2015-06-26: Road Trip Day #7 Geocaching Kentucky and Tennessee

Hello again. We started out in Bowling Green, KY this morning and a few local Geocaches planned locally before hitting the road again. First up on the list was a web-cam cache at Western Kentucky University. These used to be a LOT harder to get because you had to have to coordinate your visit with somebody near a computer to take a screen shot while you're standing in view. Now with smartphones, you can do it yourself.

It was summertime and this was the only student we saw on campus.

There was another virtual on campus at a memorial plaque talking about the occupation of Bowling Green of the Confederate Army before leaving Kentucky. A few blocks away was the next earthcache at the Historic Railpark and Train Museum, formerly the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Depot. Built in 1925 replacing an older facility, the depot was made from local limestone.

One last historic virtual cache before leaving Bowling Green was the Riverview House at Hobson Grove Park. Construction began on this house in the late 1850's, halted by the Civil War, and finally completed in 1872.

Moving on down the road to Glasgow, KY was our next stop at this First Responders Memorial next to the Glasgow Fire Department.

From Glasgow heading SE on Hwy 90, we grabbed a quick cache at a cemetery and new county in a little town called Summer Shade. Then taking some back roads down to Tompkinsville, KY, we found Old Mulkey State Park. Located within this historic park is the Old Mulkey Church. The church was founded in 1773 by Philip Mulkey and the building constructed in 1804. Daniel Boone's sister, Hannah, and Revolutionary War soldiers are buried here in the graveyard.

Continuing through the backroads of Kentucky and into Tennessee, also Geocaching along the way, we come across "Odd Fellows Cemetery." Located in Baxter, TN, what's strange about this cemetery is a double headstone for Thomas J Stowers. I guess you can say he has a headstone and a footstone! Who's Thomas J Stowers you ask? Well he claims to be the sole survivor of General George Custers last stand on June 25, 1876.

After a few more standard caches and a 23 cache power trail along US-70, we finally got to do a little hiking in Walling, TN. Near the junction of the Caney Fork and Collins Rivers you'll find the Twin Falls and the down river trail. A great moderate trail along the banks of the river with some very scenic views. There were two caches here, one being down the trail. Again not a bad hike until you got to the last few hundred feet it went uphill by a water fall before finding the cache.

We ended the day in Hillsboro, TN. Our Geocaching total for the day is 38, add in some history, a hike, and spending time outdoors with a great lady makes for a fun adventurous day!

2015-05-24: Geocaching Power Run and Short Hike

Today we returned to find more of the power run caches along US-441 near YeeHaw Junction. After Geocaching 2 hours and 31 caches later, the heat had gotten to us and we called it quits with the power run. Driving down to State Road 60 turning east, we headed for Blue Cypress Lake.

There were another 12 caches along Blue Cypress Lake Rd and we found those too. The last of which was a nice little hike down a trail through the swamp. The last two caches down at the end on the lake by Middleton Fish Camp we couldn't get too because we didn't want to get wet.

We called it a day after hanging out by the lake for a few minutes and then headed back for home. Until next time...

2015-05-17: Geocaching, GeoArt, Power Run and Baseball

OK let me just make this announcement: I do NOT like baseball, I don't know much about baseball, even more so I don't know anything about the New York Yankees! Why do I start with these statements you ask? Because in order for us to find today's bunch of Geocaches, I had to spend a couple of hours researching New York Yankees trivia! 

Today we were heading south to go Geocaching along US-441 between Holopaw and YeeHaw Junction. Along 30 mile that stretch of road you'll find hundreds of caches. At the north end nearest Holopaw, is a group of puzzle caches that form the New York Yankees logo into a GeoArt design. To solve the puzzles and get the correct coordinates for the caches you have to answer trivia questions for the Yankees. 40 questions in all and 40 questions to Google and look up! Ugh!

Anyway, we drove down to start finding the caches and encountered a rain shower. We had to drive several miles through the rain to get past it. So we skipped the first 15 or so caches and started near the middle. We worked our way south getting the remaining puzzle caches.

After those we encountered those caches which we had already found the last time we were down this way. So we drove past all those until we got to my previous DNF called "Treediculous." Remember that one? I spent about 20-30 minutes up in the tree only to come away without a find? Anyway this time I was determined to find it! I climbed up again and after about 15 minutes, I found it! YAY!! That made the day!

After the tree climb, we continued south and picked up where we previously left off. About an hour later, we turned back around towards home stopping to find those few we passed earlier because of the rain. We completed our second GeoArt. 

2015-04-25: Geocaching, GeoArt, a Butterfly, Celebrities, and Friends

OK so you're probably getting tired of me saying this, but WOW what a day! A big day today so we drove up last night to Gainesville, FL and stayed in a hotel so that we wouldn't have a long drive this morning. Today we were meeting up with YankaBucs, MsYB, CoalCracker7 and Parkhoppers to go Geocaching. The goal was to complete the Butterfly GeoArt and the Celebrity power run caches.

We got an early start and conquered the Butterfly caches first and it was OUR first GeoArt ever completed! GeoArt is what you get when all the cache coordinates arrange to form a picture like such:

This was a very creative TB hotel.

Some poor dog was bagged and tossed to the side of the road.

Looks like lightening split this tree in half.

After the Butterfly, we headed over to another power run series each named after different celebrities. Plus there were a few miscellaneous caches mixed in that were nearby. The total finds for the entire day were 155! That sets a new record for us for the most caches found in one day! Plus caching with friends always makes for a fun day. This is such a great game. If you're not a Geocacher, you really should look into it at Geocaching.com.

2015-03-08: More Geocaching and Hiking in the Ocala National Forest

After the change of plans yesterday, today we got an early start and headed back up to the Ocala National Forest to finally finish up the TAFF series power run Geocaches. Twenty park and grab caches later and the series completed, it was time to stretch our legs and go for a hike.

So we drove up SR-19 a few miles, turning west onto Forest Road 595 and headed over to Farles Prairie Recreation Area. Setting out from the trail head to the east side of the lake, the was a series of caches that went all the way up to Forest Road 599. However it looks as though there was a very recent controlled burn in the area. Of the 24 caches along this trail, we found 13 caches in tact, 5 caches partially melted, and the remaining 6 were completely burnt up with very little remains if any all.

We also found several tree stumps and areas still smoldering and even some flames. Getting to the end we turned around and backtracked to the car. It was about 6-7 miles of hiking round trip.

Of course we also ended the day at Beef O'Brady's in Umatilla.

2015-02-07: Geocaching Power Trail in the Ocala National Forest

Today we took another drive up to the Ocala National Forest. This is practically a never ending place to go caching because before you can find them all, they get archived and replaced with new caches due to several events held up here throughout the year. We don't have the opportunity to spend much time up here, so we don't come even close to getting them all!

Anyway, today was a day for the quick (hopefully! some can be challenging) power run along the roadside. Not a day for photo opps, just some park and grabs. But we did manage to find 35 more caches in about 2 hours time up here.

And as usual when leaving the ONF, we stopped at Beef O'Brady's in Umatilla to eat. Not a whole lot of choices in Umatilla anyway.

See ya next time...

2015-01-03: Geocaching with Friends in the Ocala National Forest

It's always fun to go Geocaching with a group of friends and yesterday (Jan 3rd) was one of those days. We met up with YankaBucs, MsYB, HorseshoeChamp, Geoturtlelover, and ItchyFeet2Wander in the Ocala National Forrest to find the TAFF and Breaking Bad series of caches. It was a fun fast day in the ONF and we managed to find 65 caches before Candy and I called it a day and headed home. Didn't take a whole lot of pictures except for this creative cache container and a couple of deer and bear tracks.
Today (Jan 4th) Candy and I drove back up to the ONF again to find some more of the TAFF series of caches along with a few others mixed in along the way. We added 42 caches to the found column today.

2015-01-01: Geocaching a Power Run and a FTF

Today was a day for some easy Geocaching finds to boost my finds total. There was a power run down near Bartow that I had started a couple years ago, but never finished. Today would be a good day for that.

On the way down however, we stopped in South Clermont near the Four Corners area to grab a few new caches that had recently been placed. There were four along CR474 and we managed to be First To Find on one and Second on the other three. Yippee! It's always fun to get the FTF!

After that, we continued towards Bartow. We ended up with 28 caches for the day, a FTF, a nice drive enjoying the fresh air, but only one photo... this pretty cool moth on a tree:

2014-10-26: A Power Run, A Tree Climb, and a Lakeside Stroll

Today's Geocaching adventure takes us south of Orlando and down into Osceola County. Last year another Geocacher decided to hide caches along US441 from Holopaw all the way down and beyond Yeehaw Junction. For 40 miles and about every 520'-600' there's a cache hidden. This is whats called a power run. Not much in the way of exciting or fun caches, but definitely a way of increasing your find count.

We started out a little bit late in the morning and we took Candy's granddaughter along with us. Well the only sightseeing down that way is the occasional group of cows or a floating butterfly. She was having fun for probably the first half. But after 41 quick park & grab caches, someone was way past bored by now.

There was one unique cache mixed in with the rest called Treediculous. It was rated a Difficulty of 5 and a Terrain of 4.5 on a scale of 1-5. All I know was that I get to pretend I'm a kid again and climb a tree! Yippee! I guess I climbed up about 20 ft and looked all over for a well hidden micro cache. I spent about 30-40 minutes up there looking under moss, among the leaves, different branches, but could not find it. While it drove me crazy, I still had fun. Having a DNF just means I get to climb it again the next time I'm down here!

Even though there were hundreds of caches left for us to find, we called it a day and drove back north up into St Cloud. We then stopped at Chisholm Park on the SE banks of the East Lake Tohopekaliga. There we enjoyed some of the more natural aspects of the lake with the large oaks and various wildlife.

The last stop before heading home was the recently renovated Lakefront Park located at the southernmost part of East Lake Tohopekaliga. We strolled the paved walking trails, took some photos, and the granddaughter got to play on the playground. It was a nice end to a beautiful day!