2015-06-21: Road Trip Day #2 Geocaching in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio

So this morning after breakfast and finding a Starbucks, we found a few more caches around Cleveland, TN before hitting the highway. A couple more quick caches along I-75 to complete the county, we arrived in Knoxville.

While this next cache I had already found years earlier while I was a truck driver, I thought it was cool enough to show Candy. It was located at the Asbury Cemetery on the SE side of Knoxville. The huge headstone is for A. J. Pete Kreis. If you've ever watched the Indianapolis 500 race, they usually play a few scenes from the long history of the Indy 500 and usually a clip showing an old race hitting the wall, flipping over the wall, and bursting into flames. The 34 year old driver was killed in that tragic accident. His huge headstone is a replica of the famous race track and has his car at the spot where he lost his life.

Crossing over into Kentucky and another cemetery cache by this statue of Jesus and a woman who appears to be the Samaritan woman at the well discussing the "living water." The cemetery is the Whitley Memorial Gardens just north of Williamsburg, KY.

Another stop for a new county cache, we encountered a short hike to this tree which after falling over against another decided to change directions. Can you spot the cache in the photo?

A couple of stop, grab a new county cache and go's later, we came upon this historic virtual cache. Located in Richmond, KY, the White Hall State Historic Site was first built in the late 1700's with a major addition constructed in the 1860's. 

The next stop of interest along our route today was this aluminum teepee. Don't know why it was built or the purpose it now serves, but interesting to say the least. The things you see while Geocaching!

Well day #2 is over and we just crossed the border into Ohio and our hotel for the night just north of Cincinnati. We ended the day with 25 geocaches and many new counties on our map. Time for some much needed rest after a great day!

2015-06-20: Road Trip Day#1 Geocaching Georgia and Tennessee

YIPPEE! It's Vacation Time!! Time for another week long road trip! This year the destination is Mackinaw Island, Michigan. We left Orlando last night after work driving I-75 all the way to Valdosta, Georgia where we stayed the night.

This morning after breakfast, we continued up I-75 and stopped in Macon to start Geocaching. Macon, GA is in Bibb County which we needed to complete our Geocaching county map. While we're traveling, I try to find caches of interest in a county instead of just getting the first one we come across. This allows us to do some sightseeing too. A quick way to figure out caches of interest is to look for virtual caches. Macon had a LOT of virtual caches too!

The first was this statue on a bench of Jesse Mercer, the Baptist founder of Mercer University.

Not too far from there was the Rose Park Labyrinth. They say labyrinths are a way of finding yourself through meditation as you follow the path to the center. I don't know about. I have a GPS.

Next stop was the Holt House, built in 1853 by Judge Asa Holt. It's more commonly known as the cannon ball house because it was hit with a cannon ball during the civil war.

Then we went over to Gateway Park to find this statue of Otis Reading. It was a pretty cool place with benches facing the statue and speakers in the ground playing music.

From there we took a nice stroll along the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail along the Ocmulgee River front. It was a lot of fun! But by now it was getting just past noon and we were not getting very far. So we skipped the rest and jumped back on I-75 northbound.

We picked up a few more caches in new counties on the way up to this historical Confederate Cemetery located in Jonesboro, GA. There are several hundred unknown soldiers here.

The next historical site and virtual Geocache is located in Calhoun, GA. This Cherokee Indian Memorial was erected in honor of the Cherokee Nation in 1931 on the site of New Echota, the last Capital of the Cherokee Indians east of the Mississippi River. At the time, it was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as an independent community and was the only group of American Indians to adopt a Republican form of government based on a written constitution.

Crossing over into Tennessee, another historical virtual cache is another Confederate Cemetery. Less than a mile off of I-75 in Chattanooga, TN, an almost forgotten cemetery with many unknown soldiers buried.

Our next stop heading north was in Cleveland, TN. On October 18, 1871, Dr. Gideon Blackburn Thompson was taking his 7 year old granddaughter for a buggy ride when the horse got out of control and took the buggy into the path of a train. The Dr was thrown from the buggy and survived. However the little girl Nina had died. The entire town was saddened by the news and many came to the funeral. The girls father was a devout Episcopalian and because Cleveland Episcopalian's did not have a church building, he vowed to build one in Nina'a honor. Three years later the church was completed and dedicated on the anniversary of Nina's death. Not long after he had the mausoleum constructed behind the church and her body was laid to rest inside, which you see below.

By now it's getting late in the afternoon. We had dinner and found a hotel for the night. What a busy day! We ended with 20 virtual caches, 7 traditionals, and 1 web cam cache for a total of 28. We saw and learned a lot of history. What's in store for tomorrow? Come back and see.

2015-06-14: Another Weekend Road Trip to South Carolina

This weekend was another road trip up to South Carolina to pickup Candy's grandson at "South of the Border", to spend the summer with us. But we also had a couple of other activities yesterday to attend to before leaving which made for a busy weekend.

Heading out early yesterday morning over to Melbourne Beach, FL, Candy had an appointment there. While she was at her appointment, I decided to go Geocaching (of course) down this trail a few blocks south. Maritime Hammock was about a three mile loop trail and I managed to find two caches there.

After the hike, it was back to pickup Candy and quickly drive back to Orlando. There was the Geocaching event at the Greek Flame Taverna of which I was the host to attend to. However with this last minute trip up to South Carolina, we weren't going to able to stay long. I also made arrangements with cacher friends QQnonrev to be there for the start just in case we were late getting over from Melbourne Beach. Which was the case. We arrived late, greeted everyone, a quick lunch, and we were out the door early too heading northbound.

I knew it was going to be tight on time, however when making these trips you just have to make an occasional stop to break up the time. Plus now that we're trying to complete our Geocaching counties map, there were several along the way to get.

Our first stop was at the same exit for both Liberty and Mcintosh Counties. One stop, two caches and two counties! One more county stop in Georgia and another in South Carolina, we continued up to Dillion, SC and checked into the hotel for the night.

This morning Candy and I drove up to the next exit, at the famous "South of the Border" Mexican themed tourist trap on the border of North and South Carolina's. We managed to find two geocaches there before her grandson showed up with his father at the rendezvous location.

Heading south now back to Orlando, we stopped two more times in South Carolina to find ordinary caches in two new counties. The next stop however was a bit more interesting! A virtual Geocache called Area 51-SC, located in Bowman, SC. Not sure of the story behind this place, but it on the side of this house and I think the owner just went crazy with his utility shed building a UFO Welcome Center! The things you find while Geocaching!

On the way to another cache to pickup a new county, we were driving down this rural road and passed by this house with some really cool metal fabricated yard art. We just had to stop and take some pictures!

Another weekend and another road trip behind us. I guess this was a practice run for our summer vacation which begins next week. I hope you'll join us.

2015-06-06: From Weir-dos to Hiking to Climbing Trees

Today was a mix of a little bit of everything. Taking Candy's granddaughter along with us, we started out in the Dr. Phillips area having lunch at The Greek Flame restaurant. I have hidden a Geocache there on their patio and just recently someone stole the contents out of it. And next week I'm hosting another Geocaching event there.

After lunch we drove down the street by the library to grab an Earthcache about Weir Dams. Behind the library and along Dr. Phillips Rd are several Weir Dams one after another that help to slow the flow of water. We strolled along side getting the answers we needed for the cache, took some pictures, and headed back to the car.

We then headed down to St Cloud and further south on Canoe Creek Rd. The next cache was a short hike in Parker Hammocks, the Prairie Lakes Unit of the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area.

From there we continued on Canoe Creek Rd over to US-441 south towards YeeHaw Junction. We found several more of those Puzzle / Challenge caches along the roadside and a few more traditional caches. Two of which were my favorite tree climbing caches! Makes me feel like a kid again.

I hope you are enjoying our adventures. Feel free to leave your comments. We'd love to hear from you. Until next time...

2015-05-31: Weekend Road Trip to the Appalachian Trail

This weekend my 18 year old son began his adventure, hiking the Appalachian Trail. So he needed someone to drop him off. Candy and I volunteered. We left Orlando early yesterday morning, stopping by Winter Garden to pick him up. It was a long drive up I-75 to North Georgia.

We didn't have a time frame to get there last night. He wasn't starting his hike until this morning. So on the way up, we stopped for 9 Geocaches. Several of which were in new counties.

We arrived up in the area around 4pm yesterday and I knew the roads may be rough getting up the mountain to the trail head. Having some time to kill, we decided to go and check to see if the Prius could make it up there. There are several different access roads and we chose the one from the southeast, the Nimblewill Gap Rd. For the most part, it wasn't too bad. It was pretty winding, gravel and rock, a few rough spots and bottomed out a little bit. But doable. We didn't go all the way up to the parking area, having maybe a mile left. But in the forest it was getting dark quickly and I wanted to get off the mountain before then.
So this morning, we got up, checked out of the hotel, and made our way back up the mountain. Well that last mile wasn't anything like what we already went through! We bottomed out pretty bad and I thought I was going to get stuck. We couldn't go any further. So I backed up, turned around and we had to drive an hour around the southern part over to the Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge. From there we took the access road up to the parking area. It was still rough going, but not as bad as the other side.

So from the parking area, you actually have to hike back south for about a mile to get to the actual start of the Appalachian Trail. So we hiked with him, took some pictures, and hiked back to the parking area. We would have liked to hike further with him, but with all the trouble getting up here, it was already noon and we had a long drive back to Florida. So we hugged, said our goodbyes, and wished him well.

Then we drove home non-stop except for food and gas.