As a warm-up, I picked up three caches in Whitehaven before leaving Memphis. Read between the signs by jamey1 (GC2BQP0) was across the street from what used to be the Whitehaven Public Library.
[ Whitehaven Public Library ]Since I was at the Whitehaven Plaza shopping center, I decided to drive around and see if any of the stores I remembered were still there. It turned out to be mostly empty and boarded up.
[ Whitehaven Plaza - this building was last a Dillard's and before that Shainberg's ]Im loving it by jamey1 (GC2BQP5) was behind a nearby McDonald's.
My third find was the social network by F Tom (itcomagic) (GC2DHVK). I had solved the puzzle for this one the day before. It was in a nice area and I relaxed a bit here. Afterwards, I thought about exploring the neighborhood (where my grandparents had lived, and I had covered extensively by bike as a kid), but I was kind of depressed by how much it had changed. Maybe next time.
The trip to the RiverPark was uneventful. Traffic was light and the day was great. I got to the park entrance around 9:30am and found my first cache: Welcome to Tunica RiverPark! by Tunica RiverPark (GC2FC3P). As I was about to leave, a man pulled up in a truck, got out and waked over to the sign and asked if I was a geocacher. He then asked if I had found the cache. I said, "Yes", took a picture at the sign and moved on.
I continued on into the park and parked in a nearly-empty lot and set out on the hunt. I found all of the caches along the ecotrail (to the south) and came back to hunt the ones around the parking area. The eco-trail was 1.9 miles long and parts were paved, parts were boardwalk, and parts were dirt. I spent some time watching boats out on the river and spotted deer in the woods. The last cache I found near the museum was on the dock for the Tunica Queen - a paddle boat.
[ heading south to the ecotrail ]
[ turning east and into the woods ]
[ the boardwalk ]
[ the other side (east) of the boardwalk ]
[ one of the three deer I saw ]
[ the Tunica Queen ]I think I was in the park for maybe 2.5 hours. Sunday mornings are a great time to visit this park if you enjoy peace and quiet. I didn't attempt to go in the museum itself because - there were no caches in there!
Once I had left the park, my main goal was to find a place to eat lunch. I stopped at a tiny KFC and had some chicken before hitting the road again. I wished I had done some research on restaurants, so I could have picked a better place.
After lunch, I continued north on Hwy 61 into Southaven where I found The Dollar Jar by krosnit (GC27X86) in back of a Dollar General store on the western end of town. Normally, I would have cut over to I-55 at this point and headed back into Memphis, but today was such a nice day, I decided on another course of action.
Coming north on Hwy 61 into Memphis, I made a last minute decision to go after Weaver Park by dguyusnavy (GC2A0PJ). Weaver Park is in a neighborhood I lived in 40 years ago. In fact, I passed within 1000 feet or so of my old house while on my way to the park. Of course, the area is so different now, there is no way I could have recognized my neighborhood. I found the park just to the west of Mitchell High School (which appears to be fairly new). Since it was early afternoon, I figured I'd have to deal with muggles. The only kids around were practicing with band equipment and I'm pretty sure they weren't paying much attention to me.
With 16 caches found, I decided to head on in to work. It ended up a pretty good day with no DNFs and few muggles.
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