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.

2016-01-09: Geocaching Through the Snow and the Cold

OK, so the high temperature for the day is only in the 30's, there's still plenty of snow on the ground, and what are we to do but go Geocaching! There are new places to explore, new counties to get, and more caches to find.

So we start off by going east on US-82 and our first stop was the Ralls Cemetery for a cache (GC2WF1M). The cemetery was blanketed in snow, but we were determined to get to it. Having all the snow made for a very picturesque visit as well. We didn't go checking out different headstones, but they did have this huge monument of The Lord's Prayer near the cache site.

From Ralls, we continued west towards Crosbyton and then northbound on Hwy 651. Next stop was the cache at Lakeview Cemetery (GC5MA3G), followed by the cache at Forest Lawn Cemetery (GC5MCGX). The road going up through here leads into the canyon and with the recent snow makes for a good photo.

We made our way on up to US-62, west to Floydada and then back south to Ralls again. Along the way we picked up four more Geocaches, but it was just too cold and we headed back home. We got to explore a little bit of the area and pick up a new county. Hopefully it will warm up soon.