“Did a bunch of you guys go to a meeting together last Saturday? I saw some cars I recognized in the parking lot near the old railroad tracks around noon.” They were standing outside the lodge room door just a few minutes prior to the start of the meeting and the questioner was a member who always wanted to know what others were doing.
“A couple of us were out Geocaching.” replied The Old Webmaster. “Care to join us next time?”
“Geo – what?”
“Geocaching. It involves finding something that someone else has left in a particularly interesting place. You use a GPS to locate it and it’s the fun of the hunt, the places that you get to see that you might not have even known about, and the exercise in the activity. Last Saturday was our first ‘outing’. There were three families who made the trek down the old railroad tracks by that parking lot and were directed to a really outstanding waterfall which none of us even realized was there.”
“You learned about this on the web, I’ll bet….” There was a broad smile on the Mason’s face. He knew The Old Webmaster well.
“Of course. Actually, there’s a Masonic tie in all of this as well. There’s a basic web site on the whole Geocaching process. It’s being done around the world and no matter where you travel, you can download information to help you find these incredible places – along with guidance as to where to park, what to look for, the difficulty involved, etc. It’s like a hide-and-go-seek game but really engaging because of the great locations and number of people involved. What I found fascinating, though, is another facet of this: waymarking.”
Looking over his glasses with his head tipped down, his Lodge Brother could tell that The Old Webmaster was clearly smitten with this - whatever. “The meeting’s going to start soon. Don’t leave me hanging.”
“Well….” The Old Webmaster began “…it’s really simple. You take your GPS to a particular location and you snap a digital photo of it at that location – to prove the coordinates. Then you take a picture of the particular ‘thing’ and log it onto the waymarking website so others can go in search of it – and have fun in the process. It’s not that you couldn’t find it on your own, it’s just that someone might see it and decide they’d like to visit in person rather than just looking at a picture. The website where these are logged has all sorts of categories: abandoned railroad stations, waterfalls, and – since I always love a Masonic connection – Masonic Temples!”
“You’re KIDDING!”
The Old Webmaster just smiled and then the meeting was about to begin. As they entered the Lodge Hall and took their seats, he knew he’d spend much of his time after this meeting explaining Geocaching. With a little bit of luck, this might become yet another way to get members and their families involved! Sharing brotherhood and having fun. Freemasonry really was SO much….
Technorati Tags: geocaching, waymarking, Freemasons, freemasonry, Masonic Temples, The Old Webmaster
