One Hot Sunday

After a day with Pink Panther, I was in full boxing mode and I decided to head west on Sunday. We had all been treated to True Indigo's beautiful carving for Pink Panther's parents at the Road Rally but I wanted to get it again as a find. And.....I had purchased a really cool silver and gold dauber pen when I was at the Artway in Maryland last month and it needed a workout. So I headed for Mechanicsburg and to Little Things Mean a Lot. I had been to this park last December for a Pink Panther box so I had a general idea of how this nice little park was set up. I did my normal thing of leaving before it was light out so that I could be at the park at dawn but when I got there, the sun was just rising but the park was closed. Hmmmmm.....I patiently sat there for, ah, oh, about five minutes dying to get into the park....but no one came. So I did what any self respecting boxer would do, I opened the park myself. What a wonderful greeting I had. The bullfrogs were in full concert and I just stood and listened for awhile, not wanting to disturb them by making any noise on the path. Unfortunately, the mosquitos were also in full concert so I loaded up with bug spray and began my little journey for the True Indigo treat. I found it fairly easily and then went on to find True Love Forever, a current WOM box Pink Panther had made for her parents. Both carvings were wonderful and I was so happy to have them in my collection. As I made my way back to my car, I was a little nervous that I would find someone waiting to haul me away for trespassing in the park but all I saw was several more cars parked in the same lot and a couple of other walkers so I escaped arrest this time.

I moved further west then to Carlisle. My first visit was to a series which I may not name here because this is on the clue site:

*****These clues are copyrighted © 2003 by the author and only for private use when seeking out the boxes (which we hope you do!).
Any use other than that is strictly prohibited. They may not be used on any other site or in any other form without the express written permission of the author which may or may not be granted. Any questions may be directed to the author via email.

I am not sure how you go about copyrighting letterbox clues or even why you would do that. But let's just say that this series was rather strange. The first box was within 15 feet of another letterbox, the second one was missing, the third one had reversed clues and the fourth one was in a tree with a geocache. Oh well. Enough said.

After this I found a really, really wonderful stamp in the A NH Pink Lady Slipper Finds a Home in PA box. Uneksia is the carver and the Pointer Party the planter of this one. When I did the email to notify them that I had found the box, Uneksia responded that she may be coming to the Gettysburg area in December. If she does and if she has time, I hope that she will allow me to plan a little get together for her.

I moved about a mile down the road then to find one of True Indigo's newer boxes, the first in her PA Women Series - Mary McCauley. I was so excited when I turned the corner and there was Molly Pitcher standing straight and tall in the graveyard. I pulled over and fumbled for my camera and went to snap the picture and......there was no memory card in my camera. After the battery fiasco from the day before, I just couldn't believe this one. I can't be without my camera. I don't take great pictures but I like to take a lot of pictures because every now and then there IS a great one in the bunch. I felt totally naked again, second day in a row. And this was definitely another photographic opportunity that I would mourn not having. But back to business. I parked my car and proceded to wander around the graveyard a bit before searching for the box. I happen to love graveyards and trying to imagine the lives of the people buried there and this was a really old one with really neat gravesites. Eventually I broke away to go and find the box and was very startled to see that I was first finder. This box has been there for almost two months and there are boxers who live in the area (clearing throat here and pointing up) and it is an easy find - unlike many of the Crayola Posse boxes. But I was first finder and I am happy to add another Posse box to my collection.

After this, I decided to head back to the State College area and to drop in and visit the Posse at the Boalsburg People's Choice Festival. My mapping program showed me that from the Carlisle area, Boalsburg was not really that far away. What I didn't notice on the map was that I would have to cross two mountains to get there. Big mountains by this Pennsylvanian's standards, mountains that go up, up, up and then down, down, down with windy roads and straight down drops on the edge of the roads. Scary roads. Whew! I was so relieved when I hit Rt. 322 after an hour of nervous driving. I was also relieved to find a Walmart in Lewistown so that I could purchase a new memory card.

First stop in this area was to revisit the Dorothy and Billina site, the one that I couldn't find when we were in the area on the Fourth of July. Fortunately, I was able to find it this time so now I can stop fretting about it. You have to do this one yourself to see the little Wizard of Oz diorama upon which these clues are based. I was really surprised to see how far down this creek had gone. When we were here on the fourth, it was more of a powerhouse but it seems to have returned to its more normal state.

After this I headed for Boalsburg but before visiting the Posse, I stopped at a really cool coffee shop and picked up the Thanks a Latte box, a new box by a new boxer, Heartsongs. The coffee shop is a remodeled gas station. The shop kept the garage theme and the box is inside a shiny red mechanics toolbox. It was really neat to sit and have an iced tea while leisurely stamping in. It was also amazing the number of boxers who had stamped in while visiting the arts festival.

My last stop of the day was to go over to the Festival and visit my dear friends. My heart went out to the Posse as I walked across the field and realized just how hot it was out there. The whole Posse, True Indigo and RGBisMe as well as Maga11, Toolman Luke and TracDC, were manning the tent. It was hot. And it was also unbelievably busy. It was really good to see that people didn't let the heat keep them totally housebound and that the festival participants were not left to twiddle their thumbs from boredom. I kept my visit fairly short since they were so busy and made my way back to Reading, first making a second stop at the site of a WOM box which I had been unsuccessful at on the Fourth of July. I was still insuccessful but still content with the wonderful day that I had in spite of the heat.