Passing Through Amarillo, TX - June 2006

On my trips out west, I usually pass through Amarillo in the early-to-late afternoon of the first day of the trip. If I am geocaching, I pass through this area an hour or so before nightfall. Since I usually try to make it to New Mexico by the end of the first day, my only Texas stops are typically rest stops. This time I decided to grab a few caches as I passed through Amarillo.

Bug Ranch by Morty's Twisted World (GCDB98) - June 15, 2006


This cache is just off of exit 96 on I-40 just east of Amarillo. After I got gas at a nearby station, I headed over to this cache. The small area consists of of several old VW bugs stuck headfirst in the dirt in a row. A sign nearby invites you to "Sign a Bug". One of the bugs has the cache hidden inside, but which one? My eTrex Legend wasn't very helpful although it narrowed the search a little bit. There were lots of empty spray cans around that people used to sign the bugs. If I had researched this cache better before leaving home, I might have had something decent to write my name on the bug. Oh well, my pen did the job.


Cadillac Ranch by thehairyhillbilly (GCG71X) - June 15, 2006


Shortly after passing through Amarillo, I got off at exit 60 and doubled back along a service road to visit the Cadillac Ranch. This was truly a sight to behold. In the middle of a barren field there was a row of ten old Cadillacs stuck headfirst in the dirt. They were decorated with all colors of spray paint. This was a virtual cache, that I found the information for fairly quickly. I took lots of pictures here and I wasn't alone. Lots of people streamed in an out to see the cars.

After leaving here, I drove on to Vega, TX where I found four more caches and an excellent motel near a Dairy Queen where I spent the night.

Free Speech vs Embarrassing One's Self

Before I get back to posting more stories about my geocaching adventures, I want to write about something that has been on my mind for a while now.

Many times before I post a blog entry or make a post on a public forum, the thought crosses my mind that what I say online is out there for anyone in the world to see. Since I don't have kids, I sometimes use my parents as guidelines - Would my next post, embarrass my parents or any other members of my family? If my mom read some of the things I have posted she might sigh or shake her head, but would she be embarrassed? I don't think so. I am about to introduce my family to my online writings so I guess I'll soon find out.

I have recently engaged in what might be termed "giving an internet spanking" to some folks in west Tennessee whom I once geocached with. They have managed to put a stain on geocaching in west Tennessee with some of their behavior. I read some of what they post online and cringe - thinking if my kids or my parents read this stuff and thought it came from me they would truly be ashamed of me. Bad spelling and bad grammar are embarrassing enough, but much of their content shows an incredible level of immaturity. I have been threatened in posts which anyone with any sense at all knows you just don't do.

Any fool can put a blog online - and I know a team of fools who are about to do just that. If you are a member of that team and you are reading this (or having your kids read it to you), I implore you, please find somebody intelligent to proofread your text before you post it online. You will save your friends and family a great deal of embarrassment if you do.

Word of the day

de·co·rum [di-kawr-uhm, -kohr-]
–n
1. dignified propriety of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
2. the quality or state of being decorous; orderliness; regularity.
3. Usually, decorums. an observance or requirement of polite society.

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A friend of mine recently pointed out the following forum signature he spotted on the GOWT forums:

"Some People Need To Grow Up and Learn that the Forums are just to place to post not real life! Once they do that they will learn that computers are everything and that caching is fun with out all the BULL$#@&!"

The pathetic sadsack who currently uses this signature is a college student so there is really no excuse for the grammar problems. The signature itself relates to an earlier problem we encountered on the GOWT forums: How do people discuss issues and points of view civilly without hampering their rights to free speech?

The GOWT forum rules are intended to promote decorum while allowing it's members to talk about pretty much anything on a member's mind. Our failure early on to hold members accountable for violating the forum rules led to people thinking that they could be offensive and hurtful without consequences. When they were finally held accountable, they cried and moaned about their "rights". The above signature does not serve any particular purpose other to enflame tensions and populate my top ten list of the most jackassed forum signatures. I think I only need a couple more to finish the list... The above sadsack has provided me with at least three.

Fortunately for GOWT this steaming pile of angst has found kindred spirits on another geocaching forum who are at least for now amused by his childish antics.

[update - 5/24/2007]
Apparently several people actually read my blog. Who knew?

Here is some feedback to the above article. It did not come from the sadsack I refer to in the article. His response was even more pathetic than what I have posted below.

I will let the audience guess who posted this:
"I enjoy three of these blogs but there is one that some idiot that just can't let go need some serious help. We gave them the other site, that didn't work, they go and start another group which they copied everything from us, thats not working so i don't understand his stupid comments maybe he can explain them to my face........"

It's unlikely that I will be explaining anything to anyone's face anytime soon. I would probably need an interpreter.

Boot Hill (Ogallala, NE) - July 2006

I arrived in Ogallala just before sunset on July 3. There are many neat things about this small town - one of which is a small nature park near the motels. What I was really interested in visiting here was Boot Hill. Boot Hill is a famous western cemetary where cowboys were often buried with their boots on. The cemetary is located on a hill in a residential neighborhood. At the bottom of the hill you can read touristy things about the site.

At the top of the hill is a cache - Cache to Boot by Syriaca (GCPQC2)


To get to the cemetary you have to climb a long, fairly steep staircase. The cache is near an interesting statue near the center of the cemetary. It is not hard to find, the main goal is to get you to visit the cemetary. At the time of this blog entry the cache has been archived while some repairs are being made.

I arrived just after sunrise on July 4 and made the long climb up the stairs. I spent most of my visit taking pictures of the statue (a cowboy on a horse) and gravestones. While I was glad to find the cache, this was definitely an example of geocaching taking you to fascinating locations!

Rattlesnakes? (just west of Ogallala, NE) - July 2006

It was getting late in the day and I had just a little more time to cache before needing to find a motel for the night.

I-80 Paperback Book Library by Team StarBrand (GCK0YE)

This was described as an ammo can near a rest stop. I enjoy rest stop caches because I can kill tow birds with one stone - if you catch my drift! Anyways I was looking forward to a full-sized cache! to the west of the rest stop there is a paved walkway that winds up a small rocky hill. As I approached the beginning of the walkway I saw the sign: Caution: Rattlesnakes are native to this area.


I was a little nervous, but it was a nice paved walkway leading up to an observation point in the distance. About the time I got halfway up the hill I noticed my arrow was leading me a good distance off the trail and up a rocky incline. I picked up a handfull of small rocks and tossed some around as I walked at any area I was suspicious of. The cache was in a well-isolated area covered with rocks - a nice place for a snake!

The cache had some paperback books which I left alone since I had nothing to trade. I admired the view from the hill after signing the log and carefully made my way down the hill, happy to get back on the paved walkway. I walked over to the observation point and read the history of the area before getting back on the road.

Caching in North Platte, NE - July 2006

I arrived in North Platte, NE early in the morning of July 4, 2006 while heading east along I-80. My goal was to hunt the caches in Centennial Park which is not far off of the interstate. Most of the caches in this park were placed by Big Dawgg & Cardinal Girl. It was a beautiful day for caching - sunny and warm.

Centennial Park is well-maintained with a recreation center and a skateboard park. A concrete walking path separates the recreational area (where the muggles play) in the north from the nature area to the south. Most of the caches are in the nature area to the south of the paved path.

I parked my car in a parking lot on the west end of the main part of the park and headed a short distance south where the first cache of the stop was - Rec & Roll by Big Dawgg & Cardinal Girl (GCN3D2). This one was hidden in a familiar type of tree.



I proceeded west along mostly sandy bike trails hunting various caches until I got to The End Of The Line by Big Dawgg & Cardinal Girl (GCVBMF). The terrain was interesting. There were plenty of trees, but not enough to interfere with my GPS reception. There was also quite a bit of cacti around - I'm not sure if it is native to the area or was planted here. It was very quiet that morning, even with the interstate being to the south about a 1/2 of a mile.

The last find of my stop here was SalkerWoccer by Notlostnomo (GCP8Y1). By the time I finished signing the log, I heard muggles walking on the nearby concrete path.


I found 9 caches during my stop in North Platte. I had skipped a multi near the parking area and there are two new caches that weren't there in July. The total distance I walked that morning was a little over 2 miles. The majority of the caches I found were micros/small containers that blended in pretty well in their locations. They weren't terribly difficult to find which allowed me to focus more on admiring the surroundings. I don't know when I will return to the immediate area, but Nebraska is rich with caches and I plan to hit more towns along I-80 in 2007.

Caching in Rawlins, WY - July 2006

On my summer trips across the country from Tennessee to Oregon and back, I love to stop and cache in small towns. Whenever possible I like to find a nice place to park and will spend a good part of a day walking around town hunting caches. It gives me a much better feel of the town then just driving between caches.

On July 3, 2006, I was heading east through Wyoming and had previously identified Rawlins as a place I wanted to visit.

One of the highlights of my visit to Rawlins was the Old State Penitentiary. Rubiconlwb has placed a number of caches around the prison and one can find half a dozen or more with very little walking. The day was perfect. Very sunny and warm with few muggles out and about.


I started my hunt with The Mural Tour by Rubiconlwb (GCM1MT). I don't normally hunt multis while travelling on long trips, but I enjoyed this one. It is located in downtown Rawlins and involves some walking, but not overly much.

I hunted a couple of other caches and headed for Frontier Prison by Rubiconlwb (GCNDGA) where I parked my car in the shade and hunted caches around the old prison. If I had wanted to stay a bit longer the prison gave tours.

The brochure even mentioned that you could sit in the old gas chamber. Sounds like fun! I picked up a couple of brochures and bought a cold drink and continued on the hunt.


I'm not sure how long I stayed in Rawlins. It was more than a couple of hours, though, and I was quite exhausted when I finished up. Maybe it was the temperature or the relatively high altitude that wore me out.

I found 11 caches on that stop and missed a few outlying ones because I was running late. I enjoyed every cache I found that day so I can't remember if I had a favorite. I see now that there are several new caches there so I may be stopping there again. Maybe next time I will sit in the gas chamber!

Caching in Nashville - May 2007

Nashville has lots of great caches. I never cached here during the time I was hunting my first 1k finds, but had made a couple of trips to Murfreesboro (with Titansfan) and Smyrna (with BigDaddyD and the Bluff Boys) in the months immediately after. When cgeek invited me along for a hunt inside Nashville, I was eager to go.

I met up with cgeek at 5am and with no delays, off we went.

We only hit a couple of caches heading east along I-40, mainly for times sake but our first find of the day was An Unusual Occurrence at the Cotton Patch. It is located near an interesting-looking Information Center with rest room facilities (which I needed at this point). We took the opportunity during this short break to do a little CITO.


We reached Nashville around 8:30 am... Most of the caches we did were Park and Grabs, but several involved a little hiking in the woods. Many of the caches had been around a while and I appreciated the variety of hide types done by a large number of different cache placers.

Nashville has lots of interesting virtual caches, but we only did one on this trip - Trinity.

One of the caches I enjoyed that day was Shy's Hill. It involved a nice hike uphill and the trail was a little slick because of the recent rain, but very well-maintained. The expected rain held off for a good part of the day but it had rained enough so that we got fairly wet walking through the wooded areas.

After a quick pick-up of dinner at a Wendy's we started the long trip home. I still had some energy for caching so cgeek graciously let me hunt a few LTLs on the way back to Memphis.

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Thanks go to cgeek, who drove on this trip, for the company and for not falling asleep at the wheel!

A new day dawns on GOWT

Apparently some changes have been made to the GOWT forums in the last day. It looks like some clean up work was done and a few anonymous moderators added. I also noticed that several people who like to log in as "hidden" showed their faces today. Hopefully more changes of a positive nature are underway as well.