I managed to post all but one of the Waymarks that I discussed earlier; the ones I just had to get posted now. The one that I didn't, I realized I don't have decent enough pictures, so I'll have to head back out to that site soon to take care of that.
Anyhow I managed to resubmit the Honda plant in Marysville, Ohio. I originally submitted it to the "First of its kind" cat back in November, however it was declined because there is no sign on site showing that it was the location where the first Japanese car was built in the U.S. It was suggested that I submit it to the Superlatives cat instead. I kept meaning to do that, but never thought about it when I was able to do so. In addition to that I submitted a Horse Crossing Sign in the "Uncommon Crossing Signs" cat, a Drive-In Movie Theater (I'm hoping to get back there this summer to catch a movie, and Waymark the neon there. I want to get some good night shots), and a Former School.
The former school has actually been pretty high on my list to get posted for a while. I didn't attend this school, but I did go to school in one of the other 3 Marion County School Districts, and I worked directly across the road for a few years. Also, Dewgrl, DID go to this school, and graduated just a couple of years before the story broke that led to its closing. In short the school was built on a waste dump that was formerly part of a U.S. Army base and POW camp during WWII, and into the early 1960's. In the late 1990's a former student of the school noticed higher than normal Leukemia rates in students who attended the school. After some misleading information, and cover-ups from the Ohio EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, over 75 chemicals were found on the school's campus at hazardous levels. The schools were closed in 2003, after the OEPA, Ohio government, and Army Corps gave money to build new schools elsewhere. A longer, more descriptive narrative can be found on the Waymark page once its approved. I guess because it was handled through the Army Corps, it never seems to have been listed as a Superfund Site.
Near N40° 18.775 W083° 07.073
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Waymarking Kansas and Missouri
This past weekend Dewgrl and I went out of town for her sister's wedding in Knob Noster, Missouri. We flew into Kansas City, and had a little down time during which we did a little Waymarking and Geocaching. On Thursday, after we arrived in KC we visited the GARMIN HQ for a Waymark visit, and to grab a virtual cache. It looks like there are many who are doing some armchair caching on this one, but we really did visit there. After that we drove over to a great BBQ Joint. One of my goals in going out there was to try real Kansas City BBQ, and this spot fit the bill perfectly. I had a few more Waymarks that I wanted to visit but we were both a little tired from traveling, and with our bellies full of BBQ we just wanted to get to our hotel, which was on Whiteman AFB. Since access is obviously restricted, we had to have Dewgrl's sister meet us at the main gate to get us in, and take care of getting our passes and such. She was running a little late, so we took spent the time in nearby Warrensburg finding the Several Bridges Road (Version 2) cache there. We finally got our passes and into the base where we were lead to the hotel. Once there I logged the caches and Waymark visits, and we went to bed.
Friday was mostly free for us. The only things that were planned was a tour of the Oscar 1 site on base, and the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We got up early that morning to run out to Otterville for the James Gang cache. We DNFed it, and I'm pretty sure that it's not there any longer, however it was still an interesting site to visit. This spot was a location where the James Gang robbed a train for over $20,000. While there I waymarked the Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker and the site as an Infamous Crime Scene. On the was back through Sedalia we stopped for an early lunch at a local diner which was great! We got back to the base, and met up with the groom to be for our tour of the Oscar 1 facility. Basically it is one of several sites around the U.S. that were used from the 1960's until 1993. These underground bunkers were sites from which the Minuteman missiles would have been launched. Because of our nuclear disarmament agreements most of these sties were dug up and destroyed. This one was left due to it being one of the only ones located directly on a military base. The silos and missiles that it controlled were destroyed though. The tour guide, who is stationed at the base, made what could have been a dry, boring tour, a lot of fun. The groom's father also worked in one of these facilities elsewhere so he was able to provide much additional information as well. Following that we drove past the flightline to see the B-2 bombers that were out on display for a visiting officer. I also got to see a few A-10's that were tied-down outside the maintenance wing. Once that was over we had a little more time before we had to go to the rehearsal and dinner, so we drove back out to a Missouri Historical Marker we had passed to Waymark it. We also found another Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker there, and directly behind the park where these markers were located was a cemetery that we drove around to find and Waymark. On the way back to base again we made a quick stop at the Backroad Bridge Micro cache. The rest of Friday evening was taken up by wedding festivities.
The actual wedding was on Saturday. Everything was held on base, which made it convenient for travel. Everything was within just a few minutes of our hotel. It turned out to be a nice day, and it was a beautiful wedding and reception.
Sunday we had to check out of the hotel by 11am, and head back to Kansas City to catch our flight home. We got up early and went back into Warrensburg where we visited the Courthouse which is also on the National Register among other things. In front of the courthouse is a statue of "Old Drum", a dog that was the center of one of Missouri's most interesting damage suits, and from which we got the term that a dog is "Man's best friend." The statue is also the center of a virtual cache which we logged as well. On the way back to the base for the final time we found another MO Historical Marker which we Waymarked. We got back to base around 10:30am, checked out, picked up some folks that we were taking back to the airport and traveled to KC on our way home.
Friday was mostly free for us. The only things that were planned was a tour of the Oscar 1 site on base, and the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We got up early that morning to run out to Otterville for the James Gang cache. We DNFed it, and I'm pretty sure that it's not there any longer, however it was still an interesting site to visit. This spot was a location where the James Gang robbed a train for over $20,000. While there I waymarked the Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker and the site as an Infamous Crime Scene. On the was back through Sedalia we stopped for an early lunch at a local diner which was great! We got back to the base, and met up with the groom to be for our tour of the Oscar 1 facility. Basically it is one of several sites around the U.S. that were used from the 1960's until 1993. These underground bunkers were sites from which the Minuteman missiles would have been launched. Because of our nuclear disarmament agreements most of these sties were dug up and destroyed. This one was left due to it being one of the only ones located directly on a military base. The silos and missiles that it controlled were destroyed though. The tour guide, who is stationed at the base, made what could have been a dry, boring tour, a lot of fun. The groom's father also worked in one of these facilities elsewhere so he was able to provide much additional information as well. Following that we drove past the flightline to see the B-2 bombers that were out on display for a visiting officer. I also got to see a few A-10's that were tied-down outside the maintenance wing. Once that was over we had a little more time before we had to go to the rehearsal and dinner, so we drove back out to a Missouri Historical Marker we had passed to Waymark it. We also found another Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker there, and directly behind the park where these markers were located was a cemetery that we drove around to find and Waymark. On the way back to base again we made a quick stop at the Backroad Bridge Micro cache. The rest of Friday evening was taken up by wedding festivities.
The actual wedding was on Saturday. Everything was held on base, which made it convenient for travel. Everything was within just a few minutes of our hotel. It turned out to be a nice day, and it was a beautiful wedding and reception.
Sunday we had to check out of the hotel by 11am, and head back to Kansas City to catch our flight home. We got up early and went back into Warrensburg where we visited the Courthouse which is also on the National Register among other things. In front of the courthouse is a statue of "Old Drum", a dog that was the center of one of Missouri's most interesting damage suits, and from which we got the term that a dog is "Man's best friend." The statue is also the center of a virtual cache which we logged as well. On the way back to the base for the final time we found another MO Historical Marker which we Waymarked. We got back to base around 10:30am, checked out, picked up some folks that we were taking back to the airport and traveled to KC on our way home.
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