Frankie's Bridge

Now that I am a gentleman land baron, ha-ha, I have, as promised, placed a new geocache somewhere in the wooded valley across the road from my house. It's called "Frankie's Bridge," the title being based on a local legend from days of yore.

 

Going back many years before I was born, the area that is now my neighborhood was mostly farmland, and even when I was a kid in the early 1960s, there was a horse stable and a small wooden bridge across the creek that meanders through the valley. A horse named Frankie lived down there, though I don't know who actually owned him.

 

One night, as Frankie was crossing the bridge, one of the planks broke beneath him. He toppled from the bridge and broke his leg, which resulted in him having to be put down. In the years that followed, the neighbors whispered that they sometimes heard Frankie crying out in pain late at night. Personally, I never heard any such sounds, but back when, certain neighbors swore it was true.

 

Nowadays, I don't know whether anyone around here even remembers Frankie's story, but it has always stood out in my mind. Sometimes at night, I'll go outside, gaze at the stars, and listen for any ghostly sounds out there in the dark, but alas... no such luck.

 

Anyway, after the cache's publication the other day, friend and fellow geocacher Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom) came around to hunt the cache, and he earned the almost-coveted first-to-find honors. Afterward, he and I enjoyed a nice lunch at Be Wiched Diner uptown and then went our separate ways. I ventured over to Danville for a first-to-find of my own and then moved on to Caswell County, NC, to seek a few more caches.

 

In April, I'll be hosting a geocaching event here at home, so I'm sure most or all of the attendees will want to venture into the woods across the road to hunt Frankie's Bridge. 

Near the cache: all that now remains of Frankie's Bridge

In this photo from 2016, one beam of Frankie's bridge still remained alongside that sewer pipe;
below, a couple of views near the cache I took the other day

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

I alluded to this in a blog entry a few days ago, but now that I am the rightful owner of one and a quarter wooded acres across the street, I aim to see that it remains wooded. When I lived in Greensboro, developers would sometimes disregard property boundaries and cut trees on land they had no business entering. Case in point, about fifteen years ago, our neighbor across the street owned a portion of the woodland adjacent to his house, but not the entire stand of woods. When the inevitable developers showed up to build on the other lots, they went right ahead and cut down the trees on his land. He and his family had been away for a time, and when they came home that day and found the lot cleared, I feared there would be bloodshed (he was that kind of guy). Me, I would much prefer to avoid bloodshed.

 

I must say, I rather dislike "No Trespassing" signs, as just about everyone and his brother has them on their property, and like the song says, "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind." Regardless, I've put several out at strategic points because, in the event that developers set their sights on these woods, those markers will show which portion is not theirs to cut. Or even enter, for that matter.

 

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I plan to place a geocache down there. And frankly, I don't care if kids come around to play at the creek, just like I did when I was a youngster, or if the plethora of folks in this neighborhood who take daily walks wish to walk in those woods. I just don't want there to be any ambiguity about where anyone who intends to cut down trees is not welcome.

Here's a few shots of the land, taken a couple of years ago.

Moo Moo Land

I had to go to Danville this morning to handle some business, and once it was done, I figured I should go geocaching because there was a trio of new caches a few miles east of town along the Ringgold Rail Trail. Well over a decade ago, various geocachers had loaded the five-plus-mile trail with all manner of hides, and it was a frequent destination for me, but now, with so many cachers retired, passed on, or moved away, I haven't had the opportunity to get back to it for a long time. Happily, it was a beautiful day for a pleasant, fairly lengthy walk.

Sadly, the first cache I hunted turned out to be a bust. Based on certain information I came upon later, I strongly suspect it is missing. Ah, well. But as I was hunting, a handful of moo cows came wandering up and gathered around me. They were nice enough companions, but they kind of suck at geocaching.

Eventually, I decided to give up on that elusive first cache and move on toward the next. To my surprise, the cows decided to follow me for a fair distance, although they gave up shortly before I reached ground zero. I managed to find this cache easily, thus earning the dubious first-to-find honors (as I did on the next one as well).

Once back at the Rodan Mobile, I made my way to Tokyo Grill, which is my number one Danville go-to restaurant, and had a very good sushi lunch. Then, it was time to motor back home.

I reckon there's no reason to make a secret of it, so I'll mention that I was in Danville to close on a tract of land I have purchased across the street from our house. It's 1.25-acre wooded lot that's been part of a larger buffer between our road and another one that meanders up the ridge beyond. This woodland has been there all my life, but lately developers have been making overtures toward building in that area. Oh, no, no, no, you don't. That land is an extreme flood zone (in May 2018, it was completely underwater, which you can see in my video of the big flood here). You'd have to be a damned fool to build down there, but that is rarely a consideration where developers are concerned. So, after lengthy contemplation, I tore into some assets that I didn't really want to, but I absolutely cannot abide the idea of anyone destroying those woods, ruining the creek that threads through them, and putting a bunch of fucking shoe box houses on the land. I just hope the adjacent lots to the north remain untouched.

Anyway, there's no question that I'll put a geocache down there. And I've ordered some No Trespassing signs to post around the boundaries in case any developers get confused about who owns what (those signs will not apply to geocachers, of course). It's almost tempting to go down there and post "No Tressping!" signs, as someone did out in the country not too far from here; some folks in these parts might even find that easier to understand.

Moo Moo Land. Moo Moo Land. All bound for Moo Moo Land...

"I turn my back on you, geocaching hooman."

This means YOU, developer-types