that" and I say ...

---

 

And then you hand them a tract and invite them to a friendship meeting.

[rghermes]

Chessehead just ruined the ending to that movie. I guess I don't need to watch it now!!

 

J/K!!

 

"I am umbilically connected to the temperate zone. It's brought me life. It's brought me love, I never have outgrown"----J. Buffett

[mandingo]

I usually grab their arm, put them in a chicken wing and slam the againt the wall. Then I say "so who's asking the questions now?". Shuts them up every time!!

[+urbo]

i call it a cross between hide and go seek and treasure hunting. the cache hides while you seek. the treasure is in the eye of the beholder.

 

urbo

[+Markwell]

Only problem with the "treasure hunt" metaphor is that it conjures up images of pirates and buried treasure. We have to fight to maintain the image that these things are NOT buried.

 

Markwell

My Geocaching Page

[+GatoRx]

I generally go with the "hi-tech scavenger hunt" explanation. I guess its not really a true scavenger hunt, but its enough of an explanation for the people whom I don't want to explain the sport to - like people who are completely clueless when it comes to technology, and the drunk woman at Wal-Mart who wanted to know why I was buying all that stuff.

 

If they have half of a brain for this sort of thing, I'll go into a better explanation.

[+GatoRx]

I generally go with the "hi-tech scavenger hunt" explanation. I guess its not really a true scavenger hunt, but its enough of an explanation for the people whom I don't want to explain the sport to - like people who are completely clueless when it comes to technology, and the drunk woman at Wal-Mart who wanted to know why I was buying all that stuff.

 

If they have half of a brain for this sort of thing, I'll go into a better explanation.

[+on2vegas]

geocaching, a sport for geeks that gets them away from their computers and into the great outdoors to look for stuff using a GPS. Of course I work in a geek farm and most people here know what a GPS is and are interested in this stuff by nature of our common geekiness.

 

"Where ever you go, there you are"

[sc]

I say "Geocaching?" to which, of course they say "What?". I then say "Check out geocaching.com" and the conversation is done.

 

It saves me time because I'm not present and talking when their eyes glaze over

[sc]

I say "Geocaching?" to which, of course they say "What?". I then say "Check out geocaching.com" and the conversation is done.

 

It saves me time because I'm not present and talking when their eyes glaze over

[+Runaround]

It depends on who I'm talking to. If it's the polite "what did you do this weekend?" I say hiking. If it's someone I know better, I say Geocaching. I let them ask for more information.

 

I'm an incurable birdwatcher and used to get a lot strange looks when I said I spent the weekend birding. "Geocaching" and the subsequent explanation makes birding seem very normal.

 

A golfer once said to me:

"so you spend the weekend walking outside looking for a little box?????? Sorta dumb, dontcha think?"

My answer:

"so you spend your weekend hitting a little ball and then chasing it just so you can hit it again, and again, and again.....??? At least I've got something waiting for me at the end of my walk besides a hole in the ground."

 

Now where did I park my car???????

[phantom]

...that I went on a "techno-treasurehunt". Then when they start asking the questions, I start filling them in on all the information. Seems to work for me.

 

phantom

 

"DOH!" -- Homer Simpson

[phantom]

...that I went on a "techno-treasurehunt". Then when they start asking the questions, I start filling them in on all the information. Seems to work for me.

 

phantom

 

"DOH!" -- Homer Simpson

[RCosgrove]

What to tell people when they ask you, "Hey, what are you doing walking out of those woods there, not dressed for hiking, in the middle of a weekday, a half-mile from your car? Did you break down? Need a ride? Kill somebody?"

 

I tell them, "Scavenger hunt. I found it." UNLESS it's a pretty girl, then I go into the whole explaination.

 

The Cosgroves

Rossville, Tennessee USA

[+The Cheeseheads]

quote:

---

Originally posted by on2vegas:

geocaching, a sport for geeks that gets them away from their computers and into the great outdoors to look for stuff using a GPS. Of course I work in a geek farm and most people here know what a GPS is and are interested in this stuff by nature of our common geekiness.

---

 

Of course, as they say on Slashdot, "Real geeks don't go outside..."

 

[+The Cheeseheads]

quote:

---

Originally posted by on2vegas:

geocaching, a sport for geeks that gets them away from their computers and into the great outdoors to look for stuff using a GPS. Of course I work in a geek farm and most people here know what a GPS is and are interested in this stuff by nature of our common geekiness.

---

 

Of course, as they say on Slashdot, "Real geeks don't go outside..."