The Road That rkl Built - aka Shoe Polish Lane Traditional Cache

Please bring a

rkl is known far and wide in the geoworld as "rkl's geoguide service". Any cacher who goes geocaching with him in Johnson County has to hear how he built most of Highway 103 and Highway 21 in his younger days. Seems like the portions of the road that he built get longer each time he tells the story. The real story is that when he was in college, he worked for the State of Arkansas doing something or another for the highway department. When he tells the story, the roads wouldn't have been built if he hadn't been there. But when you pin him down to what he actually did, you get some vague answer that doesn't make much sense. As we were heading up Highway 21 this morning to find a 1/5 geocache and AR HICK and Woodwalker9 were tagging along, he began telling AR HICK his road building stories. Someone said this spot needed a geocache. So we placed one here. Now for the story behind it.

It seems that in the 1960's guardrails had cresote posts and after the guardrails were painted silver, the silver paint had to be cleaned off the posts before inspection. rkl, with his usual droll sense of humor, told the contractors that instead of cleaning off all that paint, why didn't they just head down the road to the little store nearby and get some black liquid shoepolish and daub it on top of the paint. Now, in his defense, he had no idea they'd really listen to him. But they did and the next thing he knew, they were out there daubing shoe polish on the posts. His boss came along and told him "Boy, you keep your mouth shut from now on. These contractors think just because you work for the State that you know what you are talking about." So now you know the story.

Please replace the cache in the same manner in which you found it so that others will have the same experience. If the cache needs attention, please email.