Mid-South Fairgrounds - 8/14/2011

It was a beautiful Sunday and I had some time to kill before having to be somewhere. I knew there were four new caches on the property of the old Mid-South Fairgrounds I could get. Since that area is not far from where I run in the evenings, I had originally planned to hunt them one afternoon after work. One of the caches, though, was at the Children's Museum of Memphis. I knew they closed at 5pm, so I decided that if I went today, I could get all four caches.

I entered the Fairgrounds from the north entrance. I drove to the site of the new Kroc Center, where Mid-South Fair Grounds: Future by Nvisible (GC30PQK) was hidden, but the presence of a parked car near the hide spot forced me to move on.

The first cache I would end up getting was Mid-South Fair Grounds: Present by Nvisible (GC30PBZ). It was near a new fountain that is part of that area's transformation into "Tiger Lane". The area was mostly empty on this day, but it seemed like wherever I went, there was one car parked within sight of me. I hadn't seen "Tiger Lane" before, so I took a few pictures. It is basically a tailgating area for University of Memphis football games.

[ Nice clean fountain ]

Next, I went after Mid-South Fair Grounds: Past by Nvisible (GC30J50). It was in an area that once was home to Libertyland, a theme park at the southwest end of the fairgrounds. I drove around the area looking for close parking, but ended up having to walk a few hundred feet. The cache, itself, was easily found. I thought the camouflage was exceptional, though.

[ The Mid-South Coliseum as seen from where I parked ]

[ This area once held a big roller coaster called the "Revolution"]

I headed back north to Mid-South Fair Grounds: Future by Nvisible (GC30PQK) and saw that the guy parked in the lot was still there, although he had moved a bit. He was parked about 50 yards north of the cache. I got out of my car and took a few pictures of the Kroc Center construction site across from the cache and noticed that I could grab the cache without being spotted.

[ Is this what they mean by building "green"? ]

As I left the fairgrounds, I decided to check and see if the nearby Children's Museum of Memphis was open. There was a fairly new cache on the grounds and I figured I'd make a sweep. It turns out that it was open and while busy, the crowds were sparse enough so that I had no problem getting to SPARK an imagination by LMuseW (GC30HQ6) and singing the log. 4 for 4, I called it a day and headed home.

[ Interesting music playing outside of the building ]