Geocaching in Grandview, MO 64030

“Caching, from the word cache, has two different meanings, which makes it very appropriate for the activity. A french word invented in 1797, the original definition referred to a hiding place someone would use to temporarily store items. The word cache stirs up visions of pioneers, gold miners, and even pirates. Today the word is still even used in the news to describe hidden weapons locations.”

from The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Geocaching, Second Edition

Real soul food found here

Most people I know come to Grandview, MO for one reason alone: to either attend a conference at IHOP or go to school there. Of course, by IHOP I don't mean the national restaurant chain of pancake fame but the International House of Prayer, the ministry center that has been carrying on night and day prayer for over 12 years now in expectation of the soon return of the Lord. Since 2003, perhaps two thirds of the people from our fellowship have either participated in a conference there (many have made that 1,000 mile round trip several times) or been a student at one of the various schools that make up IHOPU. But other than a few of the local eateries (Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbeque http://www.jackstackbbq.com in nearby Martin City is a must stop), I know little else of this city of 25,000 whose real claim to fame is that it was the home for a while of America's 33^rd President, Harry S. Truman. Last week when we brought Ed down to IHOP so that he could begin a six-month internship there, I had a small window of time that was not committed to either getting him oriented or visiting with those from Refuge who now live there. I probably should have spent those two hours “soaking” in the House of Prayer as the saying goes. I certainly could use it. But instead, I opted to get my little hand-held Garmin eTrex GPS out of my black case and do a little exploring around the neighborhood. 

This ain't bad food, either

 

Harry once lived there, too

Most “muggles” - the geocaching term for “non-cachers” - do not realize that all around them lie all sorts of caches hid by fellow members of this growing community of techno explorers. And sure enough, after surfing over to www.geocaching.com, typing in Grandview's zip code and specifying my parameters as all caches within a 10 mile radius, several hundred caches appeared on the map. I chose the five closest to my location, plugged in the longitude and latitude codes for each, and went hunting.

Edna Duckworth Memorial

Harry helped bury some of these people

If you're an IHOPU student or intern, you frequent Forerunner Christian Fellowship (FCF) a lot. It is not only the site of the EGS (Encountering God Service) on Friday night but is also where the IHOP community gathers for worship on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Located just a few miles from the International House of Prayer on Red Bridge Road, there is a lot of shuttling between the places that occurs especially on the weekend. To the immediate north of FCF is Grandview Assembly of God. And right across the road to the east is Blue Ridge Cemetery, a small plot of several dozen graves about the size of my backyard. It is also the site of the first hide on my radar, the Edna Duckworth Memorial. It's a fairly easy find, what cachers refer to as a “Catch and Grab”, and also a “micro” - what is known in the caching community as a container on the smallish side that usually contains nothing more than a rolled paper log for you to sign and fortunately for me there's space enough for one more signature. “Who's Edna Duckworth?” you ask. I have no idea but just to clarify – you do not need to disturb Edna to find the hide. This is not only considered bad form for geocachers but it's also illegal. Micros are frequent hides in cemeteries and are usually located in a tree or a bush located near, in this case, Edna's grave. If you like old graveyards, this is worth a stop just for that reason alone for while the grounds are kept up, many of the stones no longer stand but lay prone over the plot of the deceased they were erected to memorialize. One little bit of trivia about the place, as I learned later, is that Harry Truman actually helped dig a few of the graves when he lived just across the way between 1906-1917.

Here Lies Edna

One of Edna's neighbors

A TRU Micro MAN (with a serendipitous tour of The Truman Farm House)

Located less than a tenth of a mile from Blue Ridge Cemetery was the next cache on my list but the only way to get there is to back track on Grandview Road to the stop lights at the intersection of Grandview and Blue Ridge Roads and turn left. My Garmin led me to a stretch of scrub to the immediate south of the Truman Farm. According to StealthRT (every cacher has a handle) who is responsible for the hide, the cache is not located on National Park Service grounds. So I parked my car on an abandoned road, grabbed my walking stick, which doubles as a prod for poking into thick underbrush, and went searching. Within a few hundred feet of my car, my Garmin informed me I was at or near ground zero. Micros come in all kinds of shapes and sizes but usually are small pill bottles wrapped up in camo tape. But after a search of 10 or more minutes, I came up empty. This, too, is part of caching – sometimes you find and sometimes you don't. It did look like some city crew had been doing some serious trimming of the trees lately and so possibly it had been attached to one of the branches that now are lying all over the ground. Or I just missed it. So after a fruitless search, I decided to get on the other side of the scrub line and wander over the grounds of the Truman Farm. While doing just that, a National Park Service ranger named Sheila came up to me and asked if I wanted to go on a tour of the house. At only $4 admission, how could I say no?

The Truman Farm

For a great overview of the place, go to http://www.nps.gov/hstr/historyculture/truman-farm-home-photo-tour.htm but one of the best reasons to take the tour that morning for me was pragmatic:I wanted to get out of the 90+ degree blistering heat. It was delightfully cool on the inside and the tour consisted of Sheila, a guy from Dallas and me which meant it was a very informative, leisurely stroll through this 100+ year home where Harry spent most of his 20s before heading off to war in 1917. Not all the furniture is original. In fact, much of it are authentic replicas of the very pieces that used to be in the house but they helped me visualize Harry sitting at the piano playing for the innumerable guests he often entertained or pouring over the books at his desk keeping a watchful eye on wasteful spending on the farm. This was, after all, his claim to fame and what put him on the national radar. During World War II the “Truman Committee” was responsible for weeding out wasteful spending in the War Department. According to his mom, it was on the farm in Grandview where he developed a knack for that sort of thing.

Where Harry once lived

But the neatest find for me on this tour came the moment that Sheila had me and the guy from Dallas look out the second story window right outside Mary Jane Truman's (his sister's) bedroom. From there you could look due west toward what is now Blue Ridge Road. On the far side of the road is the Western Sizzlin Steakhouse and way in the back of their parking lot which exits onto Grandview Road are two large stone pillars. In my previous travels to Grandview, I have passed these odd looking posts dozens of time never knowing that they mark the original entrance to the Truman Farm. Up until the night of May 20, 1957 when an F-5 tornado 70 miles in length devastated the region the long boulevard leading up to the farm house was lined by maple trees which had been planted by Harry's grandparents.

The original entrance

After the tour, I strolled a little more on the grounds and then walked the quarter mile or so over to those stone pillars and tried to imagine that stately lane shaded by magnificent maples. How it must have shone like fire in the fall of the year.

Mapleview Park

Woodfield Off of I-5

My window was closing quickly which meant that I only had time for one more cache. So returning to my car, I pulled out on to Blue Ridge and headed south and then headed east on Harry Truman Drive following the needle of my Garmin. On the other side of US 71, I took a right onto E 125^th Street and simply followed this road until it ended at Mapleview Park, one of the many small parks in Grandview. To the south was the picnic shelter and playground area but dead ahead was a wide trail that my unit was begging me to follow. Within a couple of hundred feet, the needle took a short dip to the south and there stood a very impressive tree buried in all kinds of vines and other growth, a prime place to hide a cache and sure enough, “x” marked the spot. In the nook of this massive monster was hidden a small, traditional cache about the size of a Vaseline bottle. It was pretty light in swag – only a rubber ball and a racing car - and while it is customary to exchange goods, I enhanced the cache with several of the doodads that I carry on me when I am out hunting. It was about that time that Linda texted “Where are you?” informing me that my window for exploration was now closed.

Can I help it if he likes the car?

Hides #4 and #5 will have to wait for another day. Now that Ed is down there for at least the next six months, perhaps this fall if we're there for a visit I can take another stab at A TRU Micro MAN as well as Slaughter of the gods Grandview (#4) and Zodiac (#5). I never made it to the International House of Prayer on this trip. The closest I got to it was its entryway in search of directions to where orientation for IHOP interns was being held. I probably would have been wise to squeeze an hour or two in but I don't feel guilty for spending those two hours the way I did either. I made a few discoveries of a different kind and while they won't transform my life they certainly enhance it.