Still Traveling South - December 29, 2015

When we went to the hotel lobby for breakfast this morning, I liked the words that were on my coffee cup. I am sure that a lot of my friends can identify with this.

 

 

Our first goal was to stop and look for the oldest geocache in North Carolina which was hidden on September 30, 2000. It is speculated to be the oldest puzzle cache in the world. We normally do not look for those types of caches because we suspect--no, it is a sad fact--that we are puzzle challenged. However, sometimes even a blind pig can find an acorn and I was able to quickly solve the puzzle and get the final coordinates for our GPSers before we left Maryland.

 

 

 

We altered our normal route to Florida especially so we could look for this cache. So for 429 miles I was hoping and praying that I had the correct answer. We even had time to mull it over as we slept in our hotel last night. There was lots of rain yesterday and it was still raining this morning. Shortly before we arrived at the park, the rain stopped and the sun came out before we finished our quest. There was lots of wet, soggy ground but our hiking boots kept our feet dry.  Once we reached GZ, it was easy to see the cache and we breathed a sigh of relief.

 

 

This cache is placed on a right-of-way at McAlpine Creek Greenway in Charlotte which appears to have been developed as a corridor for waste water. We saw many pipes running through an area near a creek that was raging with water from the recent rain. A trail for bikers and runners seems to be popular with local residents. Today, we heard a lot of tree frogs or peepers as I call them.

 

 

 

 

We dressed in long sleeved shirts this morning and by 11:00 a.m., we were hot and had to change into something cooler. I have seen several people wearing shorts.

 

 

The temperature reached 74° this afternoon which I suspect is well above normal for this time of the year.

 

We made a brief stop in Greer, SC to visit some long time family friends who relocated from Calvert County several years ago. Maria is one year younger than my Tim. Through the years, we spent a lot of time with her and she is like a daughter to me. She is the mother of four beautiful children--the oldest being almost 15 years old.

 

 

We liked this water tower that looks like a peach. It was in South Carolina, not in Georgia as one might expect.

 

 

We have seen some interesting things at the Visitors Centers. Not surprisingly, the main room at the center in South Carolina had a nicely decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the room. However, I thought it was a bit odd that the restroom doors were decorated with wreaths.

 

 

Lottery tickets can be purchased at the Georgia Visitors Center and they were selling plenty of them today.

 

 

We have been carrying our bicycles on the back of our car. I think the Schwinn Company should be paying us for advertising. I cannot imagine how many people have seen that name while we were driving and while our vehicle has been parked.

 

 

Another geocache that we found today was off a trail at Lake Lanier.

 

 

 

A geocache was not the only thing we found. We have found fairy houses in the past, but this is the first time we found a fairy!

 

 

We are spending this night in Lawrenceville, GA which is very near Atlanta. We expect to be in Florida tomorrow.