2015-12-06: Just How Many Cemeteries Can One Visit in a Single Day?

Today was cemetery day! Well not really, but it sure seemed like it. We decided to go north today up to San Augustine. Candy is from St. Augustine, FL, so we wanted to see what the sister city in Texas was like. And pick up a new county.

Driving up US-96 on this cool Sunday morning, we turned west on Hwy 255 in Brookeland. Our first Geocaching stop was a Travel Bug Hotel (GC5PX6D) near a church. We had three TB's with us, so now they've checked into a hotel to be carried along by the next cacher.

A couple more caches later and we drove over by the dam to get a good view of Lake Sam Rayburn.

After enjoying the scenic views, we drove back over to US-96 northbound and into San Augustine. It looked like a nice little town, established way back in 1832 with land owned by Thomas S. McFarland. The town was named after Presidio de San Agustin de Ahumada.

The first cache (GC2TK08) in San Augustine for us was the grave site for Rev Samuel A. Williams. Born in Tennessee in 1804, he became a Methodist minister in Tennessee, Alabama, and eventually East Texas in 1938. He died in 1866 and was buried at his home in San Augustine.

The first cemetery cache for the day was the Lewis Family Cemetery (GC2TK08). Located just outside the city limits, this sad, neglected cemetery has just a few headstones visible.

Back into civilization and in the town center was our next cache (GC2TJX3) and a step back into history. This once barbershop still has some of the old sinks and shoe shine chairs left in place. According to the cache owner, it was one of the last old time barbershops in the county before it closed.

Cemetery #2: The San Augustine City Cemetery (GCNNVG) with interments dating back to the 1830's.

Not related to Geocaching, but as you wander about going from cache to cache you still see some interesting things. Like this structure which appears to be some sort of water wheel that may have powered some sort of mill equipment. Not too sure. It was just next to a house down some back road. 

Also in town was this old church building. There was a cache located at the nearby Methodist church, but I thought this smaller one actually had more character. I think the Methodist church as a congregation was older, but the building was newer. This Episcopal church was built in 1869.

Cemetery #3: Liberty Hill Memorial Garden (GC341P2) (GC341PD)

Cemetery #4: Liberty Hill Cemetery (GC341NP)

Cemetery #5: Fischer Cemetery (GC341NT)

Cemetery #6: Horton Cemetery (GCPF63)

Cemetery #7: Mt Zion Church Cemetery (GCPF6W)

Another cache (GCJ130) brought us to some history which we didn't really get a chance to explore because it was closed. It took us to the site of Mission Delores which dates back to the very early 1700's. They had some short trails which snaked through the Piney Woods a little bit which was a nice stroll.

We then drive over for another cache by the boat ramp at City Lake. It was a nice scenic and relaxing view, so we just hung out for a while before continuing on.

Cemetery #8: Roberts Cemetery (GCRRZA), though we had to DNF this one.

Cemetery #9: Parker Cemetery (GCPF6X)

Cemetery #10: Chinquapin Cemetery (GCNNW7), began with the Loggins family in 1839.

Next cache (GCRVNZ) was a roadside memorial for the 7 Columbia Crew members. On February 1, 2003 as the space shuttle was reentering the earth's atmosphere, it broke apart and all 7 of the crew were lost over the piney woods of East Texas. Near this site, a mission patch was found. A small makeshift memorial consisting of a bed of white rocks with 7 American flags were placed on the shoulder of the highway.

Cemetery #11 Dickerson Cemetery (GCNNWH)

Overall we visited 11 cemeteries and found a total of 28 caches, learned some history, and saw some great sites in a lovely old town. Where to next?

2015-12-05: A Forestry Museum, Cemeteries, Train Trestles and More Geocaching!

FINALLY! After two weeks in a Beaumont hotel, we finally moved into an apartment up in Jasper, Texas! Now we can finally unpack the cars, cook meals, and have some room to move around! That also puts us about an hour north and more opportunities to grab caches in new Texas counties.

The downside however is that the nearest Starbucks is either back down in Beaumont or almost an hour to the north west up in Lufkin! And it has been a rare occasion for Candy to go without her daily Starbucks. Having to work all week, Saturday and Sundays are not only gonna be Geocaching days, but a run to a Starbucks day too!

So this morning we took US-69 north and headed for Lufkin! After arriving in Lufkin and getting our Starbucks and breakfast at Cracker Barrel, I looked for caches in and around the town and saw a virtual cache. And we always try to get the virtual caches. This one was at the Forestry Museum. My first thought was that it would be a quick "find the answer and go" museum. But as it turned out it was rather interesting! We spent close to an hour there inside and outside looking at all the displays and learning about the industry. We also took 55 photos! But we won't bore you with that many. Just three pics: one inside and one each of Candy and I on the old train engine. A cool place if you're ever in the area and it's also FREE to enter and browse around.

Another quick cemetery cache there in Lufkin and we headed back down US-69 to pick up some more geocaches along the way. The next stop was an old train trestle bridge. It was last found in December of 2013, with 3 DNF's in 2014 and nothing since then. I wanted to keep this piece of the past from going unnoticed. It's these locations that keep most of us Geocachers playing the game. I mean why else would anyone go down here. If we were not cachers, we wouldn't have stopped in this town. Just in case, I grabbed a couple of replacement caches depending on what we found (or didn't find) in order to keep this one active.

So we parked the car on the edge of a community park where the once laid railroad tracks passed through. We walked into the woods on the overgrown trail about 1/4 mile to the bridge. Looking all over the top and down below, I found only a tether attached to one of the pylons. If that was the cache, I can understand why it was missing. Looking at all possible locations, I decided it best to place a magnetic micro cache on one of the metal brackets that is reachable from the top, but only viewable from the bottom to make it more difficult to get muggled.

The only downside was that the container was white on a dark brown and black trestle. It stuck out like a sore thumb to any kid or person out there who may spot it. But I left it there in place. When we got back this evening, I looked up one of the local cachers to see if they go out there to: 1) make the find for themselves and 2) bring some brown spray paint to better hide the container. Which they agreed they would do so.

Another stop in Huntington was a cemetery cache. The geocache coordinates took us into the woods next to the cemetery a ways and we looked unsuccessfully for about 10-15 minutes. There was also some recent clearing and some new barbed wire put up between the woods and cemetery. So the best guess was that the property owner found and removed the cache. Oh well, you do have to DNF one at times.

The next cache down the road was a historical marker for the ghost town of Jonesville, TX located in Angelina County. Jonesville was the second of Angelina County’s four county seats, sandwiched between Marion and Angelina (aka Homer). It served in this capacity from 1854-1858. Jonesville never grew and in its short reign as county seat the people never got around to building a courthouse. County offices were rented. The 1858 election that made Angelina the county seat spelled the end of Jonesville. Ballots were said to have been burned and the resulting vote was recorded as 221 to Angelina while Jonesville got a mere 130. Jonesville residents fought with an opposing group from Angelina and some 40-50 people were indicted for the fracas. After the election Jonesville started into a decline from which it never recovered.

Continuing further south on US-69 and entering into the town of Zavalla, we found another cache at another old train trestle. Two train bridges in one day! This one right along side the highway and easier to get to. But still a nice piece of forgotten history.

A few more geocaches around the east of Zavalla through some rough forest roads towards the Sam Rayburn Lake. Sometimes I drive our GeoPrius places that it just wasn't meant for it to go. That's why Candy bought me a license plate for the front that says: "My Owner Thinks I'm A Jeep." It would be an adventure if I kept it on the pavement!

That's it for today. I hope you are enjoying my blog of our Geocaching adventures. Feel free to share it with your friends.

2015-11-29: Picking Up New Texas Counties, Viewing Murals, and a Hanging Tree

Hello again and welcome back! Today's Geocaching goal was to pick up some new Texas counties and we wanted to see another side of Texas landscaping. So from Beaumont, we headed west on I-10 to US-59 southbound.

The first stop was near a historical marker for the town of Kendleton which reads: "The site on which Kendleton now stands was originally a Mexican Land Grant to settler Elizabeth Powell, whose house was an early-day stage stop. During the Texas revolution, in 1836, Santa Anna's Mexican army camped near here. Later the settlements of Oak Hill and Humbolt existed briefly. Kendleton began during the Civil War reconstruction when Wm. E. Kendall sold land, for as little as 50 cents an acre, to assist freed negroes in starting their own farms. The rural village was named in his honor when the railroad came through in 1884."

A few more geocaches along the way and we soon pulled into the town of Wharton, TX. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Wharton was one of those town that had painted huge murals on the sides of their buildings. Here is a small sampling of those murals. One dedicated to the towns doctors, another of the different churches, and the last just some decorative artwork.

One of the towns geocaches was across the street from and brought our attention a TRUE tree frog. Literally! This frog statue located in a residents front yard, was the result of a skilled chainsaw sculptor.

Continuing south on US-59 and a couple more caches later, we came across another historical marker cache. "Here, in the 1890's, the celebrated Texas Cattleman A. H. "Shanghai" Pierce (1834-1900) platted the townsite of Pierce. "Shanghai" had hopes of it becoming the county seat. In 1894 he had 160 acres surveyed to become the Pierce Townsite. He built and named the streets, laid out a public square, courthouse square, academy square and a cemetery ground. A church was built and a two-story grocery store. He then decided to build a grand hotel, which would accommodate cattle buyers, traveling salesmen, etc. The spectacular structure, with open porches on two sides of both the first and second floors, would be a convenient stopover between Victoria and Houston. It was a three-story, 22-room mansion built in Steamboat Gothic style. The widow's walk on top provided a panoramic view of the whole countryside.The town of Pierce did not develop as "Shanghai" hoped it would. The magnificent hotel saw few, if any, overnight guests. Over the years the building gradually deteriorated and was demolished in 1980. The New England styled widow's walk and some of the railings have been restored on the original site."

A few more caches later, we eventually had to turn north on Hwy 111 up to US-77 north to loop back around heading towards Beaumont. In the little town of Hallettsville, we stopped to pick up a virtual cache. At the site of this old oak tree is a historical marker that reads: "Old Hanging Tree. Gallows used Sept. 12, 1879, at public hanging of 'Pocket', an Indian, killer of Englishman Leonard Hyde."

We ended the day with 19 geocaches and several new Texas counties. We also learned a lot of history and saw some great artwork. Overall another great adventure.

2015-11-28: Geocaching Through History and the TX/LA Gulf Coast

For today's Geocaching adventure, we drove down to the most south east point along the Texas and Louisiana state lines. There were a couple of virtual geocaches we wanted to find. So we headed on out down US-69 towards our destination.

Upon arriving in Port Arthur, we saw an IHOP and decided to stop for some breakfast. As we were seated at our table, I opened the Geocaching app on my phone to see what was around.  Lo and behold there was a cache just 127 feet from our table! Right there in the parking lot! So of course that was our first cache find for the day.

After leaving IHOP, we drove on down to Sabine Pass Battleground State Park. This site is where Lt. Richard (Dick) Dowling and a single company of Confederate artillerymen stood their ground and defeated a Federal naval force that attempted to land troops here to begin the invasion of Texas. Though ordered to spike their cannons and abandon their posts by their commanders, Dowling and the mostly Irish cannoneers forced the surrender of the entire Federal force being quite surprised to be defeated by such a small group of determined men.

We walked around the park looking at all the monuments, statues, and plaques learning about the history of what had happened here those many years ago.  We gathered the information we needed to claim a find on the virtual cache as well as finding two other traditional caches there.

There was another virtual cache far down at the tip of Sabine Pass, but the road going down to it was full of pot holes. Some of those pot holes were pretty deep and I just wasn't comfortable trying to maneuver the GeoPrius all the way down. I managed to get within one mile, but decided not to go further. We'll have to return another day when we feel like walking down there.

But on the way down and back we saw many oil rig platforms along the Sabine Pass Channel, I assume being repaired for maintenance. These things are huge! Something else we Floridians don't ever get to see are these tall chimneys at the oil refineries with flames burning at the top. These are pretty cool to see at night too! We also caught sight of a huge oil tanker ship headed back out to sea. I assume that with the direction it was headed and riding high on the water, that it had already unloaded it cargo of crude oil. 

We then drove back north to Port Arthur picking up Hwy 82 to cross over the Channel over to the other side. Eventually crossing over into Louisiana, we continued to stay on Gulf Beach Highway until we got right along side the Gulf Coast. There we stopped and took a walk along the beach and gathered the required information to claim a find for an earthcache.

This was also a good chance to let our GeoDog Max out for a walk. Though I get the impression he wasn't too impressed with the whole idea. He has the expression on his face as if he was saying: "There's no trees, no bushes, no fire hydrants... it's just a giant litter box for cats! What am I supposed to do here?"

Starting to head north now to pick up I-10 and head back to Beaumont, we picked up a few more Geocaches along the way. But the mosquitoes were ferocious! We even passed up a hike here at the Creole Nature Trail because of them.  

It was another fun filled day with history, nature, seeing where oil and gasoline is made, and just spending time together. Where are we going tomorrow? Not sure. You'll just have to come back and see.

2015-11-26: Geocaching to China and Back!

So today I went Geocaching to China and back! OK, so it's actually China, TX. Also, it is Thanksgiving Day, but with Candy having to work today and all the family back in Florida... what else is there to do but go Geocaching!

From SW Beaumont, I headed west on some rural roads through the countryside. It was a nice drive and picking up Geocaches here and there. I found 26 caches before even reaching China. Nothing significant about the caches themselves, but I did see some interesting sites. Including this barn and ranch gate.

Traveling west along US-90, you'll come across China, TX. I found a total of 4 caches in this town. One was on the old fire truck by the base of the water tower. Another was a nicely hidden cache at the Boy Scouts building on the totem pole. The Boy Scouts have a big part in Geocaching as they also have a Merit Badge for Geocaching. So this scout troop has hidden a cache on this totem pole. Can you spot it?

It was a good day. Although it would have been much better if I got to share it with Candy also. Thanks for stopping by and reading about today's adventure. See you back again tomorrow.