When Mike and Jeff became neighbors in 1984, little did they what paths their lives would take. Nor how they would unexpectedly reunite nearly 20 years later. Jeff was in the Air Force and had just been recently stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. Jeff chose his new home in Plattsmouth, Neb., next door to Mike, who also worked as a civilian at Offutt AFB.

Jeff and Mike quickly became fast friends. It wasn't long before they were doing practically everything together, whether it was playing computer games until 3 a.m. (there were basic computers back then), hunting mushrooms or heading out to the golf course together. Mike had also introduced Jeff to the hobby of metal detecting which became a huge passion for Jeff. They were always out chasing down the oldest coin they could find nearly every spare minute. Sometimes even at midnight you could find them digging Barber dimes and Indian Head pennies by flashlight in Garfield Park in Plattsmouth. Metal detecting became a whole new world for Jeff as it already was for Mike.

Since Jeff was in the Air Force, he found it difficult to maintain friendships because you always knew that you’d never make it back to the area. Jeff’s friendship with Mike was no exception. Jeff got orders for his third tour to San Vito, Italy in 1987 and soon the two friends had to go their separate directions.

Mike's tutelage in metal detecting became Jeff’s hobby in Italy, and a savior, since there was not much else to do while off-duty. Jeff met another metal detecting friend (actually his next next-door neighbor) while there. They spent a great deal of time hunting and learning of the history of the area, much the same as Jeff and Mike used to do together. Jeff and his new metal detecting buddy even found a "cache" of 78 circa 0-BC silver Roman coins that eventually sold at auction for 9000 dollars. The stage was set for both Mike and Jeff to eventually find geocaching since they both had this passion to be hunting treasure.

Mike continued to live in Plattsmouth and continued in his civilian career at Offutt AFB and even spent some time in Desert Storm since he joined the Army Reserves in 1988.

Jeff eventually left Italy in 1992 for Texas with its hard Texas soil, where his metal-detecting days seemed to come to an end. Jeff eventually retired from the Air Force in December 1996 and started a business of his own. Both Mike and Jeff easily lost track of each other but occasionally wondered what had ever happened to the other.

Mike was always interested in getting a GPSr and started researching them as early as 2002. While researching them, he happened on to the sport of geocaching. The concept of it really sparked his interest. It wasn’t until the fall of 2004 that Mike finally got his first GPSr after a trip to the Phoenix, Ariz., when he had to find an agate site in the middle of the desert using a map and compass to get him there, although he had the coordinates for it. While waiting for his new GPSr to arrive, he remembered geocaching and was amazed at how many caches were near him. He was quickly logged on to geocaching.com as McGator and was finding caches before the GPSr even arrived. Puzzle caches became Mike’s favorite to tackle because of the challenge, and he soon placed one called Indian Springs Hexpert Cache.

Miles away in Texas, Jeff had his own business and was trying to keep active outside the home. Since Texas wasn’t really suitable for metal detecting, there really wasn’t a lot to attract/distract Jeff. Then, in 2004, Jeff’s parents from California came through San Antonio (on their retirement tour of the states) and introduced him to the world of geocaching. They'd been caching for years (Jeff’s father is now a cache approver) and wanted me to see what fun it could be. Jeff was hooked.

Jeff soon became an avid geocacher as 2Wineauxs+iq and especially enjoyed the thrill of finding puzzle caches, which very few attempt but that almost everyone who tries logs the thrill of finding. Jeff had only hidden 10 personal caches but have tried to make each of them challenging instead of simple park-n-grabs (his quirk). To find challenging types of themes, Jeff went back to his roots and looked in all the cities and states he'd lived through during his Air Force career to get ideas.

In June 2005, Jeff looked back to Plattsmouth, Neb., in his search for puzzle caches and found one named Indian Springs Hexpert Cache by McGator. Little did he know that it was his old metal detecting buddy. Jeff worked on the puzzle for a while and came up with an answer. He then emailed McGator the supposed answer and asked for permission to use the theme for a cache in San Antonio. Jeff also sent along his old address, his name and a little background on searching for puzzle caches in areas he'd lived. When Mike got the email, he kept looking at the address with a bit of puzzlement at first. Then it struck like a crack of lightning when he saw the name. One can only imagine the type of response Jeff got from a friend whom he hadn't talked to for nearly 20 years.

Since then, Jeff and Mike have exchanged dozens of emails. They’ve been bouncing cache ideas off each other, trying to solve each other’s puzzle caches. There are no immediate plans for a reunion but there will be one eventually. One day McGator and 2Wineauxs+iq will get the chance to hunt together again!