The New Mexico Geocachers are so hospitable and accommodating that we’re still talking about it!
Here’s how it all began… 🙂
A couple of months ago we made plans to visit New Mexico, in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area. One of the first things we did after our flight and hotel arrangements were made was to seek out some caches. We found from past experience that there’s no better place to start than at the local Geocachers website so we went to the New Mexico Geocaching website forums.
Once there we found a thread that was started by Goldfinch& Lady Goldfinch from Lansing, Michigan who would be visiting around the same time as we were. They were inquiring if there were any local events during their visit. Now here is where the New Mexico Cachers really start to show their true colors – since there were no local events in that time frame they quickly put together one to coincide with their visit and appropriately called it An Albuquerque Welcome!
Here’s a couple photos from the event:
We met so many great people that night, including
ZenGuru, suz55tbird, tealeaf, nclinnm, P_Rouge, mrc5409, bob8bear, wer2ys4u, WeatherBug & XRN, MB3, SNEEZY, RioNaiad, PamelaNM, cyclegreen, NMJEEP, albuquerquebill, rapprapp, geowalkabout and kcepenn from Youngsville, Pennsylvania who were also visiting the area. (Who did we miss? Please let us know!)
The evening was spent in non-stop talk. The place was abuzz! It was like we knew them all for years!
nclinnm, who we met earlier in the week (more in a later post), gave everyone really cool wooden ‘event bookmarks’ and keychains that she made herself:
wer2ys4u gave us a couple of his beautifully crafted personal GeoCoins, one for us to bring home and release and one to release for him. Here they are showing both sides:
We also grabbed a Travel Bug from WeatherBug & XRN to bring home with us and release.
This was such a great evening. It was just like Christmas morning! 🙂
At one point one of the Cachers said to contact them the next time we are in the area. Another Cacher said, “Don’t worry, they’ll be moving here in five years.” We had to laugh at this… we were wondering why it’s going to take us five years! 🙂
It’s easy to see why New Mexico is called ‘The Land of Enchantment’! WE WILL BE BACK!
Keep on cachin’!
ErikaJean
Sounds like you had a good time! Its so nice of them to create an event for out-of-towners!
go_man
Yeah, it was great time! Can’t wait to visit again!
Suz55tbird
😀
NM geocachers *are* pretty awesome (if I do say so myself!).
Any time someone’s coming this way, contact me to put on a meet n greet–I’d be delighted!
I’m getting ready for my big annual Valencia Fun Day Event (2009 = Year Five). I had put away the Tshirt you gave me at the meet-n-greet, and just pulled it out. After thinking about it, I’m going to give it as a prize at the event.
The Valencia Fun Day will be occuring the 3rd weekend of October from this year forward (I get flak from the balloonists if I have it earlier…the big Alb. Balloon Fiesta is the first and second weekends of Oct. and the week in between). [If you’ve never been to Balloon Fiesta, that is another must-do on your list–seeing a Mass Ascension of 500+ hot air balloons is epiphanous…]
I’ll put something about your website on my Event info, so you get some more traffic–this website is gorgeous!
Have fun out there…
go_man
We’ll be sure to let you know again the next time we visit! The Balloon Fiesta sounds, as you say, ‘epiphanous’. We have a smaller one near here that sets off about 30 balloons. We thought that was something. We can only imagine what 500+ balloons would look like, Yep, we gotta see it! All the best and hope to see you again soon!
Cindy
My cousin and I are headed to NM for 10 days of geocaching. After reading your posts, I am SOOOOO excited! Thanks so much, Now I’m off to the NM Geocaching forums!
go_man
You’re going to have a great time! Let us know how you make out.
Thunderwear
Glad I found this, I am visiting Albuquerque in about a week (to coincide with the balloon fiesta) and plan on doing a lot of geocaching. I’m gonna have to check out the NM Geocacher’s website. Not surprised….geocachers are good people.
go_man
Yeah, the balloon fiesta… cool… and you’re right, cachers are good people. Have fun, say hi to all of our friends!
Goldfinch
Just ran across this post, it was so good to read and brought back some good memories. The cachers in Albuquerque in deed were very awesome. Had a good time meeting up with so many of the local and not so local area cachers.
go_man
Goldfinch, awesome hearing from you! Look forward to meeting again… soon! 🙂