How it all started

On April 20, 2014, Laura and I were out shopping and listening to the radio between stops.  The radio personalities made an unusual announcement about the game of Scrabble.  For the first time in twenty-five years, Scrabble was adding a new word to its dictionary, geocaching.  For some reason, this caught my attention.  What in the world is geocaching?

Crazy Dave finding first geocache

I never liked research projects when I was in school, but I seem to enjoy searching for the answers to the questions which interest me.  When we arrived home, I went straight to my computer and searched the internet for the meaning of geocaching. After several minutes of research, I knew I had found something that was really going to interest me!!

A few minutes later, I became a free member of geocaching.com, downloaded the free app to my phone and headed out to find my first cache.  It took longer than it would for a seasoned geocacher, but we had a great time.  I was hooked!!

Crazy Dave’s Crew at Window Rock

So… What is geocaching?

Well, geocaching is a lot of things.  It is a game, a hobby, a sport, an addiction and more.  I immediately saw geocaching as a way to get the family outdoors, away from the one-eyed babysitters and enjoying time together. In fact, this is where the title of this website was born.  When signing up on www.geocaching.com, we had to come up with an appropriate user name.  My name is Dave, Laura is Crazy, and the children make up the Crew so we became CrazyDave’s Crew (I have learned it’s always best to put your wife first).

The official meaning of Geocaching is “the recreational activity of hunting for and finding hidden objects by means of GPS coordinates posted on a website.”  I also have a couple of favorite answers when asked what it is.  1. I use multi-million dollar government satellites to find Tupperware in the woods, or 2. It’s what happens when “geeks” go outdoors!

What do you get out of it?

Geocaching Comes to Tennessee State parks Event at Harrison Bay

That is different for each individual geocacher.  Some do it for the exercise.  Some for the friends they make along the way.  Some just do it for the satisfaction of being able to find the hidden object.  I’m sure I could fill this entire website with reasons, but I think you get the idea.  I believe most go geocaching for all of these reasons.

Many times I have to respond to someone who thinks its is a little were to head out into the woods in the dark, armed with nothing but my flashlight and my GPSr. They just don’t understand what I get out of it.  I often ask them what they get out of going out in the cold to sit on the bleachers to watch football players run up and down the field, fighting over an oddly shaped ball.  I don’t think they got it, but I know I made my point.

We have met and created friendships with many people that we would have never met without geocaching becoming part of our lives.  We have been places that we didn’t know existed and seen views only geocachers know about. It’s impossible to explain what we get out of geocaching, but I can’t wait to see what we get out of it next!