Grings Mill

It was a Milkmonster weekend at the Team Little Dog household and just in time for us, Evilmommy released the clues for three new boxes just a few miles from our house. On Saturday morning, I discovered that Milkmonster does not seem to have inherited his Mimser's habit of waking up really early and I was grateful that True Indigo was available for online chatting while waiting for him to awaken. Finally about nine o'clock, I heard his happy little voice upstairs as he was saying good morning to his favorite buddy, Elmo. Then we had to go through his morning ritual of playing in the crib for about a half hour before he would allow me to get him up and dressed. And of course, there was then the half hour long breakfast and by eleven o'clock, we were ready to head for our destination of Gring's Mill in Wyomissing. The day was absolutely gorgeous and the park was packed but having a little one in a stroller is a great distraction for hunting boxes in a crowd. The Gring's Mill boxes are in a heavily used park but are far enough off of the trail that we were not really conspicuous. We headed first for Mrs. Bissinger's Ghost . I have reached a point in my letterboxing life where being first finder is of little interest to me, but I am quickly becoming addicted to being first finder for Evilmommy's boxes. She places the neatest first finders rewards in her boxes. We were first finder for Mrs. Bissinger's Ghost and I was rewarded with a ghostly woman patch to add to my collection. Milkmonster celebrated our find with a bag of graham cookies which kept him occupied safely for the time it took to stamp into both boxes.

We continued our walk along the Tulpehocken Creek towards our next box, a search for Mrs. Bissinger's children in the Gring's Mill Ghost Children . By this time, Milkmonster was out of the stroller and walking along the creek causing a nervous Mimser to hold my breath several times as he ventured a bit closer to take a look at some ducks or the flock of geese that meandered about. He was thoroughly enjoying his walk and seemed a bit disappointed when we had to stop to find the second box. In fact, he decided that it was time to go and told me this by "rehiding" the box himself piece by piece. As you can see from the picture, he needs some further lessons in box rehiding! Don't worry, Evilmommy, I didn't let it that way. While heading back to the mill and the parking lot, Milkmonster saw another tree with a similar hole and quickly ran up and peeked inside to see if all trees have goodies hidden in them. But not this time so he then decided to sit along the trail and just watch the world go by for a few minutes. I think one of the joys of being a grandparent is that you are usually not in a hurry to do anything with your grandchild and the kids have time to stop and smell the roses without anyone hurrying them along. Milkmonster sat there and watched the birds and the kids and the water for almost twenty minutes before he decided to head on down the trail. Till we got to the car, it was obvious that two boxes were the extent of a Milkmonster's attention span so we headed off to other adventures for the day. I do have to thank Evilmommy for reminding me that there are a few beautiful spots in Berks County, my adopted home county, and one which seems to be sorely lacking in beauty and charm to me. Gring's Mill is a park that I had visited several times when I first moved here and I had forgotten how lovely it is there.

Sunday was a repeat of the beautiful weather but we decided to forego finding the third Gring's Mill box in favor of visiting a local playground. This time it was Milkmonster's turn to lead the hike and after he exhausted himself on the sliding boards, he led me on a walk around the neighborhood, stopping to look at spring flowers, littered soda cans, bugs and Tootsie, the chocolate poodle belonging to a co-worker who happily came out to greet us. The weekend was so beautiful in so many ways - time with Milkmonster, wonderful weather, beautiful areas to visit. Here's to a whole spring of similar weekends.

A Day in God's Country

When I got up on Saturday morning, I have to admit to a feeling of shock that there was no snow, rain or sleet coming down, there was no wind, the temps were chilly but not frigid and the stars were shining brightly. What's wrong with this picture? It was the beginning of the weekend and it was nice outside! We haven't seen that in quite a while! And little did I know that I would soon be visiting some of the most beautiful parks that I have seen in quite a while.

My first stop was to visit Landis Woods, a park I have been to a couple of times before. This time I was searching for Lost in Landis Woods and I was also visiting a section of the park where I had never been before. What a pretty park this is. I located the box fairly easily, the clues really spell out exact directions to it and decided that this might be a good place for one of my Empty Basket boxes. So as I was moseying my way around the park in search of a good hiding spot, I accidentally came across a geocache called Another One at Landis Woods . The amazing thing about this cache is that it has been in existence since 2003 and was on its second logbook which was full. And it was basically right along a busy trail. I logged in to the cache and continued a search for my perfect spot, which I soon found and I placed The Empty Basket Series - Whoopee Doo . It saddened me to leave this little stamp somewhere other than where it was intended but I have been carrying it around for a couple of years now and never have been able to put it in its rightful place. Hopefully now whoever finds this box will take a few minutes to reflect on the tragedy that changed our lives in so many ways on 9/11/2001.





On a brighter note, while I was walking, the signs of spring began to appear all around me beginning with the flock of wild geese pictured above and then the may apples, skunk cabbages, wild daffodils and lilies of the valley that were scattered all around me. Spring is taking forever to get here this year. In fact, as I am sitting here writing this, our rain gauge has just registered 2.7 inches of rain since yesterday morning and the wind gusts are between 24 and 40 mph and now as I look out the window, I actually see snow. The Immobile One has told me that he doesn't mind if I go boxing for local boxes after work and since he told me this, we have had nothing but nasty weather so I have just been scurrying home each day, dreaming of being out on the prowl!

From the lovely Landis Woods, I traveled a bit further west to another of my favorite parks - the Lake Grubb Nature Preserve. It always amazes me that such a yucky name could be attached to such a beautiful little park. This park offers a lot for the size of it. The trail is only about a mile long but it does present a small aerobic challenge if you take it clockwise around the lake. There is a great scenic overlook, fishing, picnicking, several letterboxes, and a playground for the kids (I always notice the playgrounds these days - not sure why!). But this day, I was in search of Snapper's Paradise . This box was in a really precarious hiding spot, a hole in a tree at eye level right on the trail. In fact, it was actually hanging out of the tree when I found it but the several fishermen that I had passed seemed oblivious to it. And it has been visited a lot! It always makes me stop and go "Hmmmmm" when I see situations like this. Well hidden boxes disappear and those in the open remain safe and sound!

I left Lancaster county and began my way towards southeastern York county on my way to finally tackle JBZfarm's Terrapin box. Somewhere along the way, though, I stopped to hide another box that I have carried around for two years. This time the box was placed in the park for which it was created. I Heart Joe was created to honor the memory of an old love and friend. As a teenager, I was fortunate to hang out with a group of about ten friends. We did everything together. Went to dances together, to basketball and football games together, hung around during the summers together. Joe was a member of this group so we spent a lot of time together but rarely spent time alone. His sister, Lyn, who now lives in Miami, told me that as an adult, Joe was a teacher and worked with teens a lot. The teacher bit really threw me at first because Joe was certainly never an exemplary student but for some reason, after the initial shock, I could see him working with kids. Lyn told me that when he got sick, it didn't take long for the cancer to kill him. His only son was in the service, preparing to leave for Iraq, and had to come home for the funeral. It was all so sad for me to hear. I had created this simple little stamp in Joe's honor shortly after our reunion brunch at Lyn's mother's house and just never made it back to the park to hide it. But Saturday was the day to do it and it now rests comfortably there.

My next destination was Otter Creek for Terrapin. But as I was whizzing down the road to southern York, I passed a sign for Apollo County Park and after I was about a mile down the road from this sign, I made a decision to go back and see what this park was all about. I had never heard of it before and figured it was worth a look. This was probably one of the best decisions I made all day. At first glance, it didn't appear to be my kind of park. I immediately saw elevation - not one of my hiking strong points. But I was feeling adventurous that morning and I knew that I wanted to place my kaleidoscope series in special places and I had a feeling that this park might just pass that criteria. So I grabbed a kaleidoscope box and my GPS and walked till I caught site of the mighty Susquehanna River. Many people know that I don't have a lot of respect for the Schuylkill River which is right down the road from our home because I grew up hanging out along the Susquehanna which makes the Schuylkill look like a stream. Even though the view which I had from this park was not stupendous, it still took my breath away as I crossed onto the trail which took me closer to the water. And I did find just the right spot for my Kaleidoscope #1 box. The really ironic thing when I was hiding this box was that I was the only one in the park which is out in the middle of nowhere and just as I was placing this box into its hiding spot, a farmer brought a load of feed to dump right on the other side of the trail. Weird! His timing was flawless.

OK, back on the road to Terrapin. Got there and was really disappointed to see "NO" signs everywhere I looked. No Parking, No Trespassing, No Admittance, No Blocking the Gates....NO, NO, NO. I went into the campground office to see if there were trail maps available and received one but was told that the only trail which remained closed was the red trail. Guess which trail Terrapin was on! I decided to try to walk it anyway since I saw this box had been found in January but there was no where to park. Everything was gated. So I parked in front of one of the NO signs and started across the street only to be confronted by the lady from the park office who said that she had told me that the trail was closed. Boo hisss....enough of this...I headed on down the road in search of other boxes.

I was on my way to find the Pumpkin box located in Quarryville when I noticed that I seemed to be surrounded with signs pointing to parks - everywhere. Darn, I didn't have any more boxes with me to hide but I know that I will be back in this area soon to go on a planting frenzy. In fact, the next day, Sunday, turned out to be a monsoon day so I spent it assembling boxes for all of the stamps that I have laying around. I now have about 20 boxes ready to go and hope to place several of them in southern York and Lancaster counties. I have to admit to failure this day with the Pumpkin box. I found the road that is in the clue in Quarryville and drove up and down it several times trying to find the reference points but something was just eluding me so I decided to leave it for another day. Instead I headed for another beautiful park, the Theodore A. Parker Nature Center which is the home of The Lion King - Scar's Lair . When I pulled into the parking lot and was greeted with an absolute wall of rock, I was a little apprehensive but behind the wall was the perfect ending to my day - a nice level trail through an absolutely gorgeous setting.


In my mind, this day was perfect in so many ways. I found three boxes, I hid three boxes, I found one geocache and I traveled through some very beautiful Pennsylvania countryside. Before I headed for home though, I made a detour to check on one of my other boxes in another beautiful park, The Threshing Festival. This happens to be one of my favorite boxes and Indigo Vulture had told me a few weeks ago that it seemed to be missing due to construction. It broke my heart to verify that it is indeed missing, a victim of bulldozing for a new road being placed through the park. I am already preparing the new stamp for carving and hope to replace this one very soon.

And the Weekend Continued

It was four o'clock Saturday morning and Dogs with Wings and I were meeting at an agreed upon spot filled with anticipation. We were heading for State College and both of us had separate reasons for being very excited about the day ahead of us. I had a degree from a local Penn State campus but had dated a young man who was attending the "big" campus in the early 70's. Years later, I had spent a lot of time camping in the beautiful parks near the school. And Sherry had attended Penn State for four years, graduating with a degree in biomedics. So both of us had a few ties and a lot of memories linking us to this part of Pennsylvania. And, of course, we also have some wonderful friends living there in the Crayola Posse team of True Indigo and RGBisMe and the rascally Birbanto.

So, with Sherry in tow, we began our drive to State College making a bit of a detour through Lewistown, just as the sun was rising, to find a couple of the Crayola Posse's boxes - Red's Diner and a mystery box which was in the same area. Sherry managed to also pick up the Stone Arch Bridge box which I had found last summer. By this time the sun should have been out in full but instead big dark clouds were becoming more obvious and before too long, snow began to fall sporadically. We then headed to another local mystery box and the snow began to pound down a little harder and there was a quick discussion about whether we should continue up the mountain with the snow threat hanging over us. Both of us knew that this discussion was silly because we both knew that we were going to proceed even if the snow was laying at a rate of a foot an hour. Fortunately for us, it didn't do that but it did come down at blizzard force for about twenty minutes.

We made it safely to State College and began our task of finding all eight of Crayola Posse's Huntin' for Tupperware series. One of our first stops in this quest was to say hello to Joe Paterno. After our visit to Joe and another box or two, we then paid a visit to hear some more music by Reba in Reba's Rap . It was really hard to pull my dog loving companion away from this area and only the thought of more boxes on campus seemed to do the trick.

Did I mention that it was cold here? It had been cold and windy in Tyler the previous day but it was downright frigid in these mountains and the wind was very strong but, happily, many of the Huntin' for Tupperware boxes were perfect for this weather. They were drivebys and we could sit in our car to stamp in and actually could take our time reading the logbooks. We were about half through the series when we received a call from Archaeobirder and Lit Chick who were interested in getting together for an exchange. We quickly placed a call to the Crayola Posse and made arrangements to meet at the scene of some of Sherry's fondest memories, the University Diner. She told us stories of sitting in this restaurant as a student, drinking free coffee and writing poetry all night long. We were so grateful that all of these local boxers could take the time to come and be with us for dinner, especially after we found out that we were committing a faux pas by not being with our families on this new family holiday - the Saturday before Easter. Lit Chick and Archaeobirder proved to be a very warm and friendly couple and entertained us with stories about their plans for their wedding in August.

After we had to say good bye to our new friends, we were very happy to have the Crayola Posse accompany us while we finished up their Tupperware series and also tackled the Elms of Penn State series. The Elms series was definitely a walking tour and we soon found out that there are a lot of nice warm buildings open 24 hours a day, providing us with comfortable stamping in spots. We loved everything about this series - the idea behind it, the stamps themselves and the company that we had in our search.

As we finished up the boxes for the day, we noticed that it was dark out....hey, when did that happen?? And it was eight o'clock at night.... where did the time go? I have to admit that it was really difficult driving back to Berks County without falling asleep but we made really good time and were happy to arrive there about an hour before we expected to. However, we were not going to be heading for home just yet. As Sherry tried to get into her car, she discovered that the battery had died so we waited for the hour that we had saved for her husband to come and jump start the car and to follow her home. I finally made it to bed at 12:30, tired and happy and filled with so many new and wonderful memories. The Saturday before Easter may be considered a family day by some, but I am happy that I was able to spend the day with my extended family.

What a Way to Start!

It was a long, long week at work. One of our paid holidays is Good Friday and we were all in vacation frame of mind all week and as a result it just dragged by. But Thursday afternoon finally arrived and I made a beeline for Downingtown. I needed to pick Milkmonster up at his daycare because his daddy now had the stomach virus that Milkmonster had the weekend before. I have so many happy times with my grandson but I have to admit that one of the most rewarding experiences is the look of joy on his little face when he recognizes me. He usually comes running with open arms which he flings around my legs and hugs as tight as he can. Then the routine is that I pick him up and he gives me kisses and more hugs. He can brighten any day with just his wonderful warm welcome. But, he is a little boy and soon squirms to get out of my arms. I had brought his Easter gifts along with me and had attached two helium balloons to the gift bag which, of course, he spotted as soon as we got in the car. I wouldn't have needed to get him anything else, the balloons were enough to keep him happy and occupied for hours!

We went to pick up his mommy and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner out. Afterwards we visited the local Toys R Us store so that Out of Sight could get some Easter presents for Milkmonster. While we were there, I spotted a huge stuffed Elmo, you know, the big red character on Sesame Street, and Nicholas' most favorite TV personality in the whole wide world, and I just had to get it for my little guy. He was so funny sitting in the shopping cart seat with an Elmo who is bigger than him sitting right next to him. Out of Sight says that he has been wrestling with Elmo all weekend, sometimes Elmo ends up on top and sometimes Milkmonster wins.

Friday morning, before daylight, I started out to begin my letterboxing weekend by heading towards Tyler Park. Every time that I think I have most of the boxes there, a whole new batch of them get planted and I can spend an entire day without ever leaving the park. By the time that I left this day, I only have three more to get so I will have to wait for another planting spree before making another visit there. But before I got there, I did stop to pick up the first of my two covered bridge box finds - the Van Sant Covered Bridge and also found another teensy tinsy Cyclonic box, The Yardley Yeti . While I was searching for these boxes, I had a preview of what the weather for the day would be like. It was cold and windy. And that is not an understatement. It was frigid cold and windy. Bitter cold and windy. But fortunately, I had brought along a huge assortment of clothing so I felt that I would be able to face almost anything.

I got to the park, and not surprisingly, I was almost alone there most of the day. There were a few groups of people running the trails but I appeared to be the only one who was out to just enjoy a day at the park. As I pulled into the first parking lot, I was greeted by these two little birds who obligingly remained still long enough for me to snap a couple of fuzzy pictures. Don't have a clue what kind of birds they are but I am sure that my birdwatching friends will tell me soon enough! After seeing them, I began to collect my boxes. My finds included a WOM box, two as yet unlisted boxes (I have to admit to being very startled to find that these boxes had been found accidentally and the finders were very upset that there were no first finder prizes in them since I wasn't aware that FTF prizes were now mandatory, especially for accidental finds!), two more of Dogs with Wings Miyazaki collections - No Face which was in an absolutely perfect hiding spot and Tree Sprites , Sewsowbizzy's Tippecanoe and Tyler 2.1 , Hikers 'n Hounds Battle of the Bands - Mystery Artist , MizScarlet's BOB - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For , the 4 Little Piggies little lost Teddy in the Woods and one more of Crazy Dogs covered bridge boxes, The Schofield Ford Bridge . I was also able to do some maintenance on one of my Battle of the Band boxes, Hound Dog . I almost was not able to find this box because it definitely was not in the spot where I had placed it, in fact, it was almost 6 feet away from that spot.

By this time, I was pretty tired and cold and decided that it was time to head for home. Dogs with Wings and I had agreed to meet at 4 the next morning to pay State College a visit and it was time to prepare for that and savor the finds for this day.

A Weekend with Milkmonster

It had been quite a while since we had been fortunate enough to have the Milkmonster stay with us and I was looking forward to this weekend with my beautiful grandson. Lately, it seems that he is growing as I watch him and I am already mourning the end of his innocent baby days while trying to enjoy every second that is left. I picked him up on Friday evening and had the entire weekend planned out for us but it seemed that he had some different plans. After his bath, while we were enjoying watching his current favorite tv character, Elmo (or as Milkmonster calls him "Melmo") on the TV in my bedroom, Nicholas calmly threw up all over himself, me and the bed. And this began the night's routine of vomit, clean up the Milkmonster, change the bedding and wait for the next attack. The poor little guy was so exhausted after each of these episodes that he would just lay there for about a half hour, unmoving but not sleeping. We were up all night. When morning finally came with about three hours of sleep for each of us, I knew that we would be spending the day at home just recuperating. However, by Sunday morning, he appeared to be well on the road to recovery so we decided to do some light letterboxing.

As we were leaving our development, we spotted something really strange along the side of the road - not your normal brown bunny chomping contentedly on grass but instead, a coal black bunny looking around observantly. Hmmmm..... was this perhaps the Easter Bunny checking out the local children?

After this, our first letterboxing stop was for the WAP-O Campfire 60th Anniversary Box by Evilmommy. I had been there once before but the snow had been covering the hiding spot for this box and I was happy that I could return with the Milkmonster. What a surprise to find that we were first finders, something which has ceased to be a goal for me, and that there was a first finder prize of one of my favorite letterboxing things - a patch! I did allow the Milkmonster to hold it on the drive to the next stop but I made very sure that he gave it back so that I could add it to my collection.

This box ended our search for Evilmommy's boxes since the Immobile One and I had also driven to Adamstown a few days ago to visit one of our favorite seasonal ice cream shops, Boehringers, which just happens to be right down the street from The Adamstown Area Library Box . Gee, what a coincidence! OK, Evilmommy - time to hide some more goodies!

From the Campfire box, Milkmonster and I headed for Blue Marsh and the park ranger office to see if by any chance, they still had the Silent Doug box which had floated out of its hiding spot after last June's flooding. If you remember, it had been found and turned in at the office. Unfortunately, the park ranger, who was extremely nice, said he didn't recall ever seeing this box turned in. He was very familiar with letterboxing and geocaching and told me that since we have to have permits for these hidings, the park is very careful to keep anything related to them. He could find no record of it ever being turned in but promised to email the rest of the staff to see if they could recall anything.

We decided to visit the Dry Brooks Day area at Blue Marsh and when there, Milkmonster and I headed to the playground. The day was blustery and cold by the water but Milkmonster was so happy to be outside and running around. What a relief to see that he was feeling well enough to be his active little boy self. When we became too cold to stay out too much longer, we hopped in the car and went to check on my own box, Laura's Childhood Luvs - Poky Little Puppy . Milkmonster was able to stamp into this box and then learned a new letterboxing term. He had found his first HH. After carrying it around for a few minutes as he poked into every little hidey hole or nook and cranny in the area, I figured I had better retrieve it or it would disappear into one of those holes. But Milkmonster was happy enough to exchange it for his log book. He just wanted to have something to carry around like his Mimser.

Not more than five minutes after we were in the car, I peaked into my rear view mirror and saw that my little guy was in dreamland. I guess the lack of sleep from Friday night and the cold fresh air and exercise had caught up with him and our letterboxing was finished for the day. Notice - he is still clutching that log book and held it till I carried him, still sleeping, into the house.
PS: Good news on Silent Doug's Cardinal box at Blue Marsh - I just received a phone call from one of the employees there who said that she still had it and that there will be three park rangers working on Easter Sunday. I will be able to go and rehide this on Sunday. Can you believe that they held onto this for almost 9 months! I love this park as much as I dislike French Creek!