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An ammo can, well marked as a geocache and filled with the usual swag, placed at the site of one of the more interesting places I have found while searching www.roadsideamerica.com, a great website that highlights all kinds of little-known places along the highways and byways of this great country.
The following was reprinted from www.roadsideamerica.com:
Lakewood Truck Stop is a pretty typical setup -- restaurant, convenience store, gasoline/diesel, amenities for travellers. Its exterior decorations, though, are what make it stand out. As far back as I can remember the place (to the early 70s), it's been decorated with all kinds of fiberglass animals & other characters, most of which are now gone.
In its heyday, when viewed from the Interstate, the main building and the land surrounding it seemed to be covered with life-sized plastic cows, big cats, deer, dogs. There used to be a couple of gorillas, frozen in mid-chest-beat, up on the roof. As a kid, the thing that always held my attention (and made me NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG my parents to stop there whenever we drove by), was the cast of Yogi Bear chracters on display in the parking lot. Numerous SETS of Yogis, Boo Boos, Cindy Bears, and Ranger Smiths. Yogi was about 10 feet tall,and in his right fist he clutched a poultry-like drumstick the size of a whiffle bat. The other characters measured in at roughly the size of an adult human.
A drive around the periphery of Lakewood's parking lot was pretty interesting, though: several of the fiberglass decorations of old appeared to be scattered here-&-there nearby, many only half-hidden from view. A cow and the gorillas (formerly from the roof of the main truck stop building) stood unattended and forgotten beneath a metal, high-roofed shelter. Far behind a chain link fence surrounding an abandoned-looking lot of some kind, several unidentifiable fiberglass hands reached skyward through a choke of tall grass.
But the BEST thing my friends & I found was the motherlode: Obscured from view down a short, swampy, weed-choked driveway, heaped at what's probably the edge of the property, right beside the nearby woods, lay ALL the Yogi Bear characters I recall from my childhood! Including the Rangers!
Once we'd trudged through the mud to get close enough for pictures, we realized just HOW creepy this scene really was. Numerous Yogi Bears and all his castmembers -- maybe a couple dozen figures total -- were held in place by saplings, bushes, and a two-foot high wet, weedy overgrowth. There they lay fading, on their backs or face-down, out in the elements, piled on top of each other like so much cordwood! Like....a friggin' cartoon mass-burial holocaust orgy!
I'd wager that possibly ALL of the characters Dashew molded for the "Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken" chain -- which I, a lifelong North Carolinian, had never before heard of (so I'd guess it's at least 30 years defunct) -- anyway, possibly ALL of the characters may still exist, quietly deteriorating out by the woods. [Nate Etheridge, 09/17/2000]
....and then this update:
The Halifax NC Truck Stop on the west side of I-95 at exit 168 is under reconstruction or demolition, we couldn't tell which. We did find the Yogi Bear Graveyard, however. It's out behind the old truck shop behind a chain link fence. Who knows what will happen to these figures. [Les Parker, 01/19/2003]
The new truckstop is now completed and the characters remain, blocked off by a fence (beware of some barbed wire in the area as well). The cache is placed at a good vantage point for viewing this surreal sight. An interesting bit of fading americana.
This cache wouldn't be possible without the help of my co-cacher, Cosmicmama. (Shout Out!!!) Many thanks to her for all her help!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
evtug arkg gb gur srapr