31 Days of Geocaching: Days 8 - 14

After a few hit and miss strategies for picking caches to hunt, I decided to make a pocket query containing geocaches that have been found within the last 7 days.  Surprisingly, this produced a list that should be good enough to get me through 31 days.

Day 8:

I picked a cluster of four caches in Southaven, MS to get early in the morning before work.  Two were ammo cans chained to trees in non-wooded areas, so I quickly made all finds without any troubles or DNFs.

Lets do the Twist  by wilbur8869 | GC3P6K3 - Beautiful park that had a lake and exercise equipment in it.  The container was clever, but I had trouble retrieving the log.

"Blues" Lodge by Nature's_Wonderful | GC4CCAW - Ammo can near a lodge - quickest find of the morning.

DeSoto Trail New #2 - Horn Lake by SoDeSotoMS | GC3QVB4 - Ammo can in front of a library.

DC - Standing Guard #6 - DCSA by zom4live | GC41NA2  - Guard rail micro, almost skipped because I was short on time.

Day 9:

I spotted last night two caches close together with one being a park and grab, so they were my early morning targets for day 9.  I got to use a newer version of the geocaching app on my phone which works a lot better.

West of Orleans by zambodia || GC445G4 - This was a great cache!  I had seen several like it before, so it was an easy find, but it was well-constructed.

Welcome to Initech by steph&herboys, adamorobertson | GC4H2YW  - Park and grab just across the road from the previous cache.  

I made it through Friday, so finding a least one cache on Saturday and Sunday shouldn't be too much trouble (even if it rains).  I'll probably go out of town, though, to save the local ones for weekdays. 

Day 10:

I planned to do the Arkansas Highway 463 Series on Saturday and was concerned about the 60% chance of rain for the day.  I got up early and not only beat the rain but logged a total of 25 caches and made it home by 9am. 

Besides the 20 cache series, today I found:

Skye The Parrott Travel Bug Hotel by HippyChick79 | GC2YVX9  - better found in winter, but a nice spot.

Too Little Horse Ranch by HippyChick79 | GC49PXG - Rain would have made this a tough drive, but on this morning, it was nice.  A memorial just off of and out of sight of the main road.

Too Little Tulot Cemetery by HippyChick79 | GC49PWT  - Cemetery cache!

Ghost Busters by HippyChick79 | GC3QZGA - Cemetery cache that I only found because of my direction of approach.

Welcome Home by HippyChick79 | GC49PPW  - Last find of the day (Welcome to Marked Tree).

Day 11:

I had a road race in the morning in Bartlett, TN, so I hunted the nearest park and grab nearby that would work out best for a Sunday morning hunt.  Since I was stopped by Germantown police on the previous cache in this series, I was concerned to see on the cache page that security hangs out nearby.  No body was around on this early morning, though.

Changing Expectations #2 by Balls2thefloorgeocacher | GC3X967 - Nice, easy LPC.

Day 12:

With rain promised once again for later in the day,  I decided to get up before sunrise to hunt a park and grab or two.  I headed to Olive Branch, MS which is a straight shot down Hwy 78.  I managed to get my intended cache plus one other nearby.

Guest Parking by BillyDalton | GC3GQK5 - At a motel.  Quick find not far from where I found another a while back.

One Degree of Seperation - Olivebranch, MS by WillG_R7 | GC2GQ2P  - Park and grab with an offset,  I just happened to park 10 feet from the cache.

Day 13:

I had plans to hit Southaven, MS again for two caches after work.  Driving in Southaven is a nightmare at times - particularly rush hour.  The first cache I had planned to get was at a Kroger.  It should have been an easy grab, but construction prevented me from getting near it.  That is why I had two backup caches picked out.  Most of my future weekday caches will be in Germantown and Collierville.  It also looks like the rain is gone for the next week.

Defence by dameetro | GC33D2W - Nice little cache just south of Snowden Grove Park.  I've cached here twice before and think this is a really cool place.

DC - Standing Guard #7 - Speed Limit 35 by zom4live | GC3YPK2 - Easy Park and Grab, but my autorouting failed me getting in and out of the general area and I spent much more time on the road than I thought I would. 
  
Day 14:

Easy day today.

The CCC 14 by Wrath557 | GC3XY0A - guard rail, no muggles, relatively close to home.
 

31 Days of Geocaching: Days 1 - 7

I doubt I can cache every day during the month of August, but it's a stressful time for me these days, so I'll give it a shot.  Anyways, I'll use this space to document caches found in August regardless.

Day 1:

Pocket Charm by sswindle (GC31YFE) - I made a short trip to the Ornamental Metal Museum near downtown after work.  I researched the directions this time, which prevented me from missing the turn and driving to Arkansas.

Fort Pickering by Dan84CJ7  (GC4C6T7) - A pill bottle across the park from the museum.  No reason to just get one cache, even if it makes it more difficult to get 31 local caches in 31 days.

Day 2:

I tried to get a cache in North Memphis, but couldn't find it.  So I headed to get three in West Memphis.

Nurse4Life by LostandFound28 GC3Z1VQ) - nano with a tight-fitting log.

West Memphis Welcomes You by Nolang1213 (GC22765) - second time hunting was the charm.  I walked right up to it.  Another nano.

Welcome to Arkansas! by KesselRun (GC4FCWR) - keyholder at a new rest stop.  I figured this would be the easiest find of the day.

Went to Dairy Queen for dinner and headed home.  I saved at least two caches in the Marion area for another trip.

Day 3:

In the morning, I managed to break off the door handle on my car, which of course only slightly hindered accomplishing any caching.  Instead, I walked to a cache near where I work.
 
Leonarda 6  by LeonardaDaArtsi (GC34WNR) - Flashback to a time where Altoids tins were more popular.

Day 4:


I went to Collierville early in the morning to hunt three caches along the Greenbelt trail.  Found two, both ammo cans.  Muggles prevented a thorough search of the third spot, which was near good parking, so I can easily come back at some future point.  It was a damp and humid day, so after these two finds, I needed a shower.

Whodunit - In the Middle of Collierville by tiger130 (GC3PXPG) - This cache was the recepient of two travel bugs I need to move.  One I took out of a rusty cache last week, and the other one I picked up in Arizona two months ago.

Pond View by Little Peanut (GC43NAY) - Damp ground and thick bushes meant I missed checking for the cool geocoin that was supposed to be in this cache.

I noticed while logging these that I am getting an individual "souvenir" for each day I cache this month.

Day 5:

The weather forecast shows a good chance of rain for the next ten days.  Today, I go out before work (and rain) and found a quick park and grab.  Not many of those to choose from in my area that I haven't already found.

The Cornerstore by Shakybird (GC48XJY) - Walgreens, but at least I saw no cameras around.

Day 6:

I had an early morning appointment in Bartlett, TN, so I picked out two of the nearest caches I could find.  The first one was a miss, in part because the area was to damp to search.  The second took me further out of my way than I had expected, but was worth it.

She Said Yes! by SniperGuy (GC3PRDJ ) - Nice walk around a lake at a nice park.  Too humid to really enjoy, but I've been here before and I'm sure I'll be back.

[ Davies Park ]

As a side note, I tied my previous longest caching "streak" of 6 days (from back in 2005).

Day 7:

A lot of the caches I have to choose from are more than 10 miles away from home and the traffic is pretty busy before and after work.  I found a challenge cache series devoted to "streaks" and one luckily met my needs for the day.  It was also pretty close, so it made a quick morning hunt.

The CCC 7 by Wrath557  (GC3XY06) - I almost had this series on my ignore list because I don't do "streaks", but looks like I'll be back for The CCC 14 and  The CCC 30 maybe.

2013 Summer Road Trip Part I - East to West

{ I will fill this in with more details and pictures hopefully soon. ]

I just got back from my annual summer road trip to Oregon.  In terms of geocaching, it was largely a success in that I found geocaches.  My goal on this trip was to continue to fill in contiguous counties on a map from my place of origin to my destination.  I have been working on this for a few years and this trip was mostly just filling in a few gaps.  I needed to find caches in counties in Oklahoma (6), Texas (1), New Mexico (2), Utah (4) and Missouri (lots). The east to west part of the trip would take me through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon.  Most of the trip was on interstate highways.

[ My east to west route is shaded with green .]

I started out in West Tennessee on June 15 heading west.  The only cache stop I made in Arkansas was a rest stop on the west end of the state (for two caches).  Oklahoma started out well, but I was unable to get to caches near the interstate in two counties due to muggles.  I also realized about midway across the state that my GPSr lost all of my city map data.  I found out later this was due to the SD chip not staying in place, and this was a major problem I had to deal with for the whole trip.  In Oklahoma, I began to use my smartphone for caching and my GPSr for a general idea where caches were along the interstate.  I made it to east Texas (Shamrock) by the end of the day and managed to get the one county I needed to complete the route for Texas.  I also managed to lose my sunglasses in Shamrock, but the cache I lost them at was near my motel, so I recovered them to start the second morning.

I made no more stops in Texas, since I had found all of the rest stop caches and spent most of the second day in New Mexico.  My first cache find in New Mexico was at Cline's Corner where I typically eat. My second cache was in Grants, just east of where I leave I-40 to head north.  On this day, I proceeded east into Arizona where I got my first Arizona cache just across the border.  I then backtracked to Gallup and headed north.

I needed a cache in the northwest corner of New Mexico and had to deviate 10 miles of route to find one.  I'm glad it was an easy one because I was getting tired by this time.  I headed north to Cortez, Colorado to stay the night and because I got there a little before sunset, I was able to walk around town and find a couple of caches before bedtime.

I got a good night's sleep in Cortez, and in the morning learned that I had lost my sunglasses again.  I wore them driving into town, so I didn't have a clue what happened to them.  I backtracked the caches I did in Cortez the night before with no luck.  After this disappointment, I headed north into Utah, passing up lots of roadside caches along the way.

Once in Utah, I needed a cache just inside the border.  Since it was a cool morning, I got several between the border and Monticello.  My next stop was Provo.  Provo is the largest city I cached in during the trip. It was a very busy town and very hot.  I looked for a number of caches before I finally found one.  When I went to take a picture of it, I leaned that my camera was not in the case I have hanging from my belt.  Needless to say, I got back on the road and headed north to Idaho, making no more of my planned stops in two of the northern Utah counties I needed.  I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho where I stayed the night.  While organizing my stuff, I found my camera in my pants pocket.  Nice!

The last day of the trip had no planned stops.  I did get two at a rest stop east of Boise, but the last day was mostly driving.

Geocaching FUNdamentals Class - 3/2/2013

Geocacher Prontopup holds at least one geocaching fundamentals event every year at Cameron Brown park in Germantown, TN.  I usually go to see old friends and enjoy the park.  On this day, it was tough with the weather being cold with a little snow falling, but I made it to Geocaching FUNdamentals Class
by Prontopup (GC44HKB).  At first, it looked like only a few folks would make it, but more showed up as the morning progressed.  

However, we only had one new cacher attend.  Hes got to hear plenty of caching stories durning the two-hour event.  Afterwards, I headed into work to warm up.

GOWT Anniversary Event - 2/23/2013

The Geocachers of West Tennessee had an anniversary event in February - The 2013 Annual GOWT Gathering by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC44V8J) after missing one the year before.  It was a nice day, and I'm not sure why I didn't hunt ant physical caches on that day.  The event, itself, held in Mason, TN was smaller than those in the past, but there was a still a good crowd.

Selmer, TN to Bolivar, TN - 2/3/2013

I arrived back at Selmer around 1pm and headed for a Wal-Mart to load up on some supplies, including batteries.  Before going shopping, I hit two caches to the south that were part of the Selmer 45SB series by lookingUPward.

I actually found several things I needed at Wal-Mart and took my time hitting the road again.  I had decided not to hunt caches in Selmer in order to finish my goal for the day of the two power trails.  After leaving town I headed west to complete a series that started with Selmer-Bolivar 64WB 01 by lookingUPward (GC3994C).  It was much like the previous series, but there was more roadkill spotted near the cache locations.  There were 27 in this series and I found 24.  As a bonus, Selmer-Bolivar 64WB 21 by lookingUPward (GC39A96) was my 4000th find.  After finishing the trail, I headed home.  I had more time, but my pocket query had no caches west of Bolivar.

I only took a couple of pictures on this trip, as I was in a hurry.  Roadkill doesn't make for an attractive blog entry so, I am leaving them out.

Selmer, TN to Adamsville, TN - 2/3/2013

Having finally gotten my car fixed the week before, I was now ready to hit a couple of power trails.  There are actually quite a few now that are a relatively short drive from Memphis.  For this first run, I decided to visit Selmer, TN and make quick work of two east-west power trails.

On Saturday, the 2nd, I left home around 7am eager to get the job done.  I hadn't paid much attention to the weather, but after seeing more than a dozen accidents between Memphis and Arlington along the interstate, realized that this would be a good day to stay at home.  I turned around at Arlington and carefully made my way back to Memphis.

On Sunday, the 3rd, I decided to sleep in a bit and leave home around 9am.  That way, I was sure I wouldn't run into any leftover ice slicks from the day before.

This time, I took Hwy 64 out to Selmer instead of using an interstate route.  This meant risking speed traps, but I do a fairly good job of watching my speed.

I got to Selmer around 11am and decided to eat lunch at the local Hardee's before starting out.  My first find of the day (and name of the series) was Selmer-Adamsville 64-EB 01 by lookingUPward (GC38WP4).  There were 29 caches in this series, and were simple hides at signposts and bridge guard rails.  There was not much traffic to speak of and I only ran into one couple who were looking for the furniture store that is in selmer.  I found all 29 caches and 1 extra signpost cache before reaching Adamsville.  There were a few other caches along this route, but I had no cache page data on them and didn't want to risk being slowed down.  The cache containers were all film canisters and as such, some were in better shape than others.  My gel pen worked well on amy wet logs I came across.  At some point on this run, I found my 2000th Tennessee cache.

Anyway,  I turned around just before getting to Adamsville, so I didn't get to visit the grave site of Sheriff Buford Pusser of "Walking Tall" fame, but I had found a cache at that site a few years ago.  It was a quick drive back to Selmer where I needed to buy batteries before continuing on.