2016-01-10: Geocaching Around Lubbock Texas

Because it was so cold yesterday, today we decided to stay local and do some urban Geocaching around Lubbock. Our first stop was to see the Buddy Holly Center and Museum. It was closed this early, but we did get to see the giant glasses (a virtual cache GC6E04) and the memorial statue (GC640VA). Buddy Holly's hometown was Lubbock, Texas and they certainly pay tribute to him.

Not too far away over at the Eastlawn Memorial Gardens, is another virtual Geocache (GCC1AB) at Buddy Holley's gravesite next to his parents. There'a another Geocache here (GC1KJJV) highlighting the supposedly haunted aspect of this cemetery. This cemetery is one of the largest in Texas with over 60,000 graves and was established back in 1892.

Also while in the cemetery and with all the snow on the trees, Candy couldn't help it but to go over to one of the trees and shake all the snow off the branches! By selecting one of the taller branches, that also meant it comes down on her head too.

Exiting the backside of the cemetery brought us out to the Canyon Lakes Park. Within the city limits of Lubbock is the Yellow House Canyon, a narrow and shallow channel. The city created a series of small dams that created a series of narrow lakes. And Canyon Lakes Park was created. There's also a series of eight Geocaches around the lake as well. And of course we can't just leave them without looking first!

From there, we drove over to the campus of Texas Tech. Since it was Christmas Break, there weren't many students still here which made Geocaching a little easier. Though most of the ones we looked for, we could not find. We did see some very nice statues.

So that was it for today. We did learn a lot about the local history. Now time to go back to the apartment and thaw out again.

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. 

 

2015-06-06: 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...