Jane lived in Memphis in 1975-76 while she was completing her Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Memphis. Her three-room apartment was a few blocks from campus and from her porch she looked out onto an overgrown backyard.
Jane’s bedroom window is to the left.
Our purpose in visiting Memphis was to find Tennessee’s oldest geocache. It’s located in W.C. Johnson Park just off a boardwalk trail through a wetland.
These busy ducklings were a variety of sizes.Beavers live in the area.Lake through the treesWe didn’t expect to see cypress knees.We were glad our path from the boardwalk to the cache was only barely-muddy when we visited. Some cacher have reported having to wade through water.
We found several caches in Memphis’s Memorial Park, founded in 1925 with the idea that the cemetery would contain no monuments to human wealth or pride but that the glory of nature and art would be foremost.
Artist Dionicio Rodriguez created concrete sculptures and a grotto for the cemetery in the 1930’s.Pictured here is Rodriguez’s sculpture Abraham’s Oak made of concrete, steel, and copper. It is 15 feet tall and 9 feet in diameter. Rodriguez also created the Crystal Shrine Grotto, after the Cave of Machpelah, the first burial place mentioned in the Bible. It was dug 60 feet into a hill and is filled with crystals.Biblical tableaux have been added to the grotto. “Jesus in the Temple” is the work of Marie Craig and was created in 1939.“Sermon on the Mount” by David Day, 1978“The Last Supper” by David Day, 1980.“Zacchaeus Up a Tree” by David Day, 1981.
Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records (he launched Elvis Presley’s career and produced recordings by Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash) is buried in the cemetery as is Isaac Hayes.
Grave marker for singer/actor Isaac Hayes
When Jane was in Memphis, plans were in development for Mud Island Park. A Mississippi Riverwalk was completed on Mud Island in 1982 to showcase life and culture of the lower Mississippi. The Riverwalk includes a scale model of the lower 1,000 miles of the Mississippi River. At a horizontal scale of 30 inches (about a step) to one mile, the replica river is 1/2 mile long.
Dave standing at the mouth of the Mississippi in the Gulf of MexicoDave in the French Quarter in New OrleansThe Mississippi delta. Deterioration of the concrete is visible to the right.The Hernando de Soto Bridge over a choppy Mississippi River between Arkansas and Tennessee
A couple of geocaches took us to Elvis Presley sites.
Presley bought this house with royalties from his first million dollar selling record, “Heartbreak Hotel”, and lived there with his parents.Presley bought a farmhouse which was at the time a few miles outside of Memphis in 1957 and named it Graceland. According to the geocache owner, Graceland is second the second most visited home in the U.S. The White House is first.Presley spent $500,000 on modifications including the iconic iron gates.The wall in front of the Graceland contains graffiti from millions of visitors.
August 4, 2022 Vermont’s oldest geocache was closer to our campground near Albany, New York than our campground near Montpelier, Vermont so we treated it separately from other Vermont geocaches. Besides, it was harder to Read more…
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