Geocaching Across Borders: An Unexpected Adventure with an Uber Driver

Are you ready to embark on an exhilarating adventure across borders, where curiosity leads to unexpected treasures? Picture this: one ordinary Uber ride transforming into a wild geocaching adventure across Europe, from Germany to Austria, and then a spontaneous dash to Slovakia. Today, I'm going to reveal the entire jaw-dropping tale, complete with a world record holder, a curious Uber driver, and a hidden cache that took us across continents. 

Ever wondered how spontaneous decisions can lead to extraordinary experiences? Well, during a casual conversation in an Uber with Doug McCrae (Retired Guy), a fellow geocacher, we realized that Slovakia was just a 45-minute ride away. Up for a little adventure, we hatched a thrilling plan to head there, giving an entirely new meaning to spontaneous trips. Doug, by the way, holds the world record for having the most geocaching souvenirs. Let's just say, this man knows his way around a map!

And then, the unexpected happened. Our Uber driver, intrigued by our quest, decided to accompany me on the hunt for the cache. You'd be amazed by how this transformed into a one-of-a-kind geocaching adventure, complete with a memorable photo, something I'm sure our driver won’t forget anytime soon! This episode is packed with laughter, excitement, and a golden nugget of an experience that I can't wait to share with you. So, buckle up and join us on this unforgettable journey of geocaching across borders!

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:04

Hello, hey, hey.

Speaker 1 0:08

What's going on? Hey, josh Can.

Speaker 2 0:13

I wait.

Speaker 1 0:15

This isn't the time when we publish a podcast.

Speaker 2 0:18

No, no, this is these times. now is what we do for our patreons only normally, you see.

Speaker 1 0:24

Wait, but this is on the main feed. Oh is it.

Speaker 2 0:28

Oh, don't tell me this. Slipped into the main feed. What, oh no, how did this happen? I don't know. It must be the grimm ones. It happened, it happened.

Speaker 1 0:41

Here's why it happened.

Speaker 2 0:42

You ready Yeah.

Speaker 1 0:43

Yeah, so when you go to Applebee's, have you ever been to Applebee's?

Speaker 2 0:48

I have. I have On date night.

Speaker 1 0:50

Yeah Great, applebee's is the sampler platter. Oh yes, it's got the chips, it's got the motts sticks, it's got, i think, chicken strips.

Speaker 2 1:06

Yeah, and egg rolls.

Speaker 1 1:07

It's got the egg rolls as well. I don't know about that. Yeah, maybe It's the variety. You know what In our podcast? they might not know, but we have golden nuggets.

Speaker 2 1:17

Oh, we do, We do.

Speaker 1 1:20

We wanted an opportunity for them to sample. Sample a golden nugget just like an Applebee's. Sampler. It's a sampler. This is episode is 9A. It is a golden nugget sampler.

Speaker 2 1:37

Traces of our town golden nugget sampler.

Speaker 1 1:40

Sampler So.

Speaker 2 1:41

I like it, i like it.

Speaker 1 1:43

We have something special And this is something. This episode, actually, our patrons have already heard this right.

Speaker 2 1:49

They have.

Speaker 1 1:50

It's already been posted for them. For them yeah, But we've decided let's go outside the curtain and let's show everybody what some of these golden nuggets are like.

Speaker 2 2:03

Exactly, exactly. So this golden nugget, we've already recorded this golden nugget too. We've already recorded it. So, this golden nugget, it's you basically talking about your trip in Germany, and you did something very, very special, i suppose, and very strange to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 2:21

It was strange to me, so you get to hear that. But if you enjoy this, and you're not a patron we encourage you to join and you get some of these golden nuggets. This is not going to happen all the time.

Speaker 2 2:36

No, not all the time. This is very rare.

Speaker 1 2:37

This might never happen again.

Speaker 2 2:39

You never know, it will happen again. It'll happen on the regular for the Patreons.

Speaker 1 2:45

Oh yeah, but it won't happen publicly. No, for the regular Publicly.

Speaker 2 2:48

Right. So if you want this, if you like this, if you enjoy this, then Patreon. Josh, you've got three levels on Patreon. You know that, don't you As cheap as like $3 a month.

Speaker 1 2:57

Yeah, You're wasting it And it really really goes to supporting this podcast. It does It really make it happen. We're approaching our 10th episode and it's a lot of because of the patrons that are making this happen, because podcasting I am learning is can be expensive.

Speaker 2 3:13

It can be, and it's not cheap and it takes a long time to do and edit and everything else as well. So yeah, exactly, so we're going to jump in.

Speaker 1 3:23

Yeah, but if you'd like to join our Patreon it's patreoncom. Backslash treasures of our town We would love to see you over there. Perfect, enjoy this story of a unique geocaching experience, and that's all I'm going to say.

Speaker 2 3:40

That's all you need. Yeah, and we'll see you next week, Josh. golden nugget time. Golden nugget time.

Speaker 1 3:49

Oh, it's time for a golden nugget, fresh, right out of the fryer, exactly.

The Golden Nugget Adventure

Speaker 2 3:56

And if you're in Australia, a bit of chicken salt on it as well. It's delicious, but anyway, or out of the treasure box.

Speaker 1 4:02

Now, i don't know if we've explained the golden nugget. The idea is I'm just thinking and imagining a treasure box, right Yeah, and there's a box that opens and there's just like little golden nuggets inside of them, piece of gold. You just pull out and you're like, yeah, i got another golden nugget And they're special for you patrons to thank you because, let's be real, it's really crazy to have to send out stuff in the mail.

Speaker 2 4:29

Yeah, yeah And I'll be honest with you, josh, as well. I'm not a big fan of it Like I've actually receiving stuff for them out too. I mean, there's only so much you can, you know, put around, whereas this here is stuff for your ears, and it's always going to be online too.

Speaker 1 4:44

Always going to be on the.

Speaker 2 4:45

Patreon, so Treasures.

Speaker 1 4:47

It's an opportunity to go a little bit outside of our. I don't know our mission because, on treacherous of our town, we're mostly focusing on the United States, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 4:58

And, of course, josh, you just came back from Germany. Now You just spoke before about your, your, your trip to Germany and what it was all like, etc. And that was a long golden nugget. This one's a little bit, gonna be a bit shorter because it is yes, it is.

Speaker 1 5:11

What if I have a lot to say?

Speaker 2 5:12

Yeah, but I'll reel you in.

Speaker 1 5:15

Yeah, so if you haven't listened to our first golden nugget, which was about the st Vendall, that's right, amazing geocache It was it was go back and listen to that.

Speaker 2 5:24

So, josh, we're gonna talk now and people don't know this of your channel yet, i dare say, but patrons will know first and that is, you went to Germany and You love souvenirs and you're with a gentleman called Doug McCrae retired I.

Speaker 1 5:42

Retired yeah that's a geocaching name, and your wife was with you as well. Now, What?

Speaker 2 5:47

what happened, josh? you woke up sometime? Tell me, okay you told me.

Speaker 1 5:56

So to give you, everybody of this, a little bit more context, Yeah, yeah yeah, so we did this tour with cash tour. I'm sorry, we did this tour with cash horizon with. Daniel, That's right Yeah where we brought over a bunch of Americans to do a 10-day trip, right. So we traveled all over Germany and then the end of it We ended the trip actually in Austria, oh, in, in Vienna, which Side note Vienna, one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen in my whole life. Really it's gorgeous.

Speaker 1 6:26

Yeah like, oh my gosh, like the hills are alive with the sound of music. I could I get why the sound of music was filmed in Austria? because it is just gorgeous, gorgeous city Yeah that was like today 10 of that tour was in Austria, and everybody was, except Tammy and I That were. they were flying home, so the tour was essentially over over for most people.

Speaker 1 6:51

Yeah yeah, and So it was the night before we left and Doug McCrae Retired guy. Mm-hmm, he looks at me, we're in, we're in a uber. Okay, we're in a uber having a conversation Because we were like downtown or something. Mm-hmm, he turns to me, goes Josh, you know, we're only 45 minutes from Slovakia.

Speaker 2 7:18

As in the other country Slovakia, like as in other, country, slovakia, another country. Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:24

I like, oh yeah, and here's. And I sure, sure enough, i ask him okay, you, you've got that country right, right, doug? you have Slovakia. And just so everybody knows I'm sure we've brought it up before Doug McCrae has the most souvenirs, that's your cashing souvenirs.

Speaker 2 7:39

That's like you were in the badges in the world.

Speaker 1 7:42

He's number one in the world. Wow, okay, fun fact. Mm-hmm the lady that leads cash horizon, mm-hmm, she's number two. How crazy is that On the tour we had number one and number two on the same tour.

Speaker 2 7:58

That's incredible, i know.

Speaker 1 8:00

And and Doug's like yeah, yeah, I've been to Slovakia. He's like I'm not in every country, Josh but Doug is such a great guy and he knows I love souvenirs. Yeah, as of today, Humble brag 322, i Think. I think tomorrow it'll be 323, because I'll finish because you finish the other one off the Whatever the wheel of challenges. Yes but anyway we're talking. We're talking a lot of geo stuff here, So apologize to.

Speaker 2 8:30

I think they're all of our patrons right now, our geocachers, that's right, so they were okay with it.

Speaker 1 8:34

Yeah so I'm like, so, doug, i'm like Doug, that's cool at all mm-hmm, he's like, but we don't. I was like we don't have a car. Yeah he's like no problem, we'll take an Uber. I was like what? what? I was like I don't think you can take ubers to like other countries, and this is my ignorance, craig Mm-hmm, i'm assuming that the border of Austria and Slovakia. Yeah is like Canada and US, or like Mexico and you ask where is like a border patrol.

Speaker 2 9:08

Yeah, yeah, there's a wall, Yeah there's a wall.

Speaker 1 9:12

But guess what? did you know this? Maybe I, maybe I'm just ignorant. No it's like. It's like driving to Iowa man.

Speaker 2 9:19

It's like there's nothing. It's just like a sign Welcome to Slovakia is So deep. What do you need? your passport?

Speaker 1 9:26

You need to show you no, you don't need a passport, you don't need anything really you see the, you see, to get there, which is kind of crazy, because the border, the border, this is where the iron, you know, you know when I say the iron curtain. Yeah, yeah like communist Russia like you know back in the day Like this is. This is so. Back in the day It was like the most secure border in the world. Yeah, but no longer nothing, just nothing. You know when he said tear down, you know Ronald Reagan, tear down that wall. Yeah, they did, and there's no security anymore.

Speaker 2 10:06

See, i can't that, i can't even fathom that. I mean because I come from Australia, where we can't drive over our border Because we drown. Let's be honest, like you know, we're good by see right, yeah, that's your border. So so did you tell me the next morning.

Speaker 1 10:23

So we're in, okay, so we're in this Uber, yeah, and the guy sorry, sorry, just quickly.

Speaker 2 10:28

How did you order the Uber like?

Speaker 1 10:29

well that, yeah, i'm telling you. This is the night before, the night before we're in a Uber.

Speaker 2 10:35

Oh well, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 10:35

So, yeah, yeah and and the, the Uber driver doesn't even speak English. He speaks Turkish, okay, doug, so bold. Yeah he turns to the Uber driver. I think he did Google Translate. He's like can you take us, can you take us to? We said brought us lava, because that was the city city. Can you take us there tomorrow morning And I'll pay you this much. This is outside the Uber app.

Speaker 2 11:03

Yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 1 11:04

And he's like sure, no problem. And I'm like okay, i was like Doug, i'm feeling a little bit nervous. Okay, this is outside the Uber app. This guy's gonna pick us up at 8 in the morning tomorrow here and we would American take us Outside the Uber app. I'm gonna say that again Yeah, this guy could he could say you know, murder, us murder.

Speaker 2 11:27

He could rob us.

Speaker 1 11:29

Yep and leave us in another country.

Speaker 2 11:31

That's right. Without your passports to get back.

Speaker 1 11:33

I was a little uneasy, a little uneasy about it.

Speaker 2 11:37

Okay, what was Doug like? was he? He's like? what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 11:42

If you talk, Doug is got well and here's another. Doug has actually gotten almost gotten stuck in small countries.

Speaker 2 11:48

I'm trying to geocache.

Speaker 1 11:50

So this is he's telling me these stories. It's making me even more nervous, it's not reassuring me, but he's so you know I'm trusting him. He's so well traveled right.

Speaker 2 11:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1 11:59

I'm just trusting. I'm like, okay, doug, yeah, well, tammy, my wife Mm-hmm, here's of it, and she's like you, i wanna go. I was like wait a minute okay.

Speaker 2 12:09

You're like who's gonna look after my dog if we both get murdered? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 12:14

I'm like I don't know She goes, but I wanna go to Slovakia. I wanna say that I've been to Slovakia.

Speaker 2 12:20

That's true, let's be honest. And she's geocaches as well. She's got an account.

Speaker 1 12:24

She's got an account. she doesn't log anything, She writes her names on logs.

Speaker 2 12:28

I've seen, but she doesn't.

Speaker 1 12:29

She does, she does, but she doesn't log them on her account, anyway, okay the morning arrives, i'm wondering, is this guy gonna even remember? Yeah, was there some confusion with the translation?

Speaker 2 12:44

Lost in translation. good movie Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 12:47

Sure enough, he picks us up in a Mercedes. Did I mention some Mercedes Benz? Oh really, It's a really nice car.

Speaker 2 12:55

Well, it's a European car. See, that's the average.

Speaker 1 12:58

You got Chevy here you got Mercedes Benz. It was nice nice car And sure enough he's driving us to the border. So we're trying Doug said it in the front he's trying to show the geocaching out. Now keep in mind, this guy has no idea what we're doing.

Speaker 2 13:15

No, he doesn't care, he's assuming He's the money.

Speaker 1 13:19

Assuming I'm gonna drop him off downtown. Bratislava, they're gonna spend a day there or some time there, right, whatever, yeah, well, i'm like I kept on telling Doug Doug. I was like we need to explain to him what we're doing, yeah, what you're doing, because otherwise it looks suspicious. It looks so weird, so weird, so we're trying to explain it in English, but he's not understanding.

Speaker 1 13:43

No of course not, and so, finally, i was like I gotta use Google translate to explain what we're doing And because here's my worry that we're gonna get to the geocache and he's not gonna understand that he needs to take us back.

Speaker 2 13:59

Yeah, and he was just leaving it Like that wasn't clear. Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:04

Yeah, I think in my mind and I was right, because Doug was like, oh, he knows, to bring him back.

Speaker 2 14:11

It's like ah the guy.

Speaker 1 14:13

He doesn't catch the English. I don't think he knows which means we've made this deal for so much money. And he thinks that. I'm thinking he thinks it's one way, but you know we have to be there for five minutes to turn around. So I get on Google translate and say this is what I wrote. We are playing a game Straight away. I'm thinking of that movie, you know do you like to play games?

Speaker 2 14:43

You know, with that little doll comes out and walks in his little tricycle. Wow, imagine how he's scared. He's now with three people in the car and next minute he's getting this sign saying we like to play a game, halfway in the middle of nowhere. Josh.

Speaker 1 14:58

Oh, I'm just imagining, you know, imagining that movie seven. Yeah, he has the box out in the middle of nowhere. What's in the box. What's in the box? That's what I'm picturing in my mind, right Worst case scenario. Okay, so this is what I wrote Right, we are playing a game where we search for boxes all over the world. We have never found a box in Slovakia, so you need to drive us to the box. We need to find the box. After we find it, you must drive us back to our hotel in Vienna.

Speaker 2 15:37

And this guy's now. Now he's thinking, he's thinking himself okay, they're picking up, they're picking up the box, not realizing that you signed a log and put it back. They're picking up a box full of drugs and I'm going to be now drug mule going back across the border.

Speaker 1 15:48

That's what he's thinking. Yeah, probably Yeah. So he's like I'm about to commit a crime. He should be. He should be scared of us by this point 100%.

Speaker 2 15:57

I want to be scared of you from the moment you said look, we like to play a game.

Speaker 1 16:01

But I was really, we were really friendly, so I think he was. He was just so confused. And then at the end of what I typed in, i said I know it sounds really weird, but it's harmless, or something like that. Yeah, yeah, i show him it on my screen and he just starts laughing.

Speaker 2 16:19

Laughing as he knows He's laughing like like he.

Speaker 1 16:21

It was not. It was like laughing like not that we were joking, he was just like laughing like I can't believe this.

Speaker 2 16:28

Oh, so you're laughing at you.

Speaker 1 16:30

No, he, like these guys, are willing to to take an Uber to do this.

Speaker 2 16:34

Yeah, like these guys are crazy. Yeah, typical Americans, like that's what he's thinking. Yep.

Speaker 1 16:41

We get right across the border. Guess what the cash is called border cash The iron curtain, oh no. Yeah, because it's literally on the border. Yeah, yeah, yeah of course of course. So we get out. And I was just very sure, like I told, we were like please please don't leave, don't leave, stay Yeah, because it's not. This isn't Bratislava, this is out in the you know it's countryside.

Speaker 2 17:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:07

It's just the border, and so Tammy also kind of kept her eye. We were like find the cash. She kept her eye just to make sure that he wasn't going to drive away. Yeah, yeah yeah, but I didn't leave Tammy alone with him, so if you're listening like Josh, you're one of the idiot. No, she was like yeah, she was far enough away.

Speaker 2 17:25

And Tammy's good Tammy's.

Speaker 1 17:26

Yeah, so we find the cash, we find it and we're happy We're putting path tags in.

Speaker 2 17:33

We're like, yeah, we got a cash in Slovakia, awesome.

Speaker 1 17:38

And then I just realized this. I realized, oh my gosh, like I want him to know that this is real.

Speaker 2 17:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 17:45

I don't want him to think this is drugs or whatever.

Speaker 2 17:47

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 17:48

So I go and we walk, i walk over and I show him the GioCash and I show him all the names in it and I show him our little coins that we put in it. And he looked. You'll see, there's a video of the whole thing. He looks a little confused Clearly. I don't think he understands me.

Speaker 2 18:07

But I think he's just like haha.

Speaker 1 18:09

Like, kind of just like cool. Like he wasn't that impressed.

Speaker 2 18:11

No, no, He's more impressed with the dollars coming into his pocket.

Speaker 1 18:16

Yeah probably Yeah, but he was, he smiled and it was good We gave him a high five. You'll see it, it's all great Gave him a high five and then he started driving us back. I gave him one of my comic books because he noticed that I was filming. I asked permission of how he could film. And he was. I think he was more excited To be the camera. He was more excited that I was a YouTuber than a GioCasher, because he understood that He was like you're a YouTuber from America, that's cool, that's cool.

Speaker 2 18:44

Yeah, exactly, that's funny. So that's my story. You got a souvenir.

Speaker 1 18:49

I got a souvenir That's my souvenir.

Speaker 2 18:50

Pammy didn't get her pictures. She hasn't logged it yet. Nope, she hasn't logged it.

Speaker 1 18:55

We got pictures at the border sign.

Speaker 2 18:57

We had to stop again.

Speaker 1 18:59

Hey can we just take a picture?

Speaker 2 19:02

with the sign, of course. Of course You did a TikTok as well, yeah.

Speaker 1 19:09

And that was it, wow. And we dropped, we dropped Doug right off at the airport. Mm-hmm which also making me nervous, because he went that now Doug is gone now Doug's gone.

Speaker 2 19:19

But not only that, but Doug had to get back to the airport in time as well, yeah, cuz he had to catch his flight back home, yeah, yeah. and so cuz he, and you know, yeah a little extra time.

Speaker 1 19:28

So that's why he was willing to do it. Yeah, but then I was a little nervous. I was like, okay, is he gonna take Tammy and I back to the hotel, is everything gonna be cool? This is his opportunity to rob us, or?

Speaker 2 19:39

exactly. I wonder though, josh I wonder going on this how many Uber drivers out there have been involved in a geocache hunt?

Speaker 1 19:48

That's a good question.

Geocaching Adventures With an Uber Driver

Speaker 2 19:51

I tell you, i've had. I've had an encounter with one when I was in Sydney and I was working at the time. So here I was, in full uniform, in my policing gear. A brand new cash was published, ftf was available. Of course, i had no jobs going at the time and I was on a break and so, and so I went to this cash location. As I was at the cash location, i'm looking around for the cash Was in a back alley laneway of Sydney and another car pulls up and this guy gets out and he's like oh you know, hello officer, and he's straight away, he's on the a bit, bit nervous, and stuff.

Speaker 2 20:22

I said, oh, i said, are you here for the geocache as well? He's like oh yeah, so as soon as you heard me saying geocaching, you, i was there for a geocache too. So anyway, we ended up finding it, we got joint FTF as well, and then the driver is there as well. So come on out, come on out, so he can't eat. The driver got out of the car as well, and so I'm getting like photos with the two of them. And I said, like you know, oh, what's your geocaching name too? and the drivers looks at me and goes Uber driver, uber driver. So this guy was in a hotel like a Cross, the other side of town when the FTF came out and so he got an Uber driver to drive him to the wow as well.

Speaker 2 20:59

So I've accounted an Uber driver for it for an FTF, and this Uber driver has got a random photo with a police officer And a random guy next to it like a poll in the back alleyways of Sydney for no reason, but anyway that's funny and you know what I think.

Speaker 1 21:17

The geocaching hobby is great for Uber and Lyft drivers, because I've done it myself. I've driven Lyft Myself and when you try, you could just turn it off. It takes. You don't know where it's gonna take you. Yeah, the city and you could be in a part of a city that you've never been to. You can turn off the app, the Uber app, and turn on the geocaching app and go find and yeah, and and cash as you work.

Speaker 2 21:40

Yes, yes, Well, there you go, there you go. There's a little golden nugget for everyone. Yep, and people will get to see, actually see that yeah whole adventure Um that's a point from your voice as well, like like yeah, we have bits and pieces, because you don't see everything like that.

Speaker 1 21:59

No, but the treasures of our town Patrons, mm-hmm. They get to hear about it before anybody else and as they should, that's what makes it?

Speaker 2 22:09

golden, exactly, exactly. Alright, patrons, thank you so much for your patreon inch and your support. Josh And I do really appreciate it. And, as we said, more of these golden nuggets, a single way.