2021-08-11: Visiting Montana, Little Bighorn Battlefield, and Custer's Last Stand

Welcome back friends, RV'ers, Geocachers, Jeepers, and fellow travelers. When we last left you, we had just arrived to our next RV park in Bridger, Montana. The last time I was this far up in the northwest was way back in 2008 as a truck driver. While driving a big rig you don't get to see too much except out the windshield. This time we have the GeoJeep to get around and do some sightseeing. Today we start out at the historical Little Big Horn and Custer's Last Stand. So click and follow along as we tour these sacred grounds...

The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Park (GC6F9E) covers an area of about 765 acres. It consists of the Battle of Little Bighorn that took place on June 25th & 26th, 1876 where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Calvary fell against the combined Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho force. It also includes the Custer National Cemetery and the battlefield site of the Reno-Benteen skirmish, about 3 miles southeast, with the Cheyenne-Arapaho warriors.

Following the fall of Custer and the 7th Calvary, the 11th Infantry led by Captain George K Sanderson buried Custer and his men on the battlefield where they fell. He also constructed the first monument on the site. From his official report dated April 7th, 1879 he wrote:

    "I accordingly built a mound out of cord wood filled in the center with all the horse bones I could find on the field. In the center of the mound I dug a grave and interred all the human bones that could be found, in all, parts of four or five different bodies. This grave was then built up with wood for four feet above ground. The mound is ten feet square and about eleven feet high; is built on the highest point immediately in rear of where Gen'l Custer's body was found."

In July of 1881, Lieutenant Charles F Roe and the 2nd Calvary built the granite memorial which still stands today on top of Last Stand Hill. About 220 soldiers remains were reinterred around the base of the new memorial, but left the markers in place where they had fallen.

In 1890, the stakes which marked where the soldiers had fallen were replaced with the marble markers you see today. Starting in 1999, the first of many red granite markers for the Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho Warriors were set in place where they fell.

To make it easier to spot for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit each year, Custer's marker was given a black background. Custer's remains had been reinterred to West Point long ago back in 1877, as well as many of the other officers remains were moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas or cemeteries across the country as requested by their families.

Custer National Cemetery was first designated as a U.S. National Cemetery on January 29, 1979 to protect the soldiers graves buried there. In December of 1886 it was re-designated as the National Cemetery of Custer's Battlefield Reservation to include soldiers graves of other wars. Eventually the name was shortened to Custer National Cemetery. Buried soldiers of the 7th Calvary, whos remains were discovered on the battlefield after the 1881 memorial was built, were reinterred here and listed as unknown.

The remains from 25 other cemeteries were transferred to here when frontier forts closed at the end of the Indian Wars. The fallen from many famous battles, Fetterman, Wagon Box, Hayfield, Big Hole and Bear Paw, now rest here.

Until reaching capacity in 1978, this cemetery accepted reservations for veterans and their spouses. There are soldiers here who fought in the Indian Wars, Spanish American War, World Wars I & II, Korea, and Vietnam.

There's a great book written by James Donovan that I highly recommend. "A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn: The Last Great Battle of the American West" is a great book put together from survivor accounts, official reports, and battlefield evidence. We listen to a lot of audio books while traveling down the road and this was one of our favorites. After listening to the Park Ranger give a summarized play-by-play of the battle, the welcome center recommended this book. We listened to it over the next couple of days as we drove around Montana.

After our visit to the battlefield site, we decided to go out geocaching and pickup some new Montana counties. The first one was also in Big Horn County in the town of Hardin. It was a travel bug hotel cache (GC4F5XD) located near the office to an RV park.

On the way to our next geocache, we crossed over into Yellowstone County. Along the side of Highway 47 was this old farmhouse that I just had to pull over and get a photo.

The geocache (GCKNZ4) was near a boat access ramp along the Big Horn River at I-94 and Highway 47. The geocache is called Manual Lisa. A little history lesson from the cache description:

    "Manual Lisa was a Cuban native. He lived 1772-1820. He was called Nebr, first white settler. He came up the Missouri in 1807 to start a fur trading venture. He built the 1st Fort Lisa on the Big Horn River. This fort was also called Manual Fort or Fort Manual. Unfortunately, he had to abandon the fort due to pressure from the British and the Indians. He was married to Mary Hampstead Keeney of St. Louis and they traveled between St. Louis and the Bighorn. She assisted the Yellowstone Expedition which had established its headquarters near the Lisa Trading Post. Manual Lisa saw himself as an Indian benefactor not an exploiter. He wrote to William Clark in 1817 (three years before he died) that he had distributed various seeds to help the Indians grow things. Some of these seeds were pumpkins, beans, turnips, and potatoes. He also loaned them traps and arranged for black smithing as needed.

    "There is a stone in this area (unfortunately they are on private land) where he carved his name M. Lisa-1807 and another stone with Colter 1810. They are somewhere around the mouth of the Bighorn. The Bighorn and the Yellowstone rivers flow together in this area. There are pictures of these stones at the cafe/casino in Custer, Mt. The pictures were taken in 1920 and you can clearly see the names. The Chamber of Commerce in Hardin, Mt. is trying to put more information together on historical sites in this area."

Well I didn't get to see the 200 year old names carved in the stone. But I did get a good view of the Big Horn River and an old bridge around the corner.

Going east on I-94, we cross over into Treasure County. Just off the Hysham exit is the Memorial Vale Cemetery and our next geocache (GC51TNW). There was a caretaker out there installing a new headstone. After watching for a few minutes, he didn't seem to care much about our activity. So I jumped out of the GeoJeep real quick, found the cache, signed to log, and went on our way.

 

And finally, the last geocache was further down I-94 into Rosebud County. Just a quick earthcache at a highway rest area (GC1GCXE). Now on back to the motorhome to end the day. Thanks for riding along. 

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course by clicking the "Follow" button to the right. And there's also my main website at AwayWeGo.US for the complete index of my traveling adventures going back to 2005. But also by using one or more of your favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Twitter, GETTR, Instagram, and TruthSocial. These all link directly to my profiles. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2021-03-03: Roadtrip! Our First Day of a 4000+ Mile Road Trip from Texas to Louisiana

WOHOO!! Time for another road trip!! After four months in southeast Texas, we laid the groundwork on this project and turned it over to the remaining crews. So where's the next big project? Well the next big project is just across the state back in West Texas. 

But first, I gotta make a quick overnight stop in Florida for my father's funeral. Then we head back up to Maiden Creek, North Carolina for two weeks worth of work putting the finishing touches on a project we started last year. And for an adventure we're gonna take the long way back to Texas. I mean what's the excitement of just driving the quickest interstate highway to your destination right? So a 500 mile roadtrip turns into a 4,000 mile roadtrip!

Day #1 of this road trip and my first goal is just getting out of Texas to get a jump on putting miles in the rear view mirrors. Our first stop was at a virtual geocache and an earthcache (GCCF25, GC7VW68) in Dequincy, Louisiana.

In 1897, the Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railroad laid track through the town of DeQuincy and the first depot was built on this site. In the early 1920's KCS began rebuilding or remodeling many of its stations along the line in Western Louisiana. This building was completely rebuild in 1923 and eventually turned into a museum in the 1970's.

Located trackside of the DeQuincy Railroad Museum is a 1913 Steam Locomotive and a 1947 Pullman passenger car. While we were checking out the outdoor displays, a modern day Kansas City Southern freight train whistled past.

Our first new geocaching county to check off the list was up next for Allen Parish. We stopped in the town of Oakdale and the Calcasieu River Dam (GC81VQW). After taking a few photos I began looking unsuccessfully for the geocache. Previous finders said that it was buried, something they're not supposed to be. It has since been archived.

Still needing a geocache for the county, or Parish as they are called in Louisiana, I made a stop for a quick roadside cache (GC8XN4V) as we continued eastbound.

The next county on the list was Evangeline Parish. Near the town of Bayou Chicot is the Vandenburg Cemetery and my next geocache (GCW780). A well maintained cemetery with over 800 interments here, the oldest dating back to 1818. It's too bad that I don't have more time to look around here.

Did you know there is a difference between a cemetery and a graveyard? I mean everybody, including myself, usually just calls them cemeteries. But traditionally a graveyard is a cemetery that's attached to a church. Just like my next geocache...

The White's Chapel United Methodist Church (GC3730Q) was built in 1894 by Hugh and Lee Evans on land donated by Wilson A. O'Quin Sr. It was named in honor of Rev. Frederick White who organized it in 1870. There are less than 300 interments buried here with the oldest dating back to 1877, a SGT Leon Joseph Campbell.

While it was great to visit an old historic church and graveyard, I wasn't able to find the geocache. And not wanting to get too far behind in miles, I skip the next few geocaches and drive quickly beyond Baton Rouge. Though that also meant skipping a few needed counties too. That just a reason for another road trip!

When normally passing through down I-10 east-west, most people take the I-12 shortcut between Baton Rouge and Slidell. Since I still wanted to get those lower counties, I went south into Ascension Parish and the town of Prairieville. The Prairieville Cemetery (GC35J5A) is scattered with old growth oak trees which makes for a beautiful setting and a little spooky too. The cemetery has over 3000 interments dating back to 1812.

Moving right along, the next geocache is just a quick roadside park and grab at an I-10 exit for a find in St. James Parish (GC50YRT). While here we ran into another geocacher named SWAseekers, who was also on a county caching run in Southern Louisiana.

Next in St. John the Baptist Parish, I met up with SWAseekers once again for a quick parking lot geocache (GC8BC9X).

Since we didn't want to get into New Orleans during the busy evening hours, we decided to call it a day. Plus it was already after 5:00 PM and we were hungry and tired. Tomorrow morning we'll visit New Orleans while it is less crowded. Thanks for riding along and we'll see you again soon!

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course by clicking the "Follow" button to the right. But also by using one or more of your favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Parlor, Twitter, RVillage, GETTR, Instagram, and TruthSocial. These all link directly to my profiles. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2020-07-04: Day 2 of Our Roadtrip Through the Smoky Mountains and Finding Fugitive Crash Site and Smallest Post Office

Welcome back friends, Jeepers, Geocachers, RVers, and Adventurers. On this Day 2 of our long weekend roadtrip geocaching through the Smoky Mountains, we got to see the beauty of the mountains while discovering some other sites of interest as well. Such as the bus and train crash scene from the movie "The Fugitive" and the smallest post office in the country. But not to get ahead of myself. So climb aboard the GeoJeep and lets go exploring.

Leaving Morganton, I drove back north towards the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our first stop was just a simple LPC (Light Post Cache)(GCV6EB). It made for a quick stop and credit for Mitchell County. Now usually you'll find just a pill bottle with the logsheet inside under these skirts. But this was a first time for me seeing that the entire skirt was used as the geocache container.

A few miles later over in Yancy County, I made another quick park and grab geocache stop to claim a find in that county (GC18PVC). Continuing on US-19 over into Madison County, we made a stop at the Mars Hill Recreation Park for one more quick geocache (GC5CWVV).

The next one on the list is just another of the many reasons I like Geocaching. In Jackson County, specifically in the town of Dillsboro along the banks of the Tuckasegee River, there's a geocache hidden up above the Fugitive Train Wreck (GC3F9ZA). In the 1993 movie "The Fugitive," starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, included a wreck involving a train and a prison bus. 

This wreck was staged near Dillsboro on a rail siding in the GSMR maintenance yard, between the working rail tracks and Haywood Road, the rail cars and bus remain in the same location today. Year round you can get a good view of the Illinois Dept of Corrections transport bus. But as you can see from our photos, the train is a bit hard to see with all the summertime foliage.

We even drove around to the other side of the river to get a different view, but not much better. The best view of the wreckage would be to take a ride on the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad which runs on the tracks right along side of it.

Driving west on US-64 to Clay County, the most western North Carolina county we needed to complete our map, we target the nearest geocache "The Legend of the Fairy Cross" (GC3GX90). This section of US-64 runs alongside Buck Creek. We exit the highway closer to the geocache onto the parallel National Forest Road, which looks like it might have been the Old US-64.

There was a small pull-off area to get to Buck Creek, so I decided to stop for a moment for some photos. I like these old roads enclosed by bushes and trees. After a few minutes of enjoying the sounds of the creek and taking some photos, we drove up a little further and turned onto Buck Creek Road.

For all my geocaching friends I thought I'd post a rare photo of my GeoJeep. Usually I'll post just the hood logo in front of something or have the tracking code blurred out like in the pic above. I'm only gonna leave this here a week, maybe longer, so log your "Discovered It" soon. I don't normally allow virtual discoveries so please don't copy this photo to your social media sites. And please include the location of where I'm parked in your discovered log. Thanks.

50ATJ9

Now back to the geocache. According to the description on the cache page: "this general area has a great history of minerals and mining. We are aware of at least 4 abandoned mines nearby. One of the minerals unique to the area is staurolite crystals, also known as fairy crosses because of their unique shape.

"Two thousand years ago, so the Cherokee legend of Fairy Crosses begins, the "Yunwi Tsunsdi," or Little People, lived in the beautiful mountains of what is now North Georgia and Western North Carolina. Shy and elusive creatures, the Little People were revered throughout the Cherokee Nation for their ability to find people lost in the thickly forested mountains of the region.

"One evening, while the Little People were enjoying an enchanted celebration of dance, music and song, a foreign messenger arrived bearing the sad news of the Crucifixion of the Son of the Great Creator. So moved were the Little People upon hearing the news of the loss of one so great, that they were moved to tears. As their tears fell to the ground, they turned into Fairy Crosses, where they can be found to this day."

Well I don't know anything about the little people or fairy crosses, but I did find the geocache down by the creek. I looked along the banks a few minutes for some minerals or cool rocks, but I didn't see anything special. Didn't want to spend too much time there though.

Finally rounding the corner and headed back to the east towards the campground, we followed US-64 into Highlands and Cashiers. Once in Highlands, I started taking the rural backroads to my next stop. It was there we found the Smallest U.S. Post Office in the country, at just 6 feet by 6.5 feet.

Originally built in 1878 about a mile away on Whiteside Road next to a grist mill at Sliding Rock, our next stop below. It remained there for 69 years and its first postmasters were Thomas and Elizabeth Grimshawe. In 1911 the Grimshawes sold their property to Warren and Lena Alexander who acted as the postmasters for 36 years. In 1947 they sold their property and the post office was moved near its current location once owned by the Alexander's daughter. Mae Alexander Passmore was postmaster for the final 6 years until President Dwight Eisenhower closed all third class post offices in 1953.

It was then moved and used as a ticket office and post card stand until returning here in 1976. Falling into disrepair and still getting the occasional tourist visitor, in 1999 neighbors decided to restore the post office and move it off the road a little bit and provide safe parking. From the photos displayed inside, the front area where I'm sitting was the customer area and the back half for mail and storage. Currently hanging on the back wall is the last flag which flew over the post office from the 1950's.

Driving a mile up the road we get to Sliding Rock. Actually a waterfall flowing over a large smooth rock, it turns a creek into a natural waterpark. A popular place in the summer time to cool off as you can see. There was a geocache on the short trail leading from the parking area to the rock but I couldn't find it. (The cache has since been archived as many others could not find it as well.)

And finally, one last quick roadside geocache (GC3C0B0) in Transylvania County to complete my final 100 North Carolina counties Geocaching map!

That was it for Day #2 of our long holiday weekend. On Day #3, Candy wasn't feeling well and we drove nonstop back to the campground at Lake Norman. I hope you have enjoyed this roadtrip through the Smoky Mountains. And perhaps found something I've written about to add to your bucket list of places to visit. See you back real soon.

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course. But also by using you favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Parlor, Twitter, RVillage, GETTR and Instagram. These all link directly to my profile. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2020-04-19: Geocaching Florida From Fort White to Cedar Key to Find a Closed Island, a Ghost Town, and an Old House

Hello everyone! So after our quick couple of weeks at the Georgia project, we're back in our home state of Florida to start a new project in Fort White! We arrived mid-week and check into the River Run Campground. After working the remainder of the week, we had the first weekend off so it was time to go exploring and geocaching along the rural backroads of Florida. So hop on in the GeoJeep and let's go see what we can find...

First on the list for Saturday was driving on up to Discount Tire in Lake City. After two years and 100,000 miles on the GeoJeep, it was time to finally upgrade to some new tires and wheels. Because we do drive it a LOT, I didn't want to go too big and loose the 16-18 MPG. But I did want something that looked a little more off-road than the originals. I like it! What do you think?

On Sunday, we decided to take a drive on over to the Gulf Coast at Cedar Key. What a great way to spend a spring day but on a beach in Florida, Right? NOT! We drove all the way down here only to find that the island is closed off to non-residents because of the virus. Well so much for that plan. We head back towards Fort White grabbing geocaches along the way starting with two quick roadside caches on Hwy 24 on the way to Cedar Key (GC1AHDY, GC6FJWA).

Approaching Chiefland, we grabbed a roadside geocache on CR345 (GC4YP47). Then in Chiefland, we passed by Barnhill Landscape and they had a landscape display which I just had to stop and get some pics of. This one especially was my favorite of an old school bus crossing a rickety bridge. I give you two versions; the black and white photo below and the color photo from a different angle at the top of the blog post.

The next stop was for a geocache at the ghost town and Levyville Cemetery (GC44F5N). The history of Levyville is short. The Levy County seat for only a few years in the mid-1800's. The town slowly disappeared after losing its position to Bronson in 1870, and was virtually non-existent by the early 1900's. The railroad could "make or break" a town, and bypassing Levyville definitely broke it. There was a brief Civil War skirmish fought in the area as well. The "new" courthouse, built in 1867, which became redundant when Bronson became the county seat, was sold to the newly-formed Masonic Lodge #51 in 1870, and eventually moved to Chiefland. All that remains of this historic town are two cemeteries. This one has nearly 60 interments with the oldest belonging to Levi Wright who died in 1858.

Then there was "This Old House" (GC3HAY9) located in Bell, Florida. I couldn't find anything out about this house or when it was built. It does kinda remind me of the Jed Clampett house before he moved to Beverly Hills.

And finally, an Earthcache at the Suwannee River (GC679MY). This is what natural Florida looks like. The water level was a little high at this time. This is just one of the many public boat ramps to access this 246 mile long river which flows from south Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

That's it for today. Not a very big roadtrip, but a nice drive nonetheless. Until next time, see you back here soon...

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course. But also by using you favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Parlor, Twitter, and Instagram. These all link directly to my profile. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2020-03-29: Roadtrip Day 3: Driving Through Mississippi and Alabama on the way to Georgia

Welcome back to day #3 of our east coast roadtrip from Texas to Georgia. For today we travelled through Mississippi and Alabama. We gotta long day ahead with a lot of stops, history, cemeteries, counties, and geocaches. So let's get rolling... 

After checking out of the hotel and grabbing breakfast, we found a quick geocache (GC30XDE) right next door to start the day with a Leflore County find. The next three geocaches were quick roadside caches for Carroll County (GC4GX44, GCQ0DW). The last one (GC11P5Y) was down by this creek where supposedly a family of bobcats were living. I even brought my good camera with the zoom lens just in case, but didn't see anything.

Still traveling eastbound on US-82, we stopped at the Old Middleton Cemetery (GC5J1PN) for a Montgomery County geocache find. The Middleton Cemetery was established in 1833 and has 126 interments with the last being in 1910. Then the cemetery was abandoned and went unmaintained for nearly a century. Finally there was an interest in the cemetery once again and most of the headstones were found broken and scattered. In 1992, the Winona Lion's Club cleaned up the 2 1/2 acres, reassembled the broken pieces, and arranged them together as a memorial.

More quick roadside geocaches to pick up some new counties in Mississippi: Webster County (GC7BW83), Choctaw County (GC7BW7J, GC7BW7B), Oktibbeha County (GC3WMG1), Clay County (GC48PN6, GC2DQQ2, GC3D99T), and Lowndes County (GC3CG7V, GC7ER16).

Continuing east on US-82 and crossing over into Alabama, our next stop was the Funderburk Family Cemetery (GC1X277). Located along US-82 on the west side of a tiny community of Coal Fire in Pickens County. Originally called Fundee, it was the combination of two settling families; the Funderburks and the DeLoaches. The name was eventually changed to Coal Fire or sometimes called Cold Fire after a local creek. A post office was established in 1871 but closed in 1927. This small family cemetery was downhill closer to where US-82 is today. When the widening of the highway to 4-lanes began, the state moved the thirteen graves further up the hill into the woods as you can see from the photo below. The graves date from 1850 to 1898.

Guardian of the Cache

One more quick geocache on the other side of the Coal Fire Community (GCVMR1) and we continued down the road.

The next three geocaches were in the Corinth Church Cemetery in Tuscaloosa County (GC333MN, GC4AR5A, GC4AR4T). I found two of them but had to DNF on one. This cemetery has over 600 interments dating back to 1860. The one that caught my eye though was this more recent black headstone with the mural on it.

Our next stop was near downtown Tuscaloosa, Alabama at the site of the State Capital Ruins for a virtual cache (GC7B7T6). In 1825, the Alabama State Senate agreed to move the capitol from Cahaba to the thriving town of Tuscaloosa. The building was completed in 1829 and had this beautiful copper dome that could be seen by all the passing vessels down the Warrior River below. The building was fashioned in the Greek Revival, and the Federal styles of Washington D.C. and Thomas Jefferson. The building was used as the capitol until 1846.

It was at this time that the state capitol was moved to Montgomery, down where more commerce was being conducted along the Alabama River with the majority of the states population. Tuscaloosa lost over half its population after the capitol was moved. The building was then given to The University of Alabama who seldom used it so they leased it to the Baptist Convention who established the Alabama Central Female College. In 1923 it burned down and was suspect to faulty wiring as the cause.

On the parameter of the square now known as Capital Park, sites a few historical buildings. This first one is the Old Tavern. Built in 1827 three blocks east on Broad Street, it was also a stage stop and inn frequently used by political leaders while Tuscaloosa was still the state capital. It was moved here to Capital Park in 1966.

When Alabama became a state in 1819, Tuscaloosa also was incorporated as a town. The following year in 1820, the McGuire-Strickland House was built. The house stands to this day as the oldest wooden framed home in Tuscaloosa. Originally located at the corner of Greensboro Avenue and 15th Street, this home was built for the county’s first probate judge, Moses McGuire. The home later served as the manse or preacher’s home for the First Presbyterian Church from 1844 to 1866. The house was bought by the Strickland family in 1866 and remained in the family for over a century until 1969 when it was given to the newly formed Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society. Around 1970 the home was moved from its original location to Capitol Park where it is currently used as part of the Capitol School.

On the southeast side of Tuscaloosa is the Veterans Memorial Park and our next geocache (GC8BFBG). Some of the displays here include the Vought A-7E Corsair II, a 5 inch / 25 caliber "Dual Purpose" secondary artillery gun from the U.S.S. Tuscaloosa, a M60A3 TTS Medium Tank, and a Bell UH-1 Iroquis (Huey) Helicopter. This memorial was built on the site of the Northington General Hospital, a U.S. Army hospital operating here during World War II.

But of course my favorite was the Willys Jeep decked out in Air Force colors. Here's my GeoJeep TB with Uncle Willy.

Leaving Tuscaloosa and getting back down US-82, our next stop was a quick parking lot find at a Walmart in Bibb County (GC1K0NY).

And finally, our last geocache of the day was an old virtual cache called Just Plain Spooky (GCB13A) located in Autauga County. All the locals who live in Prattville are aware of this display, but visitors do not know about. Mr. Rice started this display in 1987 and added more to his collection year round, until he passed away in 2003. He wanted to 'spread the word'. His collection has been documented in a book that they have at local bookstores around Prattville and Montgomery. The photo I took is just a small section of what is probably four times the length of the display.

Well that's another 300 miles behind us, another 23 caches and almost 12 hours later. Time to stretch out and relax a bit. And tomorrow we'll start all over again! See ya back here real soon...

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course. But also by using you favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Parlor, Twitter, and Instagram. These all link directly to my profile. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2020-02-23: Jeeping along the James River Road in Mason County Texas

Welcome back friends. Today's adventure is a little bit different than most of my others. There were no geocaches to be found today. I had first seen this video about a year ago of some Jeeps driving through and across the James River and it looked pretty cool. I had forgotten about it until recently. Realizing that we'll probably be leaving Texas for the east coast soon, I looked it up again to try and figure our exactly where it was to drive the trail ourselves. So hop on in the GeoJeep and let's ride some backroads, gravel roads, dirt roads and some water crossings down the James River Road.

The James River flows from the James River Spring, 4½ miles southeast of the ghost town of Noxville in southeastern Kimble County and runs northeast for 36½ miles to its mouth on the Llano River, six miles south of Mason in Mason County. In 1860, Wiles Joy and Lafe McDonald became the first White settlers on the James River. Sometime in the early 1900's the Noxville post office moved to the James River from the Little Devils River.

The James River Road closely parallels the river along the north half but then eventually splits off and separates as it goes south. But not before it crisscrosses over a couple of times. That's where it gets fun for the high clearance off highway vehicle owners who don't mind getting a bit dirty!

And the more rain you get, the more mud there is to play in!

So from the town of Mason, take US-87 south for a short way before turning south on 1723. After a few miles make another right onto 2389. Follow it down until you pass the Llano River, then look for the James River Road turnoff on the right shortly thereafter. Most of the drive is like any other dirt/gravel road, but there are some low water crossings and scenic spots too.

On this day that we drove through here, along with the water crossings, there were also some dry swales too which was kinda odd. But it just added to the various scenes and types of terrain.

Seeing these mini caves and erosion holes in the swale walls above, I thought they'd be some great hiding spots for a geocache. This would test the geocacher to see who's brave enough to reach inside and grab the container.

After an hour or so, we finally arrived at the major crossing of the James River. I've crossed some small creeks before, but none this wide. From inside the Jeep, crossing the river was pretty cool. Once on the other side, I dropped Candy off and drove back across. I wanted her to get a video of the GeoJeep crossing the river. Watching the video afterwards, it doesn't look all that spectacular. The video I had seen a while back was taken from a drone so you're looking down on all the water with the Jeeps crossing over. I guess I need to get a drone for the next time.

After the wider crossing of the river, the road got a bit rockier as we continued south which made for slower traveling. And since the road turned away from the James River, that was the last of the water crossings.

After about four hours on the river road, we eventually made it out and back to the main roads eventually reaching the highway. We still had a few hours getting back to McCamey in West Texas.

It was a fun day out exploring the backroads. Hopefully by sharing this story with you I've made it interesting enough that now it's on your bucket list of places to visit if you're ever in Mason County, Texas.

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course. But also by using you favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Parlor, Twitter, and Instagram. These all link directly to my profile. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.