Valley Forge

I am very fortunate to live in an area that is so full of history and many letterboxers.  History and letteboxes, two of my favorite things are so often combined around here and I spent a day at Valley Forge enjoying both of these hobbies.  The temperature this day was in the teens but I was totally amazed at the number of people in the park.  Some were obviously locals who use the trails and roadways to jog and exercise but there were also a lot of tourists.  I found about eight boxes this day and revisited many of the memorials that I have seen several times before.  The one below is the National Memorial Arch and I think everyone that visits it takes a photo of the US flag framed by the arch.

 Winter berries at the Bell Tower.

 Love the look of the cannons today but I can't imagine actually fighting with them.  Just transporting them from one location to another had to be quite a job and then trying to get accuracy with them must have been a nightmare.

  

I also can't imagine living in one of these cold little huts with their bunk beds made of branches.  Very picturesque today but I am really glad that I do live in today's world and not in the eighteen hundreds.

Found this nice little note in one of the logbooks.  I have to admit to a little surprise with this since Valley Forge is a National Park and letterboxes are not supposed to be hidden here.

 I had a great day although a bit frigid in Valley Forge and took the short drive home totally happy with the fact that I got some exercise and I enjoyed revisiting some favorite sites.

What is the Most Bizarre Thing?

You know that question on the Atlas Quest profile - the same question that pops up on AQ message boards time and time again - the one that asks "What's the most bizarre thing you've ever discovered while letterboxing?"  Well, I always felt a little inadequate since I had never really found anything bizarre.  Sure, I stepped in a dead rotting deer carcass once and I have come across teens (and some not so teen) lovers and I have seen my share of snakes and spiders, but never have I seen anything that I really considered bizarre.  Till yesterday.  I had found my box and was busy stamping in while sitting on a wonderful little bench by a reservoir.  I always thought I was pretty aware of my surroundings when I box alone but this just proved how focused I am once I find that little Tupperware treasure. Less than eight feet away from me, directly in my line of sight on the other side of the trail, I noticed something that didn't look quite right.  It actually took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking at guns!  I have a handgun of my own and I go target shooting but what I know about guns could fill a thimble.  I tried to stay calm in spite of my heart beating ten times faster than it normally does and I returned the box to its hiding spot and walked back to the guns after donning a pair of gloves.  After all, if these were used to commit a crime, I didn't want to leave fingerprints!

 

I picked one of the guns up and the first thing I noticed was the weight.  My handgun is pretty heavy.  This seemed really light.  Then I noticed that there wasn't a removable clip like my gun has.  I quickly decided that these MUST be toys but I wasn't about to try shooting one to find out.  And I didn't like holding it, real or not.  Instead, I took pictures and left.

  

That evening as I told my daughter about this find, she was extremely agitated with me for not calling the police.  She knows that I know nothing about guns and she kept reminding me that I had no way to determine if they were real or not.  She had me feeling pretty guilty when she said "what if they WERE real and Nicholas (my 8 year old grandson) had found them and tried them out."  By this time, I was debating calling the police even though it was almost twelve hours later and I kept thinking that someone must have come to collect them.

Then I called my fiance who is much more knowledgeable about handguns and he looked at the pictures.  I have to admit that at first, he hesitated to say that they were not real.  But after looking at the close up and seeing the "made in Taiwan" stamp on the barrel, he agreed with me that some kids were probably playing and just left them laying there.  

So now, next time someone asks "What was the most bizarre thing you found while letterboxing?" I  have an answer.

Seriously Spooked

 

A couple of weeks ago I did a letterbox located on the grounds of the old Harrisburg State Hospital, also known as the State Lunatic Hospital.  As a child, I remember playing in the park-like grounds of this mental hospital as my mother visited her aunt who eventually died there.  I didn't know at the time that it was a mental hospital, I just remember it being beautiful and my sisters and I would run around and enjoy the beautiful location with our dad.  The hospital closed many years ago and has gained the reputation of being haunted.  There have been other letterboxes located on the grounds and I have to admit to an eerie feeling whenever I visited there.  Every other visit was done with another letterboxer, I never was there alone. However, on this day, I was in the area and since this was rated as a driveby, I decided that I could make a quick stop.  Well, it WAS spooky.  There are a lot of old buildings here and it was almost totally deserted.  The box was located at the bottom of several groups of stone steps.

 

 I went down the steps and found the box and have to admit that I was very nervous the whole time I was there.  As is my custom, when I leave a boxing site, I always turn around and look to be sure that everything looks normal and that I haven't left anything behind.  Everything looked good.

I walked back up the steps and reached for my car keys but they were NOT there.  My keys are on a very long lanyard and when boxing, I wear them around my neck for easy access.  The lanyard is a Pittsburgh Steelers lanyard and is black and very bright yellow and is very easy to see.  When I found they weren't around my neck, I checked all  my pockets and then dumped my letterboxing bag out looking for them.  Nothing.   By this time I was frantic and figured I had to retrace my steps down to the box to see if I had dropped them.  So back down the stairs I went.

I was really spooked as I got back down and saw, right in the middle of this round bench, a yellow and black lanyard. If I wouldn't have totally remembered that I had done my normal check before leaving the area, I wouldn't be too concerned about this but since I firmly believe that there are spirits roaming the earth, I also firmly believe that one of them pulled my keys off of my neck to lure me back down into the woods for one more visit.  I wonder if it was my Aunt Alice!

That Final Letterbox

Me to a T!

I just saw this on someone's profile and thought it describes me perfectly.  I always feel that I have to apologize to people I hike with because I do hills slowly (one more reason I usually letterbox alone) but this makes me feel a whole lot better!

Going uphill slowly is better than going downhill fast.

Of course, this applies more to life in general than to hiking but I can use it however I want!