Monday, June 20, 2005

Homeless Shelter, Bears, and Car Chase

Yes, I know this is the second post of the day for the same caches, but these quick stories seemed to warrant their own post.

While caching on Saturday afternoon, I stopped by Tower of Power which was one of my previous DNFs. This cache is located on the back end of the Richland Mall parking lot near the Sears entrance and next to the abandoned Best Buy. Normally, this is just a clump of trees on the top of a small hill near the high-voltage electrical lines. However, this time when I arrived, I noticed a lawn chair and a half empty bottle of beer sitting near the clump of trees. It looked like someone had recently made themselves at home in the clump of trees. As I climbed the hill and walked further behind the clump of trees, my suspicions were confirmed. There was a make-shift shelter built from two road construction sawhorses and a piece of metal roofing material. Under it were a stack of blankets and a small radio. It was obvious at this point that someone without any other place to live had made this area their temporary home. I quickly found the cache and left the area trying not to disturb anything that might belong to our new neighbor.

Shortly after leaving the Tower of Power, I decided to go find Mikey's Cache! which was originally hidden in honor of a local cacher's birthday. After following the very specific driving directions left by the cache owners, I arrived at the trail head to find something very unusual for this urban area. The trail head was blocked by two orange cones and one of them was labeled "B E A R" in large unmistakable letters. I always knew this was bear country, but had assumed that meant Baylor Bear country. So I still don't know if there really was a bear down this trail or if this was simply meant to discourage people from entering this area for another reason. Either way, the cones were clearly meant to prevent people from entering so I decided to leave the area.

Finally, one of the caches I attempted to find later in the day, Roll with the changes!, was in the parking lot of a local manufacturing business. When I drove into the parking lot, I saw an empty green pickup sitting near the front gate. However, after I found the cache and decided to head on to the next cache, I noticed someone in the truck. The truck then followed me out of the lot, around the underpass U-turn, down the highway, around another underpass U-turn, and down an industrial road. Finally, I decided to do an quick U-turn in the middle of this industrial road where there was light traffic approaching from both directions. As I passed the truck going the opposite direction, it was clear that the driver's intention was to follow me as he watched me drive by. A few moments later when the light traffic had passed, I saw the driver of the truck initiate his own U-turn to continue his pursuit. Luckily, I knew this area very well and quickly turned onto a narrow road with many sharp twists and many adjoining streets. I still don't know if he attempted to follow me down this narrow road, but I did not see him again.
 

1 comment:

Amy said...

Oh Wow...I'm new to geocaching, so your last story was a real eye-opener. Won't be going without the hubs from now on! Thanks!!

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