Volkswalking in Ft. Gibson

Today we drove to Ft. Gibson for a volkswalk. Ft. Gibson is just to the east of Muskogee. It took just over an hour to get there on the Muskogee Turnpike from Sand Springs. Ft. Gibson is the oldest town in Oklahoma.

It was foggy as we left home. In fact, it was foggy all day. There was not much fog in Ft. Gibson, but when we returned home, we noticed the fog was still around.

There were two options for today's volkswalk: a 5 K and a 10 K route. We choose the 5 K route. 5 K is equal to 3.1 miles. However, I figure we walked at least 4 miles due to some confusion along the route.

There is a nice visitor center there. The original fort has been reconstructed and is open for touring. The museum has many items from the heyday of the fort.

The UP railroad runs right by the fort, and we saw several trains today.

I had checked out the geocaches in the area before leaving home. I found two which were on the walk route. Later we found two more which were outside the walk route. The first one we found was titled "Here Lies Mr. Martin," Martin, the Chief Justice of first Supreme Court of the Cherokee Nation, is buried on the grounds in an above ground encasement. The second cache we found in a park. The micro was hanging in a cedar tree. The plastic tube is tied to a branch. After finishing the walk, we drove to "This Old House Once Knew My Granny." The coordinates led me directly to where the cache is hidden. Sometimes the coordinates are off by a little, but these were right on. The cache here was in a jar, making it a small cache rather than a micro.

The other cache we found is a virtaul cache. With virtual caches you are seeking information to e-mail back to the cache owner. This cache is inside the National Cemetary at Ft. Gibson. There are thousands of graves here, each with its own small white marker. I wish I had taken my camera to get a picture. We drove through the cemetary for a while, gazing at the thousands of markers. I thought that many have come before me and many have left before me. Just as I had no memory of the thousands of years that preceded my life, I will have no memory (or knowledge or awareness) of anything following my death. Anyone who is alive at this time is, for all intents and purpoes, immortal. Once you die, you will never be aware of having been alive. I would like to live long enough for signals from another civilization out in the Cosmos to be received on earth. While life in the Cosmos is exceedingly rare, there are literally millions of galaxies out there, each with untold thousands of solar systems in them. I think it is just a matter of time until contact is received from another far off civilization.

We had lunch today at Badlands Restaurant, across the street from the fort. Barbecue is their specialty. We both had pork sandwiches. I paid two dollars extra and got a piece of catfish. J paid two dollars extra and got a salad. It is not a bad place to eat.

We went to a fifth cache site, but did not pursue that cache as it required going through rough terrain and weeds.

My total finds for the day was four. This was my first volkswalk for this year, and was number 234 on my lifetime total. My number of geocache finds is at 262 now.