2B's
2Bs
Interviewed May 2008
This happy couple is known to geocachers as the 2B's. Others know them as Bill and Betty Andrews. They described themselves as, perhaps, the oldest Delaware Geocaching team. You'll have to read their interview to gauge the accuracy of that statement! The 2B's are from Sussex County and they dispel the myth that Sussex County residents tend to stay put. These two have geocached all over the country and run up an impressive list of finds while doing so. They also make frequent appearances at many of the Delaware Geocaching event regardless of which county the event may have happened in. As you will learn in the interview that follows, the 2B's have some interesting experiences which they share with us now:
How would you introduce yourselves?
We are Bill and Betty Andrews of Lewes, so its easy to figure out how we got our geocaching name. Bill is a retired school teacher and realtor and Betty is a retired accountant. We may be the oldest cachers around, Bill is 76 and Betty is 69. We live in Lewes and spend a lot of time at Cape Henlopen State Park
How did you become involved with geocaching - and how long have you been doing it?
Our son got a GPS at a company Christmas party in 2002 and one of his co-workers told him about geocaching. He took us on a few searches near his home and then bought us a Magellan for our combined birthdays in 2003. We used that until last year when we each got a Garmin. We found less than 50 caches in our first year and a half of caching. We met our first cacher on the trail in 2005 and it was Programmer 64 and his son. Since then, we have been pretty active. For Christmas our daughter had hats made for us that say 2B's
Our son helped us get GSAK running on our computer and we can download lots of caches in no time. We bought a PDA on E-Bay and use it for paperless caching. Last year our son gave us a Tom-Tom navigational system for the car . It is great for getting us to the cache area but sometimes it tries to get us too close to the cache and we end up riding around trying to find the public access area.
How many caches have you found so far?
Over 1100
Which type of cache do you prefer seeking - traditional, multi, puzzle or virtual?
It's a toss up for us. At first we thought we liked the event caches best. We enjoy meeting and talking with other cachers but then we thought we liked the traditional best because you might go on a nice walk to a scenic spot or find a creative cache. But the puzzle and earth caches always teach us something new. We're sorry the virtuals are no longer active, we visited some great places because of them.
Which find was the most challenging?
Some of the puzzle caches can take awhile to solve.
Which was the easiest?
There are a lot of easy one out there now that we've had a lot of finds.
Do you have a your favorite or favorites from among the caches you have found
Too many good caches around here to pick just one.
What's the most unusual thing you've found in a cache?
On one of our maintenance checks, one of our caches had some bullets in it. We took them over to the police department.
What's the most physically challenging cache you did?
Can't think of one that was too hard. We know our limits so the ratings for the cache and terrain are a big help to us in deciding what caches to do.
Have you had any memorable experiences while seeking a cache?
We cached in Cozumel, Mexico and went to a cache that was listed as being in a beach club bar near the pier where our cruise ship docked. Bill was wearing a Lewes DE shirt and when we walked in, a fellow said 'Lewes, DE' and we knew right away he was from Delaware because he pronounced Lewes right. The bar owner was the geocacher and he was born and raised in Dover. He said lots of geocachers from all over visit the cache. The cache was a US mailbox sitting next to the bar.
We have taken a number of cruises since we retired and we enjoy finding caches while on the cruise. Instead of taking excursions when the ship is in port, we go geocaching if some caches are near the port. If there are a lot of ships in port, we usually met other cachers then. We've met lots of cachers from different parts of the country that way.
What advice would you give to a beginning geocacher?
Tag along with an experienced geocacher for your first few finds. If you want to go alone, find a cache with a 1 or 1.5 rating.!
I see you have placed 18 caches. How did you get started?
We live in Lewes and spend a lot of time at Cape Henlopen State Park. Since we like to walk out there, we wanted to placed our first caches there. It's a great place to go geocaching. In the beginning we did not need approval, but today it is required. The staff at Cape Henlopen is very helpful and there are many areas where geocaching is allowed.
Have geocachers found any of your caches more difficult to find than you expected?
Rehoboth Cache. We placed it there for visitors to make an easy find while walking on the boardwalk but I guess they don't want sand in their shoes.
Have any of them been muggled? If, so how did you handle this?
I guess muggling goes with the territory. Some we have replaced, others have been archived. We feel bad for the cachers that had a travel bug or geocoin in the muggled cache.
What advice would you give to someone designing a cache placement?
Be as accurate as possible in your coordinate reading.
Beside geocaching, what other things do you like to do?
We love to walk and Bill is involved in weight lifting. We're volunteers for Lewes organizations and members of the Friends of Cape Henlopen State Park. We help out with the trail maintenance. We have volunteered for the Endangered Piping Plover program. Volunteers monitor the roped off area where the Plover's have their nest to be sure beach goers stay away from the areas.
At the end of the interview questions, Bill and Betty added:
Delaware Geocaching and Delaware Geocachers. Alive and well and second to none. We are proud to be Delaware Geocachers.
Thanks to the volunteers for the work they do- maintaining this web site and organizing the group activities.
Here's a "mini" album of additional pictures of Betty and Bob doing what they like to do best.
Thanks, 2b's, for sharing these answers with us.
And thanks to Mike Ott for conducting this interview.