A Geocaching Day

We went geocaching today. The weather is still a bit chilly but the beautiful sunshine just beckoned us to come out and play. We researched four caches hidden in the general vicinity of where we are camped, entered the coordinates into our trusty GPS, copied all the clues and set out on our hunt. Well, three out of four isn’t too bad especially since one of the caches is considered difficult and many seasoned geocachers have come up empty handed when looking for this one.

The first cache was hidden at a neighborhood ballpark. It was tagged “pine nut.” By following our coordinates and clues we were able to find it after a fashion. This was not a great scenic place but it gave us some experience in using our GPS and following the clues to find the cache. From here we journeyed to our second cache which was hidden in an obscure area beside a small business strip. The clue was important cause the coordinates had us going in all directions. Mike was about to head back to the laptop and get more information and then I remembered the title of the cache and that lead us right to the location. There is method to titles of chahes. Next we journeyed to the local cemetery but as the clue said….we didn’t have to go inside. It took a good deal of searching but we finally located this cache. Our last geocache of the day took us to a little red caboose sitting beside city hall in Pine Mountain. It is a neat area with a gazebo for relaxing and an authentic train caboose to explore. You just can’t go inside. This cache eluded us. We actually went back twice and we still haven’t been able to find it. Both of us hate for something to beat us so we just might return and search another day.
The caboose did lead us to a really neat art gallery right across the street. We met the gentleman that runs the gallery and he told us a little about the mural on the side of the building. It was painted by a local artist that lives in the Callaway Gardens Long Leaf area. It took him from March until August, about 300 hours, to complete this mural of the local trains that have been known to travel through the Pine Mountain area. I also found out that Pine Mountain has been called by three names - Hood, 1880, Chipley, 1882 and Pine Mountain in 1958. I knew about the name of Chipley but not Hood. I learned something new today.

Tonight is another cold night with temperatures dipping into the high 20’s. We’ll disconnect the hose again to be on the safe side. Tomorrow night should be our last cold evening for awhile and we should begin to warm up. It’s been a great day and we hope your day was great as well.