Monday, February 28, 2022: Departures and Arrivals
At about 9:30 a.m., I hit the road, only to be halted immediately by an
accident on US 29 South that blocked the highway. Fortunately, I was able
to exit and detour around it before the road became impassable. And once
underway, travel proceeded generally smoothly, which has so often
not been the case on trips involving Interstate 85 South. I grabbed a
handful of caches along the way and arrived in Gainesville at 3:00 p.m.
sharp, which was fortuitous since that was check-in time at my hotel.
Once settled in, I headed over to my grandparents' old place, just to give it
a look. As I was taking a few photos, a young lady came from within to check
me out, so I told her about having spent much of my youth in that house.
Rather to my surprise, she knew a lot about my family, since she had become
friends with the neighbor across the street (sadly, now deceased), who was
among my grandparents' best friends. The young lady was kind enough to let me
come in and see the place, for which I was incredibly grateful, and we chatted
about old times there for quite a while. We exchanged contact information, and
I sent her some family photos I had on Google, particularly those that were
taken in Gainesville. With all that's changed over the years here — so much of
it, to my mind, undesirable — I found it most gratifying that this little
corner of the past has been preserved to the degree that it is. After this
visit, I went down to Ivey Terrace Park, very near my grandparents' old
place, where my brother and I frequently played as kids. I found a couple of
caches. Yes, I did. Then I returned to the hotel to freshen up a bit.
For dinner, I wandered up to
Southern Recess Gastro Pub, which Brugger and I had enjoyed on our trips here in
2012
("Let's Do the Time Warp Again") and
2013
("Chicken City"). The restaurant was crowded, but I was able to procure a seat outside
(which was perfect, since it's tradition, and the indoors is
really noisy). I went for a dirty gin martini and fish & chips. The
martini was perfect, the fish & chips very good. To date, my favorite fish
& chips have been found at
The Celtic Fringe, in Reidsville, NC, and
The Spotted Dog, in Carrboro, NC; Southern Recess makes them mighty fine, to be sure, but I
don't think they're quite up to my favorites.
|
|
Footbridge over Jesse Jewell Parkway. Last time here, I found a cache
there; it's now closed for construction at either end. |
|
| A remnant of the picturesque past: the Hall County courthouse in downtown Gainesville |
|
| Dinner destination: Southern Recess Gastro Pub on Bradford Street |
|
| Martini plus fish & chips equals all kinds of happy |
After dinner, on my walk back to the hotel, I stopped at a nearby parking
garage to hunt a cache —
"Jury Duty" (GCGKYT) — which I had sought on an earlier trip, but without success. This time, I
found the little monster. I love the fact that, after all these years, the
cache is still in place and in decent condition. With a fine dinner and
excellent drink under my belt, not to mention having claimed a difficult
cache, I count the evening as most pleasing.
|
| View from the parking garage while hunting "Jury Duty" |
|
| A lovely night in Gainesville, viewed from on high |
Tuesday, March 1, 2022: Good Eats, Achy Feetz
|
|
Cache log with my signature—and the sigs of some fellow cachers from back home. |
Apparently, I was exhausted after the previous day's rigors, for I
enjoyed a nine-hour, unbroken night's sleep, which virtually
never happens these days. Upon waking, I made myself a couple of
barrels of coffee, took a shower, and ventured out into the ungodly traffic
nightmare that Gainesville has become. Judas F'ing Priest, what a change from
the days when I knew Gainesville best. From the time I was very small, through my college days, and for some years beyond, Gainesville was a serene, picturesque town with a fantastic, if relaxed, quality of life; it's
now bustling insanity, with traffic gridlock day in and day out, and
scarcely a square foot of land that hasn't been overdeveloped. To be fair, a
reasonable sampling of the town's innate loveliness remains, yet getting to it has become an experiment in how much burgeoning humanity a sane
person's patience can stand. My god... how anyone can live in such a monstrous
maze of endless gridlock is beyond me. I know that this is very subjective,
but I grieve, deeply, for the loss of the singular, uplifting character that
once defined this town. It's now a bedroom community of Atlanta, with a
handful of the amenities but all of the nightmares of overcrowded urbania. It
sickens me.
Now that I've ranted about the seven hells of overpopulation, let's get back
to some happier doings. After my morning's refurbishment, out I went among the
natives to the nearest Publix and picked up a few staples — mainly
coffee and coffee accouterments, which the hotel doesn't provide, at least in
any sufficiency, plus lunch things, so I don't have to eat out every meal.
Then... I grabbed a few geocaches, some way out Thompson Bridge Road, some
close in to town. Yes, I did this thing. It was neat as can be to find, on a
few of the cache logs, the signatures of some good friends and fellow
geocachers from back home.
Before packing it in for the afternoon, I revisited Ivey Terrace Park and my
grandparents' old place, where I scattered some of Phred's ashes. I know he
desired this.
|
|
The little springhouse at Ivey Terrace Park. It's been there since my
mom was a kid, and my brother and I both played here when we were little. I scattered some of his ashes around it. |
Back at the hotel, I cobbled together lunch from the goodies I'd picked up at
the store. Then I paid a visit to my cousin, Mark Bell (Jr.), whom I
haven't seen in many years. He and my mom were near in age and regularly kept
in touch until Mom's health precluded it. It was a wonderful, revitalizing
time for me — a reminder of the days when I had a relatively large, close
extended family. That is, sadly, a time now gone.
|
|
A wonderful jalapeno margarita at Tino's Mexican Restaurant |
I did a little more geocaching before returning to the hotel for a bit of
recuperation (the caching has been rigorous, I can tell you). For dinner, I
opted to try
Tino's Tex-Mex Restaurant, right here at the hotel, and it was a fine choice. I had fantastic beef
brisket tacos and a right large jalapeno margarita. As it is with most Mexican
restaurants, there wasn't much tequila in the drink, but that was actually
fine by me, for I had plenty of high-octane drink waiting for me in my hotel
room. However... before returning, I went out on what turned out to be a
long (roughly three-mile) walk after the stages of an Adventure Lab cache.
This proved both exhilarating and bloody frustrating. I found all but one of
the stages, but that one...whew! I couldn't find it tonight, and I don't know
whether I'll be able to tomorrow. We shall see, we shall. But I did see some
cool sights, including what has to be Gainesville's most haunted
house. I feel like I might have even brought a horrible ghost back with me,
just from walking by it. I gotta say... I love it!
And then... exhaustion set in. G'night and G'bless.
|
| Exceptional brisket tacos at Tino's Tex-Mex Restaurant in Gainesville |
|
| Do not tell me this place is not haunted. It is haunted. |
|
| "Love Freedom," a massive mural at one of the geocache stages I visited this evening |
Wednesday, March 2, 2022: The Haunted Lake
If, some years ago, I hadn't read online about the legends of "haunted" Lake
Sidney Lanier, I'd have never suspected the lake had such a reputation. I
spent a lot of time at Lake Lanier in my youth and knew quite a few people in
the vicinity; the subject of ghostly happenings out there never came up.
Lake Lanier is a massive recreation area, and I suspect the majority of folks
who use it aren't really aware of its dark reputation. No matter, for in Georgia: The Haunting of Tate's Mill, there will be ghostly events aplenty, and if the characters didn't
know about the possibility of such otherworldly shenanigans from the start...
well... that's on them.
The first thing I did this morning — after coffee and a breakfast bar — was
head out Cleveland Highway to the site of Old Bell's Mill, which was quite
well known in its day (I wrote a bit about Bell's Mill and how it relates to
my Ameri-Scares novel
here). Here, I didn't hunt geocaches, but I scoped out the precise area that I
have fictionalized for the book and took a bunch of photos. This will come in
handy in fine-tuning my descriptions of the setting, which I do try to paint
as accurately as possible. The whole point of the books is to capture at least
a modicum of local color, and I'm glad to have been able to spend quality time
at three of the five locations in my series novels.
|
| The site of Old Bell's Mill... as near as one can get to it |
Afterward, I did go geocache hunting, of course. I finished up a couple of
Adventure Lab caches I had begun last night, hunted their associated bonus
caches, and went after a bunch of hides on Gainesville’s north and east sides —
some woodland hides that required negotiating moderate to tough terrain, and
some typical urban hides that required stopping the car, jumping out, and
signing the cache log. I broke for lunch — a chicken salad sandwich, from the
supplies I bought yesterday — and then, after logging my morning's finds,
headed right back out. This afternoon, I headed south and west, out
Dawsonville Highway, and found another bunch, mostly urban park & grabs.
The only trail hide, near Gainesville High School, I was unable to find. I
sort of suspect it's missing... or I may just have missed it. One's as likely
as the other, I suppose. Being out and about and fighting the fucking
Gainesville traffic just about sent me over the edge — again. Far as I'm
concerned, there's just no excuse for this much goddamn humanity in a small
town.
Tonight, I discovered dinner at 37 Main, a bar with fair character and lots of specials. I went early to beat the crowd (tonight is "Trivia Wednesday"), but — little did I know — it was happy hour, where everything is half price. So, I ended up with excellent chicken wings and a very fine gin martini for $10 (of course, I tipped very well, as the service was great). I've been doing my best to keep costs very low on this trip, and this bit of good luck helped quite a bit.
Tomorrow, I anticipate hitting the road as soon as I'm up and packed — after
rush hour, inasmuch as rush hour actually lets up here.
This ruination of a beautiful small town by too many motherfucking people is
the one thing that hurts me to my soul. All my life, I loved this town, its
character, its superb quality of living — which didn't involve fighting
big-city congestion in a place that was never, ever in a million years designed for
this kind of population explosion. There was a time I actually considered
living here. I couldn't do it now. It would literally kill me. And that really
hurts.
Otherwise... I made for myself an excellent time here, and in some ways, I'm
sorry I can't spend more time here. I did find several little slices of
the best of life that Gainesville offered long ago. I sure hope it can hang
onto those. I suspect it won't be long, though, before they are razed, and all
we see is more people, more scars upon the land. Never have John Denver's
lyrics hit so close to home.
Peace out.
|
| 37 Main from my table vantage point |
 |
| The old football field behind Gainesville Civic Center. When I was a kid, my grandfather brought me to many Gainesville High School football games here. |
