June Trip Wrap-up

 We have been home for a week and have recovered from crazy traffic and tree-lined interstates roads. 

good-bye Nashville

fly over Nashville's skyline

almost home

So, as I mentioned in the first post this trip was a bucket list item: traveling to all 50 states. The other benefit from this adventure was now we have geocached in 48 states.

We found the oldest cache in Georgia, placed June 3, 2000.

And we found the oldest cache in North Carolina, Octopus Garden GC70 placed September 30, 2000 and has 1047 favorite points. We did not reach the oldest cache in South Carolina. (Read that blog post.)

5 counties with geocaches in South Carolina

12 caches total

13 counties with geocaches in North Carolina

84 caches found 

and finally, Tennessee

the 4 counties on the far left of the map were from the 2016 trip

20 counties added this trip

60 caches found and signed

These are the cache types found: traditional, virtual, earth cache, multi, unknown, web cam, letter box, whereigo, and adventure lab. Hubby's trip summary 197 geocaches (includes 30 adventure labs) and 47 additional counties; 1872 miles driven. 

It is good to be home, busy after 12 days of being away, but a good busy. It is hot with temps in the 90s and very little rain. 

TN Road Trip

 Wednesday was a day for traveling back to Nashville, by way of adding several counties and some interesting and historical sites to the day's travels.

I have commented to some other geocachers how an area has become so saturated with Adventure Labs that they have used rest areas to place them. Well, today I had to eat my words. This was a rest area that could be reached by both east bound and west bound traffic, but unlike KS where the rest areas might be in the median of the two roads, this one was off to the side of the east bound travel.

a sun dial

headstone in a family cemetery

the family plot

I knew Eisenhower got credit for the Interstate system

but now I know the "Rest of the Story..."

This was such a cool stop! We got credit for 8 geocaches at this location. I had mentioned to Hubby's cousin about the cemetery that was at this location. They had no idea. They do now.

cone flowers

Then we drove to the community of Lebanon for another set of Adventure Lab caches and found some other interesting  locations because of geocaching.

I loved how two corners of the Public Square roundabout really were street corners. Some of the buildings were original. All the buildings were occupied. The square was very busy at noon with all kinds of motor traffic and foot traffic.

Colonel Hatten in the center of the Public Square

a log cabin near the center of town

and Sam Houston's Law office on a side street

another very interesting Adventure Lab

a great way to learn some history of a community

Then we headed to another part of town and found the city offices which were once the Castle Heights Military Academy. The architectural style of the buildings, early 1900, are stunning.

the academy opened in 1902

first graduating class in 1905, with less than 10 graduates

it closed in 1987, as a military academy

all the buildings are in use, including a restaurant

location of a geocache

can you guess where?

and more cone flowers from the Town Square in Lebanon

Smoky Mountains National Park

 Tuesday's road trip took us from Sylva NC to Cookeville TN, through the Smoky Mountains on the border of the two states. It was a perfect day for driving; cooler temperatures, less humidity and blue sky with some big white clouds.

sign outside the Visitors Entrance

mostly ignored by the people entering

We pulled off for 3 stops. The first was for a virtual geocache at Grist Mill, then at this stop (photo above) - the first with a distant view and the third stop at Newfound Gap.

it is green in this part of the country

I bet it is even more beautiful in the fall when the leaves turn color

Newfound Gap

It was at this pull-off parking area we realized there were many visitors in the park. I bet the parking lot had room for 100 vehicles and nearly everyone of them was occupied. We took some photos and answered the questions for the earth cache. When we left the lot, we realized there was some road construction ahead of us.

we were maybe 20 cars behind the pilot vehicle

we waited nearly 30 minutes

our next pull off was closed because of 

construction vehicle parking

(the road construction - grinding down for a new coating

was less than 0.5 miles)

when we were allowed to move forward

the line of waiting cars in the other lane was 3 miles long

My other wish once I knew the route of our road trip, was to drive through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Falls. I wasn't certain what I expected at either community, I just wanted to see for myself. OMG! The sidewalks through Gatlinburg were wall-to-wall people before noon. Driving the two miles through the town was like driving through Keystone SD in the height of summer tourist season times 50. We could not have stopped to shop even if we had wanted to do so. There are no photos as I was so busy looking at all the people and the touristy shops.

 

Pigeon Forge is about 5 miles further down Highway 441. It also had lots of people, but they were all parked at the HUGE parking lot for Dollywood, off the highway. We mostly saw the hotels and lodging for the visitors. The sidewalks were far less crowded than the neighboring community. We didn't stop here either, other than to grab some fast food and continue on down the road. Caches to get. Places to go. People to meet.

and earlier in the day...

a couple of wildflower photos

Now it is back to Nashville for our flight home on Thursday evening. It has been a good trip, but we are both ready to leave the busy highways and many people for South Dakota.

TN to GA

Wednesday was a travel day. We left Nashville before 8 AM, having about 250 miles to reach our destination north and east of Atlanta. 

Rain and sprinkles, fog and low lying clouds traveled with us most of the day.

We had a few geocaches on the list of Must Do. We reached Chattanooga before noon.

Miss W would LOVE this for her Barbie doll house. She could fill every room with the requested birthday and Christmas gift furniture she has received. Some kind soul turned it into a large geocache container! Large size containers are hard to find, so we were happy to find this one.

Then it was off to the Chattanooga Convention Center to find the web cam for another rare type of geocache.

Georgia was just a few miles south of Chattanooga. The obligatory photo. This was Hubby's first visit to GA, but I had been to Atlanta years ago to attend a convention. No need to see Atlanta again!

The rain picked up shortly after leaving TN. We had about 130 miles to travel to get to our destination once we left Chattanooga. Google says it would take 2.5 hours. It took almost 5 hours! Traffic was heavy. The rain was challenging. The vehicles beside the road were numerous. As Hubby says, "Don't have to drive to Atlanta again!" Hopefully the weather and the traffic will be better for the trip to Augusta.

Nashville

A spur of the moment decision last month had me booking a trip to Nashville TN because: 

1. Allegiant Air flies non-stop from Sioux Falls to Nashville

2. Nashville would get us in the area of Georgia and the two Carolinas, the last 3 continental states we need for geocache finds in the lower 48

3.  The ticket price was very reasonable

4. I have a niece in NC who doesn't get many family visitors 

5. We didn't travel last year for our 50th Anniversary

6. By traveling to these last 3 states, we will have visited all 50 US states, one of my bucket list items

It just seemed like lots of stuff happened since the MINGO trip in early May. The camper needed repair work. The truck had an issue and needed some attention. There were some family things happening like sisters-in-law birthday celebrations, a week-long visit from my mother, a 30 year Desert Storm Reunion weekend and a high school graduation, all in the two weeks prior to the Nashville trip. 

We left for the Nashville trip on Sunday, the day of our 51st anniversary. The plane was on time (after several notifications of delays throughout Sunday) and the rental car office was open (closes at midnight) and the rental car was waiting. The hotel we booked was near the airport, so all was well. We spent Monday geocaching as we had a list we wanted to find. We spent most of our time on the college campuses in Nashville: Vanderbilt, Peabody, and University School of Nashville. 

Tuesday was a day for playing tourist. On the recommendation of my sister-in-law, we booked the RedNeck Bus Tour of Nashville. It was more of a comedy tour (as advertised) and less of a city tour. There is not a single photo of that tour after we got on the bus! But it was nearly two hours of laughter! After the tour we did some more geocaching to complete our Must Find list in Nashville.

Gil, our camoed school bus driver

a partner attribute cache

fossils at Fort Negley

an Adventure Lab

my all time favorite Adventure Lab 

There are 10 books in the City Cemetery giving information on some of the people and sharing historical information about the time and city. It was so cool to read the info.

a War of 1812 Veteran

the rock placed above Lucy Steele

Governor Carroll's monument

could not find a name for this intricate monument

Then we went to the state capital grounds to visit the tomb of James Polk (for a geocache).

Andrew Jackson statue on the capital grounds

Tennessee's state capital building

We head to Georgia on Wednesday, for geocaching, not as tourists. I have been to Atlanta and do not need to return.