Why Did You Start Geocaching?
We found out about Geocaching in late 2000, at a time when we knew we should start doing something with retirement time on our hands. Got our GPS by January 01. Went shopping for items to leave in caches and/or to trade, had a truck load of goodies. 8)
We were a FTF on one and did not even know what a FTF was or what to do with it! It took 2 trips to make it count. We did not realize that No Trespassing Signs really did not mean what they said. Next day got a hub cap hamburger and went to bon voyage. WE WERE HOOKED! 8O
The next day way up north to get the other 2 and to place our 1st on the return home. We were on a roll, did all 3 in the State in one week end in February, the only time we have been caught up, and placed our first one on the return home.
We began to plan 2 and 3 day outings...had to go to the Memphis area, then to Eastern OK, Southern MO to get our numbers up, by that time Arkansas began to make a showing, we could almost :( keep up for the remainder of the year with the State number of hides, but close only counts in horseshoes and handgernades.
Every road trip for business, vacation, or emergency always includes a geocache find and sometimes more than one.
Investment in Geocaching:( All are approximate estimates but close) 2 GPS instruments $300 :D ; computer mapping for lap top $39 :P ; battery for truck in area where Triple AAA won't come and get you $100 8O ; broken shoulder and subsequent therapy $3500 :cry: ; broken tail pipe on truck $300(don't ask) :? ; walking sticks from each area $300(we collect them); $$$$$s gas, motels, meals :); tailgate picnics and meeting all the Geocachers we have met.....PRICELESS :D
Why do I hunt for boxes in the woods?
Well, I found out about geocaching, after reading an article in the Democrat-Gazette back in I guess it was January 2002. It was kinda funny, my dad used to tell me I needed to do something to get out of the house. Since I was recently divorced, I didn't do much but eat,sleep,play games on the PC and go to work. After I read the article in the paper, I found a cheap GPSr on Ebay, and by the next weekend I was ready to go.
I took my g/f (now my wife) and my sister and brother-in-law and found several caches around Ft. Smith. Our very first cache was County's First Seat not too far from Greenwood. When we found it, the contents were scattered all over the place, as it seems the mowing crew had found the plastic container with one of the brush-hogs and destroyed most everything. While I was in Ft Smith that day I went to the Army Surplus store, bought a ammo can (which is the current container for that cache) and replaced the contents with some of the trade items I had, and threw in a new logbook.
The first cache I placed was at Cadron Settlement Park right outside of Conway, That cache RP & KG 1 was placed by me, and my wife, who was my g/f at the time as I mentioned above. She was a lifelong resident of Conway and told me of the perfect spot. That was back in April of '02.
To date, I have found over 300 caches. Some good, some ok, and some crap (personal opinion of course, but when all thats in the cache is junk with no log, thats crap) anyway......I get to travel some, and I never leave home without a GPSr and at least a few caches loaded in. My wife gives me a hard time and says we can never get to where we are going because I always have to stop and stretch my legs. My dad now says I can't go anywhere without looking for a cache, and he has even been with me a few times and gets a kick out of it himself. He has went from why don't you find something to do to get out of the house, to why do you always have to go geocaching.
It's great I have seen country both in and out of the state I would have NEVER seen without geocaching, its great exercise and it is some clean fun that can be done with the entire family,me, my wife, and my step son Justin, all really enjoy getting outdoors. My wife, Kellie, gets a kick out of finding the cache before I do, which she usually does.
As for my name Rusty_da_dog. Rusty is one of my two dachshunds, he can be seen on my geocaching.com profile, and he is named after my favorite nascar driver Rusty Wallace.
Cya on the trails,
Rusty