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.