174
28 September - Should I move on or stay put? I was in somewhat of a dilemma this morning in deciding between staying another day here or moving on. I decided to stick around. I am eager to get to the Great Smoky Mountains but have been dragging my feet, err, wheels, due to the recent heavy rains in Tennessee. My National Parks pass expires at the end of the month, so I definitely wanna get there NLT the 30th. The current forecast is calling for lots of sunshine over the next few days so, if I wait until the very last day of the month it will give the park a couple of extra days to dry out a bit more. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.
I decided to go for a geowalk this afternoon to get a little exercise and to check out the town of Williamsburg. I had 7 caches on my list to track down. Here’s how the hunt went.
Cache #1: This one was hidden in a typical parking lot location just a few feet from where Daisy was parked. I had recently read/heard somewhere that “under the cover of light and just above the yellow” is America’s most popular hiding place. It was an easy find however, just after retrieving it, a muggle shows up and parks adjacent to the cache site, preventing me from safely returning the cache. So, I wait, and wait, and wait some more, for this dude to go away but, he ain’t going anywhere. So, I decide that since I’m burning up daylight hours, I would put the cache in my rig for now and replace it when I returned from my geowalk.
Cache #2: This one was within a half of mile of the 1st one but on the other side of the freeway, which normally is not a big deal however, it was today. No sidewalks and no crosswalks were anywhere to be found. So, I’m darting about trying to get across this major roadway with it’s numerous busy on/off ramps without dying. Obviously, I made it but it wasn’t easy. As I approached the cache site I see that the area is teeming with landscapers doing their Monday lawn duties. No biggie, just another task for me to do on my return trip.
Cache #3: This one turned out to be on the banks of the Cumberland River, and after walking, actually it was more like rambling, down the narrow highway without sidewalks for several minutes and across a train trestle without a walkway, I arrived at the Cumberland River Bridge, only to realize that I can’t get to the river or the cache from there, or could I? After several minutes of deliberating, I decided to take the water flume that went down, (read: straight down) to the riverside. I got about halfway down and was having 2nd and 3rd, and even 4th, thoughts about my decision to defy gravity but, it was too late, as I was already committed. I’m not sure how I did it but, by the grace of God, I made it safely down without incident. I then continued on down a narrow windy river road, of course with no sidewalks, as cars zipped-by until I finally got to the cache site. Here I found a couple of dubious looking country bumpkins just sitting around in their mid-1900s pickup watching the weeds grow. So now, here I am standing around like a dork trying to look unsuspicious while waiting for Earl and Randy to get a life. After what seemed like hours they finally took off and I located the cache without any further turmoil. Now, to get back up that hill.
Cache #4: After recalling my escalation and mountain goat training, followed by some extreme huffin’ and puffin’, I made it back to the top of the hill. Now for the walk across the bridge. It had no safety barrier for pedestrians and semis and other heavy equipment vehicles were whizzing pass me like crazy. Yikes! And, it was all for naught. When I reached the other side of the river, I realized that the only way to the other caches was along a highway that snaked up, around, and disappeared out of site into the hillside. I finally conceded defeat.
Cache #2 (revisited): My trip back to the RV was along the same treacherous trek I took going out, as I could not find a better return route. En route I stopped at cache site #2. It was now void of any worker bees and I had the whole place to myself. Finally, things were looking up. NOT! After all that, I couldn’t find that little sucker cache anywhere. Pretty much on par for today’s course.
Cache #1 (revisited): You won’t believe this but, after almost 3 hours of dodging, darting, and rambling, that guy was still sitting in his car by the cache. I couldn’t take it anymore and went over and confronted him with a “hey dude, what’s up?” As it turned out, he worked at WalMart. Previously he had been waiting for his shift to start and now he was on his break. After a few minutes of chit-chat he returned to work, and I returned the cache, undetected, to it’s rightful home. What a day of caching adventure that was, and I only found 2 of 3. Oh well, that just goes to show you, it’s not always how many you find that’s exciting, it’s the journey.
