Month: April 2012

How To Kill A Gnat

No, it is not to send 150 years in the past and drop it in a Confederate Prison Camp. It turns out it is rather easy. During day one we visited the Andersonville Prison Camp, so fittingly today, our last day, we visited a spot in Thomasville that those Andersonville Prisoners were moved to temporarily to find a geocache.

Google maps reports that the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, LA is about 700 miles one way from Aiken, but we managed to accumulate 2150 miles on our round trip. We were gone 8 days, witnessed one wedding and found 37 caches in four different states, ignoring Florida, because, well, its Florida. We polished off anything needed for the three Georgia Challenges in the southwest part of that state. Plus we DNF’d three caches and accidentally ruined one other. Right now it is good to be home, but ask again on Monday morning and you might get a different answer.

On our trip through the gnat capitol of the US, southern Georgia, every time we opened the car doors to get out, be it for a driver change, a geocache expedition, or whatever, invariably several gnats would end up inside the Purple Whale. Though, not 100% effective, driving with the windows open for a bit helped, but we always still ended up two or three bouncing around on the windshield. Swatting did nothing. Neither did trying to smack them with my hat. The best method for dispatching these annoying things was to let them settle on the glass and slowly bring you thumb down on them. A quick wipe on the carpet discarded the carcass and a rub of the windshield with a sleeve removed all traces of the little buggers.

17,000 Cars On The Road With Us

For whatever reason, there was gobs of traffic heading east on I-10 with us today all through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Fortunately there were no major slow-ups, except the tunnel under Mobile Bay, so we made great time, but we were always surrounded by fast moving cars and trucks. Mysteriously, traffic thinned to almost nothing once we got into Florida and past Pensacola.

But wouldn’t you know it, but as soon as we got off I-10 to hit the back roads of Florida, we ran into a convoy of farm implements crawling along at 25MPH. The roads were hilly and curvy enough that we, along with some others, were stuck behind them for about 20 minutes. We thought we caught a break in Campbellton when 2 of the three went straight and only one turned right with us staying on Florida Route 2. It was short lived though, as those two just took a different route through town and two minutes later popped back in front of us. Sigh.

We hunted only two caches today as we wanted to make big mileage, one was in Mississippi and the other was in Alabama, bringing us to having found caches in 40% of these United States.

Tonight we are staying at the same Holiday Inn Express in Bainbridge, GA as we did Monday evening on our way west. This time it is different, and not just because we are in a different room from then, but the hotel is flirting with disaster this weekend as it is where the band Molly Hatchet is staying while playing at the 1st Annual Redneck Expo & Golf Cart Rally that’s here in town.

The Purple Whale passed the 17,000 mile level near Spanish Fort, MS.

The Wedding

This is one of only a few photos I managed to take that was neither blurry or washed out before the battery went dead. The groom is the reason we were there, Stuart, a hulk of a man child is the son of Sally, Donna’s childhood friend. The second to the left bridesmaid is Claire, Stuart’s sister. We got to watch them grow from infants to small children as they lived two doors away from us the 4 years that Donna and I lived in New Orleans. After we had gone our separate ways, us to NJ and they to VA, we always visited a couple times a year.

Tonight after the reception, Donna and I came back to the Al, Judy, Mark & Kristy Herman Room where we changed real quick, so we could go back out and grab a geocache that was physically 700′ away from our hotel, but a quarter of a mile walk away. We now have one find in Louisiana. On our trip back we plan on grabbing one in Mississippi and Alabama.

Greetings From The Al, Judy, Mark & Kristy Herman Room

Last night we were visiting one of Donna’s friends from the Navy, so we spent time catching up instead of me surfing the web (plus they didn’t have wireless.)

Today was spent on I-10 heading west in the rain. It did stop in time for us to do a brief driving tour of Donna’s childhood neighborhood that was devastated during Katrina. Donna’s Sister Sandy visited the place a year after, in 2006 and the house was empty a complete wreck. Today, their block is unrecognizable as new homes have gone up all along the street with still a few empty lots. The picture above is what stands at their old address of 6560. It is a nice house and all, but it doesn’t fit in with the look of the surrounding properties, plus the large live oaks that stood in the front and back yards are gone, replaced by small patches of grass thus removing the major part of the charm of the place.

This evening was spent watching the wedding rehearsal and eating at the rehearsal dinner of Stuart Lewis, son of Donna’s childhood friend Sally who we watched grow from a cute little baby into a big hulk of a man. Friday morning, after tomorrow evening’s nuptials, we head home, covering what took us four days to do on the way in a mere two.

While in Louisiana’s capitol city we are staying at The Cook Hotel on the campus of LSU. Like buying a brick with your name on it to support the local Veteran’s Park, alumni have sponsored rooms here, hence tonight’s post title.

Southwest Georgia Swept

Georgia Post Offices anyone?

Maybe because we didn’t travel as far today (only 200 miles instead of the 300 of the past two days), there were only a couple of items of interest to report, 1) the breakfast of choice in the small town of Colquitt, GA is a cinnamon bun and a Bud Light and 2) we saw a person riding a bicycle that you stood on and pedaled in a stair stepper motion (maybe this.)

Twelve geocaches today. Nine Georgia Counties, five GA DeLorme pages, two State Parks and one DNF.

16,000 Peanut Farms

Somewhere outside Fort Gaines, Ga the Purple Whale surpassed the 16,000 mile mark. Today we visited 2 Georgia State Parks and a State Conservation Park. We scored caches in 3 GA DeLorme Map Pages and 11 Georgia Counties. Along the road today we spotted a fox squirrel, a turtle and a field mouse. We also spotted Jesus carrying a cross and a naked lady with a lizard in her hair.