Way back in August of 2002 I had recently found Woodmont East, my eight find, and one of the first I ever made with with my then new Magellan Meridian Platinum GPS. I was so excited by this new hobby of mine that I would drive by my few finds afterwards in hopes of meeting others who were cachers. During one of these drive-bys I saw someone walking out with what looked like a gps, so I stopped and talked to him, and yes, he was a geocacher too, and the first one (besides me) I had ever met. We talked for a while, and he gave me some hints on a few that had vexed me, and offered to show me how to find his cache inside the Battle of Nashville monument, which I turned down because I was wearing sandals at the time.
The next time I met him was at an event cache - my first MTGC meeting, and part of the meeting was celebrating Joe's 1K accomplishment - he was the first person anyone knew who had found that many, and it was really amazing to me, who by that time was probably up in my 20's (yes, numbers count!).
Anyway, since then he's been a friend, huge inspiration, source of knowledge (and sometimes wisdom), and hider of some of the most mind-bogglingly difficult caches. I can't begin to list all his geocaching related roles he's played over the years here, but some are: founder of Geowoodstock, long time volunteer approver, metro and states parks laison - but mostly he's been the sports greatest advocate ever. It's hard to imagine a local cacher not knowing his name and/or accomplishments.
He was the first geocacher I ever used as a phone-a-friend, and has been extremely handy in getting me out of jams. Don't worry, if you can't find one of his caches, he'll probably happily tell you exactly where it is - and if you're like most people, that won't help you much, especially with his geo-mojo caches. A few years ago he hid a bunch of caches that require a boat to find, which I just basically ignored for a while, until he loaned me his boat to go find them - how many cachers would do that?
So when logging your find online, if you feel the inspiration, feel free to add your stories of experiences with JoGPS.
