Cranberry Cruiser-Mother Neff SP

I recieved word from a reliable source in January that Mother Neff SP was still closed due to the flooding from last summer. This most likely meant that my Cranberry Cruiser LB was lost for all of eternity. When I drove up I35 on my way home last week, I noticed the sign on the interstate said MOTHER NEFF PARK-OPEN FOR DAY USE ONLY. I really wanted to go check and see if there was a chance my box may have survived, but I didn't have the clues...and ...after driving and dealing with Bob in Temple, I was ready to get home. So, I just had to pass it by.

However, I got a status report yesterday saying that a letterboxer had stamped into my box! I'm guessing the box is in good shape, and still alive and well. Somehow, it survived the flood and is still parked in Coryell County.

A trip to Tyler

Friday, I went to spend some time with Roarin' Lion, Stinky Monkey, and Baby Sister. However, I decided to find a few letterboxes on the way.

My first stop was Rose Rudman Park. I easily found and stamped into AMERICA'S ROSE CAPITOL by Blue Butterfly. My next stop was Faulkner Park, where there are two letterboxes hidden.

I found the trail at Faulkner and followed it to find 15 MINUTES by TX Dragonfly. I have to admit that I didn't see the stamp for this box coming! It was a nicely done. Next, I wanted to find A SIGN: I LOVE YOU. Unfortunately, I went down the wrong trail. After realizing (finally) that I'd done this, I went back to the intersection. This time, I took the correct trail and everything lined up and I easily found the box.

After this, I headed to my niece and nephews' house. We played catch, made cookies, read books, played basketball, and just acted silly for a while.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Spring Break Trip-Third Day

On the morning of day 3, after sleeping under damp blankets all night long, I got up and started tearing down camp. By about 8:15, I was finished with my campsite and I drove to a trail in the park to hide my LADY BUG letterbox. After finding a nice place for this bug to call home, I left Guadalupe River State Park. I decided to take a bit of a different route home, avoiding the loop and outer roads of Austin. I headed east to New Braunfels, got on 45 and headed north.

My first stop of the day was in Salado. Silver Eagle has a box there that has been around for about four years. I took the exit, then took a country route to......Holland? Hmm....what did I do wrong. I was sitting at an intersection in Holland and looked around. No traffic. I pulled out my map to try and figure out what I'd done wrong. Salado is right on the interstate. I must have turned when I wasn't supposed to. I put away my map, drove through the intersection, and found a place to turn around. I made my way back to Salado and saw the error of my ways. This time, I easily found historic Salado College and stamped into the box there.

Back on I45, my next stop was in Temple at the WHISTLE STOP LB. I found the park and nabbed the box. I went to the smaller playground near the gazebo to do the stamping in. As I was finishing up, I noticed a suspicious looking guy hanging around the area where the box is supposed to be planted. Hmmmm...the only reason he'd be in that particular spot is to find what I have in my hand. I put the box in my backpack and head over. I asked him if he was looking for something, and as I asked, I looked to see what he was carrying with him. It is at this moment that I realize he has nothing that looks like letterboxing paraphernalia....only a drink in a small paper bag. He tries to question me, but I quickly walked away. What was I going to do now???? I went back to my car at the larger playground (well out of sight of the gazebo) and got rid of some of the trash I'd collected. I drove closer to the museum and peeked around the corner. Bob is still there. (Not his name, but I have to call him something.) I sit in my car for a few more minutes, then I pull around so that I can spy him without him seeing me. My only concern at this point is that I don't want to look suspicious to the people coming in and out of the museum! I decided to drive around Temple a bit and see if I could find something to occupy my time. I found a Dairy Queen, and ordered some ice cream. After finishing my ice cream, I drove back to Whistle Stop to check on Bob. He's still there. By this time, it's been about a half hour to forty minutes that I've been waiting on this guy to leave. I drove around Temple some more and found the public library. I went in and, after some explaining, was allowed to use the internet. I checked on my email and posted the boxes I'd planted earlier. I stayed there long enough to kill enough time, that I hope Bob had gone on his way.

I drove back to the park and pulled up to my corner. I don't see Bob! I pulled closer just to make sure. He's gone! I'm finally able to return the box to it's hiding spot only an hour and a half after having retrieved it.

I finally left Temple and headed home. No more boxes for today.

Spring Break Trip-Day Two

I got up around 7:00 or so and hit the showers while everyone else was still sleeping in the dark. I managed to leave the campgrounds before 8:00....the gate wasn't even open yet. I had to wait for it to automatically open for me.





It had rained some through the night, but not too much. I headed north towards Johnson City where I wanted to visit Pedernales State Park. There are several boxes in this park and I'd had my eye on it for a while. After I finally got to the park and checked in, then found the trail head, it started to rain. I decided to sit in the car a while and wait it out. It rained harder for about ten minutes, then finally lightened up, then nothing. I hopped out of the car and changed my shoes, grabbed my backpack, and put on my poncho....just in case.

You guessed it....when I was about halfway down the trail it started raining again. Hmmm...it wasn't too bad, I could still letterbox in this. I marched my way down to the designated sign and found my first box, the Pedernales Possum. I got the box opened up..then I hear...BOOM! CRACK! Oh no, it's now thundering and lightning....and it's coming down HARD. I did my best to finish up and rehide, then headed back to the car. My shoes and legs almost up to my knees were soaked, but the rest of me was ok. I left my poncho on and hopped in the car. I couldn't imagine that this weather was going to fix itself any time soon, so I decided to head back into Johnson City.





At about the time I got halfway back to Johnson City, the sky cleared and the sun began to shine. I looked at the sky, then I looked around the car and I couldn't believe it. The seat was soaked, and the clues I had for that park are now mostly ruined because they got wet. I'd dropped my backpack at one point in the mud, which transferred to my shirt. I didn't think I'd be making it back to Pedernales. When I got to Johnson City, I stopped the car and took off my poncho and put it in the trunk of the car and decided to head for Fredericksburg to an indoor activity--The Circle E Candle Showroom.



I made my way to Fredericksburg and passed the LBJ State Park along the way. Since it wasn't raining at the moment, I looked at the park and said, "I'll come visit you in a little while." I arrived at the Circle E Showroom and entered into candle heaven. I think I looked at every single scent and probably smelled most of them. I bought a couple of candles and asked the cashier if they give factory tours. He said they used to do that, but because of legal reasons, they aren't doing it any more. After leaving candle heaven, I went on into Fredericksburg and ate lunch. It still wasn't raining when I finished, so I headed back toward the LBJ State Park.

As soon as I pulled into the visitor's center parking area, the rain came down again. I went inside to the center/gift shop and showed my parks pass to the cashier and waited. I walked around the gift shop a few times and took a look at the historical artifacts. After the rains FINALLY cleared up, I headed out on the trail to plant MY NEW HAT, which I'd carved the night before. The park has a wildlife exhibit with white-tail deer and longhorns. They also have a farm exhibit. I took pictures and planted my box, all the while donning my poncho. I don't think it rained the whole time I was out on this particular trail.

After finishing up here, I made my way back to Guadalupe River State Park. I stopped in Blanco because I wanted to see if I could use the library's internet access. Of course, the library there closes at noon on Tuesdays, and it was after 3:00. When I got to Highway 46, just seven miles from GRSP, I'd remembered seeing a library in the shopping center there. I stopped in there and they allowed me to use the internet. I finally made it back to camp, took a shower, and started a fire. This is when the rain started again. It rained and rained and rained. Did I mention the rain??

Spring Break Trip-Day One

On Monday morning, I got up around 4:15 a.m., finished packing the car, and hit the road. I had to stop at Wal-mart to get ice and a few other things, but I was soon on my way. I had camping reservations for Guadalupe River State Park. I'd never been there before, so I was excited to visit a new park. On the way down, I passed right by Blanco State Park. So, I stopped and nabbed Baby Bear's ARGH MATIE, which is located there. It was about 9:45 or so when I was there and the box had already seen visitors that very day! JB Kokopelli and Wag Time had stamped into this box before I'd gotten there that morning. I just wondered how far behind them I'd been.

By about 11 or so, I pulled into Guadalupe River State Park. I checked in and the ranger warned me of the 30 pound raccoons who are perfectly willing to open up your coolers and eat your food. Suddenly, I had a vision of me sitting at my picnic table and being attacked by a six-foot raccoon ala Silver Eagle and his bear story. I quickly forgot about my imaginary friend and found my campsite.

After I got everything set up, I decided to go exploring and find the boxes in the park. I first went down to the river. There were a few families there and they were having a great time swimming. I went about my business to try and find SPECIAL PALS. For some reason, I couldn't make the clues work and decided to try another box.

I made my way around the park to a campsite area that has a trail. I followed the clues for BIRDING LB: NORTHERN CARDINAL. I easily found this one and enjoyed the view of the river, but especially of the green trees across the river on the hill.

After finding this box, I went back to the campsite and carved for a little while. I'd transferred an image onto Mastercarve before I left and wanted to get it in a box before I finished my little trip. I carved for a while, then decided to give the box down by the river another go. I headed down there, but no luck again.

I came back to camp and builta fire, ate some dinner, then finished carving MY NEW HAT. By now, it was bedtime and I had a lot of 'boxing to do the next day.

New Signature Stamp

I'm planning on a little letterboxing adventure this week while I'm on break. I'm hoping to make it to a few parks that I've never visited before. I also got busy today and found a graphic that I like for my new signature stamp. I'm pleased with the carving results, and can't wait to start stamping in with it.

Find, Stamp, Rehide, Repeat

This morning, I decided that since it wasn't going to be too terribly cold and wet, I wanted to get out and do some letterboxing. I left the house at the crack of 10:00 and headed for Athens. I'd already found a few in Athens, but needed to clean up the rest of them. I started out by looking for one in a park, but I couldn't find it anywhere. There was a nice view with a pond, though. I went to downtown and picked up THE SHERRIFF. While I was stamping in here, a man in a truck stopped by and asked me, "Are ya'll done yet?" I just looked at him. "Are you with the crew?" I told him no. "Do you know how long they were here?" I have absolutely no idea what the man is talking about. I told him I hadn't seen anyone, I'd only been sitting there a few minutes. I'm not sure what he thought I was doing there. Anyhow...it was time for me to go find THE CARDETTE. I'd tried to stamp into this box last fall, but there were too many people around at the time. So, I made my way over to the TVCC campus, and there wasn't a soul in sight. Unfortunately, I found the box laying upside down beside the bridge and the lid was missing. The stamp and the logbook were both there, so I stamped in and replaced the box under the bridge. I hope it will be safe there.

Next, I grabbed lunch, then headed off to find SCUBA DUDE. I had no idea there was a scuba diving training area in Athens, but now I know exactly where it is! My next stop of the day was at Oaklawn Cemetery to pick up JUST CALL HIM JESS. I easily found the box and stamped in. However, while I was repacking the backpack, I saw a car driving around. I decided to get my camera out, stash the box in my backpack and wander around a bit. The lady put some flowers on a grave and only stayed about five minutes or so. After she was back in her car and safely out of sight, I went back over and re-hid the camo box.

I went after one more box today, the BAXTER SCHOOL HOUSE LB, but I wasn't able to find this one, either. I made quite a few finds today and had a good time letterboxing not too far from home.

The Morning After....

After spending the day boxing, chatting, stamping, inking, and exchanging on Saturday, we decided we still wanted more. Blue Butterfly and I got up on Sunday morning to another beautiful day in Lake Bastrop. We made a plan of attack to pick up a few more LBs at South Shore, then to find a few more in Bastrop State Park before we headed home. We packed up our things and headed up to the office to check out of the cabin, then we hit the trails. Of course, we weren't the only ones with that bright idea and we ran into several letterboxers on the trail and it was great visiting with them again. After finding several more boxes, we headed over to Bastrop State Park. This park seems to be surrounded on all sides by busy highways and it has a golf course at its entrance. We found Baby Bear's Trail Rider box which led us to a nice water fall. We looked for a couple of others in this park, but we had trouble with the clues and were forced to give up. We'll definitely have to go back there to make a sweep on both parks for the boxes we missed.

The boxes I found on March 2:

TX Champions Series: Spurs

TX Champions Series: Rockets

TX Champions Series: Cowboys

TX Champions Series: Dynamo

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Pinch! Pinch!

Trail Rider

Texas Treasures Event

On Friday evening, Blue Butterfly and I headed south to Lake Bastrop. BB had made reservations several weeks prior to the event for our cabin, so we were ready to get there and get things in order. After finally making it to the park, we were thrilled to check into our cabin. The cabins at the South Shore park are quite nice, clean, and comfortable. We unpacked the van and settled in for a good night's sleep.

The next morning, we got up and out on the trail so we could plant our boxes. I'd brought along Oedipus Tex and Blue Butterfly brought A Texas Roadside Treasure. On our way to the trail, we said hello to Barefoot Lucy, TX Pokey, TX Ta-tas, and Frogkisses. After finding our trail, BB went one way and I went the other so we could each plant our boxes. I found a decent hiding spot for mine, then I went back to our meeting spot to see if she was finished with hers. When I got there, BB was still on the trail, so I sat down to re-copy the clues to make them legible for the other LBer's who might want to find it. While I was waiting, BFL and Lightning came along, so I offered up my clue to them. Since I was still waiting on BB, I decided to look through my clues and figure out what other boxes were already planted on this trail. As I was finishing up a plan of attack for us, BB came back and told me she'd found a box. Apparently she'd found a great hiding place for a box and tried to hide her LB there, but Baby Bear beat her to the punch! So, she stamped in, then went farther down the trail to hide her box.

She and I decided to find Black Gold-Texas Treasure, since it wasn't too far from where we were, then we split up to find each other's boxes....of course I found Baby Bear's box along the way, too. After stamping in and meeting up again, it was time for us to head to the pavilion for the actual event.

We arrived at the pavilion to see that there were already several people there. We stamped into the event stamp and poster. Baby Bear did another fabulous job on the event stamp. I don't know how he comes up with these ideas for his stamps.....but I'm definitely jealous!

I met several new people and earned some personal travelers. I had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. After lunch, BB and I decided to hit the trail to find some actual letterboxes. We'd just stamped into the Shoot Low, Sheriff box when we heard some people coming down the trail. We weren't sure if they were LBers or civilians....but when Mother of Five started calling our names, we were glad to have their company! We had a great time finding letterboxes on this trail with Mother of Five and her two girls, Dewberry, SandiBox, PuddleSplasher, SoccerChick, and Element. Our little group stamped, hiked, searched, and laughed our way down the trail.

We finally made our way back to the pavilion where Silver Eagle gave us the answers to the match game. The team of Dewberry/Mo5/PuddleSplasher earned first place while the most prolific first finder in Texas took second place. And for those of you who are wondering, I earned the special prize that Gryzzled Gryphon brought along with him.

After leaving the event, BB and I needed to make a run into Bastrop. When we returned, we parked the van at the cabin, then made our way over to Silver Eagle and Baby Bear's campsite. There were several people sitting around the campfire and sharing stories. Fearless Fox was kind enough to share his peach cobbler that he made on the campfire, and boy was it yummy!

Stamps I earned on March 1, 2008:

Black Gold-Texas Treasure

Aqua Teen Hunger Force HH

A Texas Roadside Treasure

What You're Missin' While you were Fishin'

TALE Event Stamp

Heisman High-Personal Traveler

Texas Gal-Exchange

Crazy TX Dragon-Exchange

Texas Lady Bug-Exchange

Bailey's Bunch-Exchange

Mica-Moo-Exchange

Cowboy Couture: Chaps

Cowboy Couture: Hat

Cowboy Couture: Boots

The Mountain Climber-Personal Traveler

The Cruisers-Exchange

Moods-Personal Traveler

Banana's Fool-PT

LionsMane-New Sig Stamp

Jbanana-Exchange

Lucky Cat-Exchange

Mother's Love PT

Zinni-Exchange

Bloomin' Gramma Jo-Exchange

The Gecko-Exchange

Zturtle-Exchange

MimZ-Exchange

Oh, the Places You'll Go Event Stamp

Pug Momma-Exchange

Chrispy-Exchange

CanCan-Exchange

PuddleSplasher-New Sig Stamp

Star Bright-Exchange

Dewberry-New Sig Stamp

Goodbye Ruby T

What Dewberry Likes About TX

Shoot Low, Sheriff

Mother of Five-New Sig Stamp

Along the Bluebonnet Trail

Mailbox

Happy Heron

Just In Case

Bell Motel-Exchange

AstroD-Exchange

Hummer

We Had Fun!

Blue Butterfly and I got back to my place around 6:00 last night, tired but extremely happy. We'd had a great weekend of friends and letterboxing at the Texas Treasures Event in Bastrop. Unfortunately, I had to work an extra-long day today, so I don't think I'll get to write about our adventures at least until tomorrow. Thanks to Silver Eagle and Baby Bear for hosting such a fantastic event!