A Non Lazy Sunday in July

After so many driveby boxes in the last few weeks, I felt it was time to do some real walking for letterboxes. And we had spent the entire day Saturday sitting in the little red car as we first drove to Atlantic City to see if the casinos were really open (they were open and they were also empty). Bill won $75 in the first couple of minutes that he played the slots (I lost $5 and quit before I got further behind) and he announced that he was going to use his winnings to take us to dinner in a restaurant down the coast. We had eaten there before but neither of us could remember its name or even where it was. So we followed the Coastal Highway in and out of the dozens of little towns looking and looking for the restaurant. We hit Cape May and hadn't had any luck so we decided to turn around and go back up the coast and stop at the first seafood restaurant that looked promising. As fate would have it, one appeared in less than five miles. We pulled in and after we entered, we both looked at each other and grinned. This was THE restaurant! It had had a facelift on the outside but the inside was the same so we were really happy knowing that we would have a good dinner.

So, after the drivebys and the sitting in the car all day Saturday, I was ready to move around. I decided to head for Lancaster County where there are a few boxes that I keep meaning to get. Along the way, I noticed this hot air balloon travelling close to the ground near the park I was headed to and I had to take a picture of it. I then moved on to my first boxing stop at Spongebob's Letterboxing Adventures #1. This box had eluded me last winter when I tried to find it and it was going to elude me again. When I pulled into the park, there were hundreds of cars already there - and it was only 6:30 in the morning. What the heck?! Well, it turned out to be a swim meet and there were already kids racing in the water at that hour. It actually turns out to be ok because as I just copied the site address into my blog, I see a new note that this box is missing, probably due to the flooding that we have had.

I pushed on and headed for a new box at Lake Grubb park. The box, appropriately titled Lake Grubb, was by another new boxer. As I pulled into the park, I had a sense of deja vu. Yes, I had been there before! But when? As I looked through my "found boxes" on AQ and Letterboxing.org, I could not find any box. Was I losing my mind? Something kept telling me that there were three boxes there so I checked my spreadsheet on which I list all of the boxes and the city that they were found in. Hmmm, nothing for Lancaster that had three boxes. Then Pink Panther came online and since she lives in Lancaster County, I figured she would know. In a moment of pure irony, she said, yes, she did know which box it was and that she had just reposted the clues for it minutes ago. Leap Frog is a box which hops among three different hiding spots, which is why I remember three locations. When I found it last year, it was in the final hiding spot, naturally. But anyway, there was now a new box there and since this is a really nice trail I was happy to search for it. I was even happier to find it before Pink Panther and Black Swan since it is almost in their back yard! This box possessed a quality that True Indigo thinks is crucial for a box to be a good one - it had a really nice bench for stamping in. And for anyone who worries that their first stamps may not be good enough, I have to tell you that this was a delightful little stamp of a fish and I was able to make them swim the whole way across the page.

My next stop was at a box that I have been wanting to get for ages, The Most Famous Anticline at Chickies Rock in Columbia. This was a great little walk to a view of the Susquehanna from on high. The river is still higher than normal and is very fast moving and the view was great. I found the box pretty easily and moved up the highway a bit to Hershey to find the newly replanted and reposted Hershey Kiss by the Girlguides. This box had been missing for quite a while and I accidentally noticed that it had been replanted in a different location while browsing some other boxes last week. After spending eight months driving back and forth to Hershey to take Laura and the Milkmonster to see her hubby while he was in the State Police Academy, I had to now travel to within a mile of the Academy to find this box. I passed this historicaI marker along the way and had to stop to take a picture of it. And then on to the box. When stamping into the Hershey Kiss box, I recommend taking a silver marker or stamp pad - it was made for silver. Also, this box is a testimony to the waterproofness of Lock 'n Lock boxes. It was obvious that this one had been underwater within the last week or two and it was actually covered with a lot of wet, yucky mud when I found it but the contents were dry as a bone.

By this time, I was hot and I was dirty and it was humid and I wanted a shower. I asked myself why I was out boxing in July as I moved onto my next box. I guess obsession is the only way to explain it.

To find the next box, Abominable Snow Monster (Bumble) meant revisiting another Lancaster County park. On New Year's Eve, 2004, the Hairy Leggers including Lightnin' Bug, Hikers & Hounds, Cyclonic and myself had found Speedwell's Niche and fortunately for me, since the clues have since been pulled temporarily, I still had them because they were needed to find the Bumble box of the Rudolph series. I now have about half of the Rudolph series with the worst yet to find - those in Susquehanna State Park. I love these stamps. Rudolph may have been one of Black Swan's favorite childhood shows but they were also one of Laura's favorites.

I was beginning to notice that most of the parks that I had been in today were totally deserted, maybe others knew that this is not exactly park weather these days. But I moved on.....to Millstone Celtic Knot . These boxes proved to be unattainable for me today, partly because of fatigue and partly because of shrubs along the trail being over 8 feet tall. But I did notice a neat little growth on a tree and am hoping that someone can tell me what it is. It was on the side of an evergreen of some sort at the spot where a branch had been cut off and I think it was a really nice reward for climbing 300 feet and coming away empty handed.

By this time, I decided that I needed to head for home and a shower. Along the way, I noticed that two police cars with their lights flashing were along the side of the road. I didn't see any obvious reason for them to be there, no cars were pulled over. But as I drove by them, I finally noticed the "criminal" that they had cornered - an Amishman on a bike. I really wish I would have had the guts to stop and take a picture of that one!