It Was a Good Good Friday

Friday morning dawned bright and sunshiny and I jumped out of bed ready to conquer the world! Yeah right! Friday actually dawned cloudy and humid and the cold that I have been battling all week had kept me up most of the night. I crawled out of bed and stumbled down the stairs ready to spend a dreary day at home recuperating. And then it hit me, this was a PAID holiday for me - was I really going to waste it sitting around the house doing nothing (note: housework IS nothing!) So I decided to stick to my original plan of visiting the Harrisburg area to capture a few boxes and Markeronis.

My first stop was to pick up the new and truly neat box by Nattybumppo, 4 @ 3 . What a clever little box, I was thrilled to start my day with finding this one. I have to admit that I was really happy that I found this one so early in the day because it would have been harder to do it later on. Urban stealth boxing is not something that I have had many chances to try yet.

As daylight was approaching, I made my way to the home of the Fox Run Skunk Cabbage . I think that my good friends, the Crayola Posse, must have intended to entice me to find this box by mentioning boardwalks in the woods. In case you don't know, I love boardwalks in the woods. I have never figured out why I do, I just do. I was able to find this box pretty easily while still marvelling at this little nature preserve right in the middle of a mass of superhighways. There were birdwatchers everywhere and I am very sad to admit that the only birds which I saw and could identify were a group of egrets. They are also the only birds that stood still long enough for me to get a photograph. This park was filled with the skunk cabbages just beginning to make their appearance and Crayola Posse's stamp is perfect for this park. I was really surprised to see that I had stamped in right after Wanda and Pete who had stopped to pick this box up on their way to Georgia.

Since I had found the first two boxes on my list so quickly, I decided to take a little detour to Millersburg to find another Crayola Posse box which has been on my to do list Millersburg Ferry . The stamp in this box was another work of art, based on a work of art! It was also an interesting little walk. Unfortunately since the day was so overcast, the view wasn't as spectacular as I imagine it is on nicer days. The park is also in need of a serious clean up, it appears that the river had risen over its banks and deposited tremendous amounts of garbage in the lower parts of the park. Here is a picture of the canal and in the background is the river. The real highlight of my trip to Millersburg was that there was a Hardee's right outside of the park. I love Hardees and there are none in the entire Berks county area so I actually fooled around a while in this park while waiting for the magic hour of 11 so that I could have a delicious mushroom and swiss burger. We had visited the new Charlie Brown's Steakhouse the night before to celebrate Bill's birthday and were extremely disappointed with the food that we received. This fast food burger was so much better than the prime rib I had the night before.

From Millersburg, I did some really poor driving planning and went back south to look for the Londonderry Air . I had tried this box once before in December and the park was blocked off and closed for the winter. I had walked in but didn't go far enough to find the box. Even this time, I had to cheat and place a call to True Indigo to get some extra help. But I found it safe and sound and with another exquisite stamp. I am now truly inspired to create boxes much more carefully to live up to the standards that my friends have set.

When I finished with this box, the downpours had started so I made a decision to visit the Army Navy store in Lewistown to stock up on decon containers. I really like these little boxes which were introduced to me by the Crayola Posse. They are compact, easy to hide, and very weatherproof. While I was in the store, I also picked up a new bag to carry on the trail, bigger than my old one but smaller than the one that I had bought to replace it previously. I can't wait to try it out. The picture to the left is of a lovely little stone bridge which had a Markeroni marker on it that I passed on my way into Lewistown. A very pretty sight.

From Lewistown, I headed back east towards Berks County and remembered that I would be passing Little Buffalo State Park. I also remembered that there was a box there by the controversial LifeIsGood and I had the clues saved on my laptop. But, after a little search, and another phone call to True Indigo, I found out that this box had been pulled several weeks ago, perhaps after all of the message board chatter. My trip there wasn't wasted though, True Indigo did coach me through another mystery box in the park so I didn't leave empty handed.

Till I made it back home, I had logged 375 miles on my little car. Got a bit of a shock when I filled the gas tank up and it was way higher than I am used to paying but it still was cheap for all of the fun that I had on this Good Friday.

Class of 2006

For many years I have thought about going back to school and finishing up my bachelor's degree - I am about seven courses short of obtaining it. But I had forgotten that you can pick up credits for life experiences without actually taking classes. So now I finally have my degree - my mother would be so proud of me! My good friends, the Crayola Posse, picked it up for me while they were visiting the Penn State campus last weekend, saving me a trip up for graduation. I can hardly wait to start my master's degree, it involves finding fifteen more Crayola Posse boxes and eight more Mapsurfers and I plan on starting on this new goal next weekend.

Cemetery in the Cornfield

Sunday was a beautiful spring day, so beautiful that I was able to entice Bill to actually leave the house and take a walk. Both of us have an interest in genealogy and before I began letterboxing, it
was my obsession. Bill comes from a family which has its roots in Lancaster county and we headed to Schoeneck to visit a graveyard in a cornfield. If you look at the very center of the horizon in this picture, you can see the little dark spot which is the cemetery. Bill and I have been together for six years and we have driven to this spot many times and just looked from the car at this site but today, I decided was the day to actually go and visit his ancestors. "But what if someone doesn't want us there!" he exclaimed. And I patiently explained to him that they would then ask us to leave and we would do just that.

We started our hike to the graveyard by walking on freshly plowed earth. Thank heavens I had grabbed an old pair of hiking shoes and put them in the car because I definitely needed them. Walking on soft ground is not fun. And it was even less fun as I began to feel the pull on my foot which I had injured last month. And to top it off, although you can't really see it in this photo, we had to walk uphill. But we made it and I am very glad that we did.

The graveyard is in deplorable condition although Bill says that it is looking much better than the first time he actually visited it. Some other family members have spent some time clearing the brush out and standing the broken gravestones up against the stone wall. The location was so peaceful though, it was easy to see why his family would have chosen this site as their final resting place.

After spending some time thinking about the past, we headed a bit north, right into Schoeneck to visit the Steinmetz graveyard which contains the gravestone honoring Ulrich Schurch, Bill's first grandfather to come to the US from Switzerland. This tombstone is pretty neat because it details a lot of information about Ulrich and his descendants, although you can't read it too well in this photo. I am not sure that Ulrich is actually buried here but the stone is here in the land that he settled in.

After leaving the graveyards and moseying our way back to Berks county, we made our first stop of the year at Behringers for ice cream. If the perfect weather wasn't a sure enough sign that spring is finally here, the fact that Behringers is open absolutely sealed the fact.

Spring Is Sprung, The Grass is Riz

.....and I wonder where the boxes is!!!

What a beautiful weekend it turned out to be and Lightnin' Bug, Tony Tony Chopper and I had quite an adventure. The first thing I need to talk about is the new Crayola Posse series The Bowery Mission . If you haven't seen the clues to this series yet, you must go look at them. They are the most beautifully done clues I have ever seen. I don't know which I like best - the presentation or the actual story but both are unique and inspiring. Then after you have savored the clues, you must go find this series. When I look at my logbook now, I feel that I am sitting around a campfire just listening to four old hobos telling their individual stories. The carving is absolutely the best I have ever seen. I have found many of Crayola Posse's boxes and the carving is always wonderful, but this time RGBisMe has outdone himself. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to look for these boxes.

In addition to finding the Bowery Mission, we also had a very, very busy day with a lot of walking. Poor Chopper boy had on new hiking boots and really got them broken in all at one time. Our first hike took us to Lake Ontelaunee and the planting ground of the Die Missing Grundsau boxes. Even though it was fairly early in the morning, it was hot and sticky in this park and the bugs were already making their presence known. Rich managed to attract a couple of deer tics, which proved to be the only bad experience of our entire day. But the Grundsau is still missing and is waiting to be found by our boxing friends.

We moseyed on south then to Chester County and began the The Chester County Hat Trick series. This one took us through some very beautiful country but we ended up being disappointed that one of the boxes was missing. We know we found the right spot because the camo fabric was there but the box was just plain old gone. Unfortunately, each of the boxes in this series provides one third of the completed stamp, so we now only have part of the picture.

After this we moved on to the Kennett Square area where Rich hid another box in an Underground Letterbox series dedicated to the Pez dispenser. Rich spotted the absolutely most perfect spot in this entire woods to hide his box but was very disappointed to find a geocache hiding there already. As he explored other areas for his box, I rummaged through the cache and found a travel bug in it. This travel bug is making its way from New Mexico to Niagara Falls and since I will be attending the Rocks, Docks and Locks gathering in Kingston, Ontario, I took the travel bug with me. Last night I looked at the map of our route to Kingston and found that we could go right through Niagara Falls so if I can find a drive by cache there, maybe Norm's Bug will make it very close to home that weekend.

After this, we moved onward to the Brandywine Battlefied Park where we saw the biggest diameter tree that I have ever seen in real life. I was able to capture some Markeronis here and was happy that the Lightnin' Bug guys were patient while I snapped my pictures. While we were in this historic neck of the woods, we found Hexacat's Raining Cherries and went to check on a mystery box placed by Amanda of Seattle. Raining Cherries was safe and sound and contained another wonderful stamp but Amanda's box has sadly disappeared. I had found it last summer with Lil Milkmonster and Out of Sight so I knew exactly where it was but a stone wall located near it had been rebuilt recently and it looks as though the box may have been confiscated.

We made one more stop at the Birmingham Friends Meeting House so that Rich could find Spirit . I had found this box on one of my boxing marathon days last fall but while Rich searched, I was able to get some more Markeroni pictures. What an inspirational area this part of Chester County is.

And since we were in the area and the Chopper dude had never been to Maryland before, we made a quick run south of the Mason Dixon line. Look at the picture and see if you can tell where Pennsylvania ends and Maryland begins! Hint: I was south of the border when I took this picture.

The Lightnin' Bug guys and I parted company at this time and as I was driving home, I passed a little park which I had never seen before. So...since I have been carrying about 19 boxes which need to be planted in my car for the last two months....I had to stop and hide one. It was actually the second box that I had planted this day, both part of my Empty Basket series which is an attempt to empty the basket which sits on my desk accumulating stamps which have no reason to exist anymore. The clues are listed on my box blog and this series will be growing very soon.

I jumped back in my car and headed for Reading and placed a call to the Crayola Posse to find out what adventures they had had this day. I got no answer but did get a return call from them just as I was pulling into McDonalds in Morgantown to grab something to eat on the remaining drive home. As we chatted, we discovered that they were approaching the Morgantown exit on the turnpike and it didn't take a lot of convincing to get them to take a detour to my McDonalds. I can't think of a more perfect ending to this wonderful day than to share dinner with two of my bestest boxing buddies after spending the earlier part of the day with another one of them.

New Sheets

For Christmas, I received a gift certificate for Bed, Bath and Beyond from one of the salesmen that I work for. Well, Bed, Bath and Beyond is a store that I normally buy gifts for other people, not one that I can afford to buy treats for myself so this gift certificate was like a tremendous bonus for me. After walking through the store and savoring all of the wonderful adult toys that they sell, I eliminated anything for the kitchen since that is the room that I like to spend the least amount of time in. They don't carry any letterboxing or computer supplies, so those were not a possibility either. As for the bathroom goodies, we have a strictly functional approach to decorating - if it isn't something that you can actually use, we don't need it. Our house is very tiny and there just isn't room for knick knacks and fancy decorations. And all the basics usually come with a bathroom already.

So, that left the bedroom and the perfect answer to my search - a new set of sheets. I haven't bought sheets in at least ten years so this seemed to fulfill all of my requirements for a gift for myself - something functional, something needed and something beautiful. I walked through the sheet department once. I went back a few weeks later and walked through it again and then once more a few days after that. I settled on a really lovely set of sheets in the palest shade of blue to match my blue and cream bedroom. But they cost about twice the amount of my gift certificate so I had to postpone my purchase for a few more weeks. I dreamt about those sheets when I crawled in bed at night, thinking about the smoothness and softness that I would soon be feeling.

Finally, the day came to make the purchase - last Thursday. I bought my treasure home and left them sit in their packages on my night stand for several days, just looking over and seeing them there gave me a few more days of enjoyment. Finally, this morning came time for the big unpackaging and laundering before actually putting them on the bed. I unzipped the plastic wrapper and pulled them out and just savored the softness, I had never had sheets this soft before. I began to actually unfold them and noticed that there was something in the center of the package. What could it be? Ecstasy, excitement, happiness!!!!! There was a piece of cardboard in the center of my soft sheets. Just the right thickness of cardboard to make the cover for the log books that I have spent the past week stitching. Joy, joy, joy!!! Now I can finish my logbooks, I am so happy, so, so happy! And the wrapper - there must be something that I can do with this lovely plastic wrapper with the zipper on it, perhaps storage for some of my letterboxing supplied - could this day get any better!

Oh yeah, I put the sheets on the bed and came down to my desk to savor my new piece of cardboard - my lovely, lovely, just the right thickness cardboard. What a wonderful day!