“FLORIDA SPIRIT
QUEST”
The Florida Spirit Quest series of
geocaches will take you to a number of historic sites and
cemeteries built by Florida Pioneers. In six years, the Spirit
Quest has grown to over 800 caches hidden in Indiana, Ohio,
Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Ontario
and the hiders have grown to over fifty cacher teams. Thousands of cacher teams have logged over 50,000 finds on
these series.
FLORIDA SPIRIT QUEST
#002
"TOUCH A BATTLESHIP
TODAY"
"Remember the Maine!"
is one of this country's famous battle cries along with others such
as "Remember the Alamo" and more recently, "Let's
Roll!".
This
cache will take you to a monument to the
U.S.S.
Maine (Armored Cruiser No.
1). The Maine
blew up
and sank, instantly sending 266 sailors to a watery grave on
February 15, 1898 while tied up in Havana Harbor. Fueled by war
fervor stirred up in part by yellow journalists, The United States
responded by declaring war on Spain. Teddy Roosevelt rose to fame
and ultimately the Presidency by leading his dismounted cavalry
("Rough Riders") on a successful frontal uphill assault against an
entrenched enemy near San Juan Hill, Cuba. Peace terms of the
treaty ending the Spanish American War dictated that Spain secede
Cuba and the Philippines to the United States. This event
precipitated America's decades-long jingoist adventures in South
America, fueled by Roosevelt's "Speak softly but carry a Big Stick"
foreign policy.The monument is
visible from the parking area.
The metal plaque is made from metal from the sunken hull of
the Maine.Touch
it and you instantly connect with a vital moment in America's long
and storied history.
THERE IS ONE SMALL PARKING LOT ONLY NEAR TO THE CACHE. PARK
THERE AND YOU CAN SEE THE WHITE MONUMENT TO THE MAINE--IT IS
ALSO VISIBLE ON GOOGLE EARTH.
The cache container is A SMALL-- PILL
BOTTLE BYOP. As always, please be respectful, and cache in,
trash out.
"Florida Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following
geocachers:Trader Rick & Rosie, Shady Sadie.
. If you are interested in spreading the Quest to your
neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, email Trader
Rick and Rosie.
*****
OUR SPONSORS (Click on Image to visit
webpage):
REMEMBER, NO NIGHT CACHING ON FSQ'S
AN EXPLANATION OF THAT POLICY, FOR THOSE WHO
DON'T RESPECT A CACHE HIDER'S WISHES (6-05-10):
[GEO] Copy of email <[GEO] Trader Rick & Rosie contacting
The Power of Shoes from Geocaching.com> to The Power of Shoes?
From: Geocaching (noreply@geocaching.com) Sent: Tue 3/30/10 7:30
AM
-- Copy of email sent to The Power of Shoes --
Shoes: The icons for the Recommended at Night and Available 24
hours attributes ate turned off for this cache as they are for all
Florida Spirit Quests, Indiana Spirit Quests, Michigan Spirit
Quests et. al. whether or not they are in cemeteries or not, and
there are valid reasons for this. Cache owners have the option of
choosing the icons they want displayed on their cache pages. You
have this right on your caches, as well, should you decide to hide
some.
Your initial Found it Log mentioned you found it at night. I
asked you to edit out the reference to night caching in your log or
chance that it be deleted. You didn't and it was. Now, you've
relogged with another reference to night caching, and I ask you
again to edit out that reference, or your smilie will be in
jeopardy once more. Let's not go round and round on this. I think
I'm being more than fair on this and since you've stated your
position, maybe I can explain our philosophy to you and you can
agree to abide by our rules.
The allied state Spirit Quest caches, which are mostly located
in the midwest, have set the standard for cemetery caches, in our
opinion, in terms of historical education, reverence for veterans
and our pioneer forebears, and respectful cache placement for the
past seven years. There are thousands of these caches in many
states as well as several copy-cat series, some of which share our
philosophies and some of which do not, and there are many cachers
who have goals of finding as many of these as they can.
The hiders of these series have agreed to certain principles and
rules and among these are "No Night Caching" even in locations
where that activity may not be against local law. We maintain a
consistent set of rules for hiders and finders alike, so that we
are all on the same page regarding these cache placements and
everybody knows what to expect. We don't want to be a part of any
activity that would put cemetery cache placement in jeopardy in any
state. That's why in Florida, for example, we take you to the
cemetery for the experience, but the cache is not located within
the borders of the cemetery.
By keeping certain circumstances of the Spirit Quest cache find
experience universal to all our caches, we think we best serve the
interests of cache hiders and finders alike. I hope you can abide
by our ideas whether you agree with them or not.
Thanks. Cache on! --Trader Rick
WELL, SO MUCH FOR THAT HOPE.