Rocks, Docks and Locks - Day 2

OK, so it is 4 o'clock in the morning on the second day of my great adventure and I am ready to box. But it is still dark out, what to do now? Well, I rifled through my stacks of clue sheets and found a few that looked as though they could be done in the dark, set them up on my trusty Streets and Trips program on the laptop and found that I was only about 20 minutes away from two of them. I plunged forward to another cemetery.....it seems as though those north of Pennsylvania are big on cemeteries. This one specifically said in the clues that you should go there during daylight hours but I rationalized in my mind that till I got there and found the box it would be almost daylight. This box, At the Cat by Catbead, turned out to be very easily done in the dark. It also provided a really nice view of the lights of the city from the box location. And when I finished it, it was still nowhere near daylight as I moved on to my next box, Cairn, the first of several Lockwench boxes I would hunt for this day. This one was in a really interesting location, right on the corner of an industrial area. I actually think that it was better to do this one in the dark when there was no traffic around. I loved the stamp, it was one made especially for the location and showed me what to expect from the rest of the fabled Lockwench boxes. I also had begun to notice that there really was a variety of styles of boxes used in the boxes I had found so far. I am used to seeing Lock 'n Locks, Rubbermaid, Gladware, and decon boxes but some of the boxes I was finding were in interesting containers with screw on lids. I didn't recognize the containers themselves and have to admit that it encouraged me to be a bit more experimental in my choices.

By this time, I finally noticed one little troubling detail, I was out of gas. Who had time for trivial things like gasoline when there were hundreds of boxes to be found. But I figured that had to be my next priority and since I was in an industrial area, there had to be gas stations around. And I was right, there were gas stations but none of them were open. After driving by about ten of them and getting more than a little worried about getting stranded in Syracuse, I saw two men talking in a parking lot of a shopping center so I asked them where the closest one was. "Oh," they said, "you have a while to wait to get gasoline. The stations don't open till 7." They gave me directions to the nearest one and I drove there, prepared to just sit and wait, fuming at myself because I would lose almost a precious hour waiting for a gas station to open. Well, strange thing about gas stations these days. If you use your credit or debit card, apparently you can pump gas even if the station is not open. I found this out as I watched another patron come in and calmly pump his gas. Yahoo, I was back in business. The monster was fed and I was off to another Lockwench set of boxes and to another cemetery.

Tadophiles Unite - Oakwood was in the most interesting cemetery I have ever visited. It was more like an art gallery than a cemetery with impressive statuary and creative landscaping everywhere. It was also a huge cemetery and housed three boxes in areas which did not interfere with any graves. While I was wandering through the graves, I found one whole section with my last name on it. Since genealogy was my passion prior to letterboxing, I had to spend some time there to see if there were any names that I could possibly link to my family. I was a bit startled to see many of the exact names of my grandparents and greatgrandparents about the same time frame that my relatives lived. I guess that names were a little more limited a few generations ago than they are now when we make up a sound and use it as a name for our babies. I tore myself away from this section and found my three boxes, disappointed to discover that there was an additional box in this cemetery but I didn't have the clues for it and the wireless wasn't picking any signals up here. I do have a question for Lockwench - what the heck is a Tadophile?

By this time, I noticed that it should have been getting light out but was still pretty dark. I quickly deduced that it was going to rain. Can't get anything by this letterboxer! I made my way to the next set of boxes on my list, the one that I had my heart set on searching when I reached Syracuse, Lockwench's My Favorite Irish Things. The Irish blood in me wanted to find these even though, as Laura always tries to remind me, that Irish blood is contained in one little fingernail. These boxes took me on a tour of the Irish section of Syracuse. My first stop was at the upside down traffic light. If you look closely at the picture you can see that the green light is on the top. Lockwench's clues tell the story of this light and the little park here hid the first of the boxes in this series. I could tell that this was going to be the beginning of my urban letterboxing experiences for this weekend. The other two boxes took me to a park which contained a zoo and an arboretum. The stamps were definitely Irish inspired and this turned out to be one of my favorite series of the weekend. And the rains began.....

So I splishsplashed to the next box on my agenda, Daily Bread, another Lockwench box. I am beginning to think that the words Lockwench and Syracuse will be forever linked in my mind. It took me a while to find the actual store that this box represents, mostly because I didn't read the clues correctly and was looking for a store called Daily Bread. I should have followed my nose and it would have taken me there. The aromas when I got out of the car to locate the box were heavenly. It was pouring down cats and dogs as I looked for this one which was probably fortunate because I could tell that nice weather would have made this one a bit harder to retrieve. Lockwench says that this is a tourist spot and people like to have their picture taken in front of the building but since it was raining so hard, I didn't bother to set up my tripod and pose. She also says that you have to try the bread there and I wanted so badly to buy some but knew that in a few hours I would be crossing the Canadian border and wasn't sure about taking an open loaf of bread across with me.

I did a quick search for three other driveby type boxes but found none of them and wasn't willing to stand out in the rain poking through bushes in an urban setting so I decided to head up the road to Canada, stopping first to drop a Lightnin' Bug Crop Circle HH off in the I Love NY Hitchhiker Hostel by, who else, but Lockwench! It was still raining and I was fortunate that I didn't slip into the stream at this one. It was full of goodies and I picked through carefully to choose the one which I would bring back to Pennsylvania with me. The lucky winner was Buggylou's "Pleased to Meet You." Watch for this one to reappear in the Maryland area at the Campin' and Stampin' gathering.

I am on my way to Kingston now but remembered that there was a box at a coffee stop on Rt. 81 which only appeared on holiday weekends. And this was a holiday weekend. There was also a box at the same stop which was permanant. Two boxes at one rest stop, perfect. I reached this stop about 45 minutes north of Syracuse and quickly located the first box Coming and Going I81 by MTNestRobin. I took it to my car and stamped in and was a bit agitated when a car pulled up right behind me and parked. I wondered if this was another boxer looking for the same box so I sat in my car and waited for a few minutes. Nothing. He didn't get out to look for it nor did he move the car. What to do now? I waited a few more minutes and decided that this one was an easy one to slip into place without too much commotion so I calmly crawled out of my car and peeked back into his car to find that he was fast asleep. Whew! Got this box back in place and crawled forward a few spaces to find the Coffee Stop Letterbox another MTNestRobin creation. But darn, there were people all around and one of them was actually holding the box. Again, I calmly waited for a few minutes and when the box was slipped back into its hiding spot, I walked up to get it and was quickly approached by the lady who had been holding it. How lucky I was that it was MTNestRobin herself and the people she had been talking to turned out to be Wink and Tarheel who were also on their way to the Canadian gathering. Introductions were made and the conversation flowed so quickly as I notice it does with letterboxers. So many stories to share with people who love the same thing since it appears that people who don't letterbox just don't understand. Wink and Tarheel were meandering their way to Canada and we agreed to get together the next day for some exchanges. Meanwhile, Robin and I talked and talked and talked. She is a very warm person and I felt as though I had known her forever. The picture is of Robin and her husband, Mtn Man, and their dog, the biggest doberman that I have ever seen. Eventually, I had to tear myself away and keep moving north.