Today I was introduced to Pool Maintenance. It was a crash cource – but I managed. Gary handled the pumps and I worked on vacuuming. I don’t think I have ever seen a pool just like this one – it really is a Ce-ment Pond!

With all the campers on a week long canoe trip, it’s a good time to do a thorough vacuuming and skimming (although those of you with pools know there is no such thing as being done with vacuuming and skimming!). I confess I have a whole new appreciation for pool owners. If you are one – God Bless you! And if you ever go swimming at a friend’s pool – hug them every time you go, and pick up that skimmer when you get a chance! I got about half done today (well, Gary did do some since he was hot), and I hope to finish tomorrow. Of course, by Thursday I’ll be back in the shallow end starting again.

We started our week at 5:30AM on Monday when we gathered to help transport the 30 or so campers/counselors to Dale Hollow for their Canoe Camp adventure. Here’s a shot of the early sunshine….

And here are a couple of the canoes setting out….

Those canoes might look like they’re not taking much stuff, but don’t believe it! They loaded up a pontoon boat and two additional canoes that were pulled behind boat. And, they meet up with folks tomorrow to bring them additional food!

I’m sure they are having a wonderful time (plus that new food is arriving tomorrow). And we’re enjoying our peaceful week – just hanging around the pool and working on our tan!

Happy 4th of July! Here’s a cool mural that we saw in Cookeville (right near that antique train that stumped us while geocaching!)

So, what do the following pictures have in common?

Yep, these are the sites of some of our first geocaches. I know I mentioned geocaching before – it’s like a treasure hunt using a hand held GPS unit. Thanks to a lovely Father’s Day present, we have become officially addicted. We had such a good time tracking down some caches near McMinnville (location of our last project), we jumped right in once we got settled here in Livingston. We’re getting better at using the GPS, and we’re getting better at deciphering the clues that are given with each “hide”. Friday and Saturday we hung close to home – found the one behind the cannon on the square, found a “mini” in a birdhouse at an old cemetery, and discovered two local waterfall-swimming spots and the caches hidden in the nearby forest. (Plus we discovered a fabric store that was having a wonderful one day sale – ½ off all fabric and notions! Now that’s a find!) (We did one waterfall both Friday and Saturday, since we were unsuccessful on our first try. But it was such a beautiful location, it didn’t bother us in the least!)

So today after church in Cookeville (pronounced Cook-vul by the locals) we headed off to find what we could find. We were 10 for 12 for the day. Not bad for a couple of newbies! We started at a Verizon Wireless Store, and among other things, stopped by at a huge pink elephant, checked out a Walmart parking lot, pulled behind Nick’s Lounge, walked through Ensor Sink Natural Area, walked along the lake (and picked some yummy blackberries) at Cane Creek Park and found a teeny tiny cache in an electrical box outside of a music supply store. Here are some shots of the day – we had a really fun time!
The Big Pink Elephant

One of the cool trees at the Ensor Sink Natural Area. We were really tromping through the woods on this one!

This is our smallest (and last of the day) find. (It’s that small cylinder at the bottom of the box) It was stuck behind this electrical box. I had Gary do the reaching!

One of the perks of our Cane Creek Park cache was the bounty of black raspberries along the path. Yum!

And somewhere on this train is a 35mm film canister WITHOUT our name on the log. We haven’t given up – we’ll try again next weekend!

If you’d like more information about geocaching, check out their website at www.geocaching.com
If this sounds fun, but you don’t have a GPS, there is a website called www.letterboxing.com which is the same kind of treasure hunt, but with clues instead of GPS coordinates. We’ve done both – and they’re both fun!
Check it out!

Oh – back in McMinnville, there was one cache called “Bobcat’s Cave” that we just couldn’t find. We knew we were close – but just couldn’t find the prize. We didn’t bring a flashlight and there were several nooks and crannies in the cliffs, so we tried using the camera flash to “see” inside the dark areas. We didn’t find the cache – but we took this pretty cool picture. Just not sure what it’s a picture of!