2019-03-03: A Packed Geocaching Road Trip from Texas to Minnesota and Back! Busy Day #2 in OK, KS, and MO.

"OK campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties because it's COOOLD out there!" (a little Groundhog Day humor there) Are you ready for day two of our road trip? The temperature is a whopping 1 DEGREE outside this morning with fresh snow on the ground! CLFM and I were up and out at sunrise ready hit the road. Well he more than I since I'm still dealing with a pinched nerve in my lower back and not much sleep because of it.

In case you missed Day One of our roadtrip, you can catch up here. We begin today still in Oklahoma. In the town of Perry to be exact. First geocache on the agenda is another one of those puzzle caches that I'm clueless about. But CLFM solved it and we make the find for "Wrestling Park" (GC73VWX). I think we were the first ones downtown this early Sunday morning and I felt kinda bad putting the first set of tire tracks through the fresh snow cover.

Now back to I-35 northbound only to exit back off a few miles up the road for a virtual cache drive-by. "Keep a Truckin" (GC4B0F) is a very unique roadside attraction and billboard for a trucking supply company. What I didn't realize until now was that I had seen this truck several times before passing through while I was a trucker myself from 2007-2010. I started geocaching back in 2006 and don't know why I never logged this virtual geocache as a find before.

Well we finally made it to Kansas! And after a stop at Walgreens to pickup some Aleve, my back is starting to feel a little better. Not much, but a little bit.

First on the list in Kansas is another quick drive-by virtual geocache at the Mulvane Historical Museum (GC66E3). We found the caboose with the required answer (which I have blocked out), snap a photo, and on to the next one.

Now one of the great things about geocaching and driving the back roads is that you never know what you might run across. This next one was NOT on our planned to-do list. We were driving down this back country road outside of Derby, Kansas on the way to grab another virtual. I spotted this metal sculpture, yard art of a bull mounted on 4-wheels, sitting atop a fence. It gave us a chuckle and I just had to make a u-turn for a photo. And wouldn't you know there was also a geocache there too (GC2RQM2). Sorry for the bad photo. This was taken through the window while CLFM was getting the cache.

So that virtual geocache we were headed to turned out to be some more yard art metal sculptures. "Jurassic Art" (GCB0CA) was probably the largest collection and best displayed yard art I've seen. Not pictured was a life size knight in shining armor with sword drawn fighting an even bigger winged dragon. But my favorite was the parade of ghost riders on Harley's!

Our next stop getting closer to Wichita, Kansas was an Earthcache at the Butler Artesian Well, a natural spring water well (GC1RY3Z). Although with the single digit temperatures and all the snow on the ground, there wasn't much to see.

Next up is a string of virtual geocaches in and around Wichita. "Hold the Anchovies" (GC85C9) is the beginning of one of the largest pizza chains in the country. This little brick building on the campus of Wichita State University is the very first Pizza Hut location.

And then there was this unique statue (GC7B63). There's no plaque or historical marker placed there to tell the story. But it goes along with what the soda counter represent. You can read the entire story at the geocaching page. In summary, on July 19, 1958 at the Dockum Drug Store sit-in was one of the first organized lunch counter sit-ins to protest segregation.

The Chisolm Trail was a trail used after the Civil War to drive cattle from Texas up to the Kansas rail yards heading east. The next virtual geocache is for a monument (GC9F39) that reminds us of the history of Wichita and those dangerous cattle drives.

And last but not least was the Lonely Steer (GCB06A). A statue of a Texas longhorn bull, just one of two original bull statues built in the 1970's. They were separated a few years back because of some construction and this one ended up out front of the high school as its mascot.

Back on the Interstate 35 northbound, we stopped at a rest area for some gas, coffee, and a cache for Chase County (GC5QCMP). Then a quick stop for a cache in Lyon County (GC28NF4).

In Topeka, this next one was another virtual geocache (GCB30E). Can't show you the photos because they give the answers. But I will describe it from the CO's perspective. He's an Iraq War Veteran. "The aircraft in question has quite the history. It does not list the accomplishments it has endured but it holds 14 world records in various areas such as longest endurance flight and highest altitude. I am a member of one of the units that used to fly one of these very dependable and durable aircraft. We now use a more advanced aircraft that has more room and greater speeds as well as being more mission capable. If you stay long enough, you may see us up flying around."

Also in Topeka was the "Gone But Not Forgotten" virtual geocache (GCG3ZN). This memorial was dedicated to those who served and gave their lives during the Vietnam War.

Our last two geocaches in Kansas were in Atchison, both virtuals, and both in the same neighborhood! One at the birthplace of Amelia Earhart (GCBA15). She was a pioneer in aviation and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She went missing trying to cross the Pacific and was never seen again.

The other house in the 'hood was the "Sallie House" (GC7B8Z7). The most haunted house in Kansas's most haunted town is none other that The Sallie House. The home earned its nickname after a 6-year-old died in the home during a failed appendicitis surgery in the early 1900's. Then it gained notoriety in the 1990's, when a couple renting the home reported harmless pranks being played on them, which eventually turned malicious and violent. After consulting a psychic, it was discovered that Sallie wasn't the only ghost haunting the home, but a middle-aged woman as well.

One more geocache today at the "Loess Is More" Earthcache (GC64KXZ) in Rock Port, Missouri. It was a long day, a long drive, freezing cold, and my back was still hurting. But we did find 18 caches for the day and saw a lot of history. We ended in Omaha, Nebraska for the night. And we start right there first thing in the morning. See you then.

2019-03-02: A Packed Geocaching Road Trip from Texas to Minnesota and Back! Busy Day #1 TX & OK

Hey Everybody! Welcome back to another of my adventures. This road trip adventure is brought to you by the company I work for. You ever have to take a business trip to corporate headquarters for a training meeting or something. The company wants to fly you in, pays for the hotel, and fly you back home. A long way to go, but you don't get to see anything.

Since I was between projects and had the free time, I asked if I could drive up and get reimbursed for the gas and hotels instead of them paying for airfare. And the answer was YES! Sounds like a road trip to me! So I start planning a route and looking up geocaches from Killeen, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I also thought it would be fun to go along with another geocacher. So I inquired of another former Floridian cacher who's now living in Austin called "CuteLittleFuzzyMonkey", or CLFM for short. We've tried caching together before but just could never get our schedules to line up. He got back to me in a couple of days and said the timing works out perfect so it was a go!

Today was the day to hit the road and CLFM drove up to Killeen from Austin to meet me at my house. We both have GeoJeeps, but I prefer to drive so we took mine. Since he's got all the caches picked out and navigating, it only makes since for him to be in the passenger seat anyway right! Plus he's officially still on the clock and has to answer work related texts and emails too. So... AwayWeGo...

Our first stop was a puzzle cache up in Dallas. Puzzle geocaches are usually not at the posted coordinates. I hate puzzles because I'm not good at solving them. Fortunately CLFM is a puzzle master and has hidden many of them himself. Plus this one was called "Infinite Monkey Theorem" (GC3BT76) so we just had to find this one! I took one look at the puzzle and had no clue. But he solved it and we found the cache.

Next up was a virtual cache. A virtual geocache has no physical container. There are requirements like answering questions or taking a selfie at the given location. This is the original Pegasus (GC7B9NE) that once rotated 450 feet high above Dallas atop the Renaissance Revival Magnolia Building. The 40' tall flying red horse rotated on the 50' tall oil derrick above the 29 story building for the offices of the Magnolia Oil Company, which later was acquired by the Mobil Oil Company, from 1934 through 1999. This original sign was packed away in storage and replaced with a new sign. Found in 2012 and restored, it was moved to it's new location and lit up once again in 2015 at this Omni Dallas Hotel location.

Our last stop in downtown Dallas was another virtual geocache at this 30' eyeball (GC7B77Z). Created by artist Tony Tasset in 2007 for a temporary display in Chicago. After time in storage and a stop in St Louis, the Joule Hotel in Dallas purchased it in 2013 to anchor its sculpture garden. It certainly is an eye catcher! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Continuing on our way north, our next stop was at the Oakland Cemetery for two geocaches in Marshall County, Oklahoma (GC57HYM, GC5NHBK).

Then over to Johnston County for another virtual geocache at a veterans memorial park (GCGDCQ). The park is dedicated to the residents of Tishomingo who gave their lives in the various wars. One of the displays included this Blue Angels fighter jet.

A quick stop at the McAlister Cemetery gave us a cache in Carter County (GC2B84E). Sadly though, it also gave me a pain in my back! OUCH!! I've picked up heavy objects, bend the knees, don't bend the knees, no problem. This is the second time I've reached for a micro cache and just send a huge pain shooting through my lower back. The first one was leaning over a guard rail and reaching in for the cache. This time I see the cache, just reach into the bush, and almost drop to my knees in pain. Not the way I want to start this road trip.

Continuing north on I-35, we stop at a rest area to use the facilities and grab a cache for Murray County, Oklahoma (GC6TRPJ). Ugh... getting in and out of the Jeep is painful. It's not bad while I'm sitting. The heated seats help.

Now it's time for another virtual geocache. You know the best thing about geocaching is that you find some of the strangest things. In Cleveland County, we found some Bug Art (GCF12E). Someone actually took this full sized VW Beetle and added some legs to make it look like a bug for a great roadside attraction.

Some quick roadside caches (GC7ZGMJ, GC1VN87) and another puzzle cache (GC5EX03). And then there's this virtual cache for the Oklahoma City Air Force Memorial (GCF69C).

And this virtual cache at the Oklahoma City Memorial (GC4772). I wish we had time to look around further but we have a long road ahead and a lot of geocaches to find. Plus my back was killing me still.

After seven more geocaches, we ended the night in Perry, Oklahoma. I thought it would finally be good to lay down and stretch my back out. Wishful thinking. My back was so  tight I could barely move. I crawled into bed but I couldn't even take my shoes off. I couldn't take my jacket off. I couldn't move at all. Eventually I did manage to get some sleep but not much. Maybe an hour or so. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

2017-11-05: A Couple of Virtual Geocaches, Some Cemetery Caches, and a Power Run

Welcome back for Day #2 of caching around Austin, Texas while my wife was busy in a work related seminar. Yeah she got stuck in a boring hotel meeting room while I got to go out exploring and Geocaching!

This first one was just a block away from her hotel but I completely forgot about it yesterday. It's called Texas Virtual Movie Cache (GC2B6C) and that's about all I can really say about it without giving away any answers. A "Virtual Geocache" is a cache that doesn't have a container and logsheet to sign. You gather information from the location and answer the questions in the cache's description. Then send the answers to the Cache Owner and log it as a find online. This one is a building and it was in a movie. If you've seen the movie, then you've seen the cache.

Also nearby was a Challenge Cache. Now a Challenge Cache is like a traditional physical cache. Usually they are pretty simple to find, like a lamp post cache, and not necessarily in a particularly cool location. Like this one for instance. Just an easy micro container in an office park. But the difficulty and/or terrain rating can be high based upon the "Challenge" to claim a find. This one is called AlphaNumeric Cache Name Challenge (GC3MH9W). The terrain rating was a "1" which means wheelchair accessible, basically anybody can retrieve it. However, the difficulty rating was a "4" out of 5. The actual container in reality was probably a 1/1.5. But the difficulty raised because of the challenge: "To successfully accomplish the AlphaNumeric Cache Name Challenge you must find and log 36 caches (on any date past or present) which have names starting with a different alphanumeric character, "A" through "Z" and "0" through "9." So not necessarily an easy task.

Next up was another Virtual Geocache (GC7F71) along with a traditional cache (GCMZXC) in a cemetery. Now because of the virtual, I can't say too much without giving out the answers. It is in an unusual location though. I think this may be the first cemetery I've been to located in a city park. I mean with a playground, walking trails, a pool and more. The one thing I did like was that they took some of the older broken headstones and placed them in concrete to keep them from further falling apart. This one below dates back to 1872. I did find a story about the place being haunted. Supposedly people have seen ghosts placing flowers on the graves. I don't know anything about that. Most of the time when I'm discussing ghost stories with someone who is making the claim, there were other "spirits" being consumed if you know what I mean. I think that's the reason they're seeing things if you ask me! 

Moving on down the road to the south, I decided to grab a few caches within a Power Run. A Power Run is a line of caches close together, most of the time easy to find but sometimes harder, designed to give you a boost in your total number of cache finds in a short amount of time. This one was called Monkey Letterbox Series (GC6FX73), hidden by a cacher who goes by the name of CuteLittleFuzzyMonkey or CLFM for short. I think all of his hides, and he has a LOT of hides, has the word Monkey in the title. So a Letterbox Cache combines Geocaching with Letterboxing. Letterboxes have a rubber stamp in them which you can use to stamp your own booklet (if you participate in that activity, which I don't). I found a quick 10 of them before moving on to more cemeteries.

Speaking of a cemetery, next up on this list was Evelyn Cemetery (GC2X05N) located in Mustang Ridge, Texas. Mustang Ridge known for ranching in the 1800's and a popular stop for herding because of small lakes in the area. Around 1900 residents began farming cotton and that took over until the Great Depression hit. Then people went back to ranching. Sadly there were only two forgotten headstones here along the road at the edge of someones property. This one standing and the other fallen over. This one looks like it could have been 1925, but I couldn't get a good look at them.

This next cemetery cache I couldn't find. At the Burch-Vance Cemetery (GC2X080), most of the headstones have been knocked over. I suspect it was neglected for a long period of time and had become overgrown. But now it is maintained on a periodically. There are 15 graves here from the Burch and Vance families ranging from 1886 through 1940. Perhaps one day, I'll make it back to this area and will find the cache.

Finally to end the day, my last cache brought me to Salem Cemetery (GC1DMVV) next to the Salem Lutheran Church. There are 345 interments there going all the way back to 1884 and still in use to this day. I like these old iron fencing that I see placed around the family sections or even just a single grave. Unfortunately I couldn't find anymore information for this area or even the church itself. 

Well that is all for today. Back to the Omni Hotel to rescue my wife from the boring training seminars! Thanks for riding along. Until next time...