RVers Enjoy Geocaching 'Treasure Hunt'
by Guest Author: Loretta Lynn Leda
“I feel like a kid again,” says Kathy Sarafino, of Sebastian, Florida, known in her geocaching world as “Cacheka”. Sarafino is a retired Director of Imaging Services, who is not only an avid geocacher, but an RV’er.
Geocaching is a high-tech version of a scavenger hunt. There are traditional caches, cache containers of various sizes and even mystery caches. Many are RV friendly. Cachers can often locate treasures within a one-mile radius of their campground, in urban areas and at locations such as Cracker Barrel where caches are referred to Rocking Chair Caches. Hunters put a waypoint (coordinates) into their GPS, which they can find on geocaching websites, where there are often clues, and the hunt begins.
Sarafino and husband Bob bought a Fifth Wheel from Giant Recreation World about three years ago and love to take long weekend excursions with members of the Gold Club. The Gold Club is an exclusive membership for RV owners who can participate in pre-planned activities from barbecues with hoedowns, crafts for kids, to boating and fishing, to special parties and even pet costume contests.
“RV’ers make life long friendships, whether they’re young children with their parents who have enjoyed camping growing up, or when they embark on their second life in retirement,” says General Manager Dennis Charron, of the Orlando (Winter Garden) Giant Recreation World dealership. “Families have the opportunity to spend quality time together that most families don’t have. They’re making new friends, visiting interesting places and making RV memories.”
Sarafino has logged more than 785 caches to date. “Geocaching is great for couples to enjoy or with a buddy. My buddy and I usually go out three or four times per month, and usually for the whole day,” says Sarafino. She admits that her hand-held GPS unit is an extension of her arm now and she rarely goes anywhere without it.
“Most GPS units are accurate within a 10 foot radius of where a cache is buried,” says Graeme McGufficke, geocache name, Ozguff. Ozguff began caching in 2003, when he heard about it from his daughter’s friend. McGufficke lives in Jackson County, NC, and has had more than 240 people log in (online) to just one of his caches he placed back in 2003. Visitors even upload a photo of themselves, and their RV, with the cache on logs. There are more than 300 geocaches within a 20-mile radius of Sylva, NC.
Sarafino belongs to the Spacecoast Geocachers Association and has put a “travel bug” cache, Satin Lips, out there with a goal (dogtag) of “Kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland”. She is able to track its progress via her webpage. Geocachers have found her Satin Lips and help move it along the way, to another cache closer to its goal. “It’s already in Ireland,” says Sarafino proudly. “Geocaching takes you to wonderful places that usually only locals know about.”
Giant Recreation World’s Gold Member club is an opportunity for RV’ers to have meet and greets, share hobbies, such as geocaching and outdoor activities but more importantly, people meeting people they might not have otherwise met and building lasting relationships that could take them around the world.
There are more than100 caches within a 10 mile radius of the Orlando/Winter Garden Giant Recreation World dealership; more than 200 caches can be found near the Melbourne dealership; and at the Daytona/Ormand Beach dealership, close to 200 caches are hidden here.
To learn more about saving money on vacations and renting an RV, contact, Giant Recreation World. They also offer free educational videos on their website for anyone to watch from home or the office, www.giantrecreationworld.com