Where In The World... Are All The Cemeteries?!?

Another adventure before TaGeez returns to work.  We had heard a rumor that mmc881's Where In the World? caches were being archived and decided, after all that work, that we needed to go on a puzzle run.

You might think, "No big deal".  Right?  But it was.... We drove from Troy to Ortonville to Fenton to Milford to Ferndale.  It took us 10 hours and 147 miles to grab 9 WITW caches... plus a few extra!

Our WITW target caches

Have I mentioned I like cemetery caching? Southeastern Michigan has some fabulous old cemeteries.

This was an interesting stop..... TCO SQ - Pet Sematary GC34VZJ.  It's along the main road in Ortonville, and it was established in 1962 by a husband and wife who live next door.  We ran into the owner as he was cutting the "sematary" lawn.

Pet Memorial Garden

This, by far, was the most curious piece of swag I've ever spied.  It was an animal skull in the cache container.  TaGeez and I are wondering if we should've removed it before re-hiding the cache?  We shared this picture on Facebook and the first response back was, "I thought Groundspeak disapproved of cash in containers?" - oh my.

Um... swag?

On an unrelated note, the prior "searcher" decided not to search for this cache for fear of "catching malaria".  That made me chuckle - it was really an easy, skeeter-free find.

After grabbing a few more, we started heading West.  We were glad to finally make the find at SQ - Hadley (my sister's last name).  The family had been here before.  This was our first zinc find of the day.

Still grabbing the Where in the World caches and any other interesting one in our path, we discovered a hide in the Lake View Cemetery sign.  Talk about taking you places you'd never knew existed... who knew this was just down the road?  We were surrounded by many zinc stones including this Civil War monument.

The cache is called Freedom Isn't Free - Gettysburg GC3GCNH

The find definitely deserved the Favorite Point

Another Zinc nearby

Zinc detail

Warren Mausoleum

Warren Mausoleum - stained glass

Warren Mausoleum - door detail

Bissell Mausoleum

Bissell Mausoleum - door detail

Seen near Bissell Mausoleum

We finally hit Fenton - the northwest point of our journey.  They were having some kind of summer art/music festival, but you couldn't hear it here.  Oakwood Cemetery and Old Prospect Hill was peaceful and fascinating.

Oakwood Cemtery

Oakwood Cemetery - at the gate

Oakwood Cemetery - in the newer section

Wonder what was here?

Attached to Oakwood Cemetery was Old Prospect Hill Cemetery. Many of the Fenton founders and notable men, including the Founder of Dibbleville, are buried here.

What do you do on YOUR dates?

Very well-tended spot

What an epitaph! That's it?

Ok, the 3 year old came out in me. What's funnier?
"Cockawasaw" or Dibbleville?
I couldn't find anything, really, online about either.

Continental Army - Revolutionary War

If you make it to Fenton (or Imlay City or Davisburg or Clio or Bay City), definitely stop at Lucky's Steakhouse!  The meal was FABULOUS!  TaGeez had the chicken & shrimp pasta while I enjoyed the grilled pork chops.  AMAZING!

We decided since we were so close to stop at the Tyrone Memorial Gardens.  I told you all about the history of this gem during our February 2013 visit. We were geeked to see it not covered in ice but surrounded by lush greenery.  We were excited to see the stones without having to chip away at the snow and ice.  We were excited until we saw that the bridge is missing (winter fatality?) and the stones buried in a see of tall grass.  Hopefully it will be repaired on our next journey out there.

The Angel weathered Winter well

This was the last solve and the last find in the Where in the World? series.  We had a great time, but those last few caches were a little more challenging with the uber tall grass and skeeters the size of crows. TaGeez laughs - he says my "speed of find" is directly related to the "plethora of skeeters" - there's something in that.

Hot, sweaty, and victorious, we stumble into another festival in downtown Milford while looking for drinks.

Milford Flatiron Buidling

Milford Water Wheel Sculpture

Our final total was:

2 cachers grabbing 22 caches over 147 miles

9 Where In The Worlds/Out Of This World

14 Spirit Quest caches in 11 cemeteries

8 Zinc headstones/monuments

3 art festivals 

2 deer & 1 low-flying duck

2 1897 cannons

2 silver lion heads & 2 stained glass windows

1 skull as swag

1 sunken garden with a sunken bridge

1 fabulous adventure.... priceless!