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.