This is Why I Letterbox - Patuxent River Park

It isn't often that I really WANT to post about a particular series of boxes so, believe me, I was totally happy that I was motivated two weekends in a row to write about "This is Why I Letterbox" experiences.  Sepia Slipper and I had headed to Upper Marlboro MD to find a new letterbox series planted by Super Rod and Night0wl in Patuxent River Park and Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was a dreary, overcast morning when we arrived at the park but we were ok with this.  The 19 box series had been posted as mostly drivebys and short walks so we weren't too worried about rain.  It was nice to be greeted by this brightly colored bluebird who was watching for waterfowl in the river.

The clues led us to the Rural Life Museum and Sepia Slipper and I were absolutely fascinated with this 1923 Craftsman kit house.  

 We both quickly decided that we could easily live in this house with one exception...we needed a real bathroom.  The kit privy was not exactly to our liking.  Our mother had just been telling me stories last weekend about growing up with an outhouse and it isn't something that I would ever want to be forced to experience.  I do remember thinking it was neat to use the outhouse at my grandparents' when I was a kid but I was also happy to run into the real bathroom they had installed after my mother was grown.

 

 As we meandered around the museum area, this vulture who seemed to think he owned this fence rail on the farm museum watched every move we made.

 We moved onto other boxes and totally enjoyed the green that was popping up throughout the forest.

 The next village that we visited was a little more rustic, the American Indian Village.  I quickly decided that I would NOT want to live in this house.

 

 Luxury and comfort were not part of our country's native American's vocabulary. 

 Another part of this wonderful park included the first African American owned airport.  As we walked to the memorial, we marveled that the windsock was blowing straight out in spite of the rather calm day.

 Aha! It wasn't the wind which was assisting the windsock, it was the wire inside of it.

 

As I had mentioned, this was a 19 box series but three of the boxes were in a part of the park called the Critical Area Driving Tour.  The road was only open for a few hours each Sunday and since we were there on a Saturday and we wanted a complete set of the stamps, we decided to walk the three and a half miles to get those three stamps.

 There was a long boardwalk type bridge that crossed over the swampy area and, personally, I am glad that we walked it.  I am not sure I would have been comfortable driving across it and I know that we would have missed a lot of the sights that we saw if we had been driving.

 Sepia Slipper climbed up this observation deck in spite of a very badly aching knee.  I am not into heights so I stayed safely on the ground and took pictures.

 

Box #2 of the CADT boxes found and stamped into.

 The final CADT box was at this very tall observation tower which neither of us chose to climb.  Perhaps if the day had been a little clearer we would have considered it.....nah, we still wouldn't have.

 As we walked back across the wooden bridge, Mama and Papa osprey visited their nest.  We couldn't see if there were babies yet.

 It was now time to head to the southern part of this park, the Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary.  Since we had walked the CADT, we had to reverse engineer the clues a bit since the original clues continued on the CADT.

 

We passed the Visitor Center before we reached the next part of the clues so we decided to stop in.  We were kind of startled as we were greeted by a very young park ranger who asked us to step into a bucket of disinfectant prior to entering the center.  He explained that they have found that Avian flu viruses can be carried through droppings we might have stepped in so they ask everyone to disinfect the bottoms of their shoes before entering to protect the screech owl who resided there.  The ranger then personally conducted a tour of the various sections of the Visitors' Center and introduced us to the little owl who lived there after losing an eye.

 We headed to the spot where the original tour would have taken us and saw another little osprey head peaking out of another nest.

 What does one do when they are waiting for some strolling muggles to pass by the spot for the next box?  One takes pictures of the tree from every angle as though it is the most picturesque tree in the whole forest!

 Next on the list was a visit to the frog pond which proved to be very photo worthy.

 Sepia Slipper tried to sneak in on some frogs but wasn't successful.  We didn't see or hear any little critters in this pond.

 Next to the last stop of the day was to a "BIG.Huge tree and the clue was absolutely correct.  It WAS a tremendous tree and it hid a nice little surprise.

Due to the walk that we had taken on the CADT, we managed to log 6.5 miles this day and collected 19 exquisite stamps.  I had a lot of trouble staying alert as we made the 150 mile drive home and when I tried to crawl out of the car, I was stiff, stiff, stiff, but I have to say that this was one of the best series I have ever done in my 12 years of boxing.  Thank you, Super Rod and Night0wl!

Clara Barton House

Probably the best thing about letterboxing, outside of forcing me to get exercise, is that it takes me to new and wonderful places.  One of those places popped up as I was on my way to the We Didn't Start the Fire event. The Clara Barton House had been on my to do list for a long time and finally, it was time to just do it.  Although only a driveby and even though the facility was closed by the time I arrived on a Friday evening.  I did enjoy a stroll around the grounds, finding the box was an added bonus.

 

To my delight, the house had another intersesting door.

A Not so Dreary Day in Frederick, Maryland

At the spur of the moment on a dreary, drizzly, cold day in March, I decided to head for some boxes that I had mapped out in Frederick, Maryland, about a two hour drive from home.  As it turned out, the rather unpleasant weather worked out really well for me since most of the planned boxes were short walks or drivebys.  I made it to my first stop just as the sun was coming up and enjoyed some of the buildings in the area as I collected some name brand logos around the carillon tower.  I am nuts about pretty doors so the tower's door started my day out well.

 

From the carillon, I moved in town a bit to a terrific series placed by Night0wl.  She has a large number of AiPP (Art in Public Places) boxes and Frederick was the home of  seven of them.  Here is where the dreary weather really helped me.  The art really IS in public places and Night0wl has very cleverly hidden these boxes in the middle of them.  If the weather would have been better, I am sure that the Carroll Creek walkway would have been packed making it painfully difficult to look for our little goodies.  I was pulled between being sure that I captured all of the boxes and also that I captured all of the art work along the creek.

 

 

  

This stone look was actually a facade over the concrete bridge.

 

 

 Even the sidewalk had art in it.

 

 

 Some old artwork still remained.

 

Final stop of the day took me to a mansion.  I have to admit that it was not my idea of a real mansion but it was very pleasant to look at and much larger than some historical houses I have visited.  The total box experience here, as with most Wood Thrush boxes that I have found, was very well done..

So, in spite of a bad weather day, which as you can see from the blue clouds below turned pretty nice, I had a wonderful experience for my day in Maryland, much better than I would have had at home in front of the TV.

Naked Tushes and Winking Men

The weekend ahead promised to be gorgeous and I felt the call of a road trip pulling at my hiking boots so I hopped in the car early in the morning and headed to Baltimore.  I really enjoy long drives alone as I listen to my audio book and stop often when I see something that interests me.  The route to Baltimore is a very familiar one.  I grew up in York and Baltimore was our "big" city to visit, much like Philadelphia is for us here in Reading now.  So there weren't a lot of stops anticipated and I was excited to renew my acquaintance with Baltimore.  As I crossed the Mason Dixon line a horrible thought crossed my mind.  I had planned a day of inner city boxing and was prepared to face the crowds that a beautiful spring Saturday would surely bring but then I remembered, the Belmont horse race was that same day.  My heart plummeted as I realized that the crowds I would be facing would be on the road as well as in the city.  I take Rt 83 into and out of Baltimore and the race track is barely a mile off of this route.  But, my mood lightened a little as I realized that I was early enough that maybe the traffic would not arrive till later in the day.  There ARE some rewards to being an early riser.  So I made my way to my first stop at the Maryland Institute of College of Art with little in my way.  My worst obstacle was trying to figure out where Mr. Buddha was in this sprawling inner city campus but I finally found him and happily, the box was intact.

 

From there I headed further in town to the Inner Harbor and enjoyed meandering around the area and collecting boxes and not encountering many other human beings.

I had forgotten about the paving blocks that contained homonyms scattered around the area and I enjoyed walking and reading them.

 My next stop was to visit Mr. Edgar Allen Poe in the Westminster Hall Cemetery.  After paying my respects and marveling at this historic cemetery right in the heart of the city, I located the two boxes there and moved back to my car.

As I paused to photograph this Raven on a sign  hanging on the cemetery fence, I turned my head and was aghast to see the other Raven that Baltimore is famous for.  I say aghast because I am a diehard Steelers fan and I was right next to the Baltimore Raven's football stadium.  We had actually attended a game here, one which the Steelers won in the last minute of the game, a few years ago.  It was quite the experience as eight of us decked out in full Steelers outfits were booed and harrassed the whole way through the game.  It was so sweet when our team pulled it out and silenced the fans around us.

It was now time to do a box that I had wanted to do for a long time.  We have visited Fort McHenry since the box was planted but when I am with the Immobile One, I need to know exactly where the box is ahead of time and then I must stamp in quickly and not waste any time enjoying the experience so I hadn't obtained this one already.  This time I fully intended to enjoy the "big guy's naked tush" as I searched for the box. 

And this is the big guy's naked tush!  Truly admirable.

I am not a beer drinker so I don't usually associate cities with particular brands of beer but in doing my research for this day, I learned that Baltimore is known for National Bohemian beer.   Once I was aware of this, I started noticing little winking men as I was traveling through the city and before the day was over, I had collected two of his images for my logbook.

This day was full of boxes that I have wanted to do for a long time and I was about to obtain another goal as I visited a very interesting art gallery near the Inner Harbor.  They made use of every little nook and cranny to display interesting forms of art made from everyday, and some not so everyday, items.  I loved this visit and am very happy to have it also checked off of my to do list.  As a bonus, there was a wonderful box by Shorty very nearby. 

You might think that this next picture is from the art gallery that I had just visited but it was one of the more strange things that I have found in parks in a long time.  This painting actually is in the middle of Patterson Park which is also a city park.  It remains totally exposed to the elements and most amazingly, it is graffiti and damage free.  It was a true example of art in the park although I usually think of statues and sculptures as more realistic examples of outdoor art.

The same park also contained this interesting pagoda.  I am always fascinated by pagodas since Reading is pretty well known for our pagoda which is seen for miles around by anyone entering the vicinity.  Ours sits on the top of Mt. Penn and this one sat in the middle of a park. The picture below the pagoda is of the city of Baltimore from the Pagoda.  Interestingly enough, the tall building with the triangle roof line on the right side of the picture is mentioned in the clues and the planter said she didn't know what it was but used it as a reference for her box. I would soon find out exactly what it was as one of my next boxes was in a park right next to it.

And here it is from the point of view of my next box.

Twelve boxes were now on my completed list and I still had not encountered any traffic nor any sign that a huge horse race was soon ready to take place only a few miles from me.  In fact, I wondered if perhaps people who were smarter than me had purposely stayed away from the city, thinking that the traffic would be horrendous and the crowds significant.  Silly me for going into the city this day but it actually worked out really well for me since I had no trouble driving, parking or walking anywhere that I wanted to go. 

It was now time to head home but there were a few stops I wanted to make along the way.  One of them was at Susquehanna State Park in Havre de Grace for a couple of drivebys that had been placed there.  I found the first one pretty easily but I was much more fascinated by this wonderful grist mill that it was planted at.  And funny enough, this park was much more congested than the city of Baltimore had been.

I love taking pictures of window and this shuttered one on the grist mill was a good one.

The next box that I sought was missing, I think, but the view of the Susquehanna River was reason enough to visit this area.  It had been a great day for me, lots of boxes, lots of wonderful places to visit, perfect weather all contributed to making me happy that I had made this trip.