Today was a trial run for a much larger trip.
Myself and three friends of mine will be taking a trip across the United States exactly 28 days from now. We’re doing a geocaching roadtrip across all 48 of the US states in 13 days. Today, four of us went to Truro, NS for the Maritime Mega geocaching event. The trip was meant to be a bit of a trial run for our website but it was also a nice miniature roadtrip for us to enjoy geocaching. This trip provided a couple of very interesting side things for myself.
Two years ago, on the August long weekend, myself and several others put on the last Maritime Mega event (#3) here in Moncton. It was the culmination of almost 2 years of planning and by all accounts, it was a pretty fantastic event. When we heard that Kevin & Leona were taking on #4, it was great news as I knew they would do a fantastic job.
Sure enough, the event I went to today was done very well, and it was obvious that a lot of time and effort was put into it by the organizers. I was really happy for them and really glad to not have to “work” another Maritime Mega.
And even though I am genuinely happy and proud of the folks who did this mega, I can’t help but compare it to ours. I definitely saw inspiration from our mega in theirs but I also saw some interesting other ideas that made it unique. There are some things I would have, and did do, differently, but I can honestly say that I really didn’t find myself wanting my own mega to be “better” than theirs. I just wanted theirs to be great and they did a great job. So happy for that group.
But the mega itself wasn’t the biggest takeaway today. After spending the day caching with my friends, I was reminded once again of why I enjoy geocaching so much. I did all of the driving today so I didn’t find a lot of containers myself, but I was part of the group. That was what I was missing.
Ever since my mega (M3), my interest in geocaching has declined considerably. But today I was reminded why it’s a hobby I enjoy so much. It’s not about finding the containers or even seeing the sights. For me, it’s about hanging out with good people and enjoying yourself. I can’t count how many times I laughed at those guys today and I realized that I need to do more of that. I need to spend more time with people I enjoy hanging out with, whether it’s geocaching, or just going for a drink somewhere.
Thank you Ken, Paul, and Jason for a great day and reminding me how much it is to be out caching with you guys.
