- How did you get your geocaching alias?
Well, I am a Mechanical Engineer and last I checked, I am a man. Volia - Mechman… Sorta superhero-ish too, don’t you think??
- What do you do when you're not geocaching?
Mostly working or playing with the MechKids (Hayley & Ben) – I am a self employed Project Engineer, currently working at AbitibiBowater. In addition to raising the Mechkids and tending to the home, Mechmama (Yvonne) is a highschool math and science supply teacher (also with a mechanical engineering degree).
Our other hobbies include astronomy (me), playing German-style board games, camping, travelling and a bit of backyard birdwatching (me). Mechmama is also into digital scrapbooking.
- When and how did you get started geocaching?
I don’t remember how we stumbled onto it actually, but at some point after Mechkid #1 was born, Mechmama purchased a GPS, and soon thereafter we were chasing down caches at LU. According to the old logs it was August 22, 2005.
- What do you like most about geocaching?
As others have previously said, I like the discovering new places aspect of it. I also like to use it as learning opportunity for things like earth caches, and caches that are placed in areas of historical significance. The more the write up of a cache can tell me about an area that I’ve never been to, the better I like it. Mechmama likes the brain twisting puzzles!
- Do you have any geocaching pet-peeves?
You mean besides some of JungleBus’ hides? Nah, not really. Getting a little tired of “in-the-city” micros, but not really a pet peeve. I do hate having to go to places 3 or 4 times to find caches. If I can’t get it after the 2nd time there, I usually don’t bother with it.
- What do you take with you when you go caching?
Not as much as I should. Garmin HCX, and a pen or pencil, as well as my cell phone and ipod touch (for the paperless part). If the kids come, and we are going for regular size caches, we’ll bring some SWAG. That’s really it. We have not really gone for too many long hike type caches where we’d need to pack up too much more.
- Have you introduced anyone to geocaching?
Q&A are my protégés. Papa Q&A and I are friends from high school and took engineering together at LU. One day our families were at Centennial having a picnic. I brought the GPS, because I hadn’t yet found Nosey (remember my JungleBus comment from above – it applies here too). Mechmama had found it before (I think that was her introduction to Hunter-Killer, if I remember right). So after hearing the hint from mama, I decided to take all the kids and Mr. Q&A into the bush to find it. We found it, and that began the legacy of Q&A.
- Which other geocacher has influenced/stands out to you the most?
No real influences, but we did like early hides from Gimpstick/Maxcrash, and Ragbag as well as some of ChrisDom and JungleBus’ more creative ones. Shroomazoom is also to be commended for his organization of events and website stuff!! The crazy cacher award of course goes to jleecollins, and I think you all know why!
- What is the most interesting place geocaching has taken you?
So many… Did you know that there is a statue of liberty in Duluth? I’ve seen the bottom of an ancient sea bed in the middle of LA, I’ve found caches amongst ancient ruins in Cancun, I’ve been to the 2nd largest crater in the US and more recently I’ve been in Washington DC around the Whitehouse, and Smithsonian and historic Williamsburg VA.
Mechmama likes it when you get to a place that you have never noticed otherwise – you may have been there many times over, but never stopped to take the time to look around. As an example, many of the caches along the road to Duluth have great locations, but we never stopped there before.
- What has been you most memorable geocaching find (or DNF?)
Hmmm… the last Dreaded Pirate Robert … only because it just took us forever to figure out. We were very glad to have put that one to rest.
- Which of your hides are you the most pleased with?
Ummm… don’t hide all that many, and most are not all that special, perhaps Mech’s Two Hobbies because it combines my astronomy hobby with the caching thing.
- What is your closest un-found cache?
Apparently right now it is the Earth Day CITO 2010, but for normal caches, it is Head Case’s Revenge. I was too pooped at the end of FCC09 to go and attempt this one. I was thinking about it the other day though.
- What caches do you have in your sights right now?
I would like to do the series out at Shuniah Mines, and out at Lappe Ski area as time permits this summer.
- Rumour has it you once had an addiction to geocoins. Have you conquered that and what do you like so much about geocoins?
Yes I have conquered that. I was a member of the geocoin collector club for 1 year, and just wanted to get each monthly coin for a year. And I did. I still buy one or 2 a year, but not like before. I know that there are people in NWOG that are worse than I ever was. I’m getting into path tags now… up to a collection of about 8.
- You've had a geocaching account longer than anyone else in the region. How have you seen geocaching change over the years?
Although I’ve had the account since Sept 2002, we didn’t really start caching until August 2005. Not sure what happened there. Must have been something that I thought looked cool, and forgot about. Anyway, the major change that I have noticed, besides the number of local cachers, and the saturation of caches in the city, are an increase in the number of micros. When we started most caches were regular caches. As we run out of urban hiding spaces, they got smaller.