Hmmm......What would YOU take?

Imagine yourself in a situation where you need to evacuate your home. Perhaps it is due to a flood, hurricane, wildfire, or other natural disaster headed your direction and you have time to grab things. You are given the instructions....Just get what you'll mainly need.......

What I mainly need????
WHAT I MAINLY NEED????

Of course...after I threw a random combination of clothes into a suitcase and put the cats in their carriers, I grabbed what I MAINLY NEED for what I MAINLY DO. :-)

*For those of you who are wondering, we had to evacuate our home for a while on Tuesday, but we were able to return on Tuesday evening. Lucky for us, no damage was done to the property.

Tomato Fest 2011

I was able to attend the Tomato Fest Event this year in Jacksonville, TX. It was hosted by Barefoot Lucy. We had to earn the clues to the boxes by completing a list of tasks at the event. The boxes were hidden in other parts of Jacksonville......a fun time was had by all!

Lucy Locket getting Boogie Butt's autograph

Four and a half Tomatoes! Winners of BEST TEAM NAME award.
Lucy Locket, Pink Cookie, Beach Bum, Mother's Love, Blue Butterfly

Beach Bum, the hat guy, and Lucy Locket

Slowing down....

It seems my letterboxing activities have slowed down a bit as of late. I have taken on a new responsibility, which means I have less time for "what I mainly do". I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth....I CERTAINLY haven't given up letterboxing....it has just taken a back seat to a few other things. It's in my blood and I have been missing it.....perhaps soon......

Phone Directory

If someone ever steals my phone........what would they think of my contact list?
I would guess that I have about 50% given names and the other half are trail names.....hmmm...

I only have three in the "P" category.....

Pacifickle
Padawan
Puddle Splasher

I love my letterboxing friends!

Saturday Adventure!

Last Saturday morning, I arrived at Blue Butterfly's house. We had plans to go to Stinky Monkey's basketball game, then spend the afternoon letterboxing. When I got to her house, she said, "After we go to Tyler, how about if we go out to Mexia?"

So I said, "Let's go!"

We enjoyed watching our little monkey play a game of basketball, then we headed to Tyler to nab the BOX OF THE MONTH. The January stamp is a beautifully carved stamp by Celestini.
After replacing the box, we ate lunch, then headed to Mexia.

We finally made it to Fort Parker State Park and the first thing on our list was to check out the shelters, since that's where we will be staying next month for TALE. We were very pleased with our findings, but then it was down to the business of finding a few letterboxes.

We made our way to the designated area, hiked across the bridge, and began following the trail. Unfortunately, we didn't read the first set of instructions very carefully and ended up hiking across to the other side of the trail. (DUH...read all of the directions before tromping through the woods!) This turned out to be ok, though, we just found the boxes by going backwards on the trail. Lucky for us, we found all that we were looking for. The bonus was...no one else was on the trail that day! We had it all to ourselves!



Boxes We Found Today:

January BOM in Tyler
Cynthia Ann Parker
AZ Armadillo
Sitting Pretty

January Weekend-Sunday

Sunday morning came, and we had an agenda....TO LETTERBOX!

First, we headed to Glenwood Cemetery. I had driven through Houston in October and managed to stop here to catch a couple of boxes, but there were several more than I hadn't gotten. Blue Butterfly still needed some of these, too. We found some Boots Tex, Lone Star Quilter, and Silver Eagle boxes in Glenwood, then we headed over to Forest Park Cemetery.



Forest Park is a HUGE cemetery. Luckily, the planters gave great directions for us to get around this place. We had the honor of visiting Sam Hopkins' grave, where admirers leave guitar picks in tribute to him. We also found two other great tribute boxes by Silver Eagle and Dewberry.



Leaving here, we ate a snack in the car on the way back to Memorial Park. Now, before I tell you that we visited a few boxes, keep in mind that we live 3-4 hours from Memorial Park. Blue Butterfly, PS Guru, and I had stopped here on a Sunday afternoon in October. PS Guru rode his bicycle on the paved trails while BB and I boxed. We passed a distinctive trio of hikers on that day.....and really thought nothing of it. On this particular day, we ran into that SAME trio of hikers AGAIN!! BB looked at me, and I said, "We come to Memorial Park way too often, if we are running into the same people on the trail!" Her response was, " I was thinking the same thing!"

We managed to find three boxes at Memorial Park that afternoon, but it was finally time for us to head out. One of us had to work on Monday morning. (ME!) All in all, I'd say we had a pretty good weekend!

Boxes Stamped Into Today:

The Post Man
Risk Game-Cannon Card
Red Adair
Angel Band (Blue Butterfly only)
Band Stand
Sam Hopkins
King of the Wildcatters
LB Capitol
Bones
GTT (Blue Butterfly only)

January Weekend-Saturday

As previously mentioned, Blue Butterfly and I really konked out on Friday night after we got back to the hotel. I think I slept for about 11 or so hours. We had plans to meet the Boxhounds in Edna, in order to attend the Texas Circus. The train had rolled in that morning, so we were meeting them around 11:30 to join the fun. We relaxed at the hotel, then left around 10 to head west. We made it to Edna in time to meet up with the Boxhounds and see some of the sights of the Texas Circus. We were amazed by a dancing horse, jugglers, and their newest act, A SIX FOOT MAN EATING CHICKEN! That giant was the scariest of all.

After departing the Boxhounds, we ate a local lunch, then headed out to the local state park to go after a couple of boxes. When we got to the trail head, we saw the Boxhounds who said they were unable to find the two boxes on that trail. We decided to go ahead and try anyway. We got to the area of the first box, and came up empty handed. We decided not to try the second box since the 'hounds had been unsuccessful, too.

Can I take him home? I promise I will feed him and play with him every day!

Heading back towards Houston on 59, we stopped in several cities to find a box or two. We played hangman, found a HUGE dinosaur, tromped along trails, and took a trip to Bountiful. We had a great day of letterboxing and FUN!


Boxes we found on this day:

Hangman 5
Hangman 4
Pearl of the Prairie
The Trip to Bountiful

Blue Butterfly and Lucy Locket in El Campo

January Weekend-Friday

Blue Butterfly and I didn't get to take our Christmas time letterboxing trip this year, so we took it last weekend instead. Yes, the time was delayed, but that meant more daylight for us! Blue Butterfly met me around 7:30 at my place, then we headed south toward Houston. We finally made it to the Houston Arboretum and got to work!

First, I wanted to check on my Mario box. This was one of the games boxes that I'd planted at Dewberry's GAMES event in November 2009. Unfortunately, we came up empty handed. BOO! We were off again to find one of Silver Eagle's Risk Game characters. I'd found this one previously, but Blue Butterfly needed to stamp in. She stamped in, we added a few dry note cards, then we were on our way!

We stopped by one more old favorite, then we headed over to the mountain bike trails. There was a sign posted that the mountain bike trails were closed, and after zero consideration, we forged ahead. After all, these boxes must be found!!! We found several boxes that afternoon and especially enjoyed the STRATEGO series.

After a long day of boxing and traveling, it was time for us to head to the hotel and crash out. And we really did. :-)

Blue Butterfly stamping in!

Stamps we attempted or found on Friday:

Mario-MISSING
Batter's Box
Risk Game-Horseman Card
Bugs In a Box
Stratego Series: Flag, Spy, Lieutenant, Logo (4 out of 5 boxes were still available....one missing)
Risk Game-Soldier Card ( Blue Butterfly only)

Oh, I should mention that for the first time, I accidentally left my signature stamp at a box. When I looked for it at the next box, I couldn't find it. Luckily, we were able to go back to the previous box and Blue Butterfly spotted my sig stamp in the area where we'd sat to stamp in! YAY!!

Last Day of Christmas Break....

On January 2, I left Blue Butterfly's house and took a detour through Tyler to find a couple of letterboxes. I started off at Oakwood Cemetery where I found a box by JB Kokopelli and one of Boots Tex's Governor Series.

After leaving the cemetery, I ventured over to the Rose Garden where I found STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES by Lone Star Quilter. I had a wonderful afternoon and enjoyed my last day of Christmas break!!!

New Year's Day Letterboxing

I always enjoy letterboxing on New Year's Day when possible. There is usually very little traffic and few people on the trails on this day. We went after two boxes: DISCOVERY WELL in Joinerville (this would be a new stamp for me) and GRANDMA'S COKE FLOAT in Henderson. We had a great time at both places! Afterwards, we went to a park where the boys could ride bikes and roller skate while Baby Sister played on the playground.

Stinky Monkey, Baby Sister, and Roarin' Lion at the Discovery Well monument.

The crew at GRANDMA'S COKE FLOAT

Exchanges on New Year's Eve

The junior letterboxers wanted to have each others' stamps in their own books. So, I decided to have a mini-exchange party with them on New Year's eve.