Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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June 2006

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD60-CAAT Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.5588° W 088.0874° State: Illinois Date Found: 6/3/2006 11:35 am Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam Temperature: 84°F/29°C Route 53, North side of Joliet, SW of Chicago 9.37 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Stateville and Walt's Automotive I just realized that I hadn't reported my find from last Saturday on this. This dashpoint is the closest to my home this month, and not too far at 9.37 miles (15.08km). The point lies just a couple miles south of Stateville Correctional Center, part of the Illinois Department of Corrections and part of which is a maximum security facility. However, this is NOT where Joliet Jake was released from the movie The Blues Brothers (that was Joliet Prison, also known as the Collins Street Prison and the Joliet Correctional Center). But I went out on a great summer day with bright sunshine in my eyes, and traveled down Route 53 from Crest Hill, a northwest region of Joliet, and soon got to the magic circle. The point itself is in a hauling area filled with trucks, and just past the "no trespassing" signs, but I was under 80 meters in the little pulloff where I stopped. Across the street was Walt's Automotive - a small engine repair shop that was evidently just under new management (I presume that would be Walt). 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Peaceful Waters by penntium N 38° 39.104 W 088° 56.743 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 6/24/2006 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Smelly Old Sneaker

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

After a quick drive to Marion, Illinois to drop off the kids with the in-laws, we returned northward. By the time we reached Salem, Illinois, I needed to stretch my legs a little and find a cache, and this looked promising. We hopped out of the area and enjoyed the quick walk in the shady sunshine, spotting lots of neat looking plant-life. My wife swears she saw a red mushroom, and we saw lots of trumpet vine in the area. The wife was only wearing sandals, so I hopped into the flora and quickly found the cache. I had intended on leaving the Sneaker TB, but I found that it didn't have it's travel bug tag, so I logged it in and then back out. Afterward, we stopped for lunch in Effingham. There we were 140 miles from Indianapolis on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - and we were getting crowded out of the area by people going to the Indy 500. Many of the comments were “This was the closest spot that wasn't booked and we still had a hard time getting a room.” - Oh my Gosh!

Spillway Surprise by 5muskateers N 39° 19.946 W 088° 28.907 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 6/24/2006 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Quite a memorable cache. We scoped the area to try to find a nice quiet walk in the woods, and that's exactly what we found. The trail was nice up until the last little bit, and that bit wasn't too bad - just a little more rugged. VERY nice cache, and one that will be on my Top 10% based on our experience and the fact that this little pocket of untamed wilderness is so well hidden.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD60-CAAD Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 39.7962° W 088.2429° State: Illinois Date Tried: 6/24/2006 3:56 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sherry Temperature: 76°F/24°C Tuscola, IL 127.62 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Tilling the Tracks in Tuscola Tuscola, Illinois is a great little throw back to growing up in farm country in Illinois. Sure it has an interstate stop with the prerequisit Cracker Barrel restaurants and the other trappings of modern civilization, but behind the scenes is a small-town farming community. Back in Game 25 in July of 2003, I did a circle on a bunch of mad dashes that included GD25-BYYH. That point was only 1.4km from GD60-CAAD, but proved to be much less scorable than the earlier one. This point was 500 meters into a farm field that was undergoing a mid-season tilling of the tracks in between the rows of beans. The farmer was out on his John Deere tractor with an yellow umbrella, but with the tender vegetation and our tight schedule, even though I could see the dashpoint, I never took the time to ask the farmer for permission, so this was unscored. But then the stop in this quiet town turned magnificent. We also were trying out the new “Caching Along a Route” that GC.com implemented, and it worked GREAT giving us 3 to try in Tuscola. We were driving downtown and the Mrs. was looking for an antique store to find a small table. We found a store near a cache, and I followed her in. I was immediately in a flood of memories. This store had a distinct smell of linen and old wood - a smell that I instantly recognized as the aroma of the house of my mom's parents, my grandparents. They lived on a farm about 30 minutes from us, so we visited often. Coupled with the smell of their house was a tremendous amount of memorabilia that was specifically from their era. My grandparents have been gone now for 20 and 16 years, but this little window into their time was powerful enough to bring me to tears. We also found a pair of true treasures: a Spirograph (those who know what it is need no explaining is necessary other than it is very hard to come by), and a Wolf Cub Handbook for the Boy Scouts of America, published in 1967 - which was the same handbook I would have used in 1977. After these wonderful finds, we asked where a great place to eat was, and the owners mentioned the Candy Kitchen - Coordinates: 39.7997224, -88.2876545. Walking in here was also like walking back in time. There was a working soda fountain, a glass cabinet full of home-made candies, all under a building that had been the current owners' grandparent's. The recently finished refurbishing it, complete with replacing the original interior tin ceiling with a replacement, and fixing all of the tiles on the floor. This was an amazing place. I ordered a Cherry Phosphate, and happily sipped it while enjoying a grand walk down memory lane. Photo has been uploaded. No Points, but Great Memories for Markwell and Trailblazers ... And to emulate Chaosmanor: Where you go, there you are, and sometimes the past is still there, too.

A Break In The Park by The Seedfreaks N 39° 28.993 W 088° 21.587 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 6/24/2006 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Tuscola was a great stop for us - with Geodashing, Antiquing and the Trip down memory lane. But when we figured we'd hope over and find this cache, I wasn't too intrugued with the open nature of the search. I gave up after about 5 minutes just because so many eyes were upon me.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD60-CAAS Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 40.3412° W 088.0879° State: Illinois Date Found: 6/24/2006 6:47 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sherry Temperature: 74°F/23°C North of Rantoul, IL (north of Champaign and FAR south of Chicago) 90.26 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Sinkhole North of Chanute Rantoul, Illinois is the former home to the Chanute Air Force Base, officially closed in 1993. However, this point is northeast of town, in the middle of farm country. The point can be scored from along one of the many north/south and east/west grid roads that make up central Illinois - the particular one to score is 3200E between N1900E and N2000E. From that east-west road, one can still be in their car and only be 46 meters north of the point. Interesting landmarks? Probably the best to prove I was there was a small 10 inch sinkhole on the road that went down about 4 inches. That point (2 pictures uploaded) was right within scoring range. But the view to the south at 6:45 p.m. local time was grand. The rolling hills and the sinking sun washed the crisp green valleys of the farmland flora with a brush of gold - and matted across an azure sky, this made for a truly magnificent sight. The uploaded photograph cannot due it justice. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

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Last Updated:
June 27 2006 17:00 CDT