From Alaska to Pennsylvania

Even though I had been boxing on Friday and had a taste of it on Saturday, Sunday morning I was ready to go again. The day began in Woody's Woods in Pottstown at daybreak with a nice vigorous uphill walk to find Squirley, a box by Tirowa who seems to be a mysterious new person in the area. I am not sure what the background of the planter is here, there were some trinkets in the box along with the store bought stamp which made it appear as if it were a geocache hybrid but I can't find any other info on either the planter or the box on any letterboxing site or on the geocaching site. A mystery in Berks county.....woohoo!

From Pottstown, I headed to Ambler to my favorite box of the day - Promises, Promises, Promises, This is My Shoebox by Nudgita. This delightful stamp was in a very pretty little park and the box was found near this little house and bridge on the Creepy Pond. But aside from the fact that I loved this park, I also loved the stamp because it was something that I could totally identify with. Laura has a cat who has adopted a beer box as its favorite place in the house. It is not unusual to walk in and see his little black head peeking out at the world over the edge of the box, that is you can see it when Milkmonster decides to let the poor cat alone. Seems Milkmonster also thinks that the box is his and likes to drag it around. Anyway, this stamp reminded me so much of Laura's cat that I have to laugh everytime I look at it.

By this time, I was due at Cedar Hill Park where I was about to meet Mukluk, a boxer whose boxes I had found at Tyler when I first started boxing. Mukluk had withdrawn from boxing for a year or two but a recent accidental find of a box laying in the open piqued her interest again. And best of all, when she posted on AQ that she had found this mysterious box, she and I began a series of emails which led us to this meeting. I was so delighted to meet her and to see that the lady with the strange trail name was a very lovely young woman. And it was a double meet for me since her friend and soon to be niece, Beth, accompanied us. Would you believe that I forgot to take any pictures? When I got home and downloaded my camera, I was stunned to see that I had not taken any, that is so unlike me.

We started on another set of boxes by Nudgita, Baby Bear's Hiking Adventure and were happy to find the first two. However, the third one was missing, something confirmed by Nudgita a few days later. Then we moved onto Nudgita's other series in the same park, A Wink and a Smile, but unfortunately could only find the wink. Again the missing box has been confirmed by Nudgita. Disappointed that two of the five boxes were missing but happy to have made some new boxing friends, I then headed west for my next boxing adventure.

A few weeks ago, the Immobile One and I had attended a genealogical family reunion for the Immobile One. This was not your normal get together with aunts and uncles and cousins, having a picnic and playing ball, but instead was a gathering of people who were all descendants of Ulrich Schurch who arrived in the United States in 1728 from Switzerland. All of the people who attended had an interest in genealogy and they greeted each other by telling their genealogical number for the child of Ulrich from which they were descended. It was a really good two days with educated speakers and bus trips on Friday and on Saturday we all attended the Shirktown Threshing Festival. This weekend had inspired two boxes and I planted one on my way home that day. You can see the clues for it here: Threshing Festival Day . I also planted the second box a little later in the week but have not written the clues yet. Watch for them later.

But the day wasn't over yet. Those who know me, know that I am a very early riser. Well, I had risen early on Saturday morning and was reading the Atlas Quest message boards when a new email message popped up. I looked at it and was very excited to see a new box posted in Berks county - The Kernsville Dam . I was partially excited because it WAS a new Berks county box but just as excited because I had been planning to put a box there but I couldn't find the darn dam. Now here was the box. So I quickly dashed off an email to the planter to tell them how excited I was. Keep in mind that it was a little after four in the morning. I was stunned when I received an immediate reply from the planter whose name is Gryphon and even more stunned to find out that she was here from Alaska. The emails started flying and ended in an agreement to get together for an exchange on Sunday eveningl What a wonderful thing to happen! So we had made some tentative arrangements which we firmed up on Sunday afternoon and got together at the Cracker Barrel in Hamburg. By this time Gryphon had found seven of my boxes, attempted an eighth and rescued one which had been a victim of our June floods. I was so happy to have made another new boxing friend on that day. Look at the picture below and see the word which is above our heads. I had no idea that the sign was there until I downloaded the picture. As my friend Pink Panther would say, it was Kharma. And, I did find the Kernsville Dam box on Tuesday. I can't say I was the first finder though because it had been accidentally found previously. Gryphon had actually planted this box in 2004 but had just posted the clues on Saturday.....kharma, indeed!