Secret Egypt - Part II

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 was for it to make it back in time to be part of the Secret Egypt exhibit that will run from February to June 2011.

I contacted Vilbert via e-mail and she sent me details about the project. I eagerly agreed to participate, so on December 15th, Vilbert mailed me the Eqyptian Explorer 01 TB. We figured that it would take a week or so to arrive in Memphis, so in the meantime, I visited two of the goal sites for the TB - the Pyramid and the Memphis Zoo and took test pictures to get a good idea of the views the TB would get.

Around Christmas time there were serious weather problems, so I wasn't too concerned when the first week passed with no TB arrival. Then came the second week, and the third, and the fourth... I was beginning to think that the TB was lost. On Monday, February 7th as I was leaving for work, I found a package on my doorstep. It was the Travel Bug! I took it to work, logged it as "grabbed", and contacted Vilbert to let her know that Egyptian Explorer 01 would be undertaking its mission. Of course, Mother Nature chose that week to unleash snowmageddon on Memphis, but by Saturday things had cleared up enough to begin the mission.

Saturday morning (February 12), I hiked to Overton Park to take pictures of the TB in front of the gates of the Memphis Zoo. While at the park, I took pictures with the TB at the Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis College of Art, and the Levitt Shell. I also visited Overton Park Mystery Cache by Spencersb (GCPKGJ) and dropped off a couple of geocoins and "dipped" the TB. I ended up "dipping" the TB at a cache near each of the Egyptian-themed sites I visited, so there would be a visual representation of the TB's log of where it went. After leaving the park, I had to drive up north to a birthday party and hunted caches along the way including Nelms3's First Find Cache by nelms3 (GC2KRPN) and The Valley by dguyusnavy (GC29W7D).

[ gates of the Memphis Zoo ]

On Sunday morning (February 13), after a hearty breakfast, I hiked downtown to the Pyramid. I took lots of pictures of the Pyramid and the Ramesses II statue in front. I also "dipped" the TB in the nearest cache - Memphis's Great Pyramid of Cheops by kingmedic (GC20ZHX). I also visited the site of a now archived cache - Ramesses' Tomb by Sprout (GCTN3Y), the container of which is still in place.

[ Pyramid Arena and statue of Ramesses the Great ]

Afterwards, I decided to hike down to the south end of the Riverwalk, taking pictures along the way. Once I arrived at Martyr's Park at the end of the Riverwalk, I put a new log in Memphis Martyrs by Tuck Sackett (GCN59Y) and relaxed on a bench overlooking the river. As I was leaving the Riverwalk to head back into downtown, I ran into Team sskaysee. We talked for a bit and I showed them Egyptian Explorer 01 before we parted ways. I had a late afternoon dinner at Huey's before heading home.

[ Martyr's Park memorial ]

The final goal for the TB while in Memphis was to visit the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis. I had a meeting at the U of M on February 16, so I took the TB along and we made a quick visit to the Egyptian collection at the museum. I was disappointed that I could take pictures inside, but before I left, I read about an upcoming "Ancient Egypt Family Day" coming up the next weekend and figured that surely they would have things at that event that I could photograph with the TB.

On Saturday (February 26), I took the TB to "Ancient Egypt Family Day" at the U of M. I got there just as the event started and before it was full of kids (the target audience). Besides taking lots of pictures, I learned how to write my name in hieroglyphics, and learned about numbers and the Egyptian measurement system. It was actually a pretty fun experience!

[ replicas including an Amarna Princess ]

[ replicas including the "Rosetta Stone" ]

After the event, I decided to hunt the five new caches to the north of the University along the Shelby Farms Greenline. I met other cachers on the hunt and shared the story of Egyptian Explorer 01 with them.

On Sunday morning (February 27), I got up early to take the TB to the TB motel where I would be dropping it off - Aerotropolis TB Hotel by GC4EVR (GC1Y1KC). I have visited that site before, and read the logs to see how often it was visited and how often items "disappeared" from it. I felt comfortable leaving it there and hope that it makes it way to England without too many hitches.

For more text and pictures of the Egyptian Explorer 01's journey, check out its page on geocaching.com.

Caching on the Greenline - 2/26/2011

My main goal for the morning was to get over to the University of Memphis for Ancient Egypt Family Day. I needed some more pictures to cap off the Egyptian Explorer 01 TB's goal while it was in Memphis. It was really tough to get out of bed. I had been working at a conference in East Memphis for the previous three days and was exhausted from a lack of sleep plus a lot of stress.

[ U of M's Art Museum houses among other things, an Egyptian collection. ]

I wasn't sure I needed to load up my GPSr with fresh coordinates, but I had noticed five new caches on the greenline near the university, so I went ahead and packed up my gear in the event I decided to hunt caches. I arrived at the U of M Art Museum just as the exhibit was starting up. I took a few pictures and learned a few things about Egypt. I practiced writing my name in "hieroglyphics", and learned about numbers and Egyptian measurements. I had a great time, and got the pictures I needed.

Feeling pretty good, I decided to check out the five new caches along the west end of the Shelby Farms Greenline. I decided to park somewhere around the middle of the five and hiked a bit south to meet up with the trail. Heading west, I realized that I left my cache notes back in the car. My first find of the morning was Midtown Greenway #2 by mgrommet (GC2P4XH). It turned out to be easy - in fact, it turned out to be the easiest of the five.


As I approached Midtown Greenway #1 by mgrommet (GC2P4XF), I noticed two people in the vicinity of the cache. They both had walking sticks and one had a GPSr, so I was certain they were geocachers. I usually shy away from meeting other cachers while on the trail, but I'm glad I didn't this day. I met TNLarry4 and his wife Queenie just moments before Queenie found the cache. We spent awhile talking and before we left, shandrum and stumpcacher came up to hunt the cache. We talked for a bit about various caches before TNLarry4 and Queenie headed east to hunt the others on the trail. I decided it would be fun to continue with them to hunt the remaining caches on this trail.

[ stumpcacher, shandrum, Queenie, and TNLarry4 ]

Since I had already found #2, I waited while TNLarry4 and Queenie made the find.

Midtown Greenway #3 by mgrommet (GC2P4XK) was a tough find, even with a landmark fairly close. Queenie made the find.

I believe that Midtown Greenway #4 by mgrommet (GC2P4XM) is where we encountered two barking dogs behind the fence as we approached the cache. This was also the only one I found with the group and I found it while trying to avoid the dogs.

[ unique among the caches we found this day ]

[ TNLarry4 and Queenie walking ahead while I snapped pictures of the path. ]

The last cache we found together was Midtown Greenway #5 by mgrommet (GC2P4XP). TNLarry4 made the find while Queenie and I struggled with thorns. After signing the log, we headed back west. We parted ways about halfway back to the first cache on the trail. It was great meeting TNLarry4, Queenie, shandrum, and stumpcacher and I hope to run into them again some day.

I decided to eat lunch somewhere as I was heading home and ended up at Poplar Plaza, where I found one more cache (across the street). When I arrived at T.D.D. #6 by dragon9981 (GC2MJNZ), there was a car parked next to the cache. I went into the nearby Walgreens and bought some stuff and when I came out, the coast was clear and I retrieved the cache and signing the log. I ended up eating lunch at the Taco Bell across the street before heading back home.

Where the Wind Takes Me - 2/20/2011

I had planned for this to be a lazy Sunday. Because I had to go to a conference later in the week, I decided to make a trip to the Target just east of the University of Memphis to pick up a few things. I knew that there were a few park and grab caches on the route I planned to take, so I packed up my GPSr and took off. Most of these caches were along Poplar Avenue, which is usually a busy street even on a Sunday. I started off with Need Gas? 100pts for 10 cents off !! by dragon9981 (GC2MJPE) at Poplar Plaza and worked my way east and ended at T.D.D. #4 by dragon9981 (GC2MJNQ) - a short distance from the Target.

[ A familiar path ]

I bought a few things at Target and when I got back to my car and was around 12:30pm. Since it was a beautiful day and I wanted more than just a few lightpole caches, I decided to head to Shelby Farms. Traffic was backed up at the entrance and I could see that the main parking lot was full. I almost drove off, but decided to take a chance. It took driving around the entire park to find a spot that I was willing to leave my car. It wasn't a big deal, though, because it gave me an excuse to hike around in the park rather than just to a single cache.

I hiked over to the Visitor's Center and cut east along the edge of Patriot Lake. The goal cache of all of this walking was Triffid Terror by Mindless-Focus (GC1MH0R). It was nicely tucked away in an area where people ride horses.

[ Somewhere in there... ]

Having found the cache, I headed back almost the same way I came in. I made a quick stop at the boathouse near Patriot Lake to buy a Powerade. The owner told me that he was trying to get people not to rent boats that day because it was too windy, but several people disregarded his advice.

[ Lots of caches around this part of Shelby Farms are in terrain like this. ]

I hung out near one of the northern lakes for a bit before leaving the park. I looked at some of the new playground equipment being set up nearby as well.

[ Standing on a short pier overlooking the lake. ]

After picking up a few more park and grabs to the east of Shelby Farms and running north and south along Germantown Parkway, I made my way to a section of the Germantown Greenway near Houston High School to hunt Greenway Too by Prontopup (GC25ZR2). This section of the greenway runs along a utility easement. I've cached in the area before, but until I saw a map of the greenway, didn't realize that this section came out at another nice park to the south.

Just a little further south, and just off of the greenway was Ain't Holdin' Up Nothin' by TNLarry4 (GC2HXXC). This was in a park behind the school, and could have been a busy spot later on in the Spring with at least two baseball fields in the vicinity of the cache. The cache had a great camo job and would have been tough for a newer cacher to find. Incidentally, I actually met TNLarry4 a week after I found this cache.

[ An interesting trail at the edge of the park. ]

My last stop of the day before heading home was Dairy Queen. I enjoyed an Oreo Blizzard before going around back and taking a picture of the field behind it. There was also a cache behind the DQ, but I had found it a while back.


I ended up with 11 cache finds. The only DNFs of the day were park and grabs with too many muggles around.

Germantown Greenway - 2/19/2011

I was kind of hesitant to go caching this weekend, because I had a lot of errands to do that I had been putting off until the last minute - this weekend being the last minute. But my caching buddy, jbgreer, wanted to hunt a few caches and drop off a geocoin somewhere. We met at my place around 8am and headed out to breakfast. In the "old days", I was so eager to hunt geocaches that I didn't think about food until after it became too dark to cache. Now, as a "seasoned veteran", I try to enjoy a hearty breakfast or lunch while out on the road.

Our goal for the morning was to hunt four caches along the part of the Germantown Greenway that borders the southern part of the Lucius Burch Natural Area. On the way there we took a shot at getting more reconnaissance on INVISIBLE by MagicRock (GC24K70). We checked out the area again looking for more "clues", but coming up empty.

Now heading south to the target, the first cache we tackled was The Mother Load by hattrick364, omggal123 (GC2KPXN). An ammo can shouldn't be that hard to find, right? Fortunately we made the find, but I had checked plenty of spots that I thought would be more obvious. I would have liked to explore the nearby trail, but didn't have time on this day.

Next, we drove around to one of the southern lots for the greenway and set out forACME-Lord Of The Flies by giardia_boy (GC2K27R). It was only a few hundred feet from where we parked, but we ended up crossing two barbed-wire fences before we got the the cache area. It was a nano, but hidden in such a way that it was easily found. We always enjoy the creativity of giardia_boy's hides.

[ near the parking area ]

[ not slippery today ]

We made our way back to the greenway and proceeded east to ACME-Question and Answer by giardia_boy (GC2M6K0). The hike gave me another visual perspective to a giarda_boy hide I found last October. This ended up being one of those hides that at first glance could be in a million places, but fortunately the container was a decent size and the camo, while visually good, was of a material that wasn't hard to get our hands on.

[ I can't tell you what I wished for. ]

[ A nice view of the Wolf River taken from a new bridge ]

Our final cache of the morning was Now For Something Completely Different by giardia_boy (GC2KE6W). Now I had believed (like some others) that the greenway trail ran alongside the cache area. We ended up approaching the area from the east part of the greenway to fall short, and the west part of the greenway to again fall short. It turns out that the shortest route we could find involved parking across the boulevard from the park and hiking around a lake on the other side of the road. It had a bit of a path, so the hike wasn't too bad.

[ Nice path, but of no use today. ]

[ the end ]

After getting back to the car, my day was done. I had to get home and take a shower so that I could get my hair cut before the barber shop I use closed for the weekend.

Jbgreer, on the other hand, decided to follow up on some insights he had regarding INVISIBLE by MagicRock (GC24K70) and ended up making the find. I guess it will be while before I find it. Interestingly, later that day some geocachers ended up finding it with assistance after the GOWT anniversary event held that day.

Collierville, TN - 1/29/2011

The weather warmed up nicely for Saturday, so I was excited to do some caching with my buddy jbgreer. We met up around 8am and had a nice breakfast at my favorite restaurant to discuss the day's agenda. While at the restaurant, jbgreer presented me with a 3000 finds geo-achievement geocoin. That was so cool! I was meaning to get myself one but never got around to it.

The plan for the day was to hunt two of Bitbrain's puzzle caches in Collierville, TN, and then drive north to W.C. Johnson Park, where we would hunt 5 relatively new peanutpapa caches in the southern part of the Wolf River Wildlife Corridor.

The first cache we hunted was By Request by bitbrain (GC1XHPH). This turned out to be a two-stage cache. The first stage was tricky and fairly unique in my experience. After mapping the coordinates for stage 2, we decided to hunt Uncle Albert by bitbrain (GC25VCP) first. This cache had an interesting puzzle that was a variation of one I had solved in Oregon one summer. I had mapped the spot beforehand and so it should have been an easy find. The spot turned out to be busier than I had anticipated, but during a lull, we retrieved the cache and signed the log. Having made our first find of the day, we went to find stage 2 of By Request.

[ non-spoiler picture for "By Request" ]

I really enjoyed these two caches, and made a point to "favorite" them when I logged them on-line. I can't really say anymore about them, in order not to spoil the caches for any future cachers.

We arrived at parking in W.C. Johnson Park sometime around 10:30am. We took the boardwalk north to the point where we needed to head out into the woods. Our last trip to this park was during the previous November. In fact, these five caches were placed right after we found the last ones in the area. This experience would prove to be different largely due to the swampy area these caches were in. I was prepared with my rubber boots. They were needed. The trails were muddy and the swamps were beginning to fill up with water.

The five caches formed a circle, and we hunted them in clockwise order. The first cache we found was Slough Cache East by peanutpapa (GC2KHYH). When we signed the log, we noticed that at least two other cachers had found it (and the others nearby) that day. We never ran into them, but later I learned that they had been there just an hour or so before us.

All of the caches were easy finds, once you got to the general area. None were hidden, I think in part because of their isolation in this part of the woods. It would be hard to say if any non-geocacher ever hikes around in this area.

The last of the five caches in the area was A Field in the Woods by peanutpapa (GC2KHY9). Upon our arrival at the area of the cache, I spotted a possum in a tree. I took a lot of pictures trying to make sure I got at least one good one. The possum was very patient. ;-)

After signing the log, it was only a short hike back to the boardwalk.

We got back to the truck around 12:40, and jbgreer was interested in going after one more cache. He suggested Phillip Duffy Tolerates A Crazy Transient by Phillip Duffy and itcomagic (adopted by Tinksdad) (GC19QK3), which would have been roughly on the road back to Memphis, but I wanted to hunt Cotton Farm Truck Cache by peanutpapa (GC26MN4). I was interested in this cache because I liked the park, but I also knew that the Diff/Terrain combination would fill a spot on jbgreer's D/T matrix.

We drove to what I thought would be the best parking area and started out on a hike. At on point, we got to within .23 miles of the cache by following the main trail. Instead of cutting through the woods, we continued along the main trail looking for a trail/road that would take us north and then east. We eventually found this route, but it turned out to involve much more walking than I had anticipated - nearly a mile more. Once we arrived in the vicinity of the cache, I found the one spot where the water was higher than my boots. Jbgreer saw the truck mentioned on the cache page and instinctively went toward it. I followed my GPSr in another direction and found the cache. This was the neatest cache spot we found on this day. The cool water felt good on my sore feet.

[ A long muddy walk ]

[ Anyone home? ]

[ How convenient...]

[ deep water ]

[ I almost forgot to take a picture of the truck ]

At this point, we were both pretty tired, so we took the most direct route back to the truck, which turned out not to be bad at all. In fact, at one point we saw the trail we should have taken in. Getting back to the truck, it was all I could do to get my boots off and into a clean change of socks and shoes. That was the end of our day. My feet always hurt after wearing those boots.