All posts by Gary or Joyce

Auto Train Trip-Florida & Home! Tuesday 6/25/2024

Up at 6 AM due to the alarm that went off unexpectedly! Didn’t check to make sure it was off at bedtime last night! Oh, well, we could organize our day and begin our journey home. After breakfast from hotel supplies, we packed up and were on our way around 9:15 AM.

We cached our way home as follows:

Carillon Park, Luray Virginia (sadly, no music during the week)
Samuels Public Library, Front Royal Virginia
3 Guardrail letterbox caches along the highway in Maryland

Today’s drive from Harrisonburg VA to home was along familiar roads that we have traveled for years. We took US 33 from Harrisonburg to US 340 through Harpers Ferry WV, Boonesboro, MD, Thurmont, MD and Westminster, MD. Today we covered 5 states and 215 miles. Ms. Merlot also passed the 82,000 mile mark along the way! Making the 3-week journey a total of 2,960 miles.

Arrived home around 5 PM today. Turned on the water in the house, lowered the air conditioner for a more comfortable temperature, unloaded the car and enjoyed our usual arrival dinner of Chef Joyce’s homemade pizza (previously frozen) and a very nice sparkling rose!

A little TV from our usual stations, some laundry, watered the plants and did a bit of catching up on all the things we missed while traveling.

Great trip all around. No car issues, fun doing different things we can enjoy together and visits with family we don’t see very often.

Auto Train Trip Florida & Beyond–Sunday & Monday–Railroads, Geocaches & a Waterfall

SUNDAY 6/23 Train to Bald Knob

Today was mostly about the Cass Railroad! We arrived around 10:30 AM at the parking lot for the Cass Company Store. Parked in the shade based on observations from a previous day. Then located the best photographer positions to take photos of the departure of the 2-hour round trip train.

Next, we converted our ticket receipt for a better ticket for the 12 Noon train to Bald Knob–a 4.5 hour round trip. Joyce’s good negotiation skills got us moved to the last car on the train–away from the locomotive! Boarded the train a few minutes before departure accepting the hobo lunch (ham & cheese on a bun, applesauce, chips & cookie) from the conductor as we boarded.

Returned from the great ride at 4:30 PM. Back to the house, prepared our contribution for the family dinner with those that stayed an extra night.

MONDAY 6/24 Green Bank Observatory

Began gathering our spread out “stuff” to repack and load Ms. Merlot for our drive north–destination uncertain! On our way about 9 AM. Our first stop was to take a tour at the Green Bank Observatory. See https://greenbankobservatory.org/ for more information.

Enjoyed the tour. There were two geocaches to find on the way today. And find them we did! In the seeds section of a library and at a waterfall.

Stopped in Bridgewater Virginia (where we went to college) to visit Joyce’s Aunt Janet. Had a lovely time on her porch at the Bridgewater Retirement Community. Left about 7 PM for our hotel in Harrisonburg, VA.

Checked in about 7:15 PM. Chef Joyce prepared another lovely dinner of rotisserie chicken, mixed rice, applesauce and rolls (leftover from the reunion). Also, cookies from the bakery in West Virginia saved from Friday. And a lovely rose sparkling wine.

The usual-a little TV (msnbc here….) and to bed!

Auto Train Trip Florida & Beyond Lenoir, TN To Wise, VA 6/18/2024

We left the Holiday Inn Express in Lenoir TN around 9:30 AM with a stop at the local grocery chain Food City. Another chance to use the member card for savings!

In the afternoon, we cached our way southeast crossing into Kentucky via Cumberland Gap tunnel (oops, missed the turn and returned to TN through the same tunnel) and then into Virginia. We cached our way to the distillery and then Wise, Virginia. But first, the morning…

We had two DNF caches near Lenoir City, TN Food City and Knoxville TN. Our first find of the day was in a small business park that made us smile!

Joyce has wanted to go to a Buc-ee’s, but they are on interstates. On our ways to Buc-ee’s via a state route, we found another cache in a park near Knoxville. Did a quick tour of Buc-ee’s and bought nothing but gas.

Driving on we passed through Blaine and Tazwell TN, Pennington Gap VA where we stopped to visit the AXE Handle Distillery. Tasty mint julep and an Old Fashioned.

We arrived at our hotel around 6:30 PM. Enjoyed dinner of spaghetti with tomato sauce, toast and a spinach salad.

Auto Train Trip, Etc – Monday 6/17/2024

A more leisurely start to the day!  After breakfast we packed up for today’s travels.  It took a bit longer as we were more spread out since we were two days at this hotel.

We departed a little after 10 AM and stopped at the nearby Lane Motor Museum for the first cache of the day.  Unfortunately it was a Did Not Find.  Driving another 7 miles to the Ellington Agricultural Center for a successful find! Gary discovered what appeared to be a dragonfly near the cache location.

Another 83 miles down US 70 we stopped for another successful find at the Sparta TN park to stretch our legs and use the facilities.

The big stop of the day was to photograph a waterfall at the Ozone Falls State Natural Area.  It was a walk similar to Rickets Glen down a steep trail over rocks and boulders but only 1/4 mile!  Tricky!  Nevertheless, we were successful getting down and up.  Thankful for our hiking poles as an extra leg!  Not a bad way to spend 1-1/2 hours.

Stopped in the Kingston TN city park 5:30 PM Eastern Time to book a hotel for tonight.  That’s right we crossed from CDT to EDT and the clocks changed from 4:30 to 5:30 in a matter of minutes!  Lost another hour today…

Arrived at out hotel at 6 PM, checked in and enjoyed a light dinner from supplies while watching TV since we had lunch around 4 PM while driving.

Auto Train Trip Sunday 6/16/2024 More Of Nashville

In an unusual travel activity for use, we booked two tours of iconic places in Nashville. We had originally thought we might go see a show at the Grand Ole Opry, but at ticket prices between $185 and $300 we abandoned this idea almost immediately. The backup idea was to go to The Bluebird Cafe, but no tickets were available. Hence, the tours!

Following breakfast, we boarded Ms. Merlot at 9AM for the 12-mile drive to the Grand Old Opry. Yep, you probably knew it was not in center city Nashville anymore, but we discovered it was quite outside of town in conversation with a security person at the Ryman Auditorium when we were geocaching on Saturday.

Fortunately we were able to find a free parking spot in the shade of a tree in the mall parking lot. Just a short walk to the box office for help getting our phone to display the tickets and waiting about 10 minutes for our tour time. The tour of the Grand Old Opry was great. Learned a few things from the tour guide and enjoyed seeing the backstage operations.

Geocaching & City Scenes

Grand Ole Opry

We were back in Ms. Merlot (still in the shade) around 11 AM for the drive to center city for some geocaching and a tour of the Ryman Auditorium. Parked in the library garage for $10 for the day. Then we were off to find some geocaches. Lunch at the Shake Shack near the garage before the Ryman.

Self-guided Tour of the Ryman

Started our self-guided Ryman tour around noon and were finished about 3 PM. Just as we were returning to the parking garage, the sky opened up with heavy showers. Made it just in time before the heaviest rain.

Back to the hotel for a quiet evening.

Auto Train Trip Florida Etc Saturday 06/15/2024

Heading For Nashville TN

Okay, we were on our way near the usual hour at 9:15 AM. Heading for Nashville, TN where we intended to find some geocaches and maybe take in some of the history of bluegrass!

Gary seemed to have a lead foot on the accelerator today and once on the way, we made only a few stops and took next to no photos for today! Our first stop was near the University of Alabama Huntsville to drop off a geocoin we have been carrying around since our trip to Vermont to see the total eclipse in April. We dropped it off at the National Space Science Center research building where a safe travel bug hotel was maintained. We visited previously on a road trip with Micah and could not claim another find, but dropping off the geocoin was a primary reason to stop again.

Driving another uninterrupted 2 hours, we stopped at the Tinkerbell Playground in Franklin TN to enjoy lunch from supplies and find another geocache near the ping pong table where we had to wait out some muggles before we could do the search. Delaware hiker found it!!

Back in the car we headed for the Holiday Inn Express with a short stop to feed Ms. Merlot at a Circle K station. Checked in at the hotel and were graciously upgraded to a king suite by the hotel desk manager. Only because we wanted a microwave in the room–and Oboegary is a Gold Member….!

Almost immediately we headed for center city Nashville to scope out tomorrow’s plans, take in the sights/sounds and claim some adventure lab geocaches. It was similar to New Orleans, but really boisterous even at 4 pm. Found inexpensive parking at the center city Library/City parking garage–only $9 for today’s visit.

Then we decided to check out the Grand Old Opry location where we have to pick up our tickets for Sunday’s tour. It is miles away and part of a tourist destination complete with super mall.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed dinner of chicken and rice, applesauce and bread along with a nice L’effet papillon rose wine. Thanks to Helen & Marv for the ‘eating from supplies’ compartmented plates.

A litttle TV, blogging and bedtime! Tomrorow we have to see about getting to the various venues that we signed up for!

Auto Train Trip Florida 6/14/24 To Get The Oldest Caches in MS & AL For Delaware Hiker (Joyce) & Oboegary

The plan for today was to get the oldest geocaches in Mississippi and Alabama. After a good night’s rest and breakfast from the hotel supplies, we were on our way around 9 AM (the usual….)

Our hotel was only about 2 miles from the Bonita Reservoir Park where the oldest cache in Mississippi is located. We booked this hotel so we could start the hike before the heat of the day. Easily found a parking spot in partial shade, got out our phones with geocaching apps on them and began the uphill hike to seek this special geocache.

Found it! Signed the log and took some photos.

After this success, there was a travel bug hotel where Delaware Hiker planned to leave a travel bug Duck from one of our Delaware geocachers. It took us a while to navigate the trails in the park to actually find this one. Turns out it was not a good place to leave this travel bug.

Signed the log, claimed the find and headed back to the car. Delaware Hiker never stops looking for “just one more” cache to find. And so it was, she found another just a few hundred feet off the road back to the parked car. Oboegary left the road for the bushwhack through the woods, but it was Delaware Hiker who actually found it. The container was large enough to leave the Duck travel bug.

Back to the car, we began our journey for the oldest cache in Alabama around 11 AM. Using Google Maps to navigate with filters to Avoid Highways and Avoid Tolls, it took us through some really remote parts of Alabama. The traffic was light though!

Along the way Delaware Hiker could not resist another geocache! It was in a park in Montevallo, AL where a geocacher had discovered carved statues in hurricane damaged cedar trees. It was a nice break! Geocaching often takes you to see the unexpected!

Then on our way to find the oldest geocache in AL, Delaware Hiker discovered another challenge cache in Helena AL that she wanted to look for. Parked in the lot of the Methodist church and began our search. We were almost ready to give up, when DH spotted it! Another find for the day! Signed the log with no photo!

Checked in to the hotel around 4 PM. Did some laundry before heading out to find the oldest geocache in AL. Then a short ride to the Trussville Park and a short walk to find the cache!

Then on to get dinner at Rodney Scott’s BBQ. Tasty and leftovers for another day!

Auto Train Trip Florida Thu 6/13

Thursday 6/11/2024

Today we made a change of plans! We decided to expand our search for lighthouse photos by going south and then turning north going around the west side of Lake Pontchartrain! Today we drove 415 miles to accomplish the additional lighthouses plus a few geocaches! And Ms. Merlot turned over 80,000 miles (128,747 Km) on today’s travels.

The first stop was Berwick, LA where we claimed a virtual geocache plus the Southwest Reef Lighthouse.

Our second stop for a lighthouse was at the Madisonville, LA boat launch.

We crossed the Mississippi River twice today!

We found 3 geocaches today–two virtuals plus a gadget cache.

Arrived in Meridian, MS around 6:30 PM for our stay at the Hampton Inn. Getting here improves our plans to get the oldest geocache in Mississippi tomorrow before the day gets too hot as it includes a short hike. Dinner tonight from Chef Joyce’s hands was bowtie pasta in tomato sauce accompanied by nice bread and Barbera d’Alba red wine.

Auto Train Trip Florida Wed 6/12

Wednesday 6/12

After breakfast at the hotel, we left around 9:30 for Fort Morgan in hopes of getting a different view of the Sand Island LH. Paid the admission fee ($10 for 2 seniors), parked and walk to the elevated battery. Lucky! A big ship was just passing by. Finished up around 10:40 and departed for the ferry to Dauphin Island.

Paid the ferry fare at 10:47. Now to wait until 11:45 for the next crossing. Although we were in lane 4, they loaded us so we were in the center section of the ferry. What a surprise–we were in the first group to exit the ferry!

Next stop was Round Island Lighthouse. Then, on to find a letterbox cache. Turns out it was at an ice cream shop at a time that a cool dessert was appreciated.

Next stop was to see the Biloxi Mississippi lighthouse. We arrived around sunset at the New Canal Lighthouse in New Orleans.

Then to the hotel after a circuitous drive through NO neighborhoods we checked in around 8 PM.  Dinner from supplies (ham, mashed potatoes and tropical fruit, a nice Cotes du Rhone and homemade cookies for dessert).