Caching Trip to Wilmington 12/10/2008

Wednesday morning Ed picked up myself and Liz and Bob and we were off to Wilmington for a day of caching and meeting Michelle Fray to have lunch with her and give her FTF prize for our latest cache we put out up there. We were very sad that Mom couldn't go but her back just wouldn't have stood the ride that far so she stayed home and rested and kept Muffy and Raggs company. It poured all the way up and we were beginning to have our doubts about the trip but as we got closer the skies brightened up and the sun came out and the rest of the day was fine, just a few showers on and off. We stopped along the way and placed the container for our next cache we are going to have published in Wilmington, a 7 stage puzzle cache.
Welcome to Wilmington - a quaint, historic port city tucked along the Cape Fear coast. As you stroll along the streets of downtown Wilmington enjoying the views of the river, the gnarled live oaks, and the significant old homes, you must brace yourself and face one inescapable truth: Wilmington is full of history, and such history is usually accompanied by ghosts. Our first cache was at Bulluck Hospital, in a park next to the former hospital building which is now a retail and office building. Bulluck Hospital, which was established by Dr. Ernest S. Bulluck in 1922 and served Wilmington until the doctor’s death in 1944. At that time, the hospital closed and the majority of the building went unused for many years. However, the top floor, where the old children's ward was once located, became an informal hostel. Visitors here began reporting strange happenings on the third floor. Some claimed they could hear the laughter of children while others described the mysterious sound as weeping. Others had seen the figure of a young boy with wavy black hair standing at the rear of the building near the old staircase. The child, upon being seen, would quickly melt into the darkness of the staircase and disappear. Even stranger stories involve the dreams that some people reported experiencing while staying at the hostel, but these are just too scary to repeat here! It’s no wonder that the hostel here didn’t stay open for very long. At one point, the owners of the building let out a room on the top floor for a band to practice here. The band would sometimes report hearing strange sounds late at night; doors opening and closing in the hallway, the elevator ascending up to the top floor with only the sound of footsteps exiting from the elevator. The alley behind the hotel holds a ghostly story also. Many years ago, there a local police officer who worked the downtown night shift and he used to pull his squad car down that dark tunnel and into this little alcove so he could catch a quick nap. After dozing for a short while he would wake and head back out on patrol. This worked well for several months, but one night he awoke to find what looked like the figure of a small child standing in the shadows by the staircase over to the side. The officer flicked on his searchlight and shone it into the corner only to find tall alley weeds there. This happened several times in the following month, but always he found the alley weeds and nothing else. Then one night, after awakening abruptly and with a very bad headache, the officer again saw the alley weeds swaying gently. The officer decided not to turn on his flood light, as his headache was hurting rather badly. Instead, he reached forward and adjusted the rear view mirror so he could see himself to clear the sleep out of his eyes. As he looked in the mirror there was movement in the reflection, coming from behind him. As the officer's eyes refocused in the mirror he saw a child with a vacant stare sitting in the back seat. The officer jumped from his car, drawing both his gun and flashlight. As the beam shone into the back seat of the car, there was no one there. The officer quickly swept the beam around the alcove, and upon finding no one there, he jumped back into his squad car and left, never to return to this spot again.
The next cache was next to a restaurant named Hell's Kitchen and was on a gate next to the restaurant. This restaurant was once a set for Dawson’s Creek, where Katie Holmes waited tables. When used as a set, her boyfriend of the time Chris Klein would sometimes sit in a corner booth to watch her film. The entire bar and all the furniture was on wheels to create easy access for cameras. It has since been made into a real restaurant/bar and all the wheels were removed and the furniture is solid.
Next cache was at the foot of a hill on Nun St. overlooking the waterfront area and boardwalk. Then we did a few NRV (No Redeeming Value) caches one was a bottle cap with a micro container attached and hidden under a concrete parking bumper, a multi cache outside a baseball park with the container hidden in a baseball, a cache in a old cream separator outside Cracker Barrel Restaurant, a cache hidden outside a dentist's office next to a tree, one outside Boy Scout Headquarters, a cache outside Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store, and another outside Starbucks in a tree.
We then met Michelle Fray (fraygirls) and she took us to a multi cache that she hadn't found yet near a senior center and Hugh McRae Nature Park which was under the boardwalk. The we went to a small new park that contained 2 new caches one under a wooden bridge over a small creek and another in a tree on the other side of the park.
After leaving the park we went to Mellow Mushroom and had lunch and talked geocaching. After lunch Michelle had some errands to do so she left us and we were off to our last cache before leaving for MB. The cache was located on a fence located on the perimeter of the St. James Churchyard and tells the tale of a pact made by two friends many years ago. It was the early 19th century, and several young Wilmingtonians were sitting around a fire and debating the nature of the afterlife. Among this lively group were two young men who had been inseparable friends since childhood – Samuel Jocelyn and Alexander Hostler. As the fire hissed and crackled between them, the two made a pact that the first of them to die would return from the spirit world to visit the survivor. Years passed, and the pact was forgotten. The two men remained friends as they continued their privileged ascent into Wilmington society and adulthood. But tragedy struck on a cold night in March of 1810. The two men were on a hunting holiday with their families when Samuel and his wife had an argument. Angry, Samuel rode off into the swamps on his horse. When he didn’t return the next day, a search party set out to look for the missing man. They soon found him floating in the freezing shallows of the swamp, seemingly a victim of a fatal fall. Samuel’s body was immediately brought back to Wilmington and buried in the St. James Churchyard. Alexander was despondent over the loss of his oldest and dearest friend. He was inconsolable and couldn’t sleep. He also thought that he was suffering from hallucinations when, late in the evening after Samuel’s burial, he turned to find that Samuel was standing in his room. Too stunned and exhausted to utter a word, Alexander was then further surprised to hear Samuel’s voice speaking to him: “Alexander…Come and dig up my body.” It is reported that Alexander then fainted from the sheer shock brought on by this occurrence. On the next two evenings Alexander experienced two more such visits from Samuel, with Samuel making the same request each time: “Alexander…Come and dig up my body.” Worried about his own sanity, Alexander had not mentioned the first two visitations to anyone. But Alexander couldn’t continue to keep the secret to himself after the third incident and he confided in a friend who had also known Samuel. The friend reminded Alexander of the pact that he and Samuel had made years ago, and recommended that they go to the St. James churchyard and do exactly as Samuel’s ghost had requested. The two friends, armed with shovels and lanterns, entered the churchyard late that same evening. They located Samuel’s grave and, under the cover of night, they started digging. They reached the coffin and paused, unsure of their willingness to go through with the exhumation. Alexander knew that Samuel’s ghost would continue to haunt him if he did not continue with the task. The friends pried the nails from the coffin lid and lifted it away. They lowered their lanterns to reveal a horrifying sight: Samuel’s body, which had been placed in the coffin face-up, was now face-down. Underneath the body were deep gouges in the bottom of the coffin where Samuel had tried to dig his way out of his own premature grave. Samuel had been buried alive, and Alexander eventually went to his own grave lamenting the fact that he had not fulfilled his friend’s request on the night of the first visitation. Many old-guard Wilmingtonians still refuse to walk by this cemetery today. It is claimed that, when the area is quiet enough, the muffled sounds of scratching and cries for help can still be heard.
We headed back to MB and dinner at our place as Mom had done a pot roast during the day while we were gone. We had a great time as Liz and Bob found there 800th cache and Michelle loved her geocoin. It was fun to sit and talk at lunch about caching and all the great caches everybody had been too. Mom had fixed a GREAT dinner and we all had a nice time. I did the dishes and after everybody left hit the hay as I was pooped. Well everybody time to say until next time we love you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List: 1-Everybody at Hi Buddy #1 l to r Ed, Michelle, Dick, Liz & Bob, 2-Michelle and Dick with her FTF geocoin, 3-Liz & Bob with their 800th cache Doctor's Diamond, 4-Looking for Off Your Rocker in Wilmington (Cracker Barrel), 5.6-Looking for BOO Y'ALL at Bulluck Hospital, 7-Looking for The Big Sneak-Foot of Nun, 8,9,10-Sunrise on Sunday morning.