Geocaching Tennessee

As noted in my previous post, I went to Tennessee recently. This was an opportunity to find some geocaches and generate some geocaching stats.

My first stop on the day of the trip was a geocache near Dulles airport (and my kids' school) that I had been saving for this occasion. It was easy to find, and it set me up to break my maximum per-day distance record, a task that eluded me last year. As a reminder, this is the old record:

I had the chance to break a few more personal records. I could have driven to Kentucky after landing, to get 3 states in a day, but seeing the World Heritage Site seemed more interesting. I could have found a cache near the hotel after checking in, to get 4 counties in a day, but I was tired, and I figure I will save that record for the next trip.

The Knoxville airport is in a different county from Knoxville itself. Rather than stop right by the airport, I drove to nearby Maryville College. My grandfather spent a year there, and played on their 1932 JV football team. It was a nice place to stop, and there I found a geocache. It was my first September 2016 geocache. That completed 2016 for me, and gave me Month 141 (still at 68 missing months because of the addition of September 2017), State 13, and County 34 (Blount County).

After that, it was off to the Great Smoky Mountains. There was a virtual cache there at the John Ownby Cabin. That is in Sevier County, County 35 for me.

And there's a new maximum distance!

The next day, on my way back from lunch to the conference, I found a cache on campus, giving me Knox County, County 36.

World Heritage Update: Great Smoky Mountains

Last weekend, on a trip to Tennessee, I visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a World Heritage Site. This was the 62nd World Heritage Site I've visited.

I went to the Sugarlands visitors center and hiked a short trail.

Since my phone captures everywhere I go, this is what it looked like. My phone knew (though I didn't) that I hiked to the John Ownby Cabin and back.

I couldn't tell at the time what made this more special than other National Parks and thus worthy of being a World Heritage Site. It turns out it's the biodiversity, so it makes sense that doesn't jump out at me. (Though I did see some nice trees.)

This is the first site I've visited since I was in Brussels almost two years ago. None of the sites inscribed in 2016 or 2017 were ones I had already visited, so my percentage has dipped from the all-time high of 5.92% sites visited in 2015 to 5.78%.

I don't have any more visits I can see coming soon, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings won't make it in before 2019, so I don't see a path to 6% right now. But you never know!

Google Local: 1 Million Views

Well, like a video game that is fun until it gets too easy, the challenge of getting to a million views of my photos kinda bored me once I got a good engine going where I got lots of views (somehow I got 139.9K views this past week). I still upload pictures from time to time, but I lack the enthusiasm I had before.

Still, it was nice to receive a congratulatory e-mail from Google, particularly since I had conceived of this challenge myself.

Here are my top 10 photo locations. Most of the pictures themselves are in previous posts with this label.

1. Michaels, Bowie, MD, 61,341 views.
2. Office Depot, Bowie, MD, 59,218 views.
3. Dollar Tree, Bowie, MD, 52,977 views.
4. DICK's Sporting Goods, Gambrills, MD, 48,058 views.
5. Harris Teeter, Bowie, MD, 46,854 views.
6. Safeway, Gambrills, MD, 44,852 views.
7. Safeway, Reston, VA, 39,070 views.
8. Arby's, Beltsville, MD, 38,849 views.
9. Dollar Tree, Chantilly, VA, 36,402 views.
10. Michaels, Vienna, VA, 35,598.

For some reason, pictures in Maryland seem to have done better than pictures in Virginia (they have more views despite being newer). And boring old chain stores rule the roost. The most-popular photo I have that's not of a chain store is #16, Jumping Jack Sports (an indoor kiddie play space).

And I'm still enjoying the free Google Play Music for another couple of weeks.

Geocaching Update: Two Per Month

I was too busy this summer to find any more than six geocaches (two each month), but I have some hopes for the fall.

The first June cache that I found was in the tree pictured above. The more I think about this one, the more I liked it. It combines "nature" with "easy to access". It was also my first November 2010 cache, keeping me at 68 missing months (since I didn't have June 2017 yet).

The second June cache I found was a less than exciting one in a parking lot.

The first July cache I found was also one I was FTF (first-to-find) on. It's less than half a mile from my office, so I should have had a good chance at it.

Here's the satellite image of it. Yep, it's on that sign there. (I was going to use Google Street View, but in the 2012 picture, the sign is still under construction.) Someone else showed up while I was poking around, but I was the one who spotted the cache perched up there, and I was the one who tore a (small) hole in my pants climbing up there. That gave me July 2017, and kept me at 68 missing months.

It was my 12th FTF.

My second July cache was very close to the first. I was not in my office at the time it was listed, so I missed the FTF.

My first August cache was in Ellicott City. I was present shopping, and I looked for nearby caches. This one was interesting, at least for my stats! It was a June 2017 cache, keeping me at 68 missing months. It was my first at N 39° 15', giving me my 17th minute of 39 North. It was my first at W 76° 48', giving me my 32nd minute of 76 West. I actually have 32 of the 33 westernmost minutes in that degree of latitude, missing only W 76° 48'. I have one scouted out for that minute, then I guess it's off to the Eastern Shore to make more progress on that challenge.

My second August cache was unremarkable, but it was a nice pick-me-up to find it on a day I needed cheering up.