crEasing into Retirement: Meet & Greets

Meet & Greets are a generalized term for small geocaching events. These small gatherings are a fabulous way to meet fellow geocachers, get advice, share ideas, put a face to a name, thank or curse a geocache owner, celebrate a special day, brag and be humbled. We attended 16 events in 2013 before I attempted to host my own.

The first event we attended was a gathering of more than 500 people in Yuma AZ. Most of those 16 events in 2013 were rather small affairs in Watertown with 5 or 6 attending. We attended several in the Black Hills and arranged camping trips around them that summer. We also attended one in Plymouth MN when visiting OFD. Except for the local events, we knew no one at the other events. Since those first non-local gatherings we have met some of those geocachers at other events, expanding our geocaching acquaintances.

The first event I hosted was in Watertown to say goodbye to the local cachers who were a great help to us our first year.

Three geocachers attended. Thankfully, one brought his family for the breakfast event, making it look like a gathering of people.

The next event I scheduled was November 6, 2013 to celebrate a geocache on the space mission and space station. Those who attended received a virtual souvenir. (Remember, geocachers get figurative, not hands-on compensations.) Over 90 people attended that event in Apache Junction AZ to get this souvenir:

Let's just say the business establishment was as overwhelmed as I was at the turnout for happy hour. I hosted 7 more events (none with more than 60 attending) that winter while in AZ and attended 24 others, including another mega event in Yuma.

We were in the Chicago area in June 2014 when another special day in the geocaching world was occurring.

Since I did not see an event we could attend, I hosted again. This time in the parking lot of the hotel where we were staying.

I was super excited because two guys from England were traveling in the area and came to the event and a geocacher from New Zealand was in Chicago for work and he attended my June event. I hosted two more events, one in Milbank and the other in Watertown in 2014. We attended a total of 61 events in our first two years of geocaching.

2015 started with a January event in Watertown before we headed to AZ. An event in Mexico was added to the Yuma mega event, so we added our first foreign country event. About 100 people were there. We also attended an event in Colorado Springs on our way home that spring. I hosted my first Cache In, Trash Out event in conjunction with Keep Watertown Green and Earth Day.

We also attended 7 events in Minnesota that summer before our month-long adventure to Washington. I scheduled an event in Idaho and one near Mt. Rainer, Washington on that trip. While in Portland OR, we attended an event hosted by a group of geocachers from France. That is important because we met one of them while geocaching in Paris. He remembered meeting us in Portland. But that is another worthy blog post. We added 57 events in 2015, two more mega events and more gatherings in NE, IA, and MN. 2015 ended with my New Years Eve day event in Watertown.

2016 included attending geocaching gatherings in AZ, SD, CO, and MO. Highlights included an event in the Black Hills for a virtual souvenir, three mega events (AZ, CO & MO) and an event I hosted for a special geo day.

International Geocaching Day

There were no international guests at the event, but in attendance were a geocacher from NJ who was hitchhiking across the US and another geocacher from CA who was visiting his son who lived about 100 miles away from Watertown.

I thought about hosting some events while in Europe this past December, but was not certain of our timeline in each city AND playing tourist took precedence over geocaching.

We added 33 events in 2016.

All of this is leading up to the geocaching event I hosted this week. It was a chilly 54º on the patio and a light wind was making it feel even cooler. I have a faithful group of geocachers who attend my events in Apache Junction. Some of them have an hour-long drive.