Firefly in the Forest 4: Crazy Ivan Traditional Cache
Aurock: Someone asked me to consider archiving this cache as they have a neat location nearby where they'd like to place a new one. Since this cache has been around for quite a while and I'm not very active these days, that is probably a good idea. Hopefully this cache being retired leads to something better in (near) it's place. Thanks to everyone who logged a find over the years!
Firefly in the Forest 4: Crazy Ivan
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Overlooking the Mississippi River, this cache is near a picnic area at Loud Thunder, down a picturesque trail. The terrain approaching the cache is level, and shouldn't present much challenge to cachers of any age. The cache is not too far from the trail, on fairly mild terrain.
The Crazy Ivan was a maneuver in a twin engined vessel that could create a spinning motion on the ship. By having one engine running reverse and another running forward, the ship could effectively spin around quickly. This maneuver only functioned on vessels that have their engines mounted on axis from one another.
As i was walking down the trail, the sharp, sudden turn just west of here reminded me of a scene at the end of Firefly's pilot episode. In that scene, the ship was being pursued by Reavers, and in a desperate attempt to escape, they attempted a Crazy Ivan. Placing this cache near the bend in the trail, it seemed appropriate to call it Crazy Ivan.
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About the show:
In the fall of 2002, a new TV show premiered on the Fox network. Set in outer space over 500 years in the future, "Firefly" successfully blended elements a western with science fiction. Sadly, after Fox aired episodes out of order and repeatedly moved the show to different days and timeslots, Firefly was cancelled after only 11 episodes. averaging 4.7 million viewers each week. The show's dedicated fanbase continued put on a postcard campaign to show support for the show, but met with limited success. Attempts to convince Fox to resurrect the show or to allow the show to be moved to another network failed. Firefly won many awards after it was canceled, including an Emmy award for outstanding special effects in 2003. Ongoing fan support convinced the network to release all 14 episodes (including 3 that were never aired) on DVD the following December. Universal Pictures brought the crew together again to continue the story as a major motion picture, released in 2005.
Every so often, fans put together a new effort to revive the show. In response to comments made by actor Nathan Fillion during an interview, where he said that if he won the lottery he would buy the rights and bring the show back, there was discussion of an effort to fan fund the purchase of rights and production of new episodes. The movement gained momentum, until it became clear that Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion did not support the effort.
Many of the people involved with Firefly have moved on to successful new projects, such as Nathan Fillion starring in "Castle", and Joss Whedon directing the blockbuster movie "The Avengers". As such, it seems unlikely at this point that Firefly will ever return to the airwaves with the original cast.
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This cache was placed with permission from the rangers at Loud Thunder Forest Preserve and the Rock Island County Forest Preserve District.
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Treasures
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