I plan on adding a lot more info to the geocaching page in the near future, as of right now it is just a very broad overview. Before I tell you this story I just want to give you a little more info so that you will know what the hell I am talking about. By now you should know what geocaching is. If not, please visit the geocaching page to catch up. I have found just over 200 caches as of today, however, I have never been the first person to find a cache. This is a hard thing to obtain because everyone wants to be the FTF or (first to find) a cache. Some people are very competitive when it comes to this. I know a fellow cacher in my hometown who has hundreds of FTF's. In order to get one, it helps to be a premium member at geocaching.com. When you are a premiem member you can set up e-mail notifications to alert you whenever a new cache is placed near your home. If you want to be the FTF then you better go for it within 12 hours or so. One more thing to point out before I continue my story. When you place a cache, you rate it in two different categories. Those include the overall difficulty of a cache, and the terrain of the cache. Each of these areas gets a rating between 1 (being easy) and 5 (very hard, may require special equipment). With all of that said...I can now tell my story.
Helen and I were sitting around tonight and I was on the laptop, as usual. I was checking my E-mail and noticed that a new geocache had popped up about 7 miles away, out in the country. Well as I said before, I have never been the FTF a cache. I talked Helen into going for it. The time is about 11:30pm, its windy, getting colder, and dark. Of the 200+ caches that I have found, I have only found 1 or 2 in the dark. Darkness makes caching a whole lot harder, as if finding these hidden things isnt hard enough in the daylight! I really wanted to get this FTF though. When we get near the spot, I start countig down to helen as we et closer to it. (300 feet to go, she slows down a little, 200 feet, slows a little more, 75 feet, she almost stops...., past it by 150 ft, damnit wayne!) So she stops the car and I jump out with GPS and flashligt in hand ready to claim my prize. The GPS is leading me into a huge empty field, I mean like a big cornield that has been plowed. I get to where my GPS says zero feet, and there is nothing around me, just plowed flat dirt everywhere I look. The closest thing to me is the road, and that is over 100 feet away. Im thinking to myself about this time "You cant be serious, I run out of the house at midnight and drive across the countryside in the cold and wind and all I get is an empty cornfield?!". The hint on the cache was (Halfway down). What kind of a clue is that when you are in he middle of some flat ass field? I spent about 30 minutes checking the whole area, holding onto my hat the entire time to keep it from flying off of my head and still came up empty handed. Maybe someday I will be able to say that I got a FTF, but that someday was not today. This cache was rated a 3-3 by the way, which is quite high for this area. Probably not the best kind of cache to go after in the dark with my little flashlight that keeps going off all by itself. Oh well, I got to visit a nice lonely field tonight anyway.
Helen and I were sitting around tonight and I was on the laptop, as usual. I was checking my E-mail and noticed that a new geocache had popped up about 7 miles away, out in the country. Well as I said before, I have never been the FTF a cache. I talked Helen into going for it. The time is about 11:30pm, its windy, getting colder, and dark. Of the 200+ caches that I have found, I have only found 1 or 2 in the dark. Darkness makes caching a whole lot harder, as if finding these hidden things isnt hard enough in the daylight! I really wanted to get this FTF though. When we get near the spot, I start countig down to helen as we et closer to it. (300 feet to go, she slows down a little, 200 feet, slows a little more, 75 feet, she almost stops...., past it by 150 ft, damnit wayne!) So she stops the car and I jump out with GPS and flashligt in hand ready to claim my prize. The GPS is leading me into a huge empty field, I mean like a big cornield that has been plowed. I get to where my GPS says zero feet, and there is nothing around me, just plowed flat dirt everywhere I look. The closest thing to me is the road, and that is over 100 feet away. Im thinking to myself about this time "You cant be serious, I run out of the house at midnight and drive across the countryside in the cold and wind and all I get is an empty cornfield?!". The hint on the cache was (Halfway down). What kind of a clue is that when you are in he middle of some flat ass field? I spent about 30 minutes checking the whole area, holding onto my hat the entire time to keep it from flying off of my head and still came up empty handed. Maybe someday I will be able to say that I got a FTF, but that someday was not today. This cache was rated a 3-3 by the way, which is quite high for this area. Probably not the best kind of cache to go after in the dark with my little flashlight that keeps going off all by itself. Oh well, I got to visit a nice lonely field tonight anyway.
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