The tenth annual Midwest Geobash was held at the Fulton County Fairgrounds in Wauseon this past weekend. Now what is Geobashing? Geobashing is a scavenger hunt that uses g.p.s to locate items throughout the U.S and the world and is gaining in popularity. One local volunteer from Indiana Rebecca Higgins-Tucker stated, “that the most exciting thing about geobashing was the opportunity to explore the country and meet new exciting people”. She also said there is a certain WOW factor that being out on the hunt and finding lost treasures that you never even knew were there, like the old Ohio bell in downtown Wauseon is a cache.
What is a cache? A cache is when you make a find using the geobash app to find the hidden caches. There are currently over 2.4 million geocachers and over 6 million caches out there to find right now. So if you like the thrill of the hunt and are interested in becoming a geocacher, it is simple go to geocaching.com and sign up and get the app and all you need to do from there is set up your username and start caching. There are several different types of caching that you can choose from and they are virtual caching, multi caching and puzzle solving caching.
The event organizer said, “The spirit of Bashmas was all around us in Wauseon! Great weather, great attendance! Bash happens because literally hundreds of volunteers and friends come together to do great things. Thank you so much to our camping buddies at FOA who made sure we were fed and watered – camping with you guys made this the best bash since 2006 for me. It’s also amazing the amount of work that goes into all the stuff that “just happens” at bash. The setup at Area 51, the poker game, the treasure hunt, the auction, the bathrooms being cleaned, the garbage collected, people correctly in their campsites, the bars – I regained my appreciation for all the time volunteers and supporters quietly invest for the enjoyment of all attendees. You really make it awesome guys!
Finally, thank you to the dozen or so people who answered our call for help tearing down on Sunday. We are so proud to leave the venue as nice as we were given it each year and you guys can’t know how much we appreciated you coming out on Sunday morning to help make that happen quickly. Many hands make for light work, we can use even more help on Sunday morning next year!
While I was there I got to meet 5 great volunteers that were from various states, Joe Ladwig from Bloomington, Indiana who has cached in 14 different states and 13 different countries and has 340 caches to his name. Rich and Laura Moore who owe geocaching for getting them together and are now married after meeting at a geocache event over a year ago. Rich has 10,200 caches from 47 states and 7 countries and they are from Pittsburgh, PA. Donna Fisher from Ashtabula, Ohio has been to 44 states. The top dog that I got to meet at the event was Jay Finch from Interlochen, MI with over 21,000 caches and has been to 50 states. They all said they love Wauseon and coming here to help volunteer at the bash.
Next year the bash will be held the last weekend of July and if you’re curious about coming out some of the events that are held at the bash are a Poker run, area 51 festivities, family camping, geocoin poker, geocoding trading, flea markets, cast iron chef, treasure hunt and a silent auction and the best thing about this event is it is a free event and you also get to meet people from all over the globe.
