Letterboxing 911

I decided a week or so ago that I might take this weekend to go down to Double Lake and gather up as many of the boxes planted for the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER Gathering in April as I could. I made up my mind on about Thursday that I would follow through. I was hoping the weather would be beautiful, because I knew the boxes were plentiful.

When I got home late Friday night, I started making some preparations for the trip, then went to bed. I woke up on Saturday a little earlier than expected and rushed around to finish printing off the remainder of the clues and pack my over night bag. I left town at about 8:30 and headed toward Double Lake.

I'd decided I wanted to take a brief detour in Madisonville to find SARAH'S FLAG by Lone Star Quilter. I went down the gravel road to the entrance of the cemetery and was stopped by a gate. Luckily, the gate was not locked, so I opened up the gate and drove on up and into the cemetery proper. I later found out that the Grimes County line is along that gate/cattle guard that I'd just driven through. Anyhow, I easily found the grave of Miss Sarah and was once again impressed with the stamp and the history lesson. I left the cemetery, closed the gate, and headed back into Madisonville. I stopped for lunch, then headed South again.

I'd printed out a couple of clues for Huntsville, since I knew I'd be driving through there. I wanted to find a box by Silver Eagle and another by Boots Tex. As I was following SE's directions to the memorial, however, I was stopped because there was a festival in town and many roads were blocked off. I decided that I'd better wait and find these boxes another day. As I changed directions and headed toward Coldspring, I went through downtown Huntsville and saw that they were having THE AIRING OF THE QUILTS. They had beautiful quilts hanging from buildings and set up on hangers all around the court house square. I wondered at the time if Lone Star Quilter knew about this event.

I finally made it to Coldspring and to Double Lake. I started out by finding Silver Eagle's box, DOUBLE DOG DARE. I then hit another trail and was stamping in when I saw a couple of men come down the trail, but they quickly headed a different direction. A few minutes later, I see them again, standing down the trail a little ways and they are talking. The next thing I know, they are headed right toward me! As they get closer, one of them asks, "Which way is North?" and just as he is saying this, I recognize Boots Tex and Will's World. They were in the park and checking on few of their boxes. I chatted with them for a bit and was invited to stop by the Red Barn Retreat. I was definitely going to take them up on the invitation.

I got a few more boxes, then decided it was time for a break. I went back to the car and got a few snacks and some cold water, and headed to a picnic table. I wanted to search through my clues and figure out which ones I could get rid of and make a plan for finding the rest of them. As I was looking through them, I discovered that Baby Bear's MOM, GUESS WHAT I FINALLY CAUGHT was a two-page clue. I only had the first page. I searched through my backpack and could not find page two. This was definitely a letterboxing emergency. I called the Letterboxing 911 hotline and reached Blue Butterfly. She hopped online and found the clue, read it to me (laughing the whole way through) while I wrote it down. I knew I had a cell phone for a reason! Thanks BB for your help!!

After resting and snacking, I headed back onto the trail and found some more boxes. I finally left the park and headed to Cleveland at about 6:00. It had been a great day, but it was time to call it quits.

The letterboxes I found on May 3:

Double Dog Dare

Legend of the Dogwood

Sarah's Flag

Some Days Your the Dog

Elf Quest: New Moon HH

Blue

Know Your Swimming Hole

The LetterBOXER'S Companion

Four Legged Letterboxers Series: Best Buddy, Little Spot, Flutterby's Friend, Where's the Bone, Best in Show

Mom, Guess What I Caught?

Easter Egg Hunt