Imagine my surprise when last week I got an email from Michelle telling me that they were going to be visiting her uncle at the lake, and asking if I'd be available to meet? Hell yeah! Their timing couldn't have been better since we were still at the lake after the 4th of July holiday.
We decided to take our pontoon boats and meet on the lake to grab the cache Lonely by the Shore. At the appointed time we both pulled up within minutes of each other and scrambled to shore, making introductions. Then we headed up the beach towards the cache location and Crockett made short work of finding it. Here I am with Uncle Jack, Crockett and Chris....
And here we are again with Michelle joining us....
We sat under the tree and chatted like old friends for almost an hour, laughing and telling stories. I've never had time fly by so quickly. I've found in general that most geocachers are friendly and outgoing but these people here went above and beyond. I told Michelle that I just felt an instant friendship with them. Do you ever meet people and just know that you're going to get along? That's how I felt. I will be hard pressed to find a nicer bunch of people.
All too quickly our time grew to a close, but I have a feeling we'll try to do something together the next time we're all at the lake. In the meantime, Michelle has promised that she's going to do a guest post for me sharing their recent trip to Hawaii and the geocaches they did there, as well as some of the fun things they did - like swim with sea turtles! Michelle, I'm going to hold you to that post.
Geocaching is wonderful for the places it takes you and for the things you will see. But for me, it's the people I meet and the friendships I've made that mean so much more. Until we meet again - Happy caching!
That's awesome how you hit it off. What kind of GPS do you have or what kind should I get? I mean you did get me into this so now you have to help me. LOL We have been using my iPhone. Service is spotty in most places and with a +/- 14 foot radius we are not finding more than we are finding. It's taken the fun out of it since the first few we located fairly easily. Tried to find several in Anchorage with no luck and haven't gone again in two weeks. It was really a fun family activity, but then it became not-so-fun when you are skunked. Thanks for the help.
ReplyDeleteGayle - good question and I'll do a blog post on this later this week.
DeleteI have a Garmin Nuvi 1350 and for you, I'd suggest a nuvi unit because you can easily use it in your car as a GPS for directions and switch it to a MAP function to zero In on caches.
I also have an Oregon 450, which is more expensive, but I can actually download the cache page info to it.
If you want to shoot me the city you live in, I'll look up some easier caches for you to try. Look for caches that are a large size instead of a micro and try to do some in parks or parking lots as they are usually easier than ones in the woods.
Great post Kim! I've slowed down a bit on Geocaching here....not nearly as much fun as with friends!! Looks like you have inspired a lot of us!! :D xo
ReplyDeleteI'm always happy to share my love of caching. It's such a great hobby.
DeleteI told Crockett that Kim is every bit as nice in person as you think she's going to be when you read her emails & blog! We loved meeting up & finding a cache together!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michelle - I'm blushing. ;-) It was so nice to meet all of you and I guarantee there is more caching in our future together.
DeleteWe (us girls at the Hitching Post) had the pleasure of meeting the Conley's as well,Miss Kim,thanks to you. I can certainly understand why your time with them went by so quickly,they seemed to be an awesome family. Thanks for sharing your special time with us :)
ReplyDeleteHi Diane - I'm so glad they stopped at The Hitching Post. I told them to be sure to say hello to all of you. I also heard they had a little fudge and soda. :-)
DeleteHow wonderful to meet some of your caching buddies live and in person!
ReplyDeleteIt was so much fun. We're going to try to do it again.
DeleteOh what fun!
ReplyDeletePeople who trust their instincts know who would be a good fit for friendship right away. I would imagine that a big part of geocaching is using you instincts and that you have yours nicely tuned.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you get to see some really nice places too.
We go to some amazing places - places we definitely would never have found unless we were geocaching.
DeleteAn interesting activity- how did you get started?
ReplyDeleteHi John: I had read about it someplace and it instantly intrigued me. I couldn't find anyone to do it with me for the longest time. But once we started, we all liked it and got hooked very quickly.
Delete