Completion of the West Tennessee Mega-Multi

With my three year Geo-Anniversary coming up in less than two months I can finally log this cache and be apart of the elite cachers in West Tennessee to have completed this series! I had just taken up geocaching about two months before when the West Tennessee Mega-Multi series were unleashed in May of 2005. Being that I am from Dresden, a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from Memphis, I had my doubts that I would ever complete the series. But I would find the caches as they came around.
It would take my two and a half years to complete and would take much persistence, thought and sweat to find all the stages. A couple would take more than one trip, another, I came within 1/4 mile only to see a fence and no trespassing sign. I caught some breaks along the way and the my recent adoption of a cache no longer part of the series paved the way to complete this mission.
First find was the closest to my home, Kingdom of Skullbonia by WestTNdawg on 5/11/05. Being that I knew this store and unique sign I didn't have any problems.
Geocoins going down the drain by Primofam. This one took two trips the first trip it was pouring down rain and the Legend took me everywhere but where I needed to go. Second trip on 6/9/05, the cache was found.
1st Settlement by pcsenn on 6/24/07. Another one that took more than one trip, took my girls and we found it. Very quiet cemetery, one of the best caches in Northwest Tennessee.
Firestone by MFDFircam was found on 12/29/05 along with others while caching in the area upon completion of the Bridge, No Bridge.
Now that I had one of the Shelby County caches in the series, I started to re-think my tactics and go after the series. After being disabled for a time, Empress by Empress Luci was found by myself on 7/26/06 on a hot day.
On 10/13/06, with cachestalker94 on fall break, we made a Memphis cache run and we knocked out No Way by Risket323 and Lake View by Chibongo. No Way was a hard cache and glad it was the first of the day. We completed Lake View on the way home.
Prior to attending sskaysee 1K event, I went by and found spencersb's Deja Vu cache and was thankful not to fall in the water on that one.
On a trip to Memphis, I swung by In the Rough 2.0 by Tuck Sackett on 1/26/07 and found that cache.
On 2/23/07, I nabbed Wishing Well by jbgreer. This was the first time to try out the waypoint projection on my Garmin 60csx.
In the fall, I began to kick up the intensity a bit and while in Memphis, I met up with Hoot Owl to give back the and he pointed the way for his Osprey Nest Platform trail entrance. Found that cache on 10/5/07.
Still needing two to go, one cache was no longer part of the series and I adopted it and made Garrett Lake II part of the series. With that clue I had one left and it would prove to be the most difficult. Found Up a creek up a wolf by Hoot Owl this morning. With everything set I was going after the final.
This weekend, armed with 13 of the 14 clues, I had figured out 95% of the coordinates. With today's last find, I came up to the final stage and one of the largest caches found by me in West Tennessee. It was well stocked. Normally, I don't take or leave anything, but this morning I stopped and bought a DVD "Lost Boys" a classic horror flick and placed in the cache. I also took the time to reflect on the moment. Overall, this was a better feeling then when I found my 1,000th cache. My 1K find was on a return trip from Tullahoma, I was in a hurry, traffic was bad and the cache was a simple parking lot. This find was one of the best. Thanks for Hoot Owl for this cache and all who have made this journey darting up and down and across West Tennessee and what a way to end the 2007 geocaching year out!