[ previous hide spot ]I had considered archiving it. 6+ years is a pretty good run for a cache. Before making any decisions, though, I wanted to see what kind of shape the container was in and how much the landscape had changed since my last visit - 5 years ago. I made plans to hunt a few caches in the Cordova/Germantown, TN area and then fix up my cache in Howard McVay Park (in Germantown).
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I woke up early on Sunday, but it was tough getting out of bed. None of the caches on my list for this day seemed particularly interesting on paper, and I knew that half of them would be simple lightpole caches. Still, one was at a Wal-Mart and since I needed a few things from there, I managed to hit the road by 9am.
My first group of caches were clustered by the Wal-Mart. I started off with Tracks by aschrack & cwiggs (GC26PXH). This was along a grassy area that will eventually become part of the eastern end of the Memphis Greenline. It was nice to get to see the area before it gets paved.
[ The east end of the Memphis Greenline is about a mile away. ]I followed this up by T.D.D. #8 by dragon9981 (GC2QF6H) at a nearby CVS pharmacy. The T.D.D series are lightpole caches in the parking lots of CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid stores. No problem, except most of these are within eyesight of each store's drive-thru pharmacy.
Wall-E # 2322 by dragon9981 (GC2QF6V) was at the Wal-Mart in the area. After signing the cache log, I went in to buy two pairs of blue jeans. I entered the store at 10am and didn't get out until 10:30am. My holdup was the check-out line. I got in the "20 items or less express line" with my two items. There were two women in front of me. The first one had all of her items rung up and then realized she couldn't pay for all of that stuff. It had to be unrung up one item at a time until the lady could pay her bill. For some reason the cashier had to shut down the register and look for a manager in order to do this. Meanwhile, I noticed the the other woman in line in front of me had at least 40 items in her cart. I ended up having to change lines - not an easy task. Why am I telling you all of this? Because it took more time standing in line then it did to hunt all of the lightpole caches I did on this day (four). Plus, it was more interesting.
Anyways, my next two cache hunts were at the eastern corner of Shelby Farms. Ahhh, the woods! I found NIPPON POKEMON by NavyBryants (GC2QF3K) easily after a short hike. The other cache Kidz Kache by polikkronos (GC2MENF) was a no find, in part because the hint told me an obvious spot to search, but the cache description (that I failed to read) said that they had changed the location of the cache. I had looked at the spot where the cache was actually hidden and said "Naaah, it couldn't be under that big trash bag."
[ Ahhhh.... the woods. ]
[ No bikers today. ]
[ Not far from the "dog park" section of Shelby Farms. ]After two more T.D.D. caches, I made my way to Howard McVay Park and parked in the lot near a kids playground. Surprisingly there were no muggles as I made my way to the cache in a wooded area 300 feet away from the playground.
The cache was clearly visible, with little available greenery to hide it. I had read a few logs pointing out how easy it was to spot, especially in the winter time, so it was a miracle it lasted as long as it did. I added a new logbook and then had second thoughts about leaving the cache in the spot it was in. I ended up taking it down and moving it 20 feet (or so) south where the vegetation was a little thicker. If it survives the summer, I plan to go back and improve the camo on it.
Once I exited the woods, I decided to take a walk around the nearby man-made lake. This is a cool spot, with two fountains and assorted geese and turtles in the area. It seems to be a popular fishing spot as well.
[ The "Lake" at Howard McVay Park ]After getting back in my car, I figured I'd hunt a few more caches. I had problems getting my car to start, though, and took that as a sign to just go home and log my finds.
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