Rocks, Docks and Locks - The Final Day

It was Sunday, the weekend had gone so quickly and it was time to head for home. But there was still a lot to do in Kingston before I left on that eight hour drive. So many boxes...so little time. I scanned through the invaluable little book that Norasta had assembled for us and decided to head to the west side of Kingston. One of the boxes which had intrigued me when I first started looking at the Canadian boxes was the Really Nasty Canadians so I decided to box my way towards this one. That meant my first stop was Panther in Pink by Patonkers. This box appealed to me because of the name, a play on the trail name of one of my boxing friends, Pink Panther. This proved to be another cleverly hidden box in the rocks. Amazing...who'd a thunk that you could actually hide so many boxes this way. Here we gather rocks to cover our boxes and I personally cringe whenever I see a box which is hidden in a rock wall for fear that wall will be dismantled by thoughtless boxers. But in Kingston, the rocks are the way to go. It would be impossible to move most of them because of their size and shape so the Canadian boxers use them much more creatively. I really liked this way of hiding boxes there.

OK, now it was time to search for those Really Nasty Canadians. It is killing me that I can't write much about this one but this is a semi-mystery box. Let me just say, the setting is one of the most unique that I have ever been in, not just in letterboxing but also in my life in general. It was really eerie sitting and stamping into this box, waiting for those snarling dogs to make their presence known. This was also one of my favorite boxes of the trip. Yes, I know that the picture looks harmless enough but it is what you can't see that is the eerie part.

Next stop was at the old Kingston Psychiatric Hospital for the Fabulous Flyers, my last Norasta boxes for the weekend. After finding the first box of this series, I took a little detour from these clues and picked up Craftymouse's Pain au Chocolat. I could almost smell the chocolat in the stamp for this box. Then on to finish the Fab Flyers but I ran into a problem. I couldn't find the number three box which meant that I also couldn't find the number four box. I went on to find the final box and backtracked to look for the other two when who should I run into but Wanda and Pete. They helped me search for awhile and then they went back to find the beginning of the series while I continued to poke around searching. Finally, I decided to call it quits, unhappy that I would be going home without completing it. As I was walking back to my car, I heard my name being called and looked up to see Wanda and Pete with Lockwench and, wonder of wonders, Norasta! With a little bit of coaching from Norasta, which told me that I had been looking in a totally wrong area for these boxes, we were able to find the final two boxes for this series and I could leave Kingston knowing that it was complete. Perfect timing, Norasta, thank you for helping!

I said goodbye to my boxing friends and as I was walking back to my car, I ran into one of the black squirrels which were everywhere in this city. Although the Kingston residents probably take them for granted, I thought that they were very neat. And this one even posed for his picture!

I then decided as I got in my car that it was time to head back to Pennsylvania even though there were about forty more boxes on my "to do" list. This time, instead of taking the ferry, I was going to drive across the border. I made my way to the 1000 Island crossing point, through some extremely pretty country, mentally preparing myself to have to spend hours going through customs. Boy, was I surprised when I got there and once again I was only one of a handful of cars going through. The customs agent this time asked me several questions about why I had been in Canada and I had learned my lesson from my trip north and just responded that I had gotten together with some friends. He asked me if my friends were Canadian and when I told him no, he then berated me because we wasted gas by not carpooling. I thought that was just a little bit above his realm of authority but kept my opinion to myself. He waved me through and the minute I crossed the border, miraculously, my cell phone stopped roaming and I was able to pull into a little welcome station and call Bill and Laura and let them know that I was safe and sound. I had been able to email them all weekend because I had good wireless reception but wouldn't spend the money to call them. With gas prices what they are, I needed my dollars for that.

I was now on my way home but I still had a stop to make at the southbound part of the Coming and Going I81. Once again, I was fortunate to be able to chat with MTNestRobin since she was again manning the holiday Coffee Stop. While chatting she mentioned that Tamsyn had mentioned that the stamps in the Coming and Going boxes seemed to be reversed and when she checked them, they were indeed in the wrong order. So Robin had corrected the mistake. However, her correction meant that I would not have the northbound stamp because it had been placed in the box which I had already found. Darn, what to do now? Well, Robin suggested that I make the loop back up the northbound side of I81 and pick it up, adding less than 3 miles to my journey and I agreed that would be a good idea. It turned out that it was an excellent idea because as I was doing it, I saw one little isolated box pop up on my mapping program. District No. 10 had been in the plan for when I was heading for Canada but somehow I missed going for it. Now I had a second chance and I was happy that I took the time to get this one in an historic little district building out in the middle of nowhere.

From here until I got home, my memory is gone. I thought that I had traveled straight through the remaining six hours but my logbook says otherwise. It says that I stopped for Catbead and Lockwench's Don't Forget letterbox.....but honestly, I do forget. The next thing which I remember clearly is pulling into my driveway and heading for my own soft, comfortable bed.