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.