been packed and ready for 3 days! At first we were delayed because Dick
caught a horrendous cold, and felt too sick to hit the road. When he
was feeling better, Mother Nature put in her two cents, and sent some
really nasty weather our way - not really good driving conditions! When
the weather improved, then I came down with Dick's cold, so we were delayed another day.
Finally today, we're off and running! Our plan is to go to Memphis for two or
three days, and then head up to St. Louis for another couple of days,
and then take back roads home. Our real aim is to do caching in
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Missouri. The REAL aim is to eventually find a cache in
every State of the Union. In Memphis we also want to have ribs at the
Rendezvous (if we can find it again), and maybe do a steamboat ride on
the Mississippi.
When we left today the roads were snow covered. The highway was like a two track in the snow. The snow fell steadily and created a kind of "snog" - a snowy condition that resembled fog. It was like that all the way down to Three Rivers, where we stopped for the night. We did some caching in the area -Sturgis, Nottawa, Centreville, etc. At one point the highway sign said Underground Railroad Memorial Highway We had no idea it was there.
It's Amish country around Three Rivers. We passed three or four buggies during the afternoon. We couldn't positively identify Amish homes, but we could tell there was heavy horse and buggy traffic by the number of road apples decorating the shoulders of the road. The stereotype of the Amish is that they are good people and wonderful neighbors, but they do make things more difficult for joggers and dog walkers along the road!
Here is Dick's log for the covered bridge cache we did today:
Found it 3/3/2007 You found Covered Bridge Cache (Traditional Cache)
We are on a trip south to find spring and we found heavy snow
warnings with blowing and drifting. We wanted a cache that was not a Micro in a parking lot and this was just the ticket. Found it today a little after 3, just after checking in to the motel. Nice area, with the snow and wind we had the park to ourselves.
Took a winter candle, it seemed appropriate, and left a stuffed toy, a couple of match box cars, a pencil sharpener and a glue stick. We loved the bridge and we did honk but with the heater cranked up we could barely hear it. Thanks for the adventure.
Dinner tonight at The Oasis was another adventure. First of all, we waited with others to be seated, and we felt right at home (!) with the Nascar and Harley jackets, the 48 hat and the cap from The Anderson's of Maumee. After we were seated, the booth behind Dick filled up with two couples, one Mennonite couple with the wife wearing her crisply starched cap and the husband with a full Amish-type beard. The other couple was a typical farm couple - not Mennonite. I thought that maybe the two couples were neighbors.
It snowed relentlessly the whole time we were there - I think we got at least an inch during dinner.
