Highway of Death

During much of the 1991 Gulf War from January 17 to February 28, I was regulated to operate the wrecker. Most every night, we went out and retrieved trucks down due to mechanical problems. Each day we listened to Armed Forces Radio and CNN to find out the latest on the war. At night we could on occasion see flashes from bombing or artillery.

The ground offensive began in late February and my company supported the 1st Infantry Division and delivered over 13 million gallons of fuel for the division. 13 million gallons may seem a lot, but take in mind the M-1 Abrams main battle tanks consumes five gallons of fuel per mile. I was near the border when the ground offensive was unleashed, that afternoon, I was underneath a truck hooking it up to the wrecker and could feel the tremors in the ground from the artillery and bombing. Three days later, the ground offensive ended. When we heard the news of the cease-fire, we had just left our camp area and were heading north, only to turn around and make up the camp again.

Our three truck platoons were in northern Kuwait and I joined them in early March. On the way, we drove around Kuwait City and saw much of the bombed out roads and bridges. North of Kuwait on Highway 80 on the way to Safwan, Iraq, I saw images that would last me a life time. I did drive through and walk around the legendary "Highway of Death". Saw a few deceased Iraqi soldiers but hundreds of not a few thousand vehicles from cars, truck, tanks, APC and Anti-Aircraft guns. The place was a mess that is hard to comprehend unless one actually sees if for him/herself.

Coon Skin, the forgotten cache

Coon Skin is located at the TWRA land around Davy Crockett Lake just outside of Humboldt, Tennessee. I begun caching in Feb. of 2005 and was determined that I would find that cache in time. Summer came upon me in 2005 and after some problems with wooded area caches while using a Garmin Legend, I decided to wait for Coon Skin when the weather was cooler and the leaves were down. The early logs of this cache did worry me some.

One Saturday morning on November 19, 2006, I took cachestalker94 to a Girl Scout function and cannotreadgps was doing something else that day, thus I had Minnie Mouse, then age 4, to do some caching. Coon Skin was one of the last caches within 40 miles of my home and off we went.

When we arrived, there some wind off the lake and we wasted little time finding the trail. Turned out, the trail was very clear, unlike what early logs had mentioned. We had an easy time getting to the cache and find it. By that time, four year old Minnie Mouse had about enough and we walked (more like I carried Minnie Mouse) back to the truck where she soon fell asleep.

It's a shame for such a great cache to receive virtually no attention, this is a rewarding cache and should be on the lists of many cachers.

Earthcaches

After finding the earthcaching site, I began to look more into earthcaching. I had found my first earthcache at Pinson Mounds by BigDaddyD on April 19, 2005. I enjoyed the hike up to the platform and having my picture taken. I had been to the museum a few years ago, but that day, I took in the history while at the mound. Later that summer, I found Phosphate is too Large. I learned about the mining industry in the Columbia area. I recently began to find more earthcaches in Middle Tennessee and LBL of Kentucky and seeing a fault line in Nashville, called It's the Cumberland's Fault

In the last few months, earthcaches have taken off, Earthquake Lake was the second earthcache placed in West Tennessee, the third being The Hollow Rock in Hollow Rock, TN. Recently more eartcaches have been placed in West Tennessee and Western Kentucky.

Currently, I have no plans to set up more earthcaches since I have set up enough earthcaches to receive the Platinum Award from geosociety. When I first saw the geosociety site, I didn't figure there would be anywhere to place earthcaches in West Tennessee since there are very few rock formations around. However, with more research, there are many areas for earthcaches in the region, to include river confluences, mining areas, mineral deposits and the historic New Madrid fault line.

Stones River hike, No Pain, No Gain

After many weeks of discussion, preparation and planning, we (-boatman & myself) headed out one very early morning to complete one of the 8 mile treks along the Stones River in Rutherford County.

Even prior to geocaching, I was familiar with the Smyrna area being that the Tennessee Army National Guard base is located there. And after I returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom, I take advantage of the barracks at the base and stay the night there for only $12 a night, while I in the area on my civilian job and having nothing to do with my military job. Makes my trips to Pikeville and Knoxville somewhat easier. After I begun caching, I placed Rutherford County on my target list to grab caches while I am there.

-boatman and I headed to Smyrna on Feb. 7, 2007 in the very early morning hours. We drove separate vehicles. Since I was taking the day off for caching, I decided to make my Pikeville trip the following day and stay the night in the barracks. This would later prove to be a important decision. We met at McDonalds at Parkers Crossroads and grabbed some breakfast and headed out on the road. Made a needed pitstop at the TDOT reststop in Dickson and finally arrived at the entrance of the 8-mile trail between 7 and 8 am.

We wasted little time and I grabbed a cache that -boatman- had already found and we grabbed the cache at the entrance. We started down the trail, we quickly found out that I should have studied the topographical maps, our journey began very slowing, we were literally crawling on our hand and knees on the rocks. After only a mile on the trail, it was apparent that someone would be needed at the end of the trail to pick us up, or we would go half-way and turn around and go back. -boatman- got on the phone and begun to make arrangements for his son to pick us up at the end and take us back to our vehicles. Later on the trail, JoGPS offered to transport us as well. On the trail, I realized our situation, there was no where along the trail to 'bail out', it was either finish it, or go back to the entrance.

We cached along the trail, finding 33 caches on that day. 2/3 of the trail, we did not have any DNF's. But just over halfway on the trail, we were getting tired and using the phone a friend a little more often. Since the caches were fairly new, my calls went to JoGPS to assistance. I was fortunate that my Garmin 60cs had new street software and showed the Stones River, it would be crucial as we followed the bends of the river and knew that turns would be coming up. During that hike, I realized that investing in topographical software might be to my advantage some day.

We hiked and we hiked, at times, it was nice to have some distance between caches. Since the caches were not very easy to find, the poking around and turning over everything took up valuable time. 2/3 into the hike, my knee began to give me problems. Knowing I have knee problems and back problem, I always carry a bottle of Motrin in my cache bag. I was constantly taking Motrin, but the last 2 miles, I was in severe knee pain and feared I would not make it to the end. Being that we were caching in February, we had the problem with the short day. The last mile or so, we had to make our cache searches much shorter than we wanted and DNF'd more caches.

Finally making to the end, was -boatman-'s son with his truck, we did find the last cache on the trail and I was very happy to finally sit in a truck. It took all my effort to get into the truck with my knee pain. After being transported to our vehicles, we went our separate ways, I headed towards the National Guard base. I picked up something to eat and a six-pack of pain relief. Settled into the room and didn't fully unload my truck of everything I would need, but I was in too much pain. Took a hot shower, administered liquid pain-relief and went to bed. I was not able to sleep well with both legs cramping but I knew that I would not have been able to drive home that night. -boatman- drove home after visiting his son and called him the next day to see that he made it home OK and he was OK from the hike. I went onto Pikeville the following day and remain sore all that day.

This day was one of the most memorable on my geocaching adventure. Currently, I have no plans to return to the Stones River 8-mile hikes. After my LBL trip on November 11, it's apparent that my knees are in no condition for a long drive, long hike and long drive afterwards. I have been thinking about the 8-mile hike at Mousetail Landing, it would be a much shorter drive there and back.

Land Between the Lakes

Apart of my geocaching adventure is finding caches in the US Government owned forest called LBL, or Land Between the Lakes. Caching nearly three years, I have passed through the LBL a number of times and have found numerous caches in the region, which have included three night caches. I have also attended three River Valley events in the LBL and they have been fun.

My first major cache run of the LBL was with cachestalker94 and Mackheath. I put up a notice on the GOWT forum of my intention of a cache run. Mackheath met us just before dawn in Paris and we headed to the LBL. I had met Mackheath once at an event in Memphis. Knowing he had over 800 finds at the time of our cache run I wanted to see how a professional cacher does his caching. At the time, I was at around 200 finds and still struggled with the technology, paper and no maps. Mackheath was unable to get the Pocket Quary onto his PDA and noticed, we had the same approach, a Garmin Legend and lots of paper! I did at least of Mapsource on my Legend, but no auto routing.

We cached all day long to dark, returning with about 13 finds. It was a hard day and keeping up with Mackheath proved to be impossible; found out later, he trains as a marathon runner. Overall, even with 13 finds, it was a positive experience.

This weekend, I again returned to the LBL with Pharmd93 and efbamann. We cached Kuttawa and into the northern LBL and I hit a major milestone. Number 1,500 was Toys with a View it was an awesome cache with a great view. The view was of Lake Barkley of the Cumberland River. I am thankful that I had friends alone for this milestone.

I will return to the LBL and cache more of this outstanding area.

Fort Pillow State Park

When I was in Boy Scouts, my troop stayed the night and hiked the trails at Fort Pillow but that was many years ago. After studying the American Civil War and the battle fought there in April of 1864, I thought it would be time to re-visit the battlefield. I noticed a geocache is placed at the battlefield Lionel Booth's Folly, a traditional cache. The cache page indicates little about the history of the area and maybe the reason I have over looked it on previous passes along Highway 51. Maybe, also the cache is a 20 minute drive away from Highway 51 and there are no caches along the way?

Anyway, on October 20, I decided it was time to find that cache and also tour the battlefield. In the process, I set up 13 waymarks within the park. I also obtained information and and photos to set up an earthcache. We will see if I can pull that off.

Cachestalker94 caught wind of my plans on the afternoon of October 19 and found it necessary to stay the night with a friend, making herself unavailable for the adventure. Minnie Mouse, however, didn't have any choices and she came along for the ride. We arrived at the coordinates given by cgeek, which indicated the cache was .21 from our parking area. We hiked up one hill, down a hill, and up another hill. Was a good hike for me, however for Minnie Mouse, it was testing her endurance. We arrived at the Union earthworks, slipped over and found the cache. After signing the log we toured the earthworks. Being a student of military science, I soon realized the Union soldiers were in a bad situation at this site. The guns only could fire through a port hole in the defenses. All the Confederate dismounted cavalry had to do was avoid the portholes and overwhelm the defenses. During the battle sharpshooters, (would be called snipers today), picked off the Union defenders allowing the dismounted cavalry troopers to scale over the walls and enter the fort area. Another part I noticed, when setting up a defense, a route or way needs to be selected to retreat. The only way for the Union soldiers to escape was down the hill into the gully. Today, the area is forested, but in 1864, the land would have been clear, it was apparent the Union troops would have been shot like fish in a barrel.

Minnie Mouse and myself toured the remainder of the state historic park and did a little more hiking and also visited the interactive museum. After touring the fort, we ventured over to Henning, TN to set up more waymarks and visit the Alex Haley boyhood home and his grave.

Completed 20 years of service

Yesterday on Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, I reached a personal milestone, in which, I have completed 20 years of military service. At paygrade E-6 and were to retire upon receiving my 20-year letter, I would have to wait until age 60 to receive my retirement pay, which would be about $700 a month. For now, I do plan to stay in the Guard.

My military career began in August of 1985 when I left Memphis for Great Lakes, IL for the US Navy. After basic training, I was trained as an Aviation Support Equipment Electrician at NAS Memphis. I received further training at NAS Jacksonville. While stationed in Florida, I had my first chance to swim in the ocean and visit Disney World. After training, I was transferred to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. I worked at the airfield and maintained equipment that kept the planes flying. Toured much of Puerto Rico, including the beaches and San Juan. Also during my time, visited St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands twice. Upon discharge from the Navy, I returned to Tennessee and began attending the University fo Tennessee at Martin. During that first semester, I did enlist into the Tennessee Army National Guard in the 1174th Transportation Company. The first year in the Guard was uneventful, but in November of 1990, the unit received orders for active duty. The next nine months were at Ft. Campbell, KY and flown to Saudi Arabia. During the 1991 Gulf War, I did visit Kuwait and Iraq.

In 1992, I took a break and remained a civilian for 3 years. I was told of a Military Police Company in Murray, KY. I joined the 438th MP Company. While with the MP's, I did visit Ecuador and Panama. Also participated in state active duty for the Kentucky Derby, various concerts and security in the Paducah area when the Ohio River flooded the region.

In 1999, I transferred back to the 1174th Transportation Company. During that time, I have visited California, a weekend in Las Vegas, NV, Fort Knox, KY and Fort Stewart, GA. In 2003, the unit was again placed on active duty and I re-visited Kuwait and Iraq. Returned home in 2004 and remained on active duty for medical problems. Medical problems were remedied and released back to the 1174th. After Hurricane Katrina, the unit was placed on federal active duty and I visited the ravaged New Orleans.

The National Guard was re-organized, the 1174th, became the 1171st and in order to be promoted, I took a position with the 1175th Transportation Co. in Humboldt, TN. Today, I am with the 1171st Transportation Company and plan to remain there.

Intro to Geocaching at the Big Cypress Park

On Saturday over 30 geocachers that included cacher families attended the Intro to Geocaching a the Big Cypress Park located five miles outside of Greenfield, Tennessee. Salamander60 and I co-hosted the event after months of planning and discussions. It has been observed that the event has been a huge success. The same weekend, a new cacher family from Sharon, Tennessee begun caching. And due to the media exposure prior to the event, many Fall Festival participants were aware of the sport and asked some very good questions. The event began at 10 am with a presentation by myself after an introduction by Salmander60 whom is the President of the Friends of the Big Cypress Park. Presentation including the history of GPS where the military was first to use the technology, various types of handheld GPS receivers, who GPS can be used on a laptop with voice directions. The presentation went into the history of geocaching and explained the sport.

Cachers came from all over to attend the event in the beautiful day where the temperatures were in the 80's and no rain. Cachers were from GOWT, JAG and non-associated with any organization. Attending were: cannotreadgps from Dresden, TN, Salmander60, is daughter Lil Sal and wife Sweet Thang from Greenfield, TN, Penfencer from Montevallo, Alabama, Cataluna Woods and RaevenDarkWings, UT Martin students, yogi & dolphin of Yuma, TN, BigdaddyD of Scotts Hill, TN, dalls of Beech Bluff, TN, RiverNWick drove in from Parsons, TN, cachestalker and minnie mouse of Dresden, TN, Pharmd93 and Sherlock121 of Martin, TN, 1998volsfan of Greenfield, tnwoodturner from Paris, TN, Williefan of Bruceton, G-T-Martin came in from Kenton, TN, 76Stinger and Poohbear94 of Munford, TN, Leavarock of Clarksville and gleasondad of Gleason, TN. Lost-n-tn became cachers that day and logged the cache page.

Good times were had be all in attendance. Cachers enjoyed the new caches in the park and speaking to the muggle audience about our obsession. Cachers witnessed a Bird of Prey presentation by the Reelfoot State Park employees, there were Arts and Crafts on display, a nature trail to walk, Civil War re-enactors and their campsite to view.

Quest for the 1K

Begun caching in February of 2005 and never considered that two years later I would be receiving the 1K Coin and Golden Ammo can. Caching career took off slowly using an outdated Garmin without any map software. Later as I advanced in technology and experience, my numbers began to pick up. When I began caching, there was only one geocache in all of Weakley County and just a handful within 25 miles of home. But I had an advantage. My occupation places me on the road, sometimes up to 3,000 miles in one month! My occupation takes me to Somerville one to four times a month. Other destinations have been to: Memphis, Nashville, Pikeville, Hohenwald, Knoxville and Maryville. Also to my advantage, I spent two weeks on National Guard annual training in Smryna, which is cache saturated. The above picture of cached counties of Tennessee will illustrate where I have been.

After a year of caching, I stood at 420 finds. The majority of those were using a Garmin Legend, with maps, but no auto-routing and not paperless. In the next couple of months, I went paperless and began using auto-routing. In February of 2006, I set goals for the next year.

1) Reach 1K on or before February 17, 2007

2) Complete the West TN Mega-Multi

3) Complete the KTAG Multi

I failed to complete the Multi challenges. The distance of the multi cachers from my home has been a huge barrier for me. But I did complete one part of my quest and reached my 1,000th find on December 1, 2006. In the final months of my question, I took advantage of every opportunity to cache when I could. Cached on a hot July day with -boatman- and cachestalker94 in South Memphis and northern Mississippi. Cached in the pouring down rain and cold on my way to Fall Creek Falls State Park. Cached in good weather, cold, rain, snow, wind, day and night, just about when and where ever I could. In the last full month, I really turned up the heat, I was in a dead heat with sskaysee and Tuck Sackett. On a daily basis, I was checking their profile to see where they stood. I was not able to get out on a cache run on the Friday after Thanksgiving but did make a trip to Tullahoma on Sunday afternoon. I was instructed to attend a class at the Correctional Academy and spent the Sunday afternoon caching along I-24, Monte Eagle, Winchester and Tullahoma, netting over a dozen finds. But I was not where I wanted to be and contacted WildThing73 and ask if he could be assistance one of the evenings. The next day on Monday, thankfully, I did not have homework, I met with WildThing73 at his home and we went out caching in the dark. Counting the morning and that evening, I think I found 13 more caches. To my disgust, I found myself doing homework every evening, thus I changed my tactics. Being that I had to be in school at 8 am, I choose to get up at 5 am and go north to Shelbyville and cache 2-4 caches each morning. I did that, for three mornings. Thursday night, I was two caches short of my goal. Two classmates wanted extra instruction and wanted me to come in early on that Friday. I told them that I would and looked at the nearest caches. I saw that there were two in Winchester that I could go after but would have to do those in the pre-dawn darkness. I chose not to go out that morning, thinking my luck will run out and end up with two DNF's. I went on to meet with the classmates that morning, only to find that both were late!

Friday, December 1, was the final day in class and the schedule had the class ending at noon. I had decided to take Highway 64 on the way home. To my horror, the class ran over and was not released until 2 pm, leaving me about 3 hours of daylight and will be facing the sun all the way! Number 999 was the cache in front of the Jack Daniels Distillery. That would have been an awesome milestone cache and could have done that, if I had gone to Winchester that morning. Number 1,000 was an parking lot cache in Lawrenceburg. I felt the relief when I my fingers found the nano, signed the log and couldn't wait to call my caching friends to let them know of my accomplishment. On the way home, I stopped for only one cache and that being a virtual by Monkeybrad in Pulaski. The virtual being an important part of American History would have also been a great milestone and proud to say it was number 1,001.

Sskaysee reached the 1K before I did and Tuck Sackett found his 1,000 cache a few days later. Both cachers I have extreme respect for and had the honor of having sskaysee host my 1K event and I hosting Tuck Sackett's event.

Lake County

When I discovered geocaching in Feburary of 2005, one place I set my sights on was the area of Lake County; the scenery is one of the best for geocaching. Even though, geographically, Lake County is less than 40 miles from my home, it does encompass a long drive on a winding highway to arrive in the county with little in between to stop or see.

In July 2005, Brickbat66 was in town and we decided to load up the car and hit Lake County. Cannotreadgps drove, Brickbat66 was in the front seat with the only Auto-routing GPS, Cachestalker94 and I rode in the back. The auto-routing came in handy more than once during the trip. Finds for the day were: The Great Bald Eagle, Reelfoot Lake, Blue Suede Shoes-Small Town USA Series, Reelfoot Airpark Cache and Civil War Battle for Island #10. We had a DNF at what later became Reelfoot Lake, BoardWalk(New).

During our stop at The Great Bald Eagle, Reelfoot Lake one thing we recall was the mating cottonmouths in the water while walking around on the boardwalk. After seeing the snakes, we decided we needed to make some distance between us and the venomous snakes. We enjoyed the history lesson at Civil War Battle for Island #10. We also liked looking at Carl Perkins boyhood home at Blue Suede Shoes-Small Town USA Series.

This past July en route to Pcsenn's 1K event, Phamrd93 and Minnie Mouse tagged along and found all the above caches except Civil War Battle for Island #10. Time had run out and we unable to run by that cache. This was Minnie Mouse's first caching trip to Lake County and her favorite was The Great Bald Eagle, Reefoot Lake cache. She had a really good time watching the Birds of Prey and the nearby Discovery Museum. We also found the first earthcache in Northwest Tennessee, Earthquake Lake.

At this point, I have found all the active caches in Lake County, a total of six. Lake County has so much more to offer in geocaching with it's history and geological features and hope someday, I can return to the county for another cache run.

Caching in Opelousas

I begun my geocaching career in February of 2005 after finding the website by accident. Being that there was only one geocache within 20 miles of my home, I wondered if this was going to be the sport for me.

Other attempts at hobbies were not as successful. I enjoy Scuba Diving, but in landlocked Tennessee, that sport is difficult and can be very expensive. Still play Paintball on occasion but not has active as I once was. Still own several firearms and shoot on a regular basis. However, with only about 120 feet in my backyard, I am limited just shooting a .22 rifle and small handguns. I have to go somewhere else to fire the .308 Saiga.

I had only been geocaching a couple of weeks before I departed for my long-planned trip to the Florida Keys. Cachers will notice my US map on the itsnotaboutthenumbers site and ask why only one county in Florida is colored. It's simple, I was very new to the sport and looking up caches on a route was difficult.

Returned from Florida and begun to take caching a little more serious. While in Jackson, I stopped at Target and purchased a Garmin Legend. With that new GPS, my production increased with over 30 finds in the month of April.

In May, I was ordered to attend a NCO school at Camp Shelby, MS. This time, I printed off several pages of caches around Camp Shelby. I show up for school with the intention of caching in the evening and then told that this school requires students to be restricted to the barracks. This time has been my longest caching drought since I begun caching. I had planned to visit my cousin in Opelousas, LA when I left Camp Shelby and did have some cache pages printed of the Opelousas caches.

Arrived in LA and met with Jody and he drove me around Lafayette, LA and later we traveled to Opelousas and on the way, we stopped at a Cajun Restaurant. I only stayed one night and the next morning I got up and introduced my cousin Kathryn and Jody to the sport of Geocaching. Our first cache was Jim Bowie Live Oak, followed by Twin Oaks and Fun in the Park. Kathryn and Jody was amazed of the GPS and the game being played worldwide and with geocaches so close to home. Even though I would not have any finds on the way home, I decided that this was going to be the sport for me. Last month, when Kathryn and Jody were in town, I showed them my 1K coin and thanked them for their assistance that morning in Opelousas. Kathryn and Jody have not officially taken up the sport of geocaching but do report to me that they take visitors to the Jim Bowie Live Oak cache.

Visiting Ecuador

Being in the National Guard I have had the opportunity to visit many places that ordinarily would never see. Countries that I have spend time in are: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Panama and Ecuador. En route to and from some of those places, I have landed in Ireland, Belgium and Italy. Also in the Guard, I have been to California, Las Vegas, Nevada and while in the US Navy, I had been to Chicago, Jacksonville, Orlando, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

In 1998, I was with the 438th Military Police Company in Murray, Kentucky. The Kentucky Army National Guard was tasked to provide humanitarian assistance to Ecuador which is located in South America. I volunteered to go and looked forward to the trip.

We flew out of Louisville, KY airport to Ecuador. The plane ride was uneventful, except that the crew of the civilian chartered plane did not like the idea of myself and other Military Police soldiers carrying 9mm handguns. We arrived in Ecuador and the rotation of MP's waiting to go home were at the airport. They briefed us on the mission, gave us the keys to the Humvees and a handful of 9mm ammunition. We distributed the ammo, I think I was given about five rounds and drove to the base. It took several hours to reach the base due to the conditions of the roads. The bad weather of the past several months had washed many of the roads away. We arrived in the evening and got ourselves ready for the mission next day. Being Military Police, we were assigned to provide 24-hour security at the sites where the engineers were building schools and clinics.

We rotated from town to town and the most difficult part of the job was keeping the young kids away from the Engineers and US Army equipment. The kids were very partial to the soldiers and liked the MRE's (meals ready to eat). A few could speak a few words of English, learned from previous US soldiers but with aid from soldiers assigned to us from Ecuador, we managed to communicate.

Villages were very primitive as compared to the United States. Electric power was provided by a generator within the village. I recall one village the generator was not working and at night, there were no lights at all. I worked day shift and arrived just at sun up and to see the villagers getting ready for the day. It was not uncommon to see a man leave the village with a single-shot shotgun go into the jungle and return in a few minutes with game to eat. The woman stayed busy with household chores in which laundry was done at the river bank. Men left to work with heavy chainsaws to headed into the jungle. During the week, some children attended school. With the lack of schools and staff, only the eldest child of each family attended school. He or she was expected to return home and teach the younger siblings of the day's education.

Our accommodations were a little better than the villages. We were set up in tent city with concrete floors, showers and a place to eat chow. A laundry tent was also set up. Being that there were very long hours on duty, there was little need for entertainment. Wildlife visited the camp also, that included insects the size of my fist and frogs as large as my foot. Also, one soldier caught a Boa Constrictor and I had my picture made with the snake. I am not very fond of snakes!

With the mission complete and next rotation to relieve us, we travelled to a resort town near the airport. I was assigned to be in charge of the weapon's crew and provided personal security to the battalion commander. We arrived at the Ecuador Army base, I turned over our weapons and ammunition and arrangements with a cab service to take us to the resort town. Are team arrived at the town and found where the other Military Police had found rooms. The hotel was located on the beach were there were numerous places to eat and have fun. I found a steak eatery and after much communication in the little Spanish I knew, I ended up with a plate full of large fried shrimp, rice and vegetables. With two 20-oz. beers the cost was under $7! I made plans to return to the same place for lunch the next day. We spent the evening in the local disco techs and beach bars. The next day, I made an effort to swim in the Pacific Ocean.

Our rotation was over and after a delay at the airport we flew home.

An Evening at the LBL

For the third year in a row, I attended the River Valley Geocachers "An Evening at the LBL" event held by fishinpair. For the third time I was not disappointed. Like the previous events, this year's event again featured a night cache called Midnight Maze (Nightcache). This one had a new twist. Previous night caches, Flashlight Required and Dead Fulks Night Cache, have one starting at one point, follow reflectors to the ammo can. This cache was different. In last year's event, one huge group consisting of 40+ cachers marched around and found the cache. As a group it was easy, just follow the leader. This time, following the crowd would not work. Team work was required, marking dead ends, starting locations was needed. It was a cache to remember. One thing that will stick in my mind is that a hands free headlight was of little value. In the high grass and weeds, the light attracted insects which interfered with looking for the cache. I had to hold my hands free light.

The event went without a hitch, well almost. GEO.JOE asked Pirate of the Cache 'n Carry to bring firewood. We later remember that the front gate at Energy Campground closed at 5 pm. We traveled to Hillsman's Ferry Campground for firewood. While leaving the Energy Lake Campground, we encountered a 5-foot Timber Rattlesnake. The snake was large and was very up happy with our company. Regrettably, neither one of our digital cameras were functioning and were unable to take this classic photo. This marked only the second time in my life of an encounter with a rattlesnake in the wild. The first occurred in 1984 while hiking at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico.

We arrived at the event and unloaded the firewood and told of our snake encounter. Being that I did some caching along the way in Farmington, Murray and the center of the LBL, I relaxed for a bit and socialized with Airmapper and B&TLand. Later, after gaining some energy, I talked to cachers in the US Army from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.

The better half of fishinpair hosted the event and she was busy on the grill cooking the hot dogs. She did a great job cooking and being the host. I wish to thank all of those involved in the event and bringing food. It was great.

After the Midnight Maze, cachers separated for other night caches and since I was so close to Honker Hill, we gathered a group for that cache. In the moonlight, we found the parking area and the levee. While waiting for B&TLand to return, we observed a fan boat roaming the shore, I guess they were fishing. Seemed like it was more noise production than fishing, but that's just my opinion. Other arrived and we walked across the levee, up the hill and found the difficult cache in the dark. Afterwards, we walked back and went our separate ways. Pirate of the Cache 'n Carry invited me to stay overnight at his 34-foot air conditioned camper, I did not resist and stayed the night at Energy Campground. Pirate of the Cache 'n Carry being the honorable host that he is, also invited Solarwib to stay the night and saved him the two hour drive in the early morning hours.

The following morning, I chatted with Solarwib and later went home and grabbed one cache in Murray on the way home.

Visit to Searcy, Arkansas

Last year, the family consisting of myself (Titansfan), wife (Cannotreadgps) and my daughters, Cachestalker94 and Minnie Mouse, traveled to Searcy, Arkansas to visit my cousin (Joel and his family) and aunt (Mary). We used the Garmin 60cs to take us to the motel and then to my cousin's home. When we first drove up, my cousin, Joel wanted to see the GPS in action. I showed it to him and later made plans for Joel to see it in action. The following day, we visited Aunt Mary at the nursing home. Upon our visit, the residents of the nursing home were involved in the Bingo game where he participated also. After the game, we went across the street to the park and introduced the Searcy family to geocaching. A cache was located in the small park, it is Around Town -- Skyline View. Took some time to find it, Aunt Mary was in a wheelchair and gave us directions while she held the GPS. Later, Aunt Mary rode around town with Joel and watched us find Living on the Edge. She was happy to participate in the game.

Today, I received news that Aunt Mary passed away today. She will be missed and I am happy we had the opportunity to visit her in the last few months and share our game with her.

Four years ago on this date, I lost a friend,

Four years ago on this date, a mission was heading towards Baghdad to deliver several thousand gallons of fuel to the US Air Force side of BIAP (Baghdad International Airport). The convoy which had gun truck escort, had become separated due to vehicle breakdowns. In the late afternoon on July 9, 2003, a truck driven by SGT Roger D. Rowe and co-driver, SGT Long were on MSR Tampa and nearing the overpass called MSR Tampa- ASR Cleveland Intersection. The truck which was the last of three in a serial were fired upon. Lost in the action was the driver, SGT Rowe.

I met SGT Rowe in January of 2003 when the 1174th Transportation Company was mobilized for active duty to support the 4th Infantry Division as the division was going to be deployed to Turkey in the upcoming invasion of Iraq. The 1174th reported to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and began to ready equipment for deployment overseas and training for desert and urban warfare. During this time, I began to be-friend SGT Rowe.

Turkey voted not to allow US forces to stage in it's country for the invasion and the 4th Infantry Division was deployed to Kuwait. During this time, the war began in which the 3rd Infantry Division, 101st Airborne Division, 82 Airborne Division, the US Marine Corps along with British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait. We watched the statute of Saddam Hussian come down at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Orders were received and the company was deployed to Kuwait and stationed at Camp Arifijan just south of Kuwait City. Missions rolled out to deliver fuel to Camp Cedar I and the Talil Air Base in Southern Iraq. In May, the company moved to Camp Cedar I and in early June, the camp was moved another 20 miles north to what was to become Camp Cedar II, a fuel logistical base. In that month, the mission requirements began to increase with more runs to Baghdad.

Overall, the truck drivers reported few problems with the locals en route to Baghdad and liked the mission due to that the US Air Force fed the truck drivers well, it was cooler in Baghdad and the drivers could get away from the Camp Cedar II's annoying SGT Major(s) as well as our own 1st SGT.

Gun trucks were developed by mounting a M249 SAW on the rear of the Humvees. 5-ton bobtail trucks were mounted with a .50 caliber M-2 machine gun and a 2 1/2 ton truck was mounted with a full automatic 40mm grenade launcher.

The July 9, 2003 mission left early that morning and expected to reach BIAP in the late afternoon. As usual, equipment breakdowns slowed the convoy down and as the convoy neared Baghdad, the convoy began to separate and created easy targets for Sunni insurgents who were known to operate in the southern parts of Baghdad. SGT Rowe was driving a M-818, a manual transmission 5-speed truck hauling 5,000 gallons of fuel. At the overpass, a insurgent waited and fired one shot through the windshield hitting SGT Rowe in the neck, killing him instantly. Then a barrage of fire from AK-47's and a 12.7mm machine gun began to hit the truck in an attempt to kill the co-driver, SGT Long. SGT Long witnessed the death of his long time friend and took evasion action to save his own by stomping on the accelerator and driving the truck from the passenger side to get the truck out of the kill zone. A couple of miles from the ambush site, SGT Long stopped the truck and rendered aid to his fallen friend. Maintenance trucks and a gun truck with a .50 caliber machine gun arrived to provide security.

SGT Rowe's body was placed in the maintenance truck and the convoy proceeded to BIAP in which the news was spread of the attack. Later that evening, the company attended a meeting in which the Company Commander, Battalion Commander and Chaplin gave the news of SGT Rowe's death. A memorial service was held for SGT Rowe a few days later and he was returned back to the United States and is now buried near Nashville, Tennessee.

Advances in Technology

Being that the majority of my caching I am alone and finding the geocaching site by accident, I did not have the advantage of someone taking me under their wing to guide me of the in's and out's of the game.

I stumbled across the geocaching site by accident late one evening while browsing around the Where's George site. Already a GPS owner and knew some of the basics such as marking a waypoint and following the arrow, I was ready to find my first cache. I begun the game with a Garmin GPS 12, an old GPS that I owned since the year 2000. It saw more activity in a storage drawer than in my hand. Found a little over a dozen caches with the GPS 12. Having some left over money from a tax return, I went to Target in Jackson and saw the Garmin Legend. I went home with it and used it for a year. Within a month, I purchased Metroguide and some time after that, I was detailed maps on the Legend. However, it was limited and still printed Mapquest maps of areas I did not know and had not heard of GSAK.

Begun to hear more about Pocket Queries and GSAK on the GOWT forums, not understanding or experienced it myself, I took the opinion it was a negative. Cachers were fussing about coming up to a cache to only realize it was a guardrail or lightpole micro and etc. Being that I studied the printed cache pages, I knew what I was hunting long before I left home. Thus, I paid $30 just to move maps around!

In October 2005, with around 200 finds to my credit, I attended a KTAG event in Fairview, Kentucky. I cached along Hwy 79, through Clarksville mall area to the meeting. From the meeting, cache pages were made available for the caches placed nearby. I was entering the coordinates and decided if one popped up, I would go after it. Yogi came over and invited me to go along with him and Team NAB. I sat in the back of the Team NAB cache mobile but could see the ease that Nashville Joe and Yogi had with navigating the backroads. Something at the time, I could only dream of.

In December of 2005, I went with a crew to Bridge, No Bridge and rode with -boatman-, I received more experience with auto-routing and decided then I would upgrade at tax return time. He also showed his PDA where cache pages were stored on it. I was amazed how easy he had it. A few days, later I purchased a used PalmPilot from BigDaddyD. He provided me some instruction. After a rough start, I begun using Pocket Queries and was Plucking away at caches. A couple of months later, I purchased a used Garmin 60cs from Yogi when he upgraded to the Garmin 60csx. He provided me with some training and auto-routing soon came to be. With the addition of the PDA and Garmin 60cs, my cache production went from 8 finds a week to 12 and was on my way to the 1K.

Today, I have advanced to just about all I can do. I do use a laptop with nRoute and connect the Garmin 60cs to the laptop, using voice turn by turn direction. With another tax return, I upgraded to the Garmin 60csx. As for technology, I have met my limit, there maybe little more I can do, but since I cache alone most of the time, I have reached my limit in cache efficiency and seek to maintain my average of over 10 finds a week.

I miss the new TN Cemetery Geocaches....

For almost a year, Tennessee geocaches have had to endure the Groundspeak ban of new geocaches placed in Tennessee cemeteries. One of the items I brought up was that I have been rarely bothered while geocaching in a cemetery. Only one time, I have been asked what I was doing and had it not been for a micro in a wooded area, I would have been in and out quickly without anyone noticing me.

Today, on June 23, I set out for Mayfield, Kentucky to find three new geocaches. Wooldridge Monuments would be the last. I started the day with two DNF's. Traffic was unusual for a Saturday morning and the parks were full of muggles. I went onto Woolridge Monuments. I had heard from the cache owner, Pirate of the Cache N Carry of his intentions and awaited the new cache. The site was awesome and spent some time admiring the scene. I hope others will soon descend onto Mayfield to find this geocache.

1991 Gulf War

When my enlistment expired from the United States Navy in August of 1989, my intention was to attend the University of Tennessee at Martin and join the Tennessee Army National Guard to fulfill my 8-year obligation. I have served four years active duty and was stationed for a little over three years at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. The Navy was not what I wanted to do but wisely, I had entered into the Montgomery G.I. Bill upon enlistment and the money would be very useful when I began college full time in August of 1989.
After some help from then Senator Albert Gore, Jr, I was transferred from the US Navy inactive reserve to the Tennessee Army National Guard and joined the 1174th Transportation Company in Dresden. I knew very little about the Army and had to be tutored about Army uniform regulations, drill and ceremony and customs. I quickly picked up on the changes. Not long being in the Guard, I went to the rifle range, I was given a M-16 assault rifle and the bolt. I asked if I needed the bolt? The armor had a surprised look on his face and asked me if I ever fired the rifle in basic. I explained, that I was in the Navy and only fired the .45 and .38 caliber handguns. And if Infantry type work was needed, Marines would do it. I was given about two minutes instruction, placed the bolt in the weapon and explained which end was the danger part. I will have to say that currently, my Class A uniform, I proudly display the expert badge for the rifle and sharpshooter for the handgun.
In August of 1990, I was out running around town and having a good time and dropped in at a another friends house and to see the Iraqi Army overrunning neighboring Kuwait. Some one commented, that I would be going to war. In November of that year, his prediction came true. When the 1st Infantry Division was alerted for deployment to Saudi Arabia, my unit received the call. Just before Thanksgiving, we were in training at Ft. Campbell, KY.
In early January, my unit was flown to Saudi Arabia and within a week, we were deployed 30 miles south border of Kuwait. Our routines quickly became working on trucks, guard duty at night. At that time, most National Guard units (like mine) were not equipped with night vision. Guard duty was boring and the January nights were very cold.
During the early morning hours of January 17, 1991, I had was given a break from guard duty and laid down for a quick nap. Just fell asleep when the commander entered the tent and said the war had begun. During the night, we could hear faint explosions and jets in the air.
The air war continued, out mission continued, we hauled fuel for the 1st Infantry Division. Later, the entire 7th Corps was moved 70 miles of our positions in order to secretly attack the Iraqi positions from the west and not from the south, where they expected.
In late February, the ground war began, being on the wrecker, I was not assigned to one of the forward transport platoons, but I do recall being at the forward positions when the ground war began. I was under a truck, hooking up the truck for transport and could feel the ground shake from the bombing of the B-52 bombers.
The ground war only lasted 100 hours. Later, our company was re-united in northern Kuwait. Our camp was surrounded by oil well fires. There is no telling how much smoke and oil I inhaled those couple of weeks. When the 101st Airborne was re-deployed home, the 1st Infantry Division was ordered to secure the western flank and our unit was moved to southern Iraq. A few weeks in southern Iraq made the days go be longer without much to do. We did play volleyball every afternoon. And the summer heat was beginning to show.
The unit received order to redeploy to home station, we move back to Saudi Arabia and then to King Faud Airport. We spent a few days washing trucks and equipment and lived in a parking garage. Our unit was unable to be all together on the same plane home. Married soldiers, solders with health problems were allowed to go home first. I was on the second flight and went home about a week later.
The 1174th Transportation Company hauled over 13 million gallons of fuel and logged almost 1 million truck miles in support of combat operations for the 1st Infantry Division. We suffered no KIA or WIA. However, the unit did have two soldiers MIA for a couple of days.

Congressional Medal of Honor

Muggles whom have negative attitudes towards geocaching often ask me “What to you get out of the game?” Geocaching has taken me to the graves of three Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients. The three include: Medal of Honor Recipient in Atoka, Tennessee, a virtual. A multi which resulted in a DNF for me, Crab Orchard Stone, tallest one around in Crossville, Tennessee. Shelby County Medal of Honor Recipient in Bartlett, Tennessee. That cache is a mystery cache that I completed with my daughters this past weekend.
I am blessed to participate in a game that can take me to the graves of these men, some of which gave everything in the defense of our nation. Only Jesus ranks higher in my book of the most honorable people I would like to meet.

Bicentennial Trail

After weeks of discussion on the RVG, KTAG and GOWT forums, I set a date for the Bicentennial Trail cache run. The Bicentennial Trail is 6 miles of paved trail that used to be a railroad, just west of Ashland City, Tennessee. The date was Saturday, November 11, 2006. Pharmd93 and his son, Sherlock121 arrived at my house, loaded up my gear and traveled to the trailhead. As we arrived in Ashland City, we drove by Brickbat66’s house, picked up two bikes and invited Brickbat66 along for the cache run. We each had bikes and I was very happy for that. Walking the 6 miles would have been tough on that cool day which had some light rain.

There were 16 caches along the trail by Silver Dragon, GotGOD?, family-fun, Alaskan Snowman, JayPea, BigOldBoots and Yooper Cachers. There were no DNF’s on that day. I had already found Bicentennial Trail by Silver Dragon previously, and watched Pharmd93 and Sherlock121 find the cache. A few minutes later, we hit the trail on the bikes. One cache, I really remember was Root Canal. That one was a difficult climb. Later while looking for Thanks Joe, the cache owner Alaskan Snowman rode up on his bike. He was checking on us and went forward to check on one of his caches. We went along the trail finding more of the caches. Some were more difficult than others. The scenic view cache was Taschenlampe, which was a great view and interesting hide technique. We stopped long enough to a few pictures. Hit the trail again. About that time, Tennis40love called me and told me that she would meet us at CRB TBug Hotel. She was on foot and found us. She had found the caches on the east side of the trail and wanted to join us on the west part. She was the only 1K Club cacher on the hunt and we were in great need of her experience and wisdom. We proceeded down the trail and got into the Yooper Cacher series. The micros on that part of the trail were very difficult, the last one Micro Yoop being the most frustrating. It was a great experience for all of us and even without a bike, keeping up with Tennis40love proved to be challenging. At the end of the trail, was JoGPS who provided transportation for us to the vehicles parked at the trailhead.

We departed each other and I rode back home with Pharmd93 and Sherlock121. We stopped for a few caches in Montgomery, Stewart and Henry Counties.

Battle of Franklin

We visited the Battle of Franklin on May 12 en route to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. Being a American Civil War buff, I wanted to take the time to visit this cache. With me were my daughters, cachestalker94 and minnie mouse.

This is one of the best Civil War geocaches I have visited. The cache page is correct to not focus on the cache but to visit the battlefield. This was my first visit to this battlefield and the visit added to my list of the scores of Civil War battlefields I have visited. Many battlefields are National Parks where geocaches are non-existent. This battlefield is under the control of the City of Franklin. I wish to thank the city for preserving a piece of American Military History for others to witness. This battle was one of the bloodiest fought in Tennessee.

We spent well over an hour in the park. When we arrived a tour group was being led around by a guide and he was talking about the battle. The group stood between us and the geocache, so we took the time to visit and take pictures of all the monuments and historical markers. I have added all the pictures onto the cache page. A muggle enquired what we were doing. We explained the sport and gave her the printed cache page. The tour group was not moving, so we discreetly sneaked by the group, found the trail and headed towards the cache. Quickly found the cache and back down the hill we proceeded, again staying quiet not to interfere with the tour group.

After completing this cache, I felt a sense of accomplishment and visited this sacred ground.

Bridge, No Bridge

When Bridge, No Bridge by JamieZ was published it soon began to become the rite of passage for geocachers in West Tennessee. I placed it on my watchlist and wondered if I would get the opportunity to place my name on that log. –boatman- and myself conferred about the cache for many weeks. Towards the end of December of 2005, the planning intensified. –boatman- and Big Ron cached the area of the first stage and investigated the final. Previous logs and pictures were studied and come up with a plan. All we needed was a date. My friend from Ashland City, TN (brickbat66) was in town for Christmas Break and wanted to go caching. –boatman- supplied me with a date and I called brickbat66 and told him of the Memphis cache and informed him it is a 5-star terrain cache and with his ankle problem he may want to study the cache page. Brickbat66 called back and said he would go along for the ride. Final plans were made to met at –boatman-‘s house in the early morning hours of December 29, 2005. I took a annual day from work to go after this cache and began the day at 6 AM when I picked up brickbat66 at his parent’s home. We drove on to –boatman-‘s house and awaited Big Ron and Bartster to arrive. Supplies were gathered that did include a strong rope. I told –boatman- that Tuck Sackett used a rope to secure the ladder. A rope was added to the –boatman- cache mobile that did include a 32-foot ladder on the top of the Ford Explorer. Bartster met up with us at –boatman-‘s house and drove his own SUV a 4X4, which would be of use later. We gathered the last supplies and pilled into the Explorer. Made our way to I-40 and turned up the speed. The ladder was secure; Big Ron commented that we looked like a truck with horns!

Arrived near the first stage, brickbat66 and I found the cache at Crump Park and headed to the pedestrian walkway of the bridge. Gibbenator had joined us at this time. The walkway was narrow and vehicle traffic was next to us. This added adventure to the experience and especially nervous look of brickbat66. Several minutes later, we found the first stage; we made it much harder than what it was. Came off bridge and got back into the vehicles. –boatman- was concerned about the traffic in downtown Memphis. During the earlier recon mission, he ran into construction area. Gibbenator, being from the Memphis area, said for us to follow him, which we did. Arrived near the final stage. Gibbenator in a sports car opted to park and got into Bartster’s truck. Drove on to the final stage and –boatman-‘s Explorer became stuck. Thankfully, we had a rope and used Bartster’s truck to pull –boatman-‘s Explorer out of the mud. Finally, we made it to the final stage.

Unloaded the ladder and set it into place. Bartster was first up the ladder and used the rope to secure the ladder. He opened and signed the cache. Next was myself (Titansfan). I made the 30+ foot climb and was very happy the rope was there. Found the cache, signed my name and took #22 of the West Tennessee Five-Star Terrain Club. Others followed suite. –boatman- made it up the ladder and then cried how he would get down. We assured him that he will accomplish the mission and he did. Brickbat66 made it up the ladder and this time the heights were no issue to him as was the bridge before. I was concerned about his injured ankle. But he made it as did Big Ron and Gibbenator. We also found a cache near the final stage.
We secure the equipment back onto the trucks and headed back out. We took a different way out and didn’t have the problems of getting stuck, but the terrain was challenging. Afterwards, we grouped up and found a few more caches and headed home.

Caches found were:
Crumps Cache
Bridge, No Bridge
Find Me if you Can!
West TN Mega Multi-Firestone
Daffy’s Cache
Highway to Mill

First Mission to Baghdad

My Tennessee Army National Guard company, the 1174th Transportation Co. was placed on active duty and deployed to Kuwait in April 2003, just after the fall of Baghdad. The first several days in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait there few missions and most of the missions were to Camp Cedar I in Southern Kuwait.

The afternoon of May 4, 2003, the company received orders for a 48 vehicle convoy to supply fuel to combat units in Baghdad. Our destination was a railroad station on the west side of Baghdad and was expected to take 16 hours to arrive, the mission was expected to last three days. With my job being in dispatch and communications, I normally did not go on fuel missions, however, I was selected to drive the lead vehicle, a M998 Humvee and provide front security. At the time, the early convoys did not have gun truck protection (no mounted weapons) and our trucks were never equiped with extra armor during the entire deployment. The large convoy departed Camp Arifjan, Kuwait during the early morning hours fo May 5, 2003. The drive through Kuwait was quiet. However, as soon as we departed Kuwait, the scenery was much changed. Just across the border was the Shi'a town of Safwaan. Iraqi civilians manned the roadside and often tried to stop the trucks by running in the middle of the road. This would be the scene throughout the mission to Baghdad and return. Anytime we stopped, Iraqi civilians were appear demanding food and water.

We proceeded to Camp Cedar I in Southern Iraq. We refueled and awaited detailed directions for our destination. At the time, I carried the Garmin GPS 12 and programmed the coordinates into the GPS. That night, I stayed up most of the night on guard duty. Before dawn on May 6, 2003, the convoy departed Camp Cedar I and took the dirt road towards Baghdad. The road called MSR Tampa, the dirt part, was nicknamed the washboard. Many back injuries were the result of that dirt road. The company arrived at Camp Scania, 90 miles south of Baghdad, we refueled at the location and received information of possible sniper locations. In the afternoon, we arrived in Baghdad, civilian traffic was all around us. Some civilian drivers attempted to get mixed into the convoy. The display of weapons made the drivers detour and stay away from us. As we approached Garma, I told the 1st SGT what my Garmin was telling me. Being in the front humvee, we scouted ahead and found the base using the GPS. We went back towards the convoy, but prior we stopped at an Iraqi store and purchased enough cold Pepxi's for the entire company. We went to the off ramp and radioed for the convoy to come meet us. After the radio conversation, a civilian car raced up and parked in front of us. Three civilians existed the car, one being female. All were yelling at us. We yelled back in Arabic to stop and go away, our orders were being ignored. At that time, I chambered a round in my M-16 assualt rifle and pointed my weapon at the civilians. Finally, they got our message and departed the location. The convoy met us and we drove onto the camp.

It turned out that another company was awaiting to unload fuel and we would have to wait our turn. Our food was running short and a 5-ton truck was dispatched to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) to obtain food. The supply truck was harrassed by Iraqi civilians and weapons had to be diplayed to keep the civilians away. The truck returned with food in the form of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat). As the sun went down the city erupted in firefights. Most of the night, we heard explosions and watched tracers from gun fire. I finally was able to sleep all night and strectched out in the humvee.

May 7, 2003, we stayed all day and part of our fuel was unloaded. Slept in the humvee again that night, but the night turned cold and windy. The sounds of explosions and gunfire was still heard. May 8, again, we stayed at Garma all day. The night was cold and windy again. This time, my bed was the hood of a humvee.

May 9, 2003, we unloaded the rest of our fuel and received orders to return to Kuwait. But prior to our departure an insurgent stronghold was located within sight of our position. Army combat units surrounded the buldings and the US Air Force made bluff bomb runs and forced the insurgents to surrender. The tensions were very high and we departed in a high state of alertness and had Military Police escort for a few miles. We drove south towards the border of Kuwait. After dark and near a bridge, front elements of the convoy witness and exchange of gunfire from US Marines and Iraqi insurgents. After the firing ceased, we were allowed to cross the bridge.

Our convoy stopped for the night after entering Kuwait and later in the morning, traveled to Camp Arifjan. This completed the longest wartime fuel mission of the 1174th Transportation Company of over 1,000 miles.

When there were good times......

The Geo-Politics of West Tennessee have turned sour but not long ago there were good times and friendships. After the event for sskaysee on January 20, 2007, a group of cachers from throughout West Tennessee proceeded to Stanky Creek in search of the Night Time Squirrel Hunt. Hunting the cache for the first time were: Dalls of Beech Bluff, Magic Rock of Memphis, Prontopup of Memphis, Pippin-98 of Memphis and myself (Titansfan) of Dresden. Also along for the ride were: Sprout of South Haven, MS, -boatman- of Jackson, bitbrain and Mackheath of Memphis.

After arriving at the parking area, all donned the necessary equipment for the adventure. Being a veteran of two previous night caches in the Land Between the Lakes, I was prepared with a hands-free headlight, warm clothes and knowing there is a creek through the middle of the wooded area, I wore waterproof Gore-Tex boots.

The adventure began, Magic Rock amazed us with his laser pointer. That little green laser lite up the forest. We headed hiked throughout the forest, often with Dalls in the lead. He was warmly dressed and with coveralls, he was immune to the briars. Thanks for Dalls for clearing the path. Creeks were crossed more than once, all of use helping one another and see that all were safely across. We would find one reflector than another and another. Would this trail ever lead to the cache????? The cache was found, Pippen-98 was there to open the prize.

After the night cache, we saw that there was a cache nearby and all of us proceeded to the cache. About 20 feet from the cache, the briers intensified, the Legend receivers were losing signal. My Garmin 60cs continued to keep a signal. Dalls asked what direction and how far. I pointed with my light in the direction and told him the distance. Like a bulldog, the trounced on the cache and found it.

On the way out, I pointed out to Dalls that one of the mega-multi's was very close. His Legend had long lost signal, I gave him my 60cs and he plowed through the briers. The rest of us kept quiet and waited to hear the splash. We heard nothing. After a few minutes, Dalls comes plowing back through the briers and says he found the cache.

Caching was complete for the day and all of us headed back to our homes. I stopped by a store to get a caffeine drink for my 2 and 1/2 hour drive home.