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.