TGGEQ Update No. 6 – Collect All Four

Plans change.

I had all intentions of heading down to southwest Georgia to log several of the TGGEQ caches more or less located along the state line between Georgia and Alabama.  However, weather forecasts, up to and including Saturday morning, were predicting heavy rain and possibly severe weather for Saturday night and most of the day Sunday (today).  Now while I don’t mind camping in the rain all that much, cleaning but drying wet gear afterward is a pain and something I’d rather not have to deal with if I don’t absolutely have to.  With the forecast in mind I decided to switch gears and fortunately I had a back-up plan.  I knew there was a group of five caches that I needed to log down around Warm Springs and Pine Mountain, Georgia, about an hour or so from home.  I also knew that that group of caches included at least one of each of the four types of caches that make up TGGEQ and this would be one of only a handful of opportunities to log at least one of each type in one trip, much less in one day.

With my back-up plan in mind I left the house Saturday morning and headed toward Warm Springs.  I knew there was one of the Downtown/Main Street USA series caches (Downtown/Main Street USA: Greenville, GA, GC1MBAH) right along my route in Greenville, Georgia so decided to make a quick stop to hunt it up.  My Geocaching app brought me to an interesting old building which I learned was the old Meriwether County Jail.

I later learned that the jail was built in 1896 and used up until the middle 1980s when it was finally ordered closed.  The jail building was a prominent feature in “Murder in Coweta County”, Margaret Ann Barnes’ novel, and subsequent movie adaptation, which told the true life story of the murder of Wilson Turner by a corrupt Coweta County sheriff in 1948.  After the jail closed the building was purchased and renovated to be a residence and museum.  After posting a picture on Facebook a friend told me that the building is currently for sale for $325,000…just peanuts really.  Unfortunately I don’t have any peanuts to spare.

On to Warm Springs…

My first TGGEQ cache of the day was an Earthcache, Warm Springs (GC1JY3P), at the historic Warm Springs Treatment Pools.

Warm Springs, Georgia came into being as a resort town in the middle 1800s and is named for the warm water springs that flow from the lower flanks of Pine Mountain.  From the middle 1800s until the turn of the twentieth century, Warm Springs was ‘the place to be’.  Wealthy tourists came by rail and by stagecoach to enjoy the resort life which included swimming in pools created at the springs which were long known for their therapeutic properties.  By the early 1900s the railroads had expanded to reach other ‘exotic’ locales and interest in the resorts in Warm Springs began to decline.  Things changed in 1924 when future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been stricken with polio learned of the springs and began coming to visit the pools in hopes that the he would find relief from his condition.

Onward to Roosevelt’s Little White House (GC80HPA), a Georgia History Tour cache.  The Little White House is a vacation cottage built by F.D.R in 1934 as a place to stay during his trips to Warm Springs for polio therapy until his death there in April 1945.

As I entered the museum I was met by this rather creepy likeness of F.D.R.

Among the items on display in the museum was his 1938 Ford convertible.

The car had been fitted with hand controls so that onlookers could not easily tell that he was unable to use his leg to control the car.

Leaving the Little White House I headed over to Dowdell’s Knob in FDR State Park for a pair of virtual caches including F.D.R.s Pine Mt. Valley Vista (GC5690) and This War is Over, I’m Coming Home (GC7B66Q).  It’s very easy to see why Dowdell’s Knob was F.D.R.’s favorite picnic spot.  Views for days…

A short walk down the Pine Mountain Trail took me to another historic spot along the trail…

I think I’ve mentioned it in a previous entry but the Pine Mountain Trail is one of the best marked and best maintained trails that I know of thanks to the Pine Mountain Trail Association.

With my Earthcache, History Tour cache, and virtual cache out of the way I headed toward F.D. Roosevelt State Park (GC26FJZ), the State Park cache that I needed to round out my collection.  I parked at the park office then took another little walk along the Pine Mountain Trail to the GZ located at Buzzards Roost Overlook.

Spring was definitely beginning to pop along the trail…

Once at the GZ I was glad I had my trusty old GPSr with me as cell service was down to one bar…

Even the Garmin was a bit bouncy below the overlook but I still managed to find a well hidden cache, stamp my State Parks Geotour passport and complete my TGGEQ efforts for the day.

As I walked back toward the truck I began to feel rather smug that I hadn’t tripped or taken a spill on the trail.  Yes, I’m one of those folks that can trip all over a flat surface, much less an irregular rocky, rooty surface like a trail through the woods.  Needless to say it didn’t last as I hung the tow of my shoe on one of the steps leading up to the office lawn and practically face-planted up about half of the remainder of the steps.  Fortunately only my pride was damaged and when I’d gathered my wits I found myself laughing so hard I was crying.  I’d loved to have known what the little girl that was walking down the other side of the steps with her dad and brother was thinking after she stopped to ask me if I was ok.

With my task for the day complete I headed home.  Of course I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to hunt for a couple more nearby caches my way.  I’d DNF’d Callaway Gardens: Country Store (GC1KBW2) late one evening after dark during previous trip to the area.

After working my way down to its hiding spot I decided that I was glad that I waited.

Last cache stop of the day was in Pine Mountain to hunt for Where’s the Train? (GCCT219).  Unfortunately it’s either gone missing or I didn’t look for the right thing in the right place so I had to log a DNF.  Was a pretty neat place to visit though.

With my caching day done I headed back toward the house, making one last stop for a Mountain Dew Slurpee.

Note, as I was writing this entry I happened to notice that a new Earthcache was posted just last week at Dowdell’s Knob (Mechanical Weathering at Dowdell’s Knob, GC84E11).  WHAT?!  Fortunately I’d had enough of a look around to answer the questions and claim the find.  Make that six TGGEQ caches for the day!

So how’s the TGGEQ cache map looking?  Slowly but surely turning more and more yellow.  Check it out…

BTW, remember all that rain that was forecast?  Yeah, didn’t happen.