Picture this: You're navigating the serene trails of the Bruce Trail in Ontario, or perhaps making your way down to the mysterious Eternal Flame Falls in New York. Now, imagine sharing those experiences with a friend who brings a whole new perspective to the table. That's what we've done in our latest chat with Jeff, our Canadian pal, whose transition from tech life to a geocaching enthusiast adds a rich layer to our tales of adventure. We're swapping stories of geocaching highs and the unexpected laughs, like when a sack race at work left me with a bit more than just a podium finish.
Have you ever wondered about the secret life of small American towns or the thrill of discovering hidden geocaches while traversing the great outdoors? Join us, Joshua and Craig, as we explore the transformative power of these hobbies, sharing our "delays" and "upgrades" – those setbacks and wins from our recent escapades. Jeff dives into his personal journey, touching hearts with tales of cache hunts shared with his mom during her illness and the joy of uncovering rare treasures. We're also talking about the quirky and whimsical world of Munzee, from Muns DeLorean mailboxes to Star Wars-themed virtual escapades, serving a reminder of just how dynamic and entertaining geocaching and Munzee can be.
This episode isn't just about the laughs and the finds; it's an invitation to step outside and create your own narratives, whether it's by climbing Angels Landing in Zion National Park or exploring the historic depths of Alcatraz. Our experiences, from sleeping in rental cars to climbing trees for ham radio antennas, aren't just stories – they're the compass for your next journey. So come along, and let us inspire you to fill your life's map with your own markers of camaraderie and adventure. Because sometimes, the best treasures aren't just found; they're shared with friends along the way.
Josh & Geoff Hike
Geoff at Mingo
Geoff Podcast
Geoff Youtube
Geoff Facebook Group
Picture this: You're navigating the serene trails of the Bruce Trail in Ontario, or perhaps making your way down to the mysterious Eternal Flame Falls in New York. Now, imagine sharing those experiences with a friend who brings a whole new perspective to the table. That's what we've done in our latest chat with Jeff, our Canadian pal, whose transition from tech life to a geocaching enthusiast adds a rich layer to our tales of adventure. We're swapping stories of geocaching highs and the unexpected laughs, like when a sack race at work left me with a bit more than just a podium finish.
Have you ever wondered about the secret life of small American towns or the thrill of discovering hidden geocaches while traversing the great outdoors? Join us, Joshua and Craig, as we explore the transformative power of these hobbies, sharing our "delays" and "upgrades" – those setbacks and wins from our recent escapades. Jeff dives into his personal journey, touching hearts with tales of cache hunts shared with his mom during her illness and the joy of uncovering rare treasures. We're also talking about the quirky and whimsical world of Munzee, from Muns DeLorean mailboxes to Star Wars-themed virtual escapades, serving a reminder of just how dynamic and entertaining geocaching and Munzee can be.
This episode isn't just about the laughs and the finds; it's an invitation to step outside and create your own narratives, whether it's by climbing Angels Landing in Zion National Park or exploring the historic depths of Alcatraz. Our experiences, from sleeping in rental cars to climbing trees for ham radio antennas, aren't just stories – they're the compass for your next journey. So come along, and let us inspire you to fill your life's map with your own markers of camaraderie and adventure. Because sometimes, the best treasures aren't just found; they're shared with friends along the way.
Josh & Geoff Hike
Geoff at Mingo
Geoff Podcast
Geoff Youtube
Geoff Facebook Group
And if you were just to ask an average Canadian like, what are your top five US places? This would not be the list. No no, it's not. Do you love to travel? Do you love road trips? Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 2:And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town, the podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:Join us as we venture into some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.
Speaker 2:On today's episode, we're going to get someone to come across the border legally from the north. We're gonna speak to a canadian, josh a canadian are we?
Speaker 1:we're actually gonna let him in. Well, leave me on the show at least. Anyway, let him in on the show at least.
Speaker 1:So yes, we're excited to talk to jeff. May we'll talk about him a little bit. Yeah, more in a bit here. But you know what you're here for the travel content. I know you're just like you listen to the treasures of our town podcast and we hope, and you're just like writing, you're writing down notes. You're like, oh my gosh, we need to go there. We need to go there. Oh, that sounds like an amazing place to visit. Like we hope that you are inspired by what we put out every two weeks. But we know, we know You're really curious about what's going on in our lives.
Speaker 1:That's another reason you probably tune in every two weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just to see where's Craig this week or where's Josh this week. Is Josh still at work?
Speaker 1:By the way.
Speaker 2:Josh, speaking of work. I saw a video of you on your Instagram feed.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I know how competitive you are. I know you're a competitive natured human being, and so I saw you racing men that were half your age in sack races at your work, and you fell over and did you hurt your shoulder. What happened there? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a good segue, because I'll tell you about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I think we should have a new tradition. I think we should start a new tradition. Okay, and I listen to other podcasts and you know what they do is that when they do this opening section which I call, or we call, the banter, the banter.
Speaker 1:They have traditions and their traditions are usually like give me the high and the low, highs and lows, oh. But here's the thing, craig, I don't think you should call it highs and lows. No, it's a treasure, it's a you know, a travel podcast, right? Yes, so I was thinking about, like, what could be, what could be considered low, and I got it. I think I got it. Yeah, it's when you're delayed, you know you're at the airport yeah, You're delayed two hours three hours.
Speaker 1:So it's like hey, craig, over the last two weeks since the last podcast. What was your delays? What was your big delays?
Speaker 2:What was your lows? What was my lows? Yeah, that's good, that's good. And what about the highs? The highs.
Speaker 1:Where have you got bumped to first class?
Speaker 2:Yes, your upgrades upgrades?
Speaker 1:yeah, where have you? What's what's bumped you? It's bumped you to first class. What's giving you the upgrades?
Speaker 2:all right, josh, josh sounds good, mate, sounds good. I'll start with you then. Um, what's, what's been some of your upgrades? This oh, you want to go upgrades first, upgrades. I'll go upgrades for you first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay how have I been upgraded to first class? Well, you know, I travel for work and I don't do it as much as I used to. I used to do it every other week.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But sometimes they, you know I should say I put myself on the road because I'm the one that, like, makes the schedule. Sometimes I put myself on the road If people don't know. I I speak in primarily in schools for a living. I'm kind of like a motivational speaker, but I'm not like Matt Foley, the motivational speaker, and I don't live in a van down by the river, that's you.
Speaker 1:Craig, um so um. I guess my upgrade these past two weeks is I got to go on a little short little road trip road trip, even if even if it's a work road trip, it's still a road trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, road trips are fun. So, speaking of Canada, I was. I was 10 minutes from Canada, really, and that's how far I went. It's faster get this, greg. It's faster for me to drive to Chicago than it is for me to drive to to place which is Roseau, minnesota, which is 10 miles, a little town, 10 miles south of the Canadian border Wow. And I went with my good friend Dahlia Jones.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:And I convinced her it's been. I guess it hasn't been that long, because it was this fall. I convinced her to go geocaching with me, oh so tell me Josh is that your latest video that just came out, uh, last weekend? This is not like. This is not like a promotion. Okay, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I understand that, but but if people want to actually see, like visualize this better, then they can go to your youtube channel, and, or, in other words, as well, if people already watched your youtube channel which they probably should, anyway, yeah, then this is this. Is you speaking about it?
Speaker 1:so yeah, oh, very cool so we, you know, I said, hey, you know this is long drive and you know what breaks up long drives, geocaching. Yeah, I targeted like four really good ones and they were good. We it was a virtual and three great caches and I just we just had so much fun and my co-workers are, so they're um, in the rules of improv they're yes and Right. So I throw something at my coworkers and they don't just stare at me blankly, no, they're like yes, yes, totally, they meet my energy, if you see the video you'll see how much she goes along for the fun.
Speaker 1:So that was my upgrade.
Speaker 2:Very, very cool.
Speaker 1:That was my first class. Very, very cool, that was my first class.
Speaker 2:Very, very cool, very cool Very cool.
Speaker 1:Okay, now it's funny that you bring this up, because I was going to talk about it. Yeah, my, what I thought would be an upgrade your delay. What I thought would be an upgrade actually became a delay. It was delayed, so we had a fun day at work. We had some intense and let me just say intense sack races. I saw it.
Speaker 2:I saw some of them. What about the bingo? You had like dancing bingo. Oh, that was fun.
Speaker 1:Wow, that was dance party, bingo, oh God that was actually really fun. It's so funny. If you saw these videos you're like where in the world do you work?
Speaker 2:Exactly. Are you working at Google, like with all these younger people as well? Because there's a lot of young people, too, at your work. Josh, I will say that too.
Speaker 1:I know A lot of young people, good young energy. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And they match you and you match them, just saying.
Speaker 1:Well, we had sack races. Everybody that participated in the sack races, I'll just note, were all younger than me, of course. So it's time for the sack race. I get my sack on. I don't know, it's like 30 feet and I'll just say I started slow. I was disappointed. They said go, and I was like behind. But then I was a high school track star. The hopping started kicking in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the adrenaline.
Speaker 1:I was neck and neck, neck and neck, yeah. And then I was like I, I'm gonna win this chick-fil-a gift card is that what you win?
Speaker 2:a chick-fil-a gift card.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah I'm gonna win this, and every time I do things like this, my mind is always like it's a mental game craig I'm always. Like you know, I'm a fan of survivor yeah, yeah, amazing race. I'm always like I play a mental game that I am on survivor and if I win I get the hidden immunity idol like I'm playing mental games in your mind I build it up bigger in my mind and then my body follows, and you will see in this video I dive it's, it's true.
Speaker 2:What they say, though, josh, like it is the power of the mind, and even though you're twice the age of the mind, and even though you're twice the age of some of those people there and I will say, because you are, because they're 20 year olds we're talking about here and you're you're mid 40s now, josh, you know you're not as old as me, but you are getting to upper, getting to upper 40s.
Speaker 1:I'm 50 next year. Just saying anyway, good for you. Okay, anyway, I'll finish my story.
Speaker 2:I dive craig head first, and when a sack race you're not landing on your feet, there's no way you can land on your feet when you dive yeah, and I just landed really hard on my shoulder well, you did put your arm out to actually like to, to get further in the in the race, you put your arm out. So, therefore, then your arm crossed the line and took down the line itself, so to prove to everyone that you were first.
Speaker 1:So did you notice, when I was on the ground I had a. Do you notice, when I was on the ground I had the number one. I was like I want it like number one on my hand.
Speaker 2:You did but that was just. That was just the, the um, the heat, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:then you had a final first. Yeah, I can't believe.
Speaker 2:I competed in the finals and then you competed in the final, easily won the finals you killed a final.
Speaker 1:That was the first. Yeah, I can't believe. I competed in the finals and then you competed in the finals easily won the finals.
Speaker 2:You killed the finals. You were ready at the beginning. I saw that too and I will say this Josh, the way the flags were set up, you didn't even have to put your arm out, you didn't have to dive for the finish, you went head first across me. You look like one of those, uh, you know, uh, what do you call it like in california when they put the, the mask around their face. You know those, those red sort of uh bandanas around their face, and that's what you look like, putting a red bandana around your face to try and yeah, this all sounds like it was an upgrade to first class.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the amount of pain my shoulder is in right now and the pain in my back I'm gonna have to go to the chiropractor. I'm I am not, I am not moving.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's it's a lot of pain so well, josh even though I won josh, I never, I never actually believed in chiropractors at all, until I went to one. Now I stand corrected, but I'm I'm a cracker, okay.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I want to hear. I want to hear how you've been upgraded to first class over these past two weeks well upgrade.
Speaker 2:My upgrade itself has been predominantly because, obviously, obviously, I play a lot of munzee and geocaching as well, but been doing a lot of munzee on a daily basis at the moment, you see, and to me, to me personally an upgrade for me, and when we talk about upgrades, we're talking about not something that you're lucky about or whatever, but something that it's a highlight of your week. For me, josh, the highlight of the week was the new release of the mailbox called the Muns DeLorean mailbox. That's a good one. If people don't understand you don't play Munsy, that's fine, it's not good one. Now, if people don't understand you don't play Munzee, that's fine, it's not a problem.
Speaker 2:But what it is? It's a virtual object and you can basically capture it every single day. It gives you points every single day and you take it with you because I'm leaving on Saturday, josh, I'm leaving again, I'm heading west through Pennsylvania, meeting a few friends, et cetera, and going from there. But yeah, so this mailbox can travel with me, josh, every single day as well. I can take it with me. And then I get from May the 4th because, obviously, star Wars Day, munz DeLorean From May the 4th we start to get prizes or special things that happen when we actually capture this MUNZ DeLorean every single day, but the DeLorean itself like it looks so sick. So sweet.
Speaker 1:Imagine it's like a DeLorean that's mixed with star wars. Yes, mandalorian, it's a mandalorian.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the muns, delorean, a mandalorian, and, and, and uh, you know the star wars as well, so I saw that you created some stickers.
Speaker 1:You created some stickers and you're like it probably created just for me, because you're like I'm gonna make this because I know at least one person will buy them.
Speaker 2:That's exactly my thought process, josh. I thought for sure, like Josh needs something to remember this by, and he'll purchase these stickers. So there are stickers, et cetera in the freeze tag store for those too. But not just that, but coming up as part of the ongoing sort of prizes, there's these things called oh, what's it called? Josh, the new scatter that came out, I'm not sure. Again, it's Star Wars themed, though it's Java, java the Hut, but they call it Java the Hut because he's coffee related. See, that's funny. So it's Java the Hut. Now, if you capture a Java the Hut, he scatters. You know that Boba Tease? He scatters Boba Tea tea, but it's called boba fett. So it's actually the boba teas themselves, but it's in the shape, the face shape, of boba fett. So it looks really, really cool too. So, yeah, so that's I've made. I've made again, I've made, uh, stickers of those as well. I've been asked for stickers for those.
Speaker 1:So so if you're a star wars like, this is the time to maybe check out Munzee, because there's going to be a lot of Star Wars they already have. Like other Star Wars characters too. Yes, they do, they do. Yeah, like Lou is Lou's.
Speaker 2:I can't think of her. But there's Darth Vardaman and that's Rob he's.
Speaker 1:Darth.
Speaker 2:Vardaman, the president, and then Lou Vader. Is it Lou Vader? No, lou, I can't think now.
Speaker 1:Princess.
Speaker 2:Lua, princess Lua, that's it, princess Lua. And because? So, if you don't know, lou, she works and is also married with Rob, but she works for Munzee as well and she loves riding bikes and she's good, josh, she's really good, and she's got like $1,000 worth of bike gear and stuff that she travels all over the world with on her bikes. So on her head is actually two bike wheels For the buns, for the buns, yeah. And then when you cap her, those wheels they go off her head and they scatter so you can cap the wheels separately. So that's really cool, that's fun, yeah, so you definitely get in If you're into Star Wars and things like that too. This game, munzee, it's a great game. I love it, josh, personally, it's whimsical, it really is.
Speaker 1:So okay, Craig. Yeah, how have you been delayed? What's your low?
Speaker 2:Well, my delay actually happened last night, josh, what happened? So my wife currently she's away in California for work purposes and stuff as well. So yesterday, you know, I thought I'll go for a drive around collect my monsies that I do and I thought I'd stop into my local supermarket here grab myself some dinner. So I grabbed myself some dinner and it was so. I mean, you call them, you call them breaded shrimp, but I call them prawns. Anyway, I bought these prawns themselves from the supermarket, thinking, you know, I'm at the jersey shore and I had them on a beautiful salad you know fresh salad and everything else is everything's fine. It was tasted, it actually tasted really good, etc. Not a problem. And then an hour and a half, all right after I had them, oh, I was visiting the bathroom and everything was yeah, so it was not good. So I'm not going to buy seafood again from a supermarket here in good old us ofS of A. Just saying that.
Speaker 1:So that would be my delay. Yes, you're going to have to do what we've talked about on this podcast and like only buy seafood when you can see the sea.
Speaker 2:Well, I can, almost I'm at the Jersey Shore, for goodness sake, but then again it's a brown color. It's not the sea, like we saw in Alabama With the white sand and the gorgeous beaches. Man, that was a great trip. Anyway, I digress as I always do, but yeah, so no, I'm not going to be doing that again, and all I'll say it delayed, it got delayed for about an hour and a half and then it was expedited, you know out both ends of the same, so there you go.
Speaker 1:Well, there you have it. That out both ends of the same. So there you go. Well, there you have it. That's our bump to first class and our delays. What do you like that?
Speaker 2:deal. What do you think? I think that's kind of good. I like it. Framing for your upgrade. What's your delay? I like it. I like our banter, exactly, exactly craig yeah it's time yeah, it's time to go north.
Speaker 1:It's time to go to the great north it's time to go north. It's time to go to the great north. It's time to get a perspective from our first and maybe our only ever Canadian guest, because you know this podcast, we focus on the United States.
Speaker 2:We're very.
Speaker 1:US centric. But guess what? This host is a Canadian, but he's been throughout the US quite a bit. So we're going to bring on our friend now, your friend jeff may hello, hello, I am doing great it is so good to see your face. I think the last time I saw your face we were on a mountain together. Oh, in washington, oh, it was beautiful On the edge of death. What was that geocache called? I remember Living on the edge, living on the edge. In the words of Aerosmith that was awesome.
Speaker 2:Every time he needs to actually do a song of some sort. Jeez Anyway, jeff, mate, it's been a longer time since I've seen you, buddy. Yeah, yeah definitely I think it's been there. Yeah, Woodstock, Cincinnati maybe yeah.
Speaker 3:I think that was the last time in person.
Speaker 2:In person. We talked about here, josh.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean Six years ago. Man time flies, I know. So we have Jeff on the show. Jeff, I don't know if you've listened to our show. Maybe you have.
Speaker 2:Maybe you haven't. Oh, thank you Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you for saying that Because we listen to your podcast, jeff, yeah, we do. Anyway, jeff is a geocacher, he is a podcaster, he is a traveler, he's a road tripper, and so we thought, hey, we should bring Jeff on. He also has a really nice microphone.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So even if he doesn't have good stuff to say, at least he's going to sound good. He will. He will Because, jeff, I listened to your podcast again the other day driving on a road trip. I love road trips and podcasts. Oh yes, absolutely. Just let everyone know who has doesn't know. Just tell us a bit about yourself for your, your podcast, etc etc.
Speaker 3:Go for it, mate. So I'm jeff and, uh, my caching name is the bruce zero. Everybody asks me if my name is bruce. It's not bruce, but I'll answer to bruce. There's a long story about how that name came about, but yeah, yeah, the Bruce is zero and uh, and I run cash the line on YouTube and it's kind of a brand spread over social media as well. Um, just, you know another one of those people out there who loves to promote this hobby of geocaching and uh, making videos, being creative and helping trying to promote great community and good fun and adventure and all that stuff. Um, so I've been caching since 2009, when I started in may with the iphone 3gs only an iphone. Oh man, those are the days. And uh, yeah, the rest is history yep, there you go.
Speaker 2:How many, how many phones you got under your belt now, mike, do you think uh?
Speaker 3:roughly climbing close to 21 000 now. Now, oh die hard, he's a diehard. This is kind of on the low end of a lot of people. In Southern Ontario we have power trails everywhere. Wow, people are up 30, 40,000. That was a pretty good average on our on our high end caching groups. You're so humble, but you know, I'm for everybody I.
Speaker 1:I'm a quality, I'm a quality, I'm a quality guy, I'll just here, you guys.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what? The one thing that didn't help, the one thing that didn't help with that number was doing the et highway that was worse almost 3 000 caches out of that yeah yeah for the.
Speaker 1:Yeah for those that don't know that are not necessarily geocachers. You're here for the travel, maybe, and you're along for the ride for geocaching, like when you're 20 000 geocaches. That that is a lot, that is a diehard. A lot of smileys, it's a lot of think about all the locations, that those are all 20 different thousand, 20 000 different locations places on this planet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, places on this planet, that's, you've been. In the words of johnny cash, you've been everywhere, at least, at least in canada and beyond so, and jeff, you've got a, you got a podcast.
Speaker 2:Tell us about the podcast, mate. It comes out. Is it weekly, fortnightly, what? What's your podcast?
Speaker 3:well. So I had, uh, my youtube videos and I was doing videos and then covid hit and so it was a lot harder to get out and make and uh and and get new footage for new videos. So I just started doing live hangouts pretty much every Friday night.
Speaker 3:Did a TGI Friday? Well, a couple of times a month or so. And then, uh, so TGIF Friday evening, hang out live chat with people, do various topics, did some um, online escape rooms and puzzle boxes, that kind of stuff, things you can do just on hand interviews and stuff, and uh, and once we can start getting back out again, I just kind of kept it going and it became a produced podcast. So, uh, with with the changes in life since COVID, it's come now to approximately about a once a month uh podcast all about geocaching and trying to focus on the topic of more adventurous types of things. And yeah, and it's just been going since then and yeah, life is still getting busy it is called.
Speaker 1:It's called tgif tgif geocaching radio radio geocaching radio but you're calling it radio.
Speaker 2:Well, I like it I listen to it on the radio in my car just saying, you know because yeah, online radio I listen to my local radio station online too, exactly see so.
Speaker 3:So before you're in ontario in canada, jeff as well yes, southern ontario, about an hour west of toronto, if you know ont, we have the Highway 401, which is like the spine of Ontario, which goes right from the west end, close to Detroit, all the way up to Ottawa and just one huge highway, at some points splitting into, I think, seven or nine lanes something or more than that, something like that huge around Toronto. But yeah, that's the spine and my city is right on that spine nice.
Speaker 1:I would say, jeff, that the spirit of your geocaching brand is very much along the lines of adventure, outdoor adventure, like more the woods, mountains, you know, seas, you know.
Speaker 3:I would say for me, like my content's a little bit more like a mishmash of lots of things in geocaching, but you were very much like outdoor adventure, if I that's, would you say, that's true yeah, um, there's something about, you know, visiting places you haven't been before, seeing things, uh, putting, there's one thing I love about tree climbs that I like to say it's like every time you climb a tree you're going where no one has gone before that's so true unless you're a cash owner and unless, like, if you're finding a cash that's already there, then you might be a second or third or whatever.
Speaker 3:But uh, yeah, like, if you think about it, nobody has climbed this tree before.
Speaker 2:This is the first time you've set foot here. No, normal people climb trees these days no normal people do.
Speaker 3:Only jake, that's it, you know so well, just yesterday I climbed a tree for a friend. He's a ham radio guy and he uh wanted to get his antenna higher in the trees.
Speaker 1:He's like hey when you do this intense stuff though, jeff.
Speaker 2:Do you have like specialist equipment and and stuff as well?
Speaker 3:and you know I, I wouldn't say I'm super intense, I just like to uh to go for some of those higher terrain um adrenaline style, adrenaline style adventures, and it's definitely not like uh uh, jumping from a plane. Um, sky jumping skydiving, skydiving.
Speaker 3:It's definitely not like skydiving it's or anything like that. It's just I like, uh, you know, I've, I've climbed a couple of tall mountains, nothing extreme, but uh, you know trails that the public can go to if they want to, um doing long hikes, going for kayak trips, solo trips, solo road trips, like just kind of things that are reasonable for somebody to do alone and still have a an adventure and memory to be able to tell people. And do you abseil? Do you abseil, jeff? Do you abseil? Do you abseil, Jeff? Do you abseil? I have never abseiled.
Speaker 1:Oh no, oh, Jeff, you've never abseiled.
Speaker 2:What the heck is that you don't know what abseiling is.
Speaker 1:Abseil.
Speaker 2:Abseiling.
Speaker 3:Abseil.
Speaker 2:Abseiling is where you actually go down with a rope down a cliff face. Oh, repelling. It's called abseiling. The official term is the real.
Speaker 1:The rest of the world calls it abseiling, except in the us repelling, repelling and rock climbing and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, in ontario we've got the niagara escarpment, which is a nice, long, relatively small kind of cliff geological feature, and there's a lot of spots there, so there's lots of caves and lots of cliff walls. We've got caches along the trail that goes along there, the bruce trail, and so there's a lot of spots there, so there's lots of caves and lots of cliff walls. We've got caches along the trail that goes along there, the Bruce Trail, and so there's a lot of. Ontario's got its fair share of small to medium-sized geological adventure places as well, which is really nice.
Speaker 1:Have you always been a outdoor adventurer, even before you were a geocacher, or did geocaching kind of make you into that?
Speaker 3:I think geocaching kind of opened the door to that. Yeah, I grew up in a computer family so I've been sitting at a computer most of my life, programming and doing art and graphics and stuff. And then geocaching came along. You take that technology outside and, yeah, the door just flew open that's so cool, that's really that's that's.
Speaker 1:that's what it's all about Exactly.
Speaker 3:So what would you say is your favorite thing about geocaching? That is a big question. He hasn't been absently.
Speaker 2:He does do tree climbs. He likes a long hike. What else?
Speaker 1:is there, mate? Let me look, can I? Maybe I can rephrase this, because you know we always say it's a place that brings you the adventure. It's a lot of things, so I know, it's probably hard to nail one thing down. I guess I'm more curious about what kind of traveler are you? Let's go down the travel. Are you a road tripper? Are you a? I'm going to fly to that place and explore that place. Like what you said, a lot of solo road trips. What's your style of travel?
Speaker 3:I think the thing that's prompted a lot of my travels has been statistics and rarity. So if there's certain caches that are out there that are very rare, like if it's a rare difficulty terrain or it's like something that highlights a location, something special about that location, then that's usually the draw to go. Like when I did that long road trip around to central Ontario that was a couple of days and sleeping in the car overnight and I had a rental car at the time and it was winter in the North and it was solo out in the wild, like it's just. It was way out there.
Speaker 3:But I was up for the adventure and I was solo out in the wild, like it's just, it was way out there yeah but I was up for the adventure and and I just mapped it out and planned everything and it was really because there were a number of virtual caches that I wanted to get, which are very rare, and um, and a few dt's along the way and uh, for fizzy grids and whatnot.
Speaker 3:so it's pretty much statistics and you know the challenge of just going out and being able to do that Um but, uh, the like, the, the, the start of it pretty much all happened because, um, what, my, what started cash the line at the time chasing the Ironman was, uh, my mother was diagnosed with some ALS and uh, so she was hospitalized and but she loves nature, she loved loved nature, she loved like birds and flowers and all that stuff, and so while I was already geocaching at the time, I was able to, like encourage her by bringing her the stories of places that I've been showing her photos and sometimes videos and things like that, and so that was something that kind of helped me, um, help her through that time and that kind of launched this idea of uh being able to provide something that other others could live vicariously through.
Speaker 3:You know, if people can't necessarily climb a big hill or a mountain or go out during sunset on a paddle on a lake and things like that, like that's the kind of stuff that I wanted to be able to capture and be able to provide something for other people to enjoy, you know, seeing things they might not be able to see. So that kind of launched the whole, the whole channel.
Speaker 1:That's really cool, that's really beautiful. And, yeah, you know, having a, as we know as creators, like having a mission around what you do and not just doing it just for the for the hell of it, for the joint enjoyment of it, and that's that's. Let me just say that's enough reason itself. There's enough trouble in our world and enough work and enough stress in our life, like that's enough. But when you can, when you can do it, uh, for other reasons beyond just yourself, I just think that's really beautiful, I think that's really awesome. So, yeah, it's really kudos for that. It's really a good segue because it is fascinating. You say what kind of drives your travel? So we had greg, uh, we had jeff put together a list, I know I know well josh is.
Speaker 2:This is, this is a, a travel podcast and about us travel as well. And we've got a canadian here from you know, canada, obviously, um, but they're built differently, josh too. Because I mean, jeff, you were saying before, you're in a rental car, sleeping in the rental car in Canada. I mean, how thick is your skin, brother, just saying, how did you keep warm? I know myself, I utilize. I've actually decked out my four-wheel drive, taken out all the rear seats, et cetera. I've got my bedding all laid out there too, with all my actual gear, food and clothing all beside me. So electricity. I've got my little Jackery bank, the whole lot. So, mate, I saw your car, you've got like a little sedan thing, but you've got this tent that comes out the rear. Do you still have that thing?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we've still got that. Yeah, yeah, it's the Sportage, so it's a smaller of its class of vehicle, but it's enough that, yeah, you can drop the seats down. You got the wide open back that you can lay down and sleep in. It's enough that for somebody my size, I can sleep in there reasonably comfortably. If you sleep in a car, you're never going to have vertical space, but, um, it's enough to draw to on the road. You can pull into a parking lot in the far corner, pop down the seats and crash for the night for a few hours and then you go, keep going on the next day.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, I looked into it and picked up a, um, a tent that just, uh, hooks on like a glove to the back of the car. So you pop open the back and then it sits on there and then it goes around like a glove and you put the exhaust underneath. So you're not yeah, you're not going inside, but it's just like a tent you can lay in there and then it's got the zip, zip door with the mesh and everything. It lets your feet be able to hang over the edge if you want to, and you're off the ground.
Speaker 2:It's just so, so nice and convenient now, mate, we did say as well, we've given you a, a task. We asked for five of your top locations in the us where geocaching is taking you. So, uh, let's, let's josh. What do you think? Let's just go from one to five, mate. What do you think?
Speaker 1:yeah, i's just go from one to five, mate. What do you think? Yeah, I think we should. It's just, it's so revealing. It makes complete sense, jeff. I'm looking at this list right now and if you were just to ask an average Canadian like, what are your top five US places? This would not be the list.
Speaker 2:No, no, it's not.
Speaker 1:But that's what this podcast is all about. It's about the hidden gems, it's about the places that maybe people haven't considered and, jeff, I see themes because I see the rarity. You're like, I want to. Yeah, I love the places that nobody maybe knows about, but that are rare, but they're really cool and if people only knew about them.
Speaker 2:Well, we're gonna just gonna reveal them now from the canadian perspective josh, before we do, before we, josh, we know what they are because we can see the show notes. How many of these five have you been to just saying?
Speaker 1:Well, I know you just brought that up because you want to one-up me. I know you've been to more and you are Australian, so good job.
Speaker 2:I've been to three of five, three of the five I've only been to four out of the five, so I've only got you by one mate, not not all of them, and jeff has been to five out of five.
Speaker 3:Well, I've been to four. I've not yet been to one of them, and there's a reason. It's on the bucket list. Okay, well, let's let's start.
Speaker 2:Let's go start. Number one on your list jeff, have you been to this one?
Speaker 3:number one is indeed mingo. It is the oldest active cash in the world, in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2:So craig, so craig hey, I've been to this one twice, so, so maybe that means I'm just as many as you know no, because I've been to this one twice okay I went to this one by myself and then I went to this one with you like well, craig and I can also confidently say that I have slept with mingo oh, did you just pull up next to it and just sleep in your car at the same location?
Speaker 3:well you know it's a road trip and you gotta sleep sometime. Did you keep pull up next to it and just sleep in your car at the same location?
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's a road trip and you got to sleep sometime. Did you keep it in the car next to you? Did you actually sleep with it?
Speaker 1:Did you snuggle with it? I snuggled up with it, right next to where it sits in the corner had the sleeping bag, out pillow and everything Wow.
Speaker 2:Craig, tell me there's a video. Tell me there's a video. Tell me there's a video of this. There is a video. Well, I'll send me the link and I'll put it in the show notes for everyone.
Speaker 1:Just saying the dirty show is two weeks ago yeah, it's a different type.
Speaker 2:Now this is getting dirty while geocaching, but anyway so this thing, this thing, jeff, was hidden.
Speaker 1:What it's gonna be 25 years ago, isn't it?
Speaker 2:next year.
Speaker 1:So it's been like 24 years this geocache has been out in the middle of nowhere. What makes you love it, other than the fact that it's just the oldest?
Speaker 3:Well, it literally takes hours to get to and there's like nothing there. It's roadside, it's about as bland of a location as you could possibly think of, but it's the oldest active cache and it was a simple one to find. It was like if you're a geocacher, you've got to get there sometime. It's like a mecca of geocaching sort of thing. You have to get that sometime. There's no reason that somebody wouldn't be able to get that, unless it was stopping them from traveling for some reason. It's so simple it is.
Speaker 2:It's really, I think it's even wheelchair accessible now I believe. Well, it would be, because everything's like all trodden down from people walking back and forth every single day.
Speaker 1:So, uh, there used to be. This is so sad. There used to be a historical marker, like a historical sign you know the ones you see like hey, um, mark twain sat along this this shore and thawed up huckleberry finn those kind of signs. Only there was a sign like it, saying this is the world's oldest geocache.
Speaker 2:We touched it. We were there together, yeah, we did and it it disappeared yeah, we stole it, it's brass. I think that's why, like someone, stole it for the actual, for not for any other reason apart from the metal, I think, to be honest with you there probably aren't too many uh historic markers out there either.
Speaker 3:Most cities have those kind of information plaques about what happened historically at some location, but they're all over the place.
Speaker 1:Out there, there's nothing it's pure meddling.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly that's unfortunate there.
Speaker 1:There's nothing, it's pure meddling. Yeah, exactly, that's unfortunate. So craig mingo is close to a city that you and I spent like a good three or four days in colby, colby, kansas, colby in kansas. Do you remember colby?
Speaker 2:of course, I remember colby. There's what was great about colby. I'll be honest, josh. What I thought was good about colby was there's actually some good quality hiders geocache hiders out there as well, and there was several different cache locations that we went to that were in and around Mingo Like even, you know, five minutes down the road from Mingo. I remember this one really cool cache. And I can't think of the guy's name now, but Artie Olson.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 2:Artie Olson. And yeah, and like he's done this full-on outhouse as a cash, you know, and and a corner store like a miniature corner store in a tree is as a cash and stuff like that. So there was good quality cash.
Speaker 3:Hides is what I remember and what I can recall from that too well, and what happened was there was there was almost nothing around there until mingo madness, the 20th birthday of mingo, that event and then, yeah, the whole area just populated with all these caches, something for people to find when they're out finding mingo. Now they're.
Speaker 1:It's just littered with caches all over the place a lot of really really good ones high favorite points, yeah, and if you're a geocacher I would say it's. There's pretty good chance that there will be a mingo madness again, not this summer, but next summer or next. May, next May, a year from today, 25th, yeah, yeah, because that will be the 25th anniversary of that oldest geocache. And yeah, it's now become Colby, kansas Again, kind of in the middle of nowhere, middle, you know, not a tiny, tiny city, I'd say it's about 10,000 people, but littered with great caches.
Speaker 1:It's a great geocaching destination if you're, you know, near nearby there's one thing else, josh, that I do recall.
Speaker 2:From that as well, I recall seeing going to your airbnb location looking up at the night sky, because you're in the middle of colby in kansas. In the middle of kansas, there's nothing around, no light. What do you call light fog or any of that sort of stuff at all? Looking up in the middle of the sky and seeing these lights going straight over in the perfect line. Aliens, starlink, elon Musk and Starlink crossed over our skies that night. That was really cool.
Speaker 1:That was the first time I ever saw it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We were like all amazed.
Speaker 3:Aliens are real.
Speaker 1:It was one of the I've stayed in a lot of Airbnbs. It was one of the I've stayed in a lot of airbnbs. It was one of the best airbnb bbs that I've ever stayed in. It was like a, like an old you know, like country shed, that is, with a garage door didn't. It wasn't a song well, the silo was the shower and the bathroom. That's right, which feels really weird to be completely naked inside of a silo.
Speaker 2:It was really an odd feeling.
Speaker 1:it was an odd feeling, but it was an odd feeling, but it was a good feeling. I will say that it was neat. I liked it.
Speaker 2:And, just to let you know, I've actually got Starlink now, so I actually use those things that we saw all those years ago. I use those devices now on my travels. So thank you, elon Musk. All right, we're going to move on to number two, jeff, number two. All right, we're going to move on to number two, jeff, this one's great Number two. This one is fantastic. Let us know, how did you get to this one, jeff, what is it? And et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3:So this one is a very natural location, a very natural location just outside of Buffalo, just to the south of Buffalo in New York, and it is called the Eternal Flame Falls. There's an earth cache there. There's no physical cache at the flame, but, um, it's pretty much literally exactly as it sounds. There is an eternal flame, uh, sitting underneath a little waterfall and you, you can walk right up to it, you could put your hand in it if you really want to, if you want to get wet first. But yeah, um, it's, it's a relatively simple hike you go. It's in a little uh park area.
Speaker 3:I think it is like a little natural area with a trail so you'd park there. Um, I think the hike is something like maybe half an hour, 30, 40 something around there yeah, and nice like too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was beautiful. And then you start up top, you walk and you go all the way along the stream. Then you work your way down, you come back up the stream where the water is and you end up at the waterfall and you can kind of see it if it's lit, you can kind of see it from from a distance and you walk up to it and there's just this tiny little flame, maybe about six, six, seven inches, maybe there could be two sometimes. And, uh, it's just completely natural because there's a crack in the rock that goes down to a natural gas um wells underneath somewhere and it just keeps going, keeps burning and it's so it's.
Speaker 3:It's safe enough that if the flame is out that you can bring a candle or a stick that's lit or something and relight the flame. It's just so cool, and then I don't know if there's any other place that that has a natural flame like that.
Speaker 2:That's safe to safe to approach and and that's open, like to and free for you to visit. I mean all these places and we've been to a couple too, josh, whereby you know you go to a place you think, oh, it's natural, whatever. But no, they've closed it off and someone's making money out of it and got an entry fee, like the, the, what do you call it? The, the fountain of youth josh, down here, down in, but uh, but yeah, if I noticed as well, you can, as said, you can relight it as well. If it is gone out, best time to go there would be sometimes during the summer sort of months, for obvious reasons, with snow, et cetera. There has been snow going down there too, josh, you went there before me. Why? How do I know that? Because Josh leaves an actual virtual munzee at the car park location, saying car park for the eternal fine.
Speaker 2:So oh that was cool there was.
Speaker 1:I did it, uh, I think now two years ago, and it was a highlight it was a highlight of that year of just travel and geocaching and like of course this is a place that people know about that aren't geocachers. But you're right, jeff, it's so rare, it's so unique, like I'm sure there are other gas leaks in the world, but the chances that it's behind a waterfall, yeah, somebody would actually just discover that, that that a gas leak is coming out of it. It's so beautiful. You know, you say don't come in winter, but I have seen pictures of like ice, like an ice waterfall, with the flame behind the ice.
Speaker 3:In a way, it's a little better in winter because you're not going to be covered in the water from the waterfall. Yeah, you can walk right up to it and kind of slip inside if you really want to.
Speaker 3:But in saying that, this is coming from a canadian, so just I'll just let you know. So he likes the snow, like he belongs in the snow. If I recall, this particular earth cache was also a statistical uh draw as well, because it was placed back in 2007. So it's a very old earth cache and it's a one one difficulty, three terrain. So I think there was something with the dt as well. For one of the grids there was a draw to it that wasn't just because it was an earth cache. There's more things. So again, geocaching is a tour guide. Highlight these rare locations yeah, I do think.
Speaker 1:If you're talking statistics though, I think it is, it's, I think it's number one on as far as favorite scale most favorites, or at least most favorites, uh, per premium members. On the wilson scale, like, I think it's number one. I don't know if I can name, wow, and I don't think I can name an earth cache that is better than that one in terms of, yeah, in terms of the wilson scale, as they call it, yes, which I learned about too on jeff's latest podcast.
Speaker 1:Just saying so, he spoke about that too, and just so we don't lose people, because, yes, right now we've talked about earth caches before. Earth caches are like a geocache, but there's no physical container, it is a earth feature, usually a geological feature, and you go there and you get a picture, usually, and then you have to answer some sort of um, geological science question. Yeah, and they're designed for you to learn about the area. So, um, if you're listening, you're like boy, I don't know what the heck these guys are talking about. That's what it is, uh, it's, it's, it's a, it's a special kind of geocache exactly, and josh, this is a type of location.
Speaker 2:As well as that, if you're not a geocacher or munzee player, anything like, it's still an awesome place to attend, like it is it's, you'll love it, and it's on all the maps, it's on google earth and all that stuff too, so you can still get the eternal flame in just south of buffalo, new york which I'd say is a really underrated city like there's, like niagara falls is right oh yes you go north 45 minutes and you are at niagara falls.
Speaker 3:You can yeah but if you want the best experience in niagara falls, you got to come to the canadian side, which I did, which I did and um, I, I was actually.
Speaker 1:I went across the border. We've had a whole podcast about it. We could put it to links. We don't, I don't have to rehash it. I went to halleman county in ontario and did their geo tour there, which I don't know if it even exists anymore, but yeah, it was done it was. It was removed but uh, but yeah it was. A buffalo is just. If you're looking for a fun long weekend, there's a lot to see and do in Buffalo.
Speaker 2:It's not a city. You always think about A good friend of ours too, josh Nancy.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:She's from Buffalo and you can reach out to her if you're a Geocach or a Munzee player and she'll happily.
Speaker 1:She's even got a website, tooocachingcentralcom yeah, she has a whole visitor guide for the area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so make sure you go to geocachingcentralcom, and it'll be in the show notes anyway for her visitor guide there in buffalo anyway. So, and number three, jeff. We're going to move on now to number three. Again, I've been to this one, josh, you haven't.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've seen it on video, it's you have't been to.
Speaker 2:It's very frightening, especially what you're about to talk about.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness maybe this is the one that's on my bucket list. I I had plans to get to this a couple of years ago and then covid hit and it just hasn't materialized. It's, uh, zion national in zion national park in ut. It is Angels Landing and it's about as freaky as it sounds. Yeah, because if you do the hike, you might become an angel.
Speaker 1:This is true.
Speaker 3:It's over a five-mile round trip. I say mile because this is a US podcast, correct, uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Probably 1,500 feet hike, short distance, high. So you are taking a hike and you're doing some switchbacks and you're going essentially up the side of a cliff face. If you know Zion National Park, it's like Grand Canyon sort of scale geology and so you're in this canyon. But in this canyon is kind of this peninsula of really a really tall wall, I guess you could say I don't know how else you could describe it and you're climbing up the switchback up the side of the wall to get to the top and when you're on the top surface it keeps going up. So you have this really thin, really steep hill that keeps going up and keeps going up and it gets thinner and thinner and thinner and eventually with, if you're daring enough, you can keep going where there's no handrails and you're I think that's probably, I think it's about a 10 to 20 meter gap where there's no handrails and sheer cliff on either side. Yeah, enough room for one person maybe one and a half you gotta, you gotta look ahead, yeah, you gotta look ahead.
Speaker 3:And then you get to the other side and then you're going up again and it's it's not like a slanty hill, it's steps like knee and hip high, some steps going up this really steep hill and eventually you get to the very, very, very top small ish kind of area and you're just overlooking 360 degrees of Canyon all around you. Wow, sheer drop all the way around and it's just, it looks unbelievably surreal and uh, they say any most anybody could do the hike. It's really getting past the fear, that's right.
Speaker 3:It's a mental thing, yeah Cause there are times when, yeah, you're on some uh really, uh really smooth rock. Because there's so many hikers, the rock gets worn down a lot. So there's some spots where it's not flat, it's slightly angled and there's really nothing going past, like you're going down and then to the, the sheer drop. So it's it's, you can walk on it without fear.
Speaker 2:It's just you have to mentally get past this I will say, jeff, when I did it itself, um, going up wasn't as bad as coming back down I'll say that, um, but either way, when you're actually traveling, as you said, it is quite thin and you have to look ahead, because if someone's coming towards you, they're going back down, you're going up. You've got to sort of negotiate where you're going to. You know, change over from each other too. Here's a tip for you out there Tips, josh. I love my tips.
Speaker 2:Take some sort of packed lunch, et cetera, with you. Obviously, water as well. Make sure you've got plenty of water for this walk, but take a packed lunch. Why take a little packed lunch? Because you'll be greeted at the very top, josh, by one, two, three, four, no five. I saw five chipmunks that literally live on top of there and they live off everyone's scraps. So they'll come up to you. They'll, they'll look at you going have you got something for me? They'll get it out of your hand like they're like. Yeah, they live up there. There's like five chipmunks that live up there.
Speaker 1:So that's awesome, yeah, so so you, you did the whole thing, craig you you walked all the way to the end of it. That's impressive Because, Jeff, people have died on this. People have fallen.
Speaker 3:Yep and because of all that you now, just recently they implemented you have to have a permit to be able to do the hike. So, they're trying to limit the number of people because it's getting so popular. Internet just makes all of these locations all these sites really popular now, and so they've got to try to thin down the herd, make it a little safer and protect natural stuff as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and more people, more crowding I'm sure it makes it actually more dangerous just because you're running into people.
Speaker 3:It reminds me of driving in the UK, because in Scotland especially, there's some roads that are single lane like not one lane each way, just one lane and when you have two cars coming head on, the closest person to the last little pull-off has to reverse and then let the other person go by. There's none of that on this trail unless you're lucky to be by a flat area.
Speaker 2:Plus, what happens is when you sign up to go on this and put your name down, you actually have to sign a waiver. So if you do die, your family can't sue, so you sign a waiver for it too. So it's all part and parcel. But it's not just Angels Landing in Zeon Park. I'll say this as well, jeff. Have you seen the tunnel? It's like one of the longest tunnels of somewhere natural tunnels and it's a natural tunnel that you drive through, josh, as well and it's absolutely beautiful, incredible, let alone all the natural earth cache. We talked about earth caches before with Eternal Flame. So many different types of earth caches there as well, like not just your weathering earth cache or this rock earth cache, but there's other earth caches there as well, which is really really cool. Again, lets you learn about rock earth cash. But there's other earth caches there as well, which is really really cool. Again, lets you learn about things. But then there's the wildlife. You know you've got all those those mountain goats and whatnot as well. So, yeah, it's a beautiful place to go.
Speaker 3:Zion national park, jeff, what? Yeah, mate, there's also another really popular one is the slot canyon, like they've yes, you've seen so many pictures on the internet there with the rock walls that are all curves and layers and then people walking in this. So, like this is all touristy stuff. There's a stuff that's accessible to most people and uh, there's just so much of that in zion national park. You'd probably spend a week there and not visit all the locations that you could visit exactly, craig, we might have to do.
Speaker 1:We might have to pick a national park and do a show about a national park, or or do a show about the top five national parks. Absolutely, I have to visit, but before we do that, I have to visit more of them. I know zion is certainly on my short list and if you're listening and you you want a visual like there's some a lot of good videos. If you just search angels landing, you'll see and you'll be like, wow, that looks amazing. Well, josh, your next thought will be like wow, that looks dangerous josh, jeff, here's a question for both of you then.
Speaker 2:Do you have your actual national parks passport? There's a passport book that you can have, and you can actually get stickers and stamps with the date of when you actually visit them as well. So do you have a passport, josh? This?
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't. It's one of those things. Well, hold on, it's one of those things where like it's like I. Every time I go to a national park I'm like I should get the passport, but then I'm always thinking well, I've been to so many and I've missed so many already so then I never get it.
Speaker 2:Amazon still sell the stickers. Stickers, amazon's selling stickers.
Speaker 1:Oh really, yeah, I thought there were stamps. They're not stickers.
Speaker 2:There's both. There's stamps and stickers. You can do both. There's a stamp and a sticker side.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool, so I could make up for it.
Speaker 3:So you can like couch log the national parks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly what about you, Jeff? Do you Pass Passport?
Speaker 3:This Canadian does not have a US National Park passport. Is there a?
Speaker 1:Canadian National Parks.
Speaker 3:There's provincial parks and national parks, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same sort of thing. Do they have a passport program? I don't think so, not that I know of. You know how we love checking off our boxes.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of checking off your boxes, Josh, you personally, you said it before geo tours there is a national park geo tour as well did you know, that it's taking a long time to complete.
Speaker 1:It's one catch in every park or something right yeah, exactly, exactly that's really cool. That would be. I would say that would be as cool, if not more cool than cash cross america. Can you imagine just? To be, able to say I've been to every national park. That's so yeah that's really cool.
Speaker 3:I feel like that would be something that would be a lot easier to create than to complete.
Speaker 2:True, true absolutely yes, all right jeff, moving on, now we're going to number four. Now, josh, I have not been to this one, but you have we've talked about it.
Speaker 1:We've talked about it. Remember my daughter came on the Bowling.
Speaker 2:Green show. Yes, yes, that was a great episode.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it again because Jeff has been there.
Speaker 2:Yes, tell us, Jeff Tell us.
Speaker 3:Well, I have a video coming for this at some point as well, because this was part of the big road trip tour down south to Texas. And so this again, this is where geocaching is a tour guide. I was just looking for, uh, neat, rare, uh out of the way locations that you know you're passing by. You don't want to miss it. And so I was looking for really cool geology and then found this place in kentucky the mammoth cave. It's this massive underground network of caves. I think I can't remember if it was the largest in the world or maybe second largest in North America, but it's enormous and they have multiple tours so you can take the bite-sized chunks of various parts of the caves. But I went on the Grand Ave tour, which is pretty much all the major stuff that you can do in one tour.
Speaker 3:It's a four-hour hike underground through the mammoth mammoth caves. It's cool, wow, and there's multiple, a variety of environments, um and and. So you've got like the really wide and short kind of ovular hallway, lava flows and stuff like that. And then you've got stalactite and all the mineral caves and that kind of like. It's just a huge variety. And then they light it up with all these colored lights and spotlights. It just looks fantastic and it's just like it's another world. When you go through this. They have to have bathrooms littered around the trail, the route, because for that four hour hike, if you've got kids as well, that's real.
Speaker 3:Yeah and yeah, like they say, don't go on this unless you know that you can be on your feet for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:There are times when you can sit and rest, but there's like a couple of rests along the along the tour.
Speaker 1:But um, that's the the big tour, otherwise that's a long tour. Yeah, I think I I think I did the 90 minute tour. Yeah, and um, it's, it's amazing. I mean, I think I said this last time we talked about it there are rooms that are bigger than football fields.
Speaker 3:Yeah, underground it's unbelievable and not caving in like it's it's open, open air they tell the story of the people who initially mapped them out and uh and explored these tunnels and I think there was a restaurant down there at one point that had amazing, but there was a restaurant in the mammoth cave underground and yeah america but there was an EarthCache that brought me to that one.
Speaker 3:And I was like okay well, like I think there was a virtual as well, but you're there and you just got to do it. You know, that's the kind of thing where that experience has already been there. It's been there for probably a couple of decades or something like that. But somebody published an EarthCache where you've got to get information from various spots and virtually gather information. The geocaching brings you right there and you can have that whole experience that you probably would have passed by it. If you were just on a road trip somewhere else, you wouldn't have thought about it. Well, you can't say it's underground.
Speaker 1:Speaking of national parks, it is actually a national park Mammoth Cave National Park which I didn't get the stamp for. I I'm ashamed of myself. I need to get on top of that. I need to go um, because my son goes to uh school like 30 minutes from mammoth cave in kentucky. Did we say it was in kentucky? It's in kentucky yes, in kentucky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's in kentucky, josh. Just to let you know as well. Just to let you know that if you forget your actual passport, they do sell for $1 in the shop, in the stores they do sell an actual blank sticker that you can stamp the blank sticker and then take that home to your passport or whatever and then stick that into your book. So it's still a stamp of a sticker in a book.
Speaker 1:But you still need to go back. Yeah, yeah, a sticker and a book, but you still need to go back.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, but if you're, if you're there and you go you know, oh, I forgot my book, my passport. I get that stamp.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get that um good tip craig, I like it all right, should we go to number five? We talked about number five. Oh my gosh, we talked about number five two weeks ago in a very, very different way it's a very different way two weeks ago.
Speaker 2:We won't go back there. Number five Jeff. Where are you taking us for number five, mate?
Speaker 3:Good old San Francisco California.
Speaker 1:Do you want me to sing a song?
Speaker 2:You know you want to.
Speaker 1:I left my heart in San Francisco.
Speaker 2:You were thinking I was going to sing the.
Speaker 1:San, the san francisco tree, ding, ding. Do you know that?
Speaker 2:no, no, I'm australian, so jeff do you know that?
Speaker 1:no, he's canadian okay it's this. Oh my gosh, this is a podcast about the united states. You guys know nothing. It's um rice aroni, the san francisco tree, ding ding there you go, there you go.
Speaker 2:That's all. Let us know in the comment, and we're done so. Um, thanks for being on the show jeff what, what's? What about san francisco? Did you love the most, jeff? What are we talking about here, mate?
Speaker 3:so this was, uh, I'd been there now a couple of times for, uh, for a reason that was pre geocaching, when I was doing another space called alternate reality games, transmedia, storytelling, that sort of thing, and um, so I had gone there for a conference and then another time I went there for another promotional event for ford, and on those trips I was uh, well, you know you take in your surroundings. So, um, I had visited Coit Tower, which is the tower at the top of the hill in the middle of San Francisco, and you know it's, it's right at the top. It's not super, super tall the tower itself, but you can go there and you got a 360 view of the whole uh area of the region. And, yeah, you can look out over the bay and you can see Alcatraz, you can see the forest, the Golden Gate Bridge, all like. It's just, it's a beautiful, absolutely beautiful location and, um, you know, I see people going to San Francisco and I say you gotta go to Koi Tower.
Speaker 3:It's right there. You can drive up park and then just take a little walk up there.
Speaker 2:It's really nice, um, but that Virtual cache too, virtual cache at the top. There too, just saying yeah.
Speaker 3:And that was before I was crashing when I went there. So now I want to go back and see if I can answer the questions exactly.
Speaker 1:Hey, jeff, when you go back, make sure you get the stamp, all right?
Speaker 3:so.
Speaker 3:So I was there for a conference in san francisco and so part of the part of the touring around, uh, I just looked for some nice places to go and I was like, okay, gotta visit the redwood forest as well, and that's the one that's on the other side of the bay and that's the forest where you've got these massive trees that are many feet wide and I can't even remember how high a couple hundred feet or something like that really like the largest trees, and you can walk through the forest, you know, you see those pictures of people standing with their arms wide and they're not even covering the width of the base of the tree or walking inside the tree.
Speaker 3:If there's a hole, it's just. I had one picture where a tree had fallen over the trail and so they had to cut, um, a slice out of the tree to keep the trail open. And yeah, it was like one fingers touching one side of the tree in the on the cut and then foot reaching to the other side, and this thing is just massive and, yeah, it's like you feel so small in that forest. It is worth visiting and taking a walk around those trails.
Speaker 2:Have you been to that one, Josh? Have you been to the Redwood Forest?
Speaker 1:No, oh, it's beautiful. I know it's on my list.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:A bucket list and Alcatraz, that sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Did you take like a tour of Alcatraz?
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I visited a couple of times now and the best time was a Ford promotional thing. So I was invited out for an event More storytelling in real life and all this stuff, all promoting Ford. It was like a murder mystery and crazy stuff. But for this event they opened up parts of Alcatraz that are typically closed to the public. So we got to see some of the things that most people don't get to see in Alcatraz. But it's it's like really cool to go walking through there, because they they try to keep up how things were in the past and so you kind of look back in time. But you see the um, the, the, the cells, uh, they have information about. You know how they broke out of Alcatraz and the end of Alcatraz when they shut down, all of that stuff. It's all there and it's just fascinating to be able to walk through that and see all of that. It's kind of eerie in a lot of places as well.
Speaker 2:I bet, please, jeff, please On the boat ride back. Please did you say to someone you know we just escaped from Alcatraz.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure that was spoken at least 20 times.
Speaker 1:So we have some homework to do, because I think alcatraz, speaking of location-based gaming, would be a perfect location. If it's not, I'm shocked. A perfect location for an adventure lab, don't you think? Oh yeah, I think it is, that I mean we should look it up that would be so it's a perfect location for that everybody.
Speaker 1:Break out your phones and open the end just one of us, while the other two talk again, for, for people that aren't as familiar with geocaching, adventure labs, there's is a side game of geocaching when it's it's basically virtual locations. But it's really good for, as jeff is saying, like, very good for storytelling, very good for history. You could do a really cool walking tour through Alcatraz as you're answering questions. That would be just really neat. It kind of reminds me, craig, of the haunted webcam cache that we found in Indiana. You know, like that kind of location.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, josh, I don't think there is one on there. I don't think there is. I'm not seeing one either. I don't think there is, I'm not seeing one either.
Speaker 3:I don't think there is. I'm not seeing one on there. I see a location.
Speaker 2:Oh, so there must be one. Oh, that's Angel Island, never mind.
Speaker 3:That's not out, that's Angel.
Speaker 1:Island. I wonder, Jeff, do you have to pay to get in?
Speaker 3:A typical tour. Yes, you, yes you would be paying to get in.
Speaker 1:So maybe that's the thing it's like. It would have to be like a premium level adventure lab, because you have to pay to get in.
Speaker 2:But, Josh, there is a virtual cache on the island on Alcatraz and guess what it's called Earth cache. There's an Earth cache on there too. It's called Escape from Alcatraz is the virtual, and the Earth cache is Alcatraz, the rock formation.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, there's something there. I mean, geocaching is everywhere, but I still think gosh, an adventure lab would be so appropriate for, like, the inside of Alcatraz.
Speaker 3:I'm sure you could. You could probably have at least one stage in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. Well, I'd have all the whole five stages around somewhere.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, me too.
Speaker 3:So, you can get them with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly. So there you go. So what else did you find? What else did you find, jeff?
Speaker 3:in san francisco now. So then, the second time that I was there, one of the draws so I was geocaching. At that time one of the draws was a virtual there I'm seeing trying to see if I could find it. It's um in an arcade and you had to play one of the arcade games and get a high score. I think it was a top score.
Speaker 1:We're in the high score. Yeah, it's called high score. That's it. That's awesome. That was a great idea.
Speaker 3:Let's go. So you have to take a picture of the scores and then that's your name and then, yeah, you can log it. Found I was like, oh, it's a 1-1 virtual and I had to get it.
Speaker 1:So you have to wait, you have to get the high score. So do they unplug the machine, so every day it starts over, so it just doesn't get higher and higher.
Speaker 3:I honestly can't remember. It's been so long. I'm trying to see if I can remember.
Speaker 2:But, josh, if we do do it, mate, if we do do it after our previous you know games that we play and if we're with tim as well, tim's gonna have to play it first to get the high score, then I'm gonna have to play it to beat tim, and then you're gonna play it to be both of us just saying if it's the other way around, tim and I aren't gonna be able to capture this virtual, just saying because you are the best at these games so, jeff, what do you remember?
Speaker 1:what is the name of the arcade, do you remember?
Speaker 3:I'm I'm looking through my uh finds to try to find that.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right meanwhile, we spoke about it, uh, last week as well, last episode, like with the p9, I think it was as well. It was a p9 yeah, yeah, 39, a p9 crab I can't recall crabs at the piers there's crabs at the pier there, but there's also the seals with the webcam remember we spoke yes, yeah, okay that's another good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so, but there is crab at the peas as well it looks like that there is greater reason to visit san francisco other than just the water treatment plant plant and the dirty jobs the another sanitation, the sanitation poop in the sewers, like if you listened two weeks ago, that's. That's what was the big draw, I guess for for dave barsky he really exactly he. I'm putting in quotations he really enjoyed the um, I do believe I do believe that's when he said that.
Speaker 2:Uh, that's when they thought them to themselves what the heck are we doing? Here, what sort of jobs are we doing? So all right, Jeff, moving on, mate, what else do you have for us? You've got a comment.
Speaker 1:Craig, I'm going to pause this right here. I have an idea what? Tell me Bonus content for our patrons, okay.
Speaker 2:We can have two more for our patrons only.
Speaker 1:There's two more for our patrons. Only there's two more. There you go. What are they? You don't know, because maybe you're not a patron, but you should be, because, exactly, we give special stuff to our patrons, because we love our patrons. Well, well, well, why don't?
Speaker 2:we close it out here then, josh exactly, jeff, before we close it on this main channel itself. Uh, where can people reach out to you? Where can can people find you, mate?
Speaker 3:Well, you can find me as CashTheLine on most any social media platform. Kind of active only on a couple, but I've got profiles everywhere. There's TikTok and Threads and X and Instagram Facebook. There was even one of the other newer ones that wasn't as popular for photos and media. Now I can't remember what it was called. Yeah, just all over the place. Just google cash the line and then you'll find it or the bruce zero.
Speaker 1:The bruce zero on instagram and youtube is cash the line, of course I tell you people uh, jeff puts out some real quality content and he has a really distinctive, distinctive brand. Thank, you all, all his own, and he is just a great, great voice in our in our geocaching community. So, uh, thanks for what you do, jeff, and uh, thank you so much for being on on the show. Really appreciate that. I got a question for you, though, jeff. Jeff, before you go, one more question Are you going to Geo Woodstock 20 in Flagstaff?
Speaker 3:Arizona. I really wish I could. I will be there in spirit. I've been to a couple of Geo Woodstocks now and I really want to be able to go to the 20, big 20.
Speaker 2:But the time and the funds aren't there this year and it's just unfortunate I personally am going to miss you, jeff, because I've only ever met you in person once. I'll meet you like vicariously so many times, but actually in person only once though, but anyway, we're going to miss you and have a big reunion one day we will, but you're you personally are going to miss out too, because, as we said, said last week, josh, what did we say?
Speaker 2:We made the announcement you and I are going to do a live broadcast from Geo Woodstock. There you go, people.
Speaker 1:Year two. So the Saturday of Geo Woodstock at 2 o'clock on the main stage, the Treasures of Our Town podcast will be live and in person. You could be a part of history with us as we do our podcast live. You could be a part of history with us as we do our podcast live. You could be on the podcast. Yeah, because we're going to be talking all about the 20 different locations that Geo Woodstock has been over the last 20 years in its existence. So it'll be Memorial Day weekend. It's that Saturday I don't have the date in front of me right now and then we're going to be there.
Speaker 1:We're going to be there from Wednesday to Monday. So if you're there, of course, say hello, but please, please, join that audience, join us. We don't, you know we don't want to. We want to look like you know we're legit, I think we are, but if, like, three people show up, it'll be, like you know, kind of underwhelming. When we did this last year, we had a good crowd, we had like 80 people in the crowd.
Speaker 2:It was awesome, it was great, it was awesome. And this this time this year is going to be even better.
Speaker 2:Just saying it's going to be even bigger and better than there'll be more people higher quality audio, because dave baski is going to be there for us as well, so it's going going to be higher quality audio. So, mate, also we're going to meet up with some Patreons, because some Patreons sorry, patreons are going to be there. I'm trying to change my name, I like it Patreons, patreons are going to be there. So, if people want to reach out and become one of our Patreons, josh, how do they do it?
Speaker 1:mate, by supporting us, you're helping us create even better content. Have great guests like Jeff May. No commercials here. This is the only commercial and it's very short, so consider joining us at patreoncom, at backslash, treasures of our town. And here's the deal we are going to give you and we gave it last time we're going to give you some bonus content. Jeff is going to tell us his two us bonus locations, bonus locations, places that he has been, and you'll get to hear it there over on patreon perfect man.
Speaker 2:But if you want to contact us, josh, like anyone out there wants to contact us itself and ask us a question or have an idea for us et cetera.
Speaker 1:How do they go about doing that, Mike? Yeah, Reach out to us. This is not a one-way conversation. We want to know how you've been upgraded or how you've been delayed. It's your highs and lows. So reach out to us at Treasures of Our Town Podcast. That's all one word. Treasures of Our Town Podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:Or, of course, you can follow us on social media facebook, instagram, twitter, x. And so that's it for our show today.
Speaker 1:Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcasting app. And, as always, josh, may your travels always lead you to the most unexpected places. Like jeff may, as he travels throughout the united states, eh Around the world, eh Out and about, out and about, eh. Out and about Out and about See you next time. Eh, bye, bye. Thanks, jeffrey.
Speaker 2:Bye.