2016-10-01/02: Road Trip to Florida; Cowboys Stadium, Cemetery, History, and Duck Dynasty

ROAD TRIP! On today's blog I'll be covering a two day road trip from West Texas to Florida. We hit the road early on the Saturday morning of October 1st. Having 1430 miles to drive in 2 days, add in fuel and food stops, and of course some Geocaching too, we've got a lot of driving ahead of us!

After leaving Monahans around 6:00 AM, a couple of hours later, we pulled into a McDonald's in Sweetwater for some McMuffins. And of course there just happened to be a Geocache (GC38PN6) there too so we had to find it as well. Within a few minutes, we were on the road again. Finally in Abeline we spot a Starbucks near the I-20 exit so we grabbed a couple coffees and another quick Geocache (GCWC1E).

Those first two Geocaches were unplanned and just happened to be nearby when making other stops. Hey, you can't NOT look for them when you're so close right?

But we did have some caches planned. When we got into Ft Worth, TX, we merged over onto I-30 eastbound and into Arlington. There we stopped for our first scheduled virtual Geocache (GC90F2). It was a beautiful statue of three horses surrounded by water fountains at this shopping center. We got the required info needed to claim the find and a few photos with GeoDog Max.

On our way to the next planned virtual cache, we passed by the Dallas Cowboys Stadium as well as the Texas Rangers Field. Well we just had to get a photo there too and grab the cache (GC15RDP) across the street!

Around the corner about a block away was a nice park and another planned virtual cache stop (GC7029). From there we got a good view of Cowboys Stadium. There were also these large Caelum Moor Stones around the park and a multi-stage Geocache (GC30RJB), from which after gathering information from the stones, we were able to find the final stage. The five freestanding granite sculptures weighing a total of 540 tons will enhance the environmental landscape along Johnson Creek in Arlington’s Entertainment District.

The stone monuments range in height from 8 to 30 feet. The Latin name “Caelum” is derived from a constellation in the southern skies known as the sculptor’s tool or chisel. “Moor” refers to the windswept landscapes of Scotland. The celtic names of each of the five groupings reflect the ancestry of the sculptor’s patron. Caelum Moor was commissioned in 1984 by Jane Mathes Kelton, CEO of the Kelton Mathes Development Corporation and heir of the Scottish-American television magnate, Curtis Mathes. According to the sculptor, Kelton wanted the artwork to serve as a centerpiece for a proposed business park development along I-20, reminiscent of the ancient sites of Scotland and England and reflecting of her family’s heritage. From 1986 to 1997, Caelum Moor was located at the headwaters of Johnson Creek along Interstate 20. In 1997, the sculpture was donated to the City and stored to make way for commercial development. Caelum Moor was once listed on the Smithsonian Institution’s National Registry of Art in Public Places. They were relocated to this park in 2009.

Our main reason for stopping here was to get Tombstone (GC62), a multi-cache and the oldest Geocache in Texas! Hidden on September 26, 2000, this cache also fills another empty spot on my Jasmer calendar. It's had over 1500 finds since then. It's placed in Doug Russell Park and is three stages. The last two stages are near the location of the Berachah Home and Cemetery. We walked over to the first stage easy, got the info we needed for the final north coordinates. Then we walked over to stage two and got the needed info for the final west coordinates. That's where my problem began. After frustratingly searching for 30 minutes (Candy and GeoDog Max had long been back to the car with the a/c on) for the supposedly easy final stage, I finally decided to recheck my coordinates. Well the north coordinates didn't save correctly in my phone and therefore I was searching in the wrong place! Once I put the correct coordinates in and began searching the correct location, I found it within minutes. YAY!!

The Berachah Rescue Society was organized at Waco in 1894 by the Rev. J. T. Upchurch for the protection of homeless girls and unwed mothers. Nine years later he opened the Berachah Industrial Home at this site. Ten buildings were located here including a print shop for publication of the "Purity Journal." The cemetery which contains more than eighty graves, was first used in 1904 for the burial of Eunice Williams, one of the residents. The home closed in 1935, but the site was used until 1942 as an orphanage run by Upchurch's daughter Allie Mae and her husband Frank Wiese. Most of the graves here are marked without names or dates. Many more just have a first name and year died.

Finally back to I-20 heading east. We spent a couple of hours in the Arlington area and now we have to make up some time. So no more stops until we needed another gas stop in East Texas. And of course while the gas is pumping I checked my phone and there was a cache there too (GC4EE5P). A quick find and back on the road. It was soon getting dark and we drove over halfway into Louisiana.

As it turned out the hotel we stayed in was located in West Monroe, LA. And just around the corner was the Duck Commander Headquarters! The location of the Duck Dynasty TV show is filmed here. So before heading down the highway, we had to stop by for a few photos.

We didn't stop much on Sunday because we still had over 760 miles to go. But we stop just before the Mississippi River at Grant's Canal for another virtual Geocache (GCGDM2). During the summer of 1862, the Union's first attempt to bypass the Confederate Army at Vicksburg by digging a canal across DeSoto Peninsula failed. By January 1863, the Union had reoccupied the Louisiana shore opposite Vicksburg. Gen Ulysses S. Grant ordered work on the canal resumed. The canal was to be 60 feet wide, 1 1/2 miles long, and deep enough to float any vessel on the river. Ground was broken on January 30, black work gangs assisted by fatigue details from the Union Army began to work. Later, steam pumps and dredge boats were employed. To stop the work, the Confederates placed several big guns on the shore opposite the canal's exit but the work progressed. On March 7, the upper dam gave way, flooding the entire peninsula. Grant's Canal had failed. After gathering the information we needed to qualify for the cache find, we continued eastbound.

After about 3 1/2 hours later on US-98 in South Mississippi, it was time for a break to stretch our legs a bit. I looked up some caches ahead of us and found a cemetery just off the road with three caches (GC445DQ, GC445DV, GC445DP). 

There was a gas and food stop along the way, but nothing to write about. We arrived in St Augustine, FL about 9:30 PM. A long day of driving. Sleep was soon thereafter!

2016-02-13: More Geocaching in Cemeteries Learning History and Route 66 Through Texas

Welcome back. Today was a little bit of everything. Our Geocaching goal was to pickup a few new counties and visit some classic Americana along Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas.

Our first cache (GC5NEFN) was another ghost town cemetery in Hale County. The Running Water Cemetery dates back to the late 1800's. Running Water Draw was near the headquarters of the Morrison ranch, established in 1881 as the first ranch in the county. Later the land became part of CC Slaughter's extensive holdings. Settlers bought railroad lands in the area, and in 1890, a post office called Wadsworth was established. For promotional reasons the name was changed to Running Water in 1891. That year a school was built. The railroad bypassed Running Water, which was near this cemetery, and in 1928 the community's businesses were moved three miles north to Edmonson Switch on the rail line. In 1935 the Running Water post office was moved to Edmonson Switch and two years later was renamed Edmonson. The old site of the Running Water community was abandoned.

The next cache was a quick stop by the Hart Cemetery (GC5TKDM).

Then we arrived in the town of Dimmitt for a full-sized time capsule. Mr. Kerr was a man of principal and the proprietor of Kerr Hardware (GCP930). The Texas Limited Sales, Excise and Use Tax Act was enacted by the 57th Legislature and became effective on September 1, 1961. Mr. Kerr got upset because the State of Texas had the audacity to require him to charge a sales tax. Needless to say, Mr. Kerr said he would "lock the doors" before he did this. The local legend goes that Mr. Kerr refused to charge the citizens sales tax and walked out and never came back. You will see brand new bicycles, tricycles, radios, fishing baskets, old wringer washing machines, riding toy tractors, appliances, on and on. Take a peek in the windows, everything is exactly how Mr. Kerr had left it over 50 years ago! I think I'd like to buy this place, clean everything up, and just keep it on display. 

Also in town was The Olde Hotel, built in 1929 and had 30 upstairs rooms and two restrooms. The hotel ceased operation in 1977 and was converted to apartments in 1980. The upstairs still houses six apartment rooms and four bed/breakfast rooms. The first floor has been home to Antiques Plus since 2002.

The Ozark Trail Obelisk was constructed in the 1920's and was originally in the middle of the highway intersection and marked the distance to other towns along the trail. On another corner of the courthouse lawn is one of the many Quanah Parker Arrows that mark the Quanah Trail throughout the Texas Plains.

A few more caches later and we came to the St. Mary Cemetery (GC4VHW6) cache. German Catholics settled the north side of Umbarger and Swiss Catholics to the south side of town in the early 1900's.

Heading on up to Amarillo on the south side of town, we come to our first virtual cache (GCH59D). A strange site to say the least. According to the historical marker:

In 1819 while on their horseback trek over the great plains of New Spain, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft (author of "Frankenstein"), came across these ruins. Here Shelley penned these immortal lines:

 OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveler from an antique land who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert, near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that its sculpture well those passions read, which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away." (1819) 

In reality: Inspired by a similar set of big legs in the Egyptian desert, Stanley Marsh 3 (who commissioned the nearby Cadillac Ranch) paid a guy named Lightnin' McDuff to build the legs.

Speaking of Cadillac Ranch (GCG71X), that was the next stop of our day. I once paid a visit here to this Route 66 roadside attraction back in 2009 while I was a truck driver. At that time, I was the only one out here. With the exception of a couple dozen cows grazing about. Back then the cars were also covered with graffiti. Today is a little different. Candy had never seen this before. There is also a traditional cache here too (GC4K7Y3).

But sadly there were no cows anywhere in sight. There where about 25-30 people in the stages of coming, going, and painting. But the worse part was that there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of spray paint cans littering the field. Even with the 3 large dumpsters back by the fence and parking area for those who must leave their mark, there are still those disrespectful people who could care less and just toss their empty cans on the ground. Reading through some of the Geocaching logs though, some cachers bring bags out here to pick up some of the cans as they make the finds. If we ever come back out here, we'll definitely be prepared with extra bags.

One a good note, as we were leaving the area getting back to I-40, a few blocks away was the Amarillo West RV Park which re-created its own "Cadillac Ranch" without the graffiti, restored Cadillacs, and a giant cowboy statue. A better photo indeed!

And you can't visit Amarillo without a stop by the Big Texan restaurant complex. There's also a Travel Bug Hotel here as well (GC30FGP), though I was disappointed when I found it. The previous one here I found back in 2009 was listed as a LARGE cache and was a 10 gallon plastic storage container. A fitting Texas sized cache. That one was archived and this new one put in place. Still listed as a "large" size cache, this one wasn't much bigger than a sandwich size Tupperware.

A few blocks down was the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum next to the AQH Headquarters. There wasn't a cache here, but several life size horse & rider statues as well as this unique wall of running horses.

Getting late in the day and we still had a 2 hour drive home. But there were two more virtual caches in the downtown area I wanted to get. The first (GCGXBZ) was at this park that had a 1-ton granite globe that was supposed to float on the water. But the water from underneath was turned off so you couldn't spin the globe. The second photo below was an old train locomotive (GCGBMY) built in 1930 and traveled 1,750,000 miles before retiring in Nov. 1953. 

What a hodgepodge of things seen today! From 100 year old cemeteries, historically preserved hardware store, roadside oddities and attractions, to old trains. We sure like this hobby!