Johnny's Cash

Been wanting to find this virtual, Johnny's Cash for quite some time. Been making trips to Nashville on a regular basis and for the most part cached out what I wanted between Dickson and I-40 and Briley Parkway. Began to look further East of Briley and saw this cache, being the grave of the Country Music singer Johnny Cash. Not being much of a country music fan I am still intrigued with Johnny Cash's music.

Prior to the trip I was talking to Pharmd93 on the phone and told him I was going to Nashville and could spend my lunch break caching. We met in Dresden and I drove to Hendersonville, TN and found the virtual. We spent some time taking pictures and found a few easy caches nearby to complete Sumner County for the Tennessee County Challenge.

Day 4: Final Day

On Sunday, cachestalker94 and I got up early

and after a breakfast from the nearby McDonalds, we headed to the home of Rattrak in Roseville, MI. From his home, we drove to SQ-Workman's Circle, it was a great cache location at a Jewish Cemetery. We noticed the graves were in Hebrew and English. We also saw the memorial for the Jews murdered by the Nazis in World War II. Soon, we headed towards the tunnel in Detroit to take us to Windsor, Canada. First we stopped at St. Mary's Catholic Church and read the historical markers which told about the church being used as part of the Underground Railroad where runaway slaves from the South stayed before finding freedom across the river in Canada. We later visited the virtual cache The Gateway to Freedom, a monument depicting runaway slaves looking across the river to Windsor, Canada.

After the virtual find, we left the United States and drove through the tunnel into Canada. We were prepared with our passports. Thankfully having Rattrak in the car was very helpful since he crossed the border on a regular basis. We grabbed several caches in the Windsor area including two earthcaches. Windsor's Halite a salt mine and Windsor Tallgrass. With the completion of these two earthcaches, I have completed my quest for the Earthcaches Master's program and to receive the Platinum Award.

We completed many caches in the area, mostly along the river front. We liked the view along the river and the Ambassador Bridge. We stopped to shop at a couple of places, one being a Tim Horton's. A coffee/donut shop, there were many of these stores around. The locals call the stores "Timmy's". A stop there, a souvenir store downtown and the duty free store at the border gave me an opportunity to drop a few US where's george bills into the Canadian circulation.

After a delay at the US border, we drove back into Detroit and found CD - Battle of Bloody Run - SQ . The first stage was a historical marker about a massacre during the French and Indian War. Being at this spot, I can say that I have been to at least one battle site of every major conflict East of the Mississippi River. Just short of Rattrak's home, cachestalker94 wanted to try out different food and we found a Middle Eastern place, where cachestalker94 got a lamb gyro to go.

We proceeded to the airport without delay and fly home.

Day 3

I had initially planned to find 20+ caches on this day since there were so many close to where we were staying. After seeing the traffic patterns, I doubted cachestalker94 and myself would find that many. Begun the day eating the continental breakfast at the hotel and enjoying fellowship with relatives. By 8:00 AM we were off caching. We begun caching near a community college and saw so much area under construction it was difficult to get to the caches. We did find a few caches in that cluster. I saw our time began to run out and we made a beeline to the Clinton River Park. There we found three caches, including the Dodge Park Esker Earthcache which turned out to be my 1,800th find. This one was a treat since it was in reference to a glacier, something that will not be seen in Tennessee. Cachestalker94 and I found two more caches in the park, Easy Green and Wood you not like to find it?. I was very impressed with the park; most of the trails were paved and the park was busy. Even saw a black squirrel. I liked the clever hid of Wood you not like to find it? being the cache was a fake stump.

We ceased the caching after the three finds in the Clinton River Park headed over to Borders Bookstore and later the motel to ready ourselves for the wedding. This was one of the few breaks we had during our stay. After refreshing ourselves, we drove towards the chapel, finding one cache along the way, a simple park n' grab. Attended the wedding and later the reception. Had a good time visiting with relatives and making new friends.

Day 2

After arriving in Detroit, cachestalker94 and I were shuttled over to the Alamo car rental place where I let cachestalker94 pick out the car and she picked a gold colored PT Cruiser. We immediately got the laptop going and set a course going south to Luna Pier where there was a cluster of caches. I found the How Low can you go in Michigan an earthcache and really liked Your Honor Sir. This cache was at an American Legion building where there was a small monument for a fallen soldier from area who served in Iraq. We found the cache despite that the coordinates were not loaded onto my GPS and when I asked cachestalker94 to route us to the cache, she accidentally moved the waypoint. Found the cache because the container is hanging on the monument itself. At Luna Pier it was cachestalker94's first view of the Great Lakes and she took the time to put her feet in the water.

After Luna Pier, we moved onto Toledo and found a few caches on the north part of the city. It was enough to add the state of Ohio onto our profiles. It was beginning to get hot on us and we put the car back on I-75 and headed north. Our last find was a rest stop cache. I simple micro made difficult by attacking mosquitoes.

Arrived at Utica and found the motel. The drive was long and had the experience of the Michigan Left Turn. I can't say the experience was pleasant.

After regrouping at the motel, cachestalker94 wanted to go to the mall. A huge mall was located a couple of miles away, with the horrid traffic and Michigan Left Turns, the couple of miles took about 20 minutes. Found a cache at the mall and went shopping. Had dinner at Red Lobster and retired to the motel.

4 Days of caching: Day 1

Thursday, July 17 began a 4-day caching trip that took cachestalker94 and myself to caches in Clarksville, Ashland City in Tennessee to Michigan, Ohio and Windsor, Canada. The purpose of our trip was to attend a wedding for a cousin in our family in Sterling Heights, Michigan. I have family strung about in: Michigan, Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee, I have not had the opportunity to visit the relatives during their high school graduations and marriages. This time, I had the opportunity to attend. As for geocaching I set myself a few goals:

Myself to top 1,800 finds.
Cachestalker94 reach 400 finds.
Find earthcaches in two new states/countries to obtain the Platinum Earthcache Award.

Day 1:

After being delayed with repairs on my truck, we left Dresden after noon to headed towards Ashland City, Tennessee. In Ashland City, we would stay the night at the home of brickbat66 and be less than an hour from the airport instead of getting up at 4 am and drive 2 1/2 hours. Along the way we picked up a few caches along Hwy 79. The best cache we found was Riverview Cemetery by Team Hall-JTSJT. The cache was a simple micro, but I enjoyed looking at the old cemetery and reading the historical markers. We travelled onto Ashland City to a series of caches by jd_stitch in a somewhat new park. We found all the caches in the park even though it was very hot and cachestalker94 let me know about the temperature. After signing all the logs, we retired to brickbat66's home for dinner and relaxation.

Clearing Mayfield

When I begun caching in 2005, there were only two caches in Mayfield. Not a Pine Box was my first find; what I remember most about that cache was the way to get there. Being from Dresden, I recall making a couple of visits to the town. Much of what I knew about Mayfield was it was the exit to take from the Purchase Parkway going to Paducah. When we moved from Martin to Dresden, I began to make some trips to Mayfield, mostly to the Wal-Mart Supercenter which is south of town. During that trip to Not a Pine Box, I didn't have maps on my GPS and turned and turned again, over and over to get the arrow straight to take me to the hospital grounds north of town near the Purchase Parkway.

Later I returned in the same month to find, Its all right Pizza , which is a skirtlifter and was a DNF my first visit. Up to that time, I was not familiar with skirtlifters. For two years there were no new caches in the Mayfield area. The summer of 2007, new cachers began to place caches on the Mayfield area which suited me very much. First to come was The Pearl of the Purchase and Woolridge Monuments, both of these caches placed by Pirates of the Cache N Carry. The next month came a series of caches by Influence Waterfowl Calls. His caches were different on some aspects and and some were similiar to what I have found in other places. Some of his caches are based on old TV shows such as the "Dukes of Hazzard" and the move "Oh Brother, where art thou?".

In June of 2008, with help from Pharmd93, I finally cleared all the Mayfield caches with Behind the Castle Gate! being the most difficult.

Confederate Ghosts

While staying the night at the KOA Campground at Paris Landing, I took the opportunity to find the night cache Confederate Ghosts. I am a veteran of night caches, three in the LBL and one in Bartlett, TN. However, this was different, I was alone. Near the cache is a Tennessee Historical Marker which I waymarked which referenced the burial place of the Confederate soldiers who died in battle at Ft. Henry.

I found myself needing more up to date maps, I parked at the historical marked and hiked to the cache in the fading light. By the time I arrived at the starting coordinates, it was pitch black. Saw the cemetery and was in awe. A few patriotic Southerners have take the time to upkeep and mark this graves of these fallen soldiers. Being a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a 20-year veteran of military service, I said a short prayer and thanked these men who stood their posts did their duty and did what they think was right in the War Against Northern Aggression.

Proceeded onto find the cache and quickly found a set of reflectors. Note this is a night cache where one normally has to follow small reflectors to find the prize. Went on and about 200 feet away, the reflectors end. I tried and tried again and nothing. Finally, when about to give up, I called Regnad and he told me of the problem. These small reflectors, sold in the archery supplies are used by bow hunters to find their stands in the pre-dawn darkness. That was the trail I was on. Not deer hunting tonight, I wanted a cache. Regnad told me to turn the opposite direction and I quickly found the other set of reflectors and found the cache very soon. Regnad also walked me to the access road and I went that way to my truck.

I was elated to find a night cache alone and also such a great spot. Next day, I took my family to the spot and took many pictures which I will share with my Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 323.