Overton Park - 12/30/2010

I met up with my caching buddy jbgreer at 8am. Our plans were to have breakfast and then hunt a few caches, mostly in Overton Park. Puzzle caches were pretty much the order of the day. I had one to find in Overton Park and jbgreer had two with another one in another park. Overton Park has a lot of great trails winding through old-growth forest and is a lot of fun to explore.

[ these woods look a lot creepier in the wintertime ]

Our first cache to hunt was Colors by cgeek (GCY9RB). I had found the cache a little over four years ago, so I was certain we would be able to find it on this day. I stood off to the side and watched jbgreer search around for the cache. After a while, I decided to sidle over to where I had found the cache earlier and could not find it. After some more futile searching, we decided to move on.

The second cache we went after was Flip Dizzy - Monkey Comes In by Abiectio (GC1AVN2). We had both been working on the puzzle for this cache for a long time. For my part, I had discovered all of the pieces to solve the puzzle along time ago, but couldn't get a verifiable solution. I ended up having to use another tool to get correct coordinates. My original solution had me 50 feet off of what proved to be the actual coordinates. The cache area, itself, was fairly easy to get to. It was hidden well, though, so once at ground zero, we searched every possible spot before jbgreer made the find.

Confidence restored, we returned to the spot where "Colors" was supposed to be. Even though it was logged as found the day before, we found no trace of it. Time to move on...

[ interesting debris ]

While in the park, we also checked on Overton Park Mystery Cache by Spencersb (GCPKGJ). I adopted this excellent cache a few years ago and had done some much-needed maintenance on it two days earlier. It had been found between the time I cleaned it up and this day and was still in good shape even after rain the day before.

Next cache on the list for jbgreer was No Ducks Here by lkvids (GCTPK4). I was FTF on this cache back in March of 2006 and it hadn't had many visitors since. I stood off and waited for jbgreer to make the find.

It was about noon and since jbgreer had some more time, we went after two more caches in north Raleigh. I had found these before (crownjewel classic's #3 (GC2392E) and crownjewel classic's #4 by crownjewel (GC2392Q)), so I waited in the car while jbgreer hunted them.

I enjoyed the hunt, even though I only logged one find.

Downtown Memphis - 12/26/2010

It was a bitterly cold day today. That made it a perfect time to go down to the Riverfront to do some maintenance on a cache I have at Martyr's Park. It was about a 30 minute hike from where I work to downtown and there were few people out today. I figured I'd also take the opportunity to scout out the Pyramid area for an upcoming visit.

Once at the Pyramid, I saw some construction equipment parked at the south end of the parking lot near Memphis's Great Pyramid of Cheops by kingmedic (GC20ZHX). I walked over and quickly found the cache and took a quick picture of the Pyramid.


It was also a perfect time to check out the condition of another nearby puzzle cache: Ramesses' Tomb by Sprout (GCTN3Y) that had been recently archived because of a missing graphic on the cache page - a hieroglyphic description of the coordinates. The cache container is still in its spot, undisturbed since its last visitor in October. While in the area, I also scouted out some good spots to photograph the Egyptian Explorer travel bug I should be receiving soon.

After leaving Pyramid Plaza, I headed south along the riverwalk towards Martyr's Park. On the way, I hunted Last Call by Rizzlefoshizzle (GC2BHC3). I finally arrived at the park and was pleased to find no one around. I replaced the log in my cache - Memphis Martyrs by Tuck Sackett (adopted by Mackheath) (GCN59Y) and spent a little time looking for an alternate hide spot. I will be coming back here soon with a better container.

With all of my geocaching work done, I headed back into downtown to get a bite to eat before returning to work.

Secret Egypt

On December 8th, I was contacted by the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, England and was invited to host a Travel Bug whose primary goal was to visit Egyptian-themed sites in Memphis before making its way back to Coventry. If possible, part of the wish for the TB is for it to make it back in time to be part of the Secret Egypt exhibit that will run from February to June 2011.

This particular Travel Bug is one of 40 released with the goal of visiting specific Egyptian-themed sites or museums in different parts of the world. I have been monitoring the logs of the others, and some are doing better than others in accomplishing their goals.

I am expecting the Travel Bug to arrive any day now and will post details on its journey while with me as well as links to allow tracking it as it moves on. While it is unlikely that I will run across any geocachers while I am in possession of the TB, any I do come across are more than welcome to "discover" it.

Update: 12/27/2010: It looks like bad weather may have delayed the travel bug's arrival. I didn't receive it today, and tomorrow is the last sunny day we are forecasted to have until Saturday or Sunday. The good news is that I took lots of good test pictures at the Pyramid (yesterday) and the Memphis Zoo (today).

Update: 1/5/2011: Will today be the day I receive the TB? I hope so, because we have a string of good weather days coming up.

Update: 1/7/2011: Sigh. No travel bug this week.

Update: 1/22/2011: Nothing yet...

Update: 2/7/2011: Finally, the TB arrives after being somewhere in transit for seven weeks. I will create a future blog entry tracking its progress with me and beyond.

Groundspeak Souvenirs are Rolling Out

I'm still trying to figure out what these souvenirs are all about. I received my first one earlier in the year. I "earned" it by logging a cache find on 10-10-10 and it was in honor of the 10th anniversary of geocaching. There was an attempt to set a record for the most cachers logging a find in a single day.

In recent weeks, Groundspeak has been rolling out souvenirs for each of the 50 U.S. states as well as a few international ones, and ones for special events. The state ones are being awarded retroactively, and I have been "awarded" souvenirs for caches found in Kentucky and Tennessee. Based on my caching history, I should be getting about 20 more state souvenirs soon.