Bells, TN - Dyersburg, TN - 12/29/2009

I decided that today I would pick up a string of caches between Bells, TN to the east and Dyersburg, TN to the north. I left the house around 6:15am and made it to the Pilot Truck Stop (40 miles east of Memphis) for my first "break" around 7am.

My first cache stop was Nathaniel Williams Cemetery by vettebabe5 (GCQMM0), just east of Bells. I had struck out on this cache twice before more than 4 years ago, so it was a trip down memory lane to come back to this area. I found the cache quickly and believe that its coordinates have been changed over the years.

Most of the caches I found were along Hwy 412 with a diversion here and there. A majority of the caches on this route were put out by JimmyLogan and Bashful of JAG. After finding a couple of these caches with torn or missing bags for the logs, I dug around in my bag and found a couple of good small ziplock bags to replace the next two bad baggies I came across.

Some of the noteworthy caches I found were:
Ishteiodo (ish-tee-oh-doe) by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GC1474F) - I DNF'ed on this when it was put out just prior to the Ice Cream Social by jimmylogan & B@shful (GC12CPM). On this day, I walked right up to it. Anti-climactic, but it had been on my mind since the summer of 2007 so I was glad to get it off my list.


Where Friends Lie Resting by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GCYAF2) - Nicely tucked away, I almost gave up on it. When I found it, I saw the log was unbagged. I bagged it so that my signature would remain unsmeared - the log was damp.


Up hill where the water runs by Midsouth Runners (GC1V2M3) - not really hidden, but it was in an interesting spot - I took a ingot coin from here to move on.

Cemetery Walk by Bashful and Jimmylogan (GCYD16) - I found a lot of cemetery caches today. This one was interesting because a puppy from across the road came over to help me find the cache. I nicknamed him "Titansfan" because he kept getting in my way. The church had a time capsule that I was going to take a picture of before I left, but the dog had distracted me, so I had to spend effort making sure I didn't run over him as I was leaving.

Boondocks by tnicemgr & M@verick (GCRPE8)- This is an older cache (2005) which sparked much discussion on the GOWT forums when it first came out. There were two other caches in this immediate area, but I was focused on this one.


I found a couple more caches, including find #3100 - Little Bitty by tnicemgr (GCTNJM) before gassing up and heading west on I-155 across the river to Missouri. I still had a little bit of daylight left so I headed to Blytheville, AR to pick up a cache I missed on my last trip through.

My last cache find of the day was Walking the Line by kjw0169 (GC1W9M7) - a pretty interesting sight at the border between Missouri and Arkansas on Hwy 61.


I had only minutes of daylight left so I headed to Grandpa's Challenge by Doug&Di (GC1ARRA). I was reasonably sure I stood no chance of solving the physical puzzle involved, but I at least wanted to give it a try. I spent at least 20 minutes on it before moving on - defeated.


The above object is "Grandpa's Challenge", an example of a monkey puzzle.

Blytheville was a good as place as any to eat dinner so I ended up stopping at Perkins restaurant for a meal before heading the rest of the way to Memphis.

Blytheville, AR, Hayti, MO, Dyersburg, TN - 12/27/2009

I had been to Blytheville once before, so I was somewhat familiar with the layout of the land. My goal here was mainly to got after the four caches in the "Blytheville 4" series as well as avenge a DNF or two from my previous trip. I left early and arrived in Blytheville around 7am.

My first stop was at Wal-Mart to take a bathroom break and hunt the nearby cache - CAA I55 - Wally Pole by Doug&Di (GC14YQ0). Security was patrolling the area so I had to leave and save that cache for later. I headed east to pick up a few outside of town and only managed to get to Sleeping in the Carr by Doug&Di (GC14Z6X).

I avenged a DNF on Dead Center Field by Doug&Di (GC14Z2K). This was made possible by the fact there were no muggles playing baseball on this cold winter day. In fact, the entire park was empty.

The B'Ville 4 - #4 by Doug&Di (GC16JV9)
This required finding three caches in the series and writing down tow letter-number pairs from each one to be used in completing the coordinates for #4.

[ ammo can ? ]

The B'Ville 4 - #1 by Doug&Di (GC16JWT) was at a cemetery in an ammo can about the size of my thumb. Nice!
The B'Ville 4 - #2 by Doug&Di (GC16JWN) was a bust because even though I had solved the associated puzzle, I just could not find the nano.
The B'Ville 4 - #3 by Doug&Di (GC16JWV) was an easy find near the local YMCA - abandoned on this day.

So, since I needed six digits to complete the coordinates for B4 and I only had 4, I had to move on. Hopefully I won't lose the data I collected from #1 and #3.

I decided to skip past Grandpa's Challenge by Doug&Di (GC1ARRA) on this trip and missed Walking the Line by kjw0169 (GC1W9M7) due to an incorrect approach. So at this point I was northward bound.

I crossed the border into Missouri and picked up a couple in the tiny town of Cooter. Next, I visited Steele, and found gateway to fun by cheapthrl (GC1ZQPQ) in a nice park with a veteran's memorial (and a bathroom).

My next stop was Hayti, MO where I picked up 8 nice caches; most done by Midsouth Runners whom I met outside of Home Is Where The Heart Is by Midsouth Runners (GC1REX7).

[ The owners were watching me ]

My favorite hides here were History Class by Midsouth Runners (GC1RVFC) and Reflections of Vacations Present by MightyDee (maintained by MidSouth Runners) (GC1ZKC8).

[ History Class ]

My next stop was a KOA park where I found Sleepless Nights by Midsouth Runners (GC1WE36). I got my feet wet here as well which made the rest of the cold day somewhat more miserable.

I took the back roads north to Portageville, MO - finding a cache or two along the way. At the cemetery I picked up a TFTC geocoin that I later dropped off at a cache in Collierville, TN.

Since it was still early and only 15 miles out of my way, I went after What's Shaking? - New Madrid, MO by CUSEC (GC1DRVR) next. This was a nice cache outside of a museum and gift shop that is open 7 days a week normally. When I got there the place was closed due to storm damage. So much for warming up...

[ Museum and Gift Shop ]

[ Looking out over the Mississippi River ]

What to do with so much time left in the day?? It was time to turn back south . I headed for Carruthersville, MO where I found two more veterans-themed caches and took I-155 across the Mississippi River into Tennessee. I picked up a few caches along the Great River Road before heading into Dyersburg.

[ A view from a cache ]

--
Two caches that stood out in the Dyersburg area were:
1) Huck Fin---ley by Midsouth Runners (GC1WJNZ) - a guard rail cache that had a large dead dog next to it. It was laid out in such a way that I didn't see it until I got to the cache site.

and 2) Gone for a swim by Midsouth Runners (GC1W1CT) - This was at Okeena Park, a place I hadn't visited since the "Ice Cream Social" hosted by JAG in July 2007.
--
Leaving Dyersburg, I headed south on Hwy 51 and picked up two more caches. The first was Flowers from the Storm by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GC1474X) in Halls where I had a DNF previously) and the second was in Gates. I finished the last cache as it was getting dark so I continued south towards home.

When I got to Atoka, TN, I decided to catch a movie at the Cineplanet 16. I arrived just minutes before the start of Sherlock Holmes. I liked the movie, but I was so cold it was tough to stay focused. I made it home around 9pm.

Marianna-Helena-Tunica - 12/6/2009

Not being able to hold off any longer, today was the day I would attempt to hit 3000 finds. I'm not sure why, but the closer I get to a major "milestone", the more restless I become. I only needed 29 caches and I had become accustomed to making that many finds in a day. I decided that I wanted my milestone to be in Arkansas. This would mean that I hit a big milestone in three different states: Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

It was just after sunrise and 27 degrees outside when I headed for West Memphis, Arkansas. I had 9 caches marked out and I made 9 finds - all park and grabs. The coolest find of those was Location, Location, Location by Abiectio (GC1X6BR) - mainly because of (and getting to) the location.


My last stop in West Memphis was at the Welcome Center on the way out of town. It gave me another chance to use the restroom as well as warm up a bit before hitting the road.

My next stop was Crowley's Ridge Rest Area by kingmedic (GC20R0X), just outside of Forrest City. I then picked up a handful of new caches in Forrest City, including one at the local Wal-Mart - Forrest City Tram Law by kingmedic (GC20ZMC). This one had worker muggles in the general area, so I went inside and bought a few DVDs. There were still worker muggles when I came out so I had to reach around and feel for the cache.

After cleaning up most of Forrest City I headed south to Marianna, new territory for me, and found 4 nice caches.

[ Delta Heritage Trail ]

[ West Helena Fallen Firefighters ]

Helena was probably the most interesting town I stopped at. Most of its caches were history-related. Cache find number 3000 came at Helena #1 by grzz51 (GCYD0C).


After signing the log, I thought about celebrating by having dinner at the Mexican restaurant next to the station. I still had a few more caches listed on my map, though, and since I probably wouldn't be back this way, I decided to finish up the remaining caches.

Fans of Confederate Civil War history would appreciate the cache at the Helena Confederate Cemetery - Remembering the Past by kjw0169 (GC1W4M6).



My last find before leaving Arkansas was Coffee with Us by tm007 (GCVW9K) - another rest stop. I arrived too late for the free coffee. After crossing the bridge into Mississippi, I found two nice caches before heading north on Hwy 61.

My last stop of the day was the Tunica Museum. There were two caches on the property and I managed to find both just as the sun was setting.

Caching in Jackson, TN - 12/20/2009

[I'm writing this blog entry several weeks after this hunt so my memories are a bit foggy. I'll flesh it out a bit more as I get time.]

I left early on Sunday. Not as early as I would like, but early enough. My goal was to hunt a bunch of caches just west of Jackson, then see what I could get to in town.

My first find of the morning was Welcome to Denmark, TN by dalls (GC1PDR2). This cache is actually behind the cemetery, but my autorouting took me to the entrance road to the cemetery.

[ A new cemetery cache in Tennessee? In 2009? ]

I found two of the three caches in this area before moving on eastward.

Upon my arrival in Jackson, I noticed the traffic was lighter than expected so I headed north instead of south as I had planned. I hunted a few caches along Hwy 45 West before ending the morning at Ole #382 by Bluff Boys (GC216FG). This was in Casey Jones Village not far from one of the first caches I hunted in Jackson nearly 4 years ago. After finding the cache I met hdrider55, a husband and wife caching team from Memphis that had been quietly watching me find it. I decided to have lunch at the country buffet nearby.

After a nice meal, I headed east, picking up a few caches on my way to Kate Campbell Memorial Park.

I made a quick detour to Large Oak Tree by dalls (GC1AK23) which was near the Old Salem Cemetery and found a cool guard rail cache.

[ Large Oak Tree ]

Kate Campbell Memorial Park has a lot of caches and on this day no muggles, so imagine my distress upon find next to nothing here.

I did find Tornado Alley by TurndAround (GC10ZCG) after almost giving up so that was some comfort.

I decided to leave and approach Otter Crossing by dalls (GC192AP) from the east side of the park. I parked at a golf course and found the boardwalk that takes you to within feet of the cache. The growth here was thick and I barely had room to climb in. Somehow, I slipped and busted open my forehead on a fallen tree. I looked around for the cache, but the bleeding was a major distraction. I ended up abandoning the hunt and heading back to the car to clean up.

[ Otter Crossing - its in there somewhere...]

After leaving the park, my luck improved and I found a few caches to the south before heading downtown.

I hunted a few caches downtown including General Grant Headquarters by Bluff Boys (GC1Z24V) and Jackson Pioneers Are Nearby by dalls (GC18BPD). I struck out on Mystery of a Legend by Bluff Boys (GC1YAPA) partly because of the line of homeless across the street from where the cache should have been.

[ Near a mural with information needed to find a cache.]

At the fairgrounds I made quick work of At The Fair by dalls (GC1C1B8). I struck out at a nearby cache and made a stop at the nearby train museum to hunt an earthcache nearby.

I took this picture at Jackson Artesian Well Earthcache by dalls (GC17RPJ). After looking at the picture on the camera, I noticed my wound had reopened. [I failed to get the rest of the information necessary to log this cache.] At this point, although I was hungry and daylight was fading, I headed out of town to the westbound rest stop on I-40. Once there, I cleaned up my forehead and hands, applied a nice big bandage and hit the road for home.

I had a high number of DNF's here (almost 25%). I'm not sure if it is because the hides were so good, I just couldn't find them, or if some of them were missing, or even some may have been inappropriate hides. Some of them hadn't been found since the georace, so I'll monitor them and when they start getting found, maybe I'll go back.

What Happened to the Iphone Geocoin?

Back in August, I posted about a trip to Osceola, AR where I dropped off a cool Iphone geocoin that I had picked up in Nebraska. I had jokingly mentioned that I didn't want a JAG or GOWT member picking up the coin because it might "disappear".


JAG members jimmylogan and b@shful jumped on the coin and eventually took it to the JAG georace where they got a good laugh about how they acquired the coin. It then got passed to GOWT member tiger130 who held onto it for a while before giving it to GOWT member prontopup who held onto it for a while before finally passing it off to GOWT member abiectio, who took it across the country to ORIGINAL STASH TRIBUTE PLAQUE by TEAM 360 (GCGV0P) in Oregon.

A short time later, it was declared missing. Nice.

Night Caches in Cameron Brown Park - 12/1/2009

I don't like to cache in groups, but when I saw a post on the GOWT forums regarding a group hunt for night caches, I decided to go. I even bought a new flashlight for the occasion. I laughed when I saw a post that suggested that my old friend dalls from JAG would be coming.

I am seasoned enough to know that it would be impractical to hunt all 4 caches on the proposed list in one night, so I was glad that we were starting with the two short ones in Cameron Brown Park.

Because I don't like to drive in rush hour traffic, I left work early on the day of the hunt and headed out to Germantown. I hunted three caches in or near Shelby Farms Park before having dinner at Chick-Fil-A. I still managed to get to the arranged meeting spot in Cameron Brown Park an hour early. I used the extra time to walk laps around the lake while taking a few pictures.

As it got close to 5:30, I was beginning to think that no one would show up. Jackthebear arrived just before 5:30, but stayed in his truck. Jeffbouldin arrived right on time. We made the introductions and waited for more people to show up. When no one else did (including my old friend dalls), we began the hunt - sometime around 5:45pm. The weather had been nice lately and there were only a few spots of water on the ground. I avoided the water I saw, and only hit a few of the wet spots - enough to cool my feet.

Our first cache to hunt was Bats-R-Up by ProntoPup (GC1MGVK). This was a relatively straight forward cache - until the end. The light of the nearby tennis courts didn't do us any favors.

Cameron Brown Park's Easy Night Cache by bitbrain & pippin98 (GC1M3MF) proved to be a little more difficult. At one point, we had a great deal of trouble spotting the next set of tacks. Once we did, however, all was good. After finding the cache, we walked with jeffbouldin to find Decay by Canadian Bear adopted by Tiger130 (GCKE0X). That cache had one of the National Treasure keys in it.

Since it took us two hours just to find these caches, we decided to call it a night.

As we walked back to our cars, we tentatively made plans to do more night caches in January. I look forward to it. Maybe dalls will show up.

Harrisburg-Wynne, AR - 11/22/2009

The plan on this day was to cache in a few small towns in northeast Arkansas and visit a couple of State Parks as well.

My first stop of the morning was Marion, AR. There was a cluster of recently placed caches that were easy hunting on a Sunday morning. While in town, I got the car gassed up, scraped off the bugs from the last trip, and got some liquid refreshment for the trip.

Heading north, I made a stop at Hampson Archeological State Park in Wilson, AR. The was the place that I had two DNF's and a nicely cut finger the last time I was here. This time my visit was short and sweet. Two finds. One had bad coords - Hampson Archeological Museum ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1CFDK), but the logs told me this information ahead of time.

[ small state park]

While in the area, I detoured to 120 miles out of the way by fluffy&itchy (GC109YD). This cache has been here for a while, and today was a great day to go after it - dry dirt roads. The cache, itself, was in the only area that had mosquitoes. While here I also saw a big pumpkin lying on the ground.


My next destination was Lake Poinsett State Park, but on the way I stopped at The Painted House by Lambertstudios (GC1P962). A local tourist attraction and the setting for a John Gresham novel, on this day it was just a scenic stop on the way to more caches. Since I was there, I decided to walk around and take pictures of the house and barn. A sign on the front said admission was $10 for Adults. Wow.

[ The Painted House ]

Lake Poinsett State Park was a nice park. The only muggles I saw were near the fishing area. One cache - Lake Poinsett ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1DR1D) - was part of the State Park Challenge. I think I've been to 4 of the 53 state parks now. The second was near an empty picnic area. Good thing it was empty, as it took me forever to find the cache.

I hunted a few more caches before heading into Harrisburg, a tiny town northwest of the park. I picked up four caches here.

Next, I headed south to Wynne. Most of the caches I found there were new "Red Man" caches. I found a couple of neat cemetery caches as well.

Since I had a little bit of daylight left, I headed after Stars and City Lights by LuckyoneinAR (GCXKGA) - a cache at the north end of Village Creek State Park that I had missed before. I tried taking the roads instead of going through the park and hiking the horse trails. Big mistake - the map doesn't show these roads as private (or mud and rocks). No muggles, no worries though, I found the cache and made it out before sunset. I headed back to Marion, picked up a cache I missed earlier and had a nice dinner at Zaxby's before heading home.