R&R Part Four: Final

Final post of the two weeks of leave from Kuwait and this blog post will focus on some of the caches I liked. My caching begun when my R&R process begun at Ali Al Salem airbase and my favorite was Cache, Log & Email where I introduced two soldiers to the sport. I ended up with five finds before leaving Kuwait. Arrived in Memphis, Tiger130 and bitbrain were there and transported me to Jackson. A couple of the clever hides was in Union City, Water Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink and Skirt of a Different Color by TeamKC. Spent a couple of days with relatives in Olive Branch, MS, picking up some park and grabs and later two category finds in Overton Park. The following week, I headed to New York. Stayed the night in Ashland City, TN picking up hanging out a wally world and that afternoon I found my first New York cache What a Visita. Those two cache finds on one day, broke my old record of 440 cache to cache miles to about 800. While in New York, the most impressive cache was The Empire Strikes Back, a virtual on the 86th floor observation deck on the Empire State Building. I also liked Riftstone in Central Park which was within sight of The Dakota where John Lennon was shot. One thing I noticed about Riftsone, it's a physical cache with well over 1,000 finds, something I don't run across very often.

Giving Kailee an opportunity for some driving experience, she drove to McKenzie where I preformed cache maintenance and then we went onto Parker's Crossroads Battlefield for The Force was Divided. The weather was not the best that day, but we did walk the battlefield.

On my last day in the United States, pcsenn drove me to the airport in Memphis and we found Aerotropolis TB Hotel and while in Atlanta, a US Navy Officer and myself found A Different Species of Big Silver Bird.

That concluded my R&R trip with 73 finds, adding two to my category grid, kayaking, bicycling, a new state (New York) and caching by subway.

R&R Part Three: Caching and Kayaking

This is a continuation of a series of blog entries from my R&R leave in August 2010. While home on leave, I extended my consecutive days with a find to 18, shattering my old record of 11 and did amass 73 finds during that time. The finds were in Kuwait, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, New York and Georgia. During that time I cleaned up my kayak and made one cache run with pcsenn where he borrowed a kayak and we went after Half Moon Island which turned into more of an adventure than expected. Using satellite imagery, we were going to launch the kayaks from Devil's Elbow on the LBL side of Lake Barkley but construction had closed that part of the LBL. Launching from Devil's Elbow would have been a short 1,200 foot paddle. However, we found a public landing near Ode to lil pirate where we paddle just over a mile to the island going broadside with the current and wind. The cache was missing and with permission from the cache owner, I replaced the cache with a .50 caliber ammo can and locked it to a tree. It should be safe from future muggles and flooding. We went back to the landing and then went after Little River/Goat Island cache. We paddled about seven tenths of a mile for this one and didn't fight the current and wind. We did see some goats on the island.

We settled to clean up the caches at Lake Barkley State Park, where I found, barley's bush, Hanging Bridge at Barkley, Blue Springs Trail Cache and Barkley Fitness Center Trail. We also enjoyed a good lunch at the state park. We returned to Paducah, KY to return the kayak and grabbed a few park and grab micros along the route. Upon returning home, I winterized my kayak for next year.

Stayed tuned for the next part of the series.

R&R Part Two: New York

Since deploying to Kuwait in late February of this year, I had been in correspondence with a friend of mine in Long Island, New York about making a trip to New York during my R&R Leave. With my dates set; I purchased an airline ticket through Southwest Airlines on April 30th.

Began my leave on August 16th and after a week at home I drove to Nashville, TN on the 21st for an early morning flight. The flight had a stop in Chicago, IL and landed in the rain at LaGuarida Airport in Queens, NY. My friend was there to pick me up and he drove to the village of Sea Cliff, NY to visit his home and lunch in a small restaurant and then spent the rest of the afternoon at Sagamore Hill, the home of former US President Teddy Roosevelt. Learned that even though President Roosevelt was a progressive politician, he did not embrace new technology at home disliking electricity, automobile and the telephone. I was intrigued with President Roosevelt's collection of animals from his African Safari's. While at Sagamore Hill we did walk down to the water's edge and see Oyster Bay. Afterwards we returned to Sea Cliff.

We got up late the next day which was on purpose to avoid the morning commute to Brooklyn, NY. We arrived and spent some time finding a place to park. This was not my first visit to one of the largest cities in the world and didn't take long for me to appreciate the country life of West Tennessee. After parking, I marked the car's position on GPS which would aid us some that evening. We walked along the Brooklyn Promenade and took pictures of the Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn Bridge in the light rain. We walked across the nearly two miles across the Brooklyn Bridge and took some time to view the awesome sights from the bridge. After getting soaked by the rain, we walked to Chinatown where I saw Columbus Park which was once the location of Five Points which was the setting of the movie Gangs of New York. While in Chinatown we stopped to get of the rain and have lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant, where I enjoyed Chinese type food with a French flavor.

After lunch we walked to the World Trade Center site and saw the construction of the Freedom Tower and wanted to visit the site of the 9/11 attack. We continued walking and hiked towards the Hudson River and into Greenwich Village. In the village, we boarded a subway and traveled to 72nd street and walked to The Dakota. Took pictures and saw the location where John Lennon was shot. We walked across the street to visit Central Park, find a geocache and see the memorial for the Ex-Beatle. We once again boarded a subway and made our way toward the Empire State Building. During the visit to the 86th floor observation deck, I felt we were one of the few Americans on the floor and my friend might have been the only New Yorker. After the Empire State Building we once again boarded a subway and traveled to Brooklyn. We arrived back at Sea Cliff and dined at an Italian Restaurant.

The last day we visited local sights around Sea Cliff then back to Queens for my flight home via Dulles Airport in Baltimore/Washington D.C.

R&R Part One

This is the first installment of a multiple part series of my R&R leave that began on August 15 and ended on September 3. This part will be about time spent with family. Later parts will reflect on travels and geocaching.

We left Arifjan sometime after midnight on the 15th of August for Ali Al Salem where we went through more briefings and instructions about leave. In between briefs, I did manage to find a computer at the MWR and send messages to those who would transport me once I arrived in Memphis, TN and let them know the latest news. About mid-day the lockdown process begun and I went through security and customs. Wisely, I choose not to have any checked bags and only a carry-on. Much of the afternoon was a hurry up and wait. In the early evening we boarded buses for the airport in Kuwait City and then onto the Freedom Bird that took us to the United States via Shannon, Ireland, sleeping much of the way after taking a Tylenol PM. We had a stop in Ireland and I took advantage of the duty free shopping to pick up a few small items. Took off from Ireland and took another Tylenol PM and went back to sleep. Awoke near Atlanta and landed there around 7 am EST. After making calls of my arrival, I proceed to hear another briefing and went through customs....again. Didn't take long and found the kiosk for Delta in an attempt to find an earlier flight. Everything was booked and took my chances on a stamd-by. I was told of a flight to Memphis that was leaving in about 45 minutes. Immediately, I headed for the gate and was able to get on the flight.

Arrived in Memphis about an hour and half-later where fellow geocachers from Tennessee were there to greet me and transport me to Jackson, TN. bitbrain greeted me in the airport lobby and Tiger130 drove me to Jackson where I met my wife. From Jackson, we went home where I saw the remodeling of the house. Much of the work I liked. Since I arrived before school was dismissed, I drove to Dresden High School and picked up my oldest daughter, Kailee. From the high school, we drove to the Elementary School and visited with my youngest daughter, Carolina.

During my stay at home, we did make a trip to Olive Branch, MS to attend a wedding and visit some of my cousins. While in Olive Branch, I treated the family to a dinner at a Japanese Steak/Sushi Restaurant. We also visited the Memphis Zoo and Brooks Museum located in Overton Park in Memphis, TN. I visited Carolina at school, ate lunch with her and spoke to her 2nd grade class about Kuwait and about what we were doing in Kuwait and Iraq. Did take the girls out on a couple of bike rides, one in Wingo, KY and another on the Brian Brown Greenway in Martin, TN. I was also home for Carolina's 8th birthday and did participate in her party. While at home, we attended church at Dresden First Baptist and stayed for the Homecoming celebration.

Stayed tuned for more, which will be of my trip to New York and kayaking on Lake Barkley.