2015-09-07: Labor Day Weekend Geocaching in Georgia

YAY! It's a long 3-day weekend for Labor Day. That calls for a Geocaching road trip! Hmmm... where to? One of our goals is to complete our Geocaching by county map. With Florida already completed, the next closest is Georgia. So a Georgia road trip is the order of the weekend. So we pack the bags, head up I-4 to I-95 north. When we arrive in Jacksonville, we exit onto US-23 up to US-301.

Our first stop is in Folkston, GA and Charlton County. We continued up US-301 north picking up caches within each new county. Reaching Statesboro, GA, we decided to call it a day. On day #1 of this weekend road trip, we picked up 9 caches.

Yesterday started out with a few VERY creative caches put out by one cacher down the same dirt road. Even though we already had the county, there are some you can't bypass. I won't explain them, but the next few photos are the caches. A couple of them took a little detective work figuring out how to get them open and finding the log sheet in order to sign it.

We stayed on US-301 all the way up towards the SC state line in order to get a cache at the Georgia Welcome Center. This is the OLDEST welcome center still in use in the country, opening in 1962!

After the Welcome Center, we did a u-turn back south to GA-25 west. Then following some rural back roads we found another creative cache using a gator head at McKinneys Pond and Mill Creek. On the property was also this old house about to fall into the creek.

A few more caches here and there picking up new counties, we made our way over to the town of Jackson. There along Lake Jackson and the Lloyd Shoals Dam was the "Cache Across America" for Georgia. It was a nice little hike through the woods. Even the GeoDog Max got in on the action here. From there we drove down to Macon and called it a day, having found 14 more caches and more counties.

This morning waking up in Macon, it was the last day for our weekend road trip. We had some more caches and more counties in the works before arriving at home back in Florida. We followed US-80 south down to GA-26 over to US-23 south. It was a great weekend. We found a total of 32 caches for the weekend and 20 new counties for Georgia. A lot of history, some hiking, and some unusual and creative caches. 

 

2015-06-27: Road Trip Day #8 Geocaching and Hiking Tennessee and Alabama

Today is Saturday, only two more days of vacation, and we're still in Tennessee. We really don't want to go home. But...

Waking up in Hillsboro, TN, we had one more local virtual Geocache over by Arnold AFB to get before continuing southbound, then a few more caches in new counties. Then it was a cache stop in a very well known place in Lynchburg, TN. The home of the Jack Daniels Distillery and Visitors Center. While Candy and I are not much for drinkers, although the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce is pretty tasty, we opted out of the tour and just found the cache.

Next stop was Stonebridge Park located in Fayetteville, TN. Within the park is a stone bridge representative of the famous stone bridge that once spanned the Elk River. There's also this log cabin from the 1700's converted to a visitors center.

Here's another example of why we go Geocaching! This is not a public park, not a tourist area, no signs along the road pointing the way. This is private property, somebody's private residence. However, they allow an earthcache here so Geocachers can come and appreciate the beauty of this natural bridge. The history behind this area was that it used to be an unauthorized dump. There was anything from household trash to appliances and even a car dumped here.

This couple happened to notice the natural bridge among the rubble. In 1997, they bought 15 acres that included this bridge and waterfalls. Cleaned it up and began building their dream home. They have since acquired approximately 40 more acres to preserve the area.

Even further down the road is another earthcache in Gadsden, AL. Noccalula Falls is a 90 foot waterfall flowing from Black Creek.

A few caches later and it's time for a hike. And what a great hike it was! Located within the Talladaga National Forest in East Alabama, is the Cheaha State Park. Within the park and on Bald Rock is the "Cache Across America" cache. From the parking area, it was an easy hike to the viewing platform on the boardwalk. A little bit rougher, but still an easy trail to the cache site. This is the highest point in Alabama.

Our last stop for the day was the Brown Bomber. LaFayette, AL was the birthplace of Joe "The Brown Bomber" Louis, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion from 1937 to 1949. Here you'll find a statue in his honor outside the courthouse.

We ended the day in Opelika, AL. Still 400 miles to go and one more day to get there. Hopefully, we still have time to do some Geocaching tomorrow too. Stay tuned.