GoLI Member Spotlight - October 2020 RoandJoe
1. What does your cacher name mean? It is simply a combination of our names. And ironically enough, our children’s names also fit in there. That was definitely not planned when we started caching 3 years prior to having our first child.
2. When did you start caching and how did you find out about it? We started caching in April of 2011 when we first started dating. Ro saw an article about it on Buzzfeed!
3. Describe your first find. Joe picked Ro up at her house...and we drove around aimlessly like we often did in the beginning of our relationship. Ro said “Hey, do you want to do this scavenger hunt thing I found out about?”. Joe was super into it and we both downloaded the app. We found the closest cache, Quaker Meeting House (GCVWN2) and were hooked after that. We only found two more that day because Ro had to leave and eat Sunday dinner with her family which Joe makes fun of to this day.
4. How many finds do you have? Find count by type - Traditional: 1,134 - Multi-cache: 16 - Virtual Cache: 7 - Letterbox Hybrid: 8 - Event Cache: 3 - Mystery Cache: 131 (one being Geocaching HQ!) - EarthCache: 2 - Werigo Cache: 3 - Lab Cache: 7 complete Labs, 1 incomplete Lab: 36 finds Favorite find type? - A really well executed traditional cache (gadget or creative caches). Pick one favorite find? - For Ro: Geocaching Headquarters (GCK25B), The Original Stash Tribute (GCGV0P), pretty much any MoDaRiMa or Mushnikas - For Joe: Hard question to answer...after finding about 300 caches we went to Seattle and saw Dayspring’s Totally Tubular series. I thought it was awesome, because we had never seen anything like that. The Original Stash Tribute was special because we drove 3 hours from Seattle to Oregon JUST for this particular cache. Finally, after a little hiatus, we got back into caching and found The Thing (GC7HQHB) by Mushnikas, followed by MoDaRiMa Industries (GC7BMTC) and Wolfman Jack (GC75E36) which really put my current favorite CO’s on my radar, knowing any cache I find from them will not disappoint.
5. How many caches have you hidden? a. Hide count by type - Traditional: 30 - Multi-cache: 1 - Mystery Lab: 3 - Adventure Lab: 2 (10 total spots) b. Favorite hide type? A great gadget cache. c. Pick one favorite cache that you’ve hidden? Definitely Detention Block AA-23 (GC8Z771)
6. Stats review - a. How many state and country souvenirs? 9 States, 5 countries b. Jasmer challenge? I (Ro) just sat looking at the computer blankly for far too long trying to figure out what this even is. Whatever it is, we likely aren’t close to completing it. c. Fizzy challenge? We’re missing 46, and I know this only because I used the Project GC website to figure it out for me...clearly we are not challenge people lol. d. Calendar days? 347 e. Streak? 11..so embarrassing lol f. Slump? 1,511 days. Thanks Joey. g. FTFs? 2...Iggy here we come. h. Best caching week? 56 finds Weekend? 35 finds
7. Do you trade SWAG? Any signature SWAG items? Sometimes. When we first started we took something and left something at every cache. That is all in a bin that Joey loves. It’s kind of like family history lol. Now, sometimes Joey will leave a little trinket if he sees something that he likes in a cache. We do not have a signature SWAG item.
8. Like to move trackables? How many do you own? We did in the very beginning...then I think we lost one so we stopped. Recently, Joe has gotten more into Geocoins.
9. Cache with GPS or Phone? Phone 100%. We bought a GPS back in 2011 and really hated using it to cache. I’m sure they have changed a lot over the years and wouldn’t mind giving it a go again.
10. Do you have any geocaching goals? To get our numbers up, and put a lot more creative caches out on the island.
11. Do you cache with anyone? Just each other!
12. Tell a memorable caching story - Neither of us can remember the name of the cache for the life of us. However, we were caching in Queens near Ally Pond Park. We went into a wooded area, up a fairly steep hill and suddenly we were surrounded by a swarm of bees. Ro had unknowingly stepped on a beehive..and Joe is deathly allergic to bees. Luckily it did not end up like a scene from my girl, but we ran out and both had a good amount of bees on our shirts. The Liberty Aircraft cache has a fun story, too. It was right around the time that it was published, so all of the greenery was still on the fence, and we were basically being heckled by bar goers across the street. Suddenly an officer pulls over and gave us a REALLY hard time about what we were doing. We tried our hardest to explain what geocaching was, but he wasn’t having it. He actually followed us down Motor Avenue halfway to Ro’s mom’s house after threatening to arrest us if we did not leave.
13. Bucket list cache? “STAR WARS CACHE” (GC2FDRQ)...it’s only 6,800 miles away. Also, Sight Unseen which we plan to do in November(ish). We also definitely want to get to West Virginia and do all of the awesome caches down there.
14. Besides geocaching, what else should we know about you? We document every single geocache find with at least one photo. We have photo books from Shutterfly with the photos from each geocache. Joe makes the books every 250 finds and keeps drafts of the next book updated after every day of caching. Also, Joe wants to open an old marquee style movie theatre/donut shop after he retires (true story). Also he REALLY likes to mess with cold callers.
15. What do you want GoLI to work on? We would love to see some sort of merch store with shirts, stickers, etc. We noticed there are a couple of awesome GoLI items and would love to support GoLI in any way we can while repping our hobby!