Good Food Historical Places and Geocaching

The first Sunday in March of 2010 brought us hope of Spring.  Seizing the moment two other couples joined Trish and myself for a little scooter time.  It was planned that we have a fairly early start for this time of year.  8 o’clock was to be the departure time.  Granted it was still rather chilly but who cares we were going on a ride.

The three Ultra classics roared to life and off we headed via back roads to Dickson Tennessee and our first stop of the day.  Trish and I would spend our day with David, Brenda, Tim and Ellie.  David suggested we eat at Farmer’s in Dickson.  One look at how corpulent he is and you know he understands good food.  Farmer’s is a buffet to die for.  In fact I can’t wait to go back and try them for supper some time. 

Now that we were sufficiently foundered it was time to get some riding in.  We took highway 48 out of Dickson over to Nunnelly.  Here we turned onto highway 230 which wound us over to highway 13 just south of Waverly.  This is where we made our second stop of the day.

Back in 1978 the little town of Waverly was nearly blown off the map by a propane tanker explosion.  The tanker was part of a train that derailed.  The L&N railroad has placed a Caboose here along with some markers to commemorate this horrid event.  Several people lost their lives in this tragedy.

I had stopped at this location back last November while I was out doing some Geocaching on a camping trip.  I searched high and low back then for the hidden cache to no avail.  Today the story was different.  While the group was reading the info on the markers I made my way over to the rail car.  Soon I was rewarded with finding this micro cache.

We continued west to our next stop.  Johnsonville State Historic Park is located on the banks of the Tennessee river.  I led our group up to an overlook.  We took a break and enjoyed the view.  I always enjoy soaking in the historic surroundings of such a place.  The rifle trenches dug back in the 1860’s are still visible.  Nothing like stepping into the middle of History.

Our next stop would be on the other side of the Tennessee River.  Camden lies on the west bank of the river.  Some three miles west of Camden is another historic marker.  The crash site of the plane that killed Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Patsy Cline, and Randy Hughes is marked by a giant stone.  There is a small cross that marks the spot Patsy’s body was found.

I had been toting a travel bug with me for some time now.  I wanted to find a fitting site to move the TB along.  Somehow today seemed to be the time to do so.  Seeing as there is a cache at this location I felt it would be a great opportunity.  Not to mention showing my friends what Geocaching is all about.

Soon we rode to the other side of Camden and up Pilot Knob at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.  From here we could see the view of the Tennessee river from the Confederate side of the battle of Johnsonville.  This marks the only spot in history in which a cavalry defeated naval gunboats.

Riding north out of the state park we made our way to Big Sandy and the Danville road.  Danville is where we rode onto the ferry-boat to cross the river.  Soon we would be back in Middle Tennessee and on our way home.  All in all it was a great ride.  We covered some 300 miles for the day and many miles through history.  Not to mention all the wonderful memories we created to last our lifetime.

Should you want to learn more about Geocaching you can go to http://www.Geocaching.com.

Ride Safe,

Ronman