Hanging Out with Sepia Slipper

The weather forecast for the weekend had been for thunderstorms so this week's outing had been up in the air.  I don't mind boxing in the rain, although I prefer not to, but thunderstorms are not on my to do list.  However, in spite of the forecast, Karen aka Sepia Slipper, my little sister, and I agreed to meet at 7 for a day of boxing in Dauphin and Lebanon counties and I had a well detailed list of boxes planned out.  As they say, the best laid plans....overnight a series of drive by boxes had appeared on the new box list and since I woke up at 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, I decided that the new boxes could be done in the dark and started off on my journey. By 4:30 I had found three of the boxes and had texted Karen to come and meet me and we had to totally revamp our plans for the day.  We reversed the original plan and headed for a park which had a series and a couple of individual boxes.  

While we were in this first park, we found this giant sized mushroom.  I wish I had put something next to it so that the size of this fungus was more obvious but suffice it to say that it was softball sized.

 

We did a lot of boxes this day, many were drivebys, a couple were series but all were enjoyable, especially when we began to notice that there are several very good new carvers in the area.  I had especially been looking forward to the box that we did at the location below because the clues indicated that the area was a haven for butterflies and while I know next to nothing about the beautiful creatures, I do love to watch them.  We arrived here but had to postpone our search for the box.  Thankfully, there were enough areas to photograph while we were waiting so I used the time to test out my brand new camera.

I tested the zoom lens on this picture.  This is the reason that we had to delay our search.  We were right on the border of the Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard Training center and this truck had broken down just as we pulled into the parking area.   It was about 100 feet down the road but it was close enough to see everything we did and perhaps to arouse suspicion so we photographed away until reinforcements arrived and the injured truck was repaired.

At one point we searched for a series along a lake area that made Karen very nostalgic.  She had brought her children to this lake when they were small children and she hadn't been back in many years.  The memories did come back on this revisit.  While she was remembering, I was trying to figure out just what the steps that we were walking on had been used for.  The area was not conducive to a building on the slopes but who knows.  If only the steps could have talked.

Here was another location where we had to employ our cameras for a photo shot.  This box was about a half mile walk back into the woods on the lake.  The area was off trail and didn't look like it was heavily used but as we walked back, we obviously disturbed a middle aged couple who were eating their breakfast and snuggling like people who were newly enamored.  We waited for a while to see if they would clear out and when they didn't, we excused ourselves and told them that we were on a treasure hunt and would only be a few minutes.  I don't even think that they noticed that we were there.  We quickly stamped in and left.

A couple of boxes were along the Appalachian Trail and I took this picture to prove that I had "walked the trail" that day.  Just as we returned to the car, three through hikers came strolling past us looking tired and thin.

This was a true test for me of my new camera.  This swallowtail butterfly is looking pretty good through my zoom lens.

After we had stopped for lunch and visited Karen's house to clean up a bit, we headed to Hershey for several boxes there.  It is always a pleasure to visit the gardens at Founders Hall.

Karen was enjoying it there also!

 

From here we ended up our day at the Cocoa Beanery and enjoyed an iced coffee as we stamped into the box that was cleverly hidden there.  What a day we had, 28 boxes and a great day with my sister.