Here is 3 year old Danger Ranger, a part of Team Sprout.
It began in Mississippi at 8:30 in the morning, where we had located a promising cache which was close-by the State line and which would be our Mississippi cache. It was in the front yard of the cache owner, in a beautiful new subdivision. We met the owner, Team Sprout, who came out to take his son Bony Maloney to school along with his 3 year old, the Danger Ranger. It turns out that Sprout had lived in Ann Arbor for 10 years and I think he was kind of happy to see Dick's M hat. We left a travel bug there - one which wanted to reach Mississippi - and we were glad to help it reach its goal. This is a log by Team Sprout that I found online this evening:
Cache Logs
March 6 by Team Sprout (511 found)
This morning Danger Ranger and I were inspired to hit the caching trail after running into a caching couple from our home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Team Sprout was in our usual rush out the door to get to work and school when I noticed a small SUV parked in front of our house. I didn't think much of it at first - but then I noticed it had all the tell-tale signs of being owned by a geocacher. It had out of state plates, a "GEO" country code sticker on back, and a Magellan Explorist plainly visible on the dash.
Of course I had to stop and introduce myself. I immediately noticed they were wearing U of M wear (That's University of MICHIGAN - not Memphis or Mississippi) and after a brief conversation to say hello found out that the couple was from from my old stomping grounds up North. They were hunting my Chateau Shinault cache so they could cross Mississippi off of their "states cached" list. Anyway, to make a long story short, they got me motivated go after some of the puzzle caches I've solved but not yet found.
Altogether today in Mississippi and Tennessee Dick and I found a grand total of 9 caches - mostly urban micros, but still unique.
Back in Memphis, we had lunch at Perkins. This is where I finally learned how to order the kind of iced tea I want - you don't say sugar-free, or no sugar please, or unsweetened tea. You ask for unsweet tea.
Then we set out to explore Memphis and check out where the riverboat tour was, etc. Stopped at McDonald's for Dick's decaf and had to wait for them to brew it. When the coffee was brought out to the car, we were given a free apple pie for having to wait. That has never happened before!
We drove through some of the less tasty sections of Memphis but found downtown with no trouble. Arrived at the riverboat place at 1 p.m. and since the tour started at 2:30 we decided to do it today. While we waited, we went over to the Memphis Welcome Center - big and beautiful. It's actually called the Elvis Presley and B.B. King Welcome Center and it boasts large statues of both men. We wanted to find the Welcome to Memphis cache, but two workers (who were definitely non-working the whole time we were there) were lounging around right where the cache would be. We tried to out-wait them, but we failed. So off we went to the riverboat ride.
It was the shortest hour and a half on record. I loved every second of it. The narrator was terrific. His explanations were clear, interesting, and understandable. His most dramatic story was the tragic sinking of the Sultana at the end of the Civil War. The name of our boat was the Memphis Queen and it was a little down-at-heel but it was comfortable and had easy access and a nice bathroom. The older I get the more important these things are!
When I was in junior high I used to enter competitions where we would recite poetry. One of the poems I learned and recited back then was Jim Bludso. I couldn't help remembering bits of it as we toured the Mighty Mississippi.
Tonight we had ribs at the Pig'n'Whistle in Bartlett. We had our choice of dry, wet, or muddy. Muddy turns out to be a combination of both wet and dry, which is the way Dick does them at home.
Things that are blooming here:
daffodils
pansies
forsythia
magnolias
some blossoming trees
dandelions
No comments:
Post a Comment