Sneak Boxing

 Most people know that we have a home in Volusia County in Florida.  There are not very many letterboxes in the area and when I am down there I don't have my own car to just take off and box in another area.  When I do that, the Immobile One is stuck at home until I return.  So I usually arrange with him to have the car at least one day each week so that I can spend the entire day boxing but the rest of the time, if I want to get a box, I have to be a little sneaky about it.  To say he is not into boxing at all is an understatement.  So, I plan and I plot areas that may have a box or two that I can grab while we are enjoying the area that it is in.  Last month I was in Florida for two weeks and I managed a few single boxes, the first one was at the Canaveral National Seashore.  We arrived there on a blustery, cloudy day.  I love this seashore area and since I was able to purchase my own Senior Pass the last time I was in Florida, I wanted to be able to use it.  The national parks in Pennsylvania are free so the pass doesn't benefit me at all.  I was happy when we stopped at the ranger station to see that my pass worked just fine and we drove down the road, making a stop at the visitor center to book a water tour a couple of days later.  As we were heading into the area where the box was located, we were stunned to see a large black cat crossing the road in front of us and even more stunned when we realized that what we were seeing was a black panther.  I grabbed for my camera but he was gone.  So Bill parked the car and put his seat back ready to take a nap while I went for the first box in Mosquito Lagoon.  There is just something special about looking for a box along the water.  I never tire of looking at it although I have no desire to be IN it and little desire to be ON it.  But this day, even the cloudy skies didn't make the waves any less pretty.

 

The house below is the Mounton-Wells house which sits right next to the water and was part of the clues for the box that I was searching.

  

 I found my box, made it back to the car and woke Bill up and we continued our drive through the park, stopping at Beach #5 aka the Nude Beach.  We have viewed the nude beach in the southern part of the park several times and when we were joking with the ranger about the northern part of the park not having anything like it, he informed us that we were wrong, there was also one at that end.  So we parked there and walked out to the beach, not surprisingly, it was empty.  This would definitely not have been a good day to be laying on a beach with no clothes on.

 The sky and the ocean made a really pretty scene.

 The next day arrived with brilliant sunshine so we made our way a little north to Bulow Creek State Park to look for the Fairchild Oak.  At least that was my ruse to get Bill to go with me to the park.  The trails are so beautiful here, so green and exotic looking.

 It didn't take me long to find this box which needs some TLC and to return to look at this massive live oak tree.  I have to admit that when I saw the name live oak, I thought it simply meant that the oak tree was alive but I later found that it is actually a type of tree called a live oak.  It gets its name from the fact that it retains its leaves all year long and always looks alive.  These trees have such beautiful spreading and curving branches.  The Fairchild Oak was absolutely massive, look how small I look next to is.

 This monument was another point of interest in a park a little down the road from Bulow Creek.  This memorial to Chief Tomokie is in Tomoka State park and I just may have to figure out a way to place a box in tribute to this imaginary Indian chief on a later visit.

 Sneaky letterboxing on day #3 took us to Weeki Wachee Springs to see the famous mermaids.  This park used to be privately owned but has recently become a state park.  It was unlike any state park I have ever been in before.

 The theme throughout the park was definitely mermaids and we attended both of the two different mermaid shows.  It was entirely beyond my understanding how these ladies could dance and maneuver underwater in such graceful movements.  The secret to their remaining underwater, which is really no secret at all because you can see them, are the breathing tubes that they carry with them, taking a breath whenever necessary.  So in addition to dancing underwater which would be difficult enough, they have to avoid getting tangled in the long hoselike tubes.

 

 

 I figured that the way to soften Bill up for the upcoming search for the letterbox was to have him pose with this pretty mermaid with the gorgeous smile.

 

All of my sneaky ploys worked, I was able to grab some fairly quick letterboxes in each spot without antagonizing my companion.