What has Geocaching done for you?

[ShadowCachers]

I was sitting here brain storming for some ideas for the Future Arkansas Geocaching PodCast. This is something I want to know.. What has Geocaching done for you. Me its great rehabilitation to the lower back after my sergery I had last October. I must stay active in something to keep my weight down or Air Force might not need me anymore. Plus caching has shown me places in Arkansas that I never knew about. I can't forget about the new friends I have made. Geocaching has provided me with the adventure and means to keep going to that next cache and keeping my weight down by doing it. Please tell everybody something great that Geaocaching has done for you.

[AR-HICK]

What has Geocaching given me?
I have been sober of 10 years, and for much of that time I did nothing other than work and chores. Now I cache and get to see things that I did not know existed or had just heard about. I go places and do things, I have cached in most every part of the state. I always thought Arkansas was special, now I know it is a special place.
I now have a computer and can complete basic task with it, has helped me in my everyday life. I will not be the next Bill Gates, but I am having fun.
I am having FUN! Geocaching is fun!
This is the most important part of caching is the friends I have met. Having fun caching together or just telling stories with each other, good times. The friends I have meet and continue to meet are what keeps me going. My friends have invited me into their family and shown me respect and friendship. They have helped me in a time of need, they have helped me by just listening to me when I needed to talk.

Geocaching has given me the greatest thing of all Friends.

I never knew I would find so much while looking for Tupperware hidden in strange places.
Thanks for all those caches I have found and all those caches I still need to find and most importantly the friendships I have found and the ones I have yet to find.

[rklmbl]

Very well said, Mike!!!

Eo Orbis Terrarum Planto Novus Amicitia

[Nukeworker]

Geocaching has given us a hobby we hope will extend well into retirement. We love seeing new places, learning the history, meeting new friends, and challenging ourselves to hike up that hill for one more cache! Can't wait to introduce it to our grandchildren. Ken and Sue

[topkitty98]

Geocaching got me closer to Mark before he died. It gave me, Jim, and Mark an important member of our family. This friend helped me teach my child some important life lessons,

It's been a way to get away from our empty house and has been therapy in the form of photography and God's creation. Geocaching and the friends I have made here have helped get me back into life.

[QuartzCachers]

Wow! Great thread Ryan! I can't compete with some of the posts here in terms of importance in my life, but geocaching has had a profound impact upon me. When our girls were growing up, we spent every spare minute, and then some doing their activities, mostly softball. We coached their teams raised funds, built fields, traveled to other states, and pretty much made it our life, outside of work and church. All of a sudden, one day, we realized that our children had grown up and moved on. There was a giant hole in my life that needed filling, and then we found geocaching! When we found geocaching I knew I was hooked for good. I have made GREAT FRIENDS, I have gotten to know my daughter's in-laws (Nukeworker and Raquetball Girl) and spent some awesome days caching with them. I have been to and seen places that I would not have ever seen, I have done things that I could never have imagined (hanging by my feet from a dock in Glenwood, looking under it, thanks Dentful!) Been trapped up on top of a mountain in the middle of the night stuck in the mud, going for a FTF(thanks Team Panda!). Learned how to turn on a computer and actually make it do what I want it to(sometimes). Got on the internet for the first time. Sent and received an E-mail for the first time. Learned what an E-mail is. Leaned how to download caches into my Garmin(Thanks Cachemates!). Spent a day in Searcy trying, in my way to defend our states honor by finding more caches in one day than the guys from Mississippi did (Thanks Woodwalker!). Spent a day in the rain OUT IN IT, in Morrilton having the time of my life finding out what sneaky meant (Thanks Ar-Hick, 4-Wheeling1, and flannelman!) Found out that it really IS a small world, and that some cachers are closer to people you already know than you think(Thanks Saveall4love!) Seen first hand what a few people who believe in something can do to effect change, even in the government when they really get behind something(THanks again Hick and ORR!) Oh yeah, did I mention that I have made some GREAT FRIENDS?
On the down side, I have gained a little weight, and my bench press has slipped to under 300 pounds, cause I was going to the gym five days a week before I discovered this, but I think I am much more fun now.
I don't see me stopping geocaching anytime soon, because most of all, it's just plain FUN!! Good ol' fashioned clean fun that you can tell your momma about and even bring her along occasionally! Thanks to everyone here and everywhere who makes geocaching what it is! CACHE ON!! :D :D :D

[cachemates]

It seems from the previous post that the most important thing that geocaching has done is the Great Friends that has been made because of geocaching!

If we had to choose only one thing that geocaching has done for us it would be the Friends we have made. We love finding a great cache (and we've found a bunch) We love going to the many places we have been that we would have never been except for geocaching. We love the thrill of the hunt but above all that our friends is the most important thing that geocaching has brought into our lives.

We have been fortunate enough to go on trips to other states with our good friends rklmbl and woodwalker9. These trips will never be forgotten and you will never know what fun we had on those trips.

Like Ar Hick and Quartzcacher I knew nothing about a computer. Just barely knew how to turn it on. I have been helped by my many good friends talking me through a problem.

I thought when we started geocaching that this would be a great way to lose some weight. Something happened along the way! It backfired on me! I can not press 300 lbs like Quartzcacher but I can press a hotdog bun in each hand. I can do that for an extended time. Maybe that is my problem.

By the way we also love the eat and greet events.
I got to get back on them trails!
#1 Answer--Friends

[flannelman]

WOW! Great topic.

Geocaching has allowed me to spend more time with my kids. Last time we went they were pushing to go for one more. They just didn't want stop finding caches. We have sought out urban micros and gone on four mile hikes for just a couple of caches togather. The kids even want to use the GPSr on their own while hunting for caches. I'm sure GPSr's will be on their Christmas lists in the near future. Another great thing is all the great people I have met along the way. I can say that geocaching has givn me lifelong friends that I would have never met otherwise. It feels like I have known some of these people all of my life!! Don't forget about all the neat places I have seen thanks to geocaching.

[searcykid]

Geocaching has gotten me off the couch and into the fields, forests, and towns of Arkansas and keeps me active in my later years.

Since I discovered geocaching "Traveling Arkansas" is not just a TV show anymore, It is something that I do. I have lived in Arkansas for 51 of my 72 years and I have seen more of this state in the last couple of years than I had seen in the other 70 years. In the last couple of months I have driven about 800 miles in the Northeast Quadrant of the state, mainly visiting the Arkansas State Parks and finding the Caches that the Arkansas State Parks hid for our enjoyment.

I have traveled roads and visited towns that I had never driven on or visited or even knew existed BG, (Before Geocaching). Now towns like, Marie, Wilson, Powhattan, Imboden, Black Rock, Ravenden, Manila, Althesian, Whistleville are towns I have driven through. Geocaching took me from the Missouri border at Mammoth Spring to the Mississippi River at Hampson Archelogical State Park, to Des ARC and the Lower white River Museum State Park. Yes there is a Fair Oaks, a Pine Tree, a Hickory Ridge, a Cherry Valley, a Black Oak, a Tupelo and even a Marked Tree in the Northeast Quadrant. There's a Birdsong and a Birdeye. And why someone has not put a Cache in Cash I will never know.


But like most of the others that have posted here, the number one thing I enjoy about geocaching is the Friends I have made. I am not the same Wallflower that I used to be. I will mingle and talk to people and even make a fool of myself a time or two just for the enjoyment of it. Something I would not have done a couple years ago. I can do this because the geocachers that I have met seem more like family than just acquaintances.

These are people I can introduce my preacher to without embarrassment.

FUN AND FREIENDS.

A great way to spend my retirement years.

[BSA534]

Today is our 1 year anniversary of caching. We started on Labor Day 2007. At first it started as something to do with that expensive GPSr I had bought but still didn't know how to use 4 months later. It became something for me to do with the kids and for some exercise. I attended my first event at Morrilton and met my first cachers (other than me). We've had a lot of fun and even started hiding a few caches ourselves.

Seeing parts of the state I would have never even driven through and meeting folks I would have never met otherwise is probably the biggest thing I've got from caching. A year later and I'm still just as excited about caching as I was then!

[HikerRon]

all of the above! you all have covered it completely and i agree wholeheartedly. but there is another small thing that i enjoy about geocaching.....and that is 'the look' on a person's face when you explain to them for the first time about what geocaching is. you can almost see the wheels turning in their mind....imagining the possibilities....estimating the cost of this new found hobby, and questions begin piling up:)
i love that part!