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.