The Gryzzled One Strikes Again!

Last weekend, BB planted a new box in a little garden which is between where I work and where I live. I tried several times to stamp into the Go Bobcats! box, but always there was a hindrance. One time, there was a man who was doing some work in the garden, another day there were several cars in the lot, so I just passed by...things of that nature. So, this morning I left a little early hoping I'd be the only early bird around. I managed to snag the box and was admiring the artwork, then I looked in the logbook. The Gryzzled Gryphon had stamped into the box already! He got there before I did and I've been trying for that box almost every day this week! Boy is he clever. Unfortunately, I probably took a little too much time being stunned by the Gryzzled One because by the time I finished stamping in, a man came and sat down at another one of the picnic tables in the small park. I was forced to take the box with me and replace it AFTER work. What a day!

Back in the Saddle

I was able to get out and do a little boxing yesterday for the first time in a few weeks. As you may recall, I moved to a new home in the middle of July, so I haven't been out in the "boxing ring" lately. However, yesterday, Blue Butterfly and Roarin' Lion came out to visit me. They found a couple of boxes here in the area, then BB planted one close to my home. RL and I played on the nearby playground while she did the hiding, then we sought out her treasure afterwards. This new box is called Pitch In! This one will be a nice one to take younger boxers to find since the playground is very near it.

BB also planted one in another town in Navarro County called Go Bobcats! I hope to find this one later in the week.

As I was getting caught up on my e-mails this morning, I discovered that a few people of stamped into some of my boxes...including Click & Clack and Just Duck-y. It's always exciting to hear that someone out there is finding your boxes!

It's Time to Move...

Within the next couple of weeks, I will no longer be "Lucy Locket of Nacogdoches", but will be Lucy Locket of Navarro County. I accepted a new job a couple of weeks ago and will be moving soon. This will be a new opportunity for me to help "seed" Navarro County with boxes, since I believe there are only perhaps two in that county.

Since I'm moving, I should be packing up my things. However, procrastination seems to be the rule of the day. Actually, I did some sorting of things yesterday and found quite a bit of stuff that can go in the dumpster. Because of the holiday weekend, however, the dumpster here in my apartment complex is quite full, so I'm waiting for the trash collectors to come and haul it away so I can begin to fill it up again. Once I can do that, I'll get back on the packing bandwagon.

I also took the time this morning to carve a new signature stamp for Roarin' Lion. I'm hoping that he will like using this new stamp and I'm hoping to enlist the help of PS Guru to mount it for us.

Happy Independence Day

Today, Americans celebrated their independence from outside governments. It is marked by people who take the day off from work and barbecue, go to the local lake or beach, attend outdoor concerts, and of course, watch fireworks. After it'd gotten dark this evening, I went outside on my small "balcony" hoping I could see the downtown fireworks display. The paper said the festivities would begin at "dark-thirty" (only in Texas, I'm guessing, would that be an acceptable time for anything to start). After I realized it'd been dark for a while, I prepared for myself a cold coffee beverage, took my chair outside and waited. It was good to get away from the radio, tv, computer, and the list of things that I should be doing and just breathe for a little while.

When the clock struck dark-thirty, the firworks began. As I sat there and watched the display, my mind went to Independence Days past.

When we were younger, we spent a few July 4th's at our aunt and uncle's house. They have a clear view of the fireworks display in their city. I would guess we spent four or five July 4th's there with them.

When I was in Junior College, I worked at a local grocery store. As you can guess, grocery stores are DEAD after dark on Independence Day. I spent my first July 4 as my first day in the cash office--which is a lot more than just cashing checks! I didn't get out of work that night until 1:00 a.m. or so--the manager wasn't too thrilled. The next year, I was a bit more experienced, so when the store lost all its customers to the fireworks, I got to go outside with everyone else and watch the fireworks until it was time to close up shop.

I spent two Independence days with my friend Sara, who lives in New Hampshire. I'd told her one time that it was my dream to go see Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops on July 4. She invited me to come to her house....she lives about an hour from Boston...and we'd make the trip! I spent a week with her both times and we had a great deal of fun both times. After the concert was over, we hurried to catch a train back to the parking garage instead of staying for the fireworks. In 2003 when we did this, we happen to be riding over the Charles River while the fireworks were still going....it was a beautiful scene with the colors reflecting off the water and the boats.

Last year, I didn't do anything special on July 4, but I did go boxing over the holiday weekend. Blue Butterfly and I, escorted by PS Guru, went to Martin Dies Jr. State Park and collected a few images there. This park was heavily damaged by Rita last fall, and I believe some parts of it are still closed.

Now, on July 4, 2006, the fireworks are over...the reminiscing is over....and the blogging is almost finished up. On this Independence Day, I'm appreciative of being able to have the freedom of following my dreams.....all of them...no matter how grand or small they may be.

BOXING ANNIVERSARY!

I just about can't believe it! I have now been letterboxing for over a year now. Blue Butterfly and I found our first box on June 18, 2005. It was Corazon's Gibraltar of the Confederacy in Vicksburg, MS. Finding that one box really got us hooked....we officially became addicted! Now, suddenly we're finding reasons to go to out-of-the-way places, sneaking around in bushes, taking trips, but taking very ...shall we say..."curious" routes to get back home so we can find these little treasures that mean so much to us.

Then, we decided it was time to start planting boxes...but would anyone even want to find them? We're not brilliant artists and we didn't want to disappoint anyone. Little did we know that others would appreciate our boxes, too. Letterboxers are such a great community of people, as we would later find out. So, we planted a few boxes and eagerly awaited those e-mail notices with the subject line: LBNA Status Changed.

We'd read extensively about letterboxing before we actually began, and even after we found our first box, we continued to educate ourselves as much as possible. We were wanting to go to a gathering, but we also knew that the annual Texas gatherings were held in the spring of each year and we'd have to wait a long time to go to one. Then, we found out about the Terrors of Telge Gathering that would be held in Houston. BB and I discussed it and decided we would go! SOOOO.....after we got home after a very late Friday night football game, we got up early and headed south. We made our way to Telge park and found a few of the permanent as well as temporary boxes that had been placed there. We were so excited to find some boxes by people we'd only heard about, but never found their boxes. Our favorite (or at least mine) was Mother of 5's Mr. Bones. Mr. Bones is a series of 4 boxes, and you had to put the skeleton together as you went along. I didn't know the difference between the pelvis and the rib cage until after I'd stamped the torso into my book....but at least I realized it before I stamped all of Mr. Bones in! The bottom line is that poor Mr. Bones is dancing on his head in my log book....but I digress....
As it got closer to the allotted time, we awaited the arrival of the other letterboxers. The first person we met was TeamKing. Soon after, The Legendary Silver Eagle and Baby Bear arrived. (We tried not to act star struck....I hope it worked). Others who came in were members of Gramatrick, Mother of 5, and two members of Birds of a Feather: Sea Dove and Liberty Eagle, the Frye Team, and Runs For Chocolate (sorry if I left anyone out). We were in letterboxing heaven! We found out that we weren't the only ones out there who did this and we talked about finding various boxes.....the hard ones....the fun ones...the easy ones...wow! After spending quite a bit of time at the table stamping into all of those event boxes and chatting, we had to part ways. We were sad to leave, but it left us feeling great about our new hobby and the people who enjoy it along with us.

Ok, Ok, I think I've gone on long enough. I started off all that to say it's been quite a year and I can't EVEN imagine now what I did with my time before letterboxing.
The hiking? Great!
The finding? Great!
The stamping in? Great!
The planting? Great!
The events? Great!
The people? WOW! FANTASTIC! COULDN'T BE A BETTER GROUP OF PEOPLE!!

Thanks to all of the people in the letterboxing community for making my year a fun-filled one.

This afternoon, Blue Butterfly, Stinky Monkey, Roarin' Lion and I met up for an exchange with a few new faces and a couple of familiar faces!! Barefoot Lucy coordinated a meeting with the Boxalots, who are from California, but are in the process of moving to a new location. The Boxalots have planted several boxes in the NE portion of Lousiana-including their MISSION IMPOSSIBLE AT ALLIGATOR PARK-which is still one of our favorites. It's always fun to put faces to stamp images and our little group sat around exchanging and just generally talking like we were old friends. I believe a good time was had by all. I'd like to say thanks to everyone who attended and I hope they enjoyed our little mini-meet half as much as I did.

Attendees included: The Boxalots-Tony, Honour, Linda and Smart Cookie / Barefoot Lucy and Lightening / TX Music Boxers-Blue Butterfly, Lucy Locket, Roarin' Lion, and Stinky Monkey.

Duck, Duck, Dog

After taking care of business on Saturday morning, BB, SM, and I went on a hunt for some letterboxes! We first headed to Port Gibson, MS to find Windsor Ruins, which was placed by our good friends Corazon and Navigator. We headed down the highway, then found the curvy road that led to the ruins. This was a great place for Corazon to lead us to find. The ruins alone from this estate shows that is was quite grand at one time. The columns that held up this home are massive and you feel so small in comparison to them. I could imagine myself coming to a social event here in my hoop skirt and dancing the night away.

Next, we headed back to Vicksburg. Blue Butterfly had made a special stamp which she dedicated to her father. She used to go hunting with him and she cherishes that time and the memories of that time together. Daddy's Beagle is located in a cemetery that is on the land where her father used to hunt.

Now, it was time for us to go to Vicksburg to find some more of Corazon's boxes. I so enjoy her boxes because she almost always has a great story to tell along with her hides. We found Tacito Bucci, Doc Smith's Cigar, and Mary's 80th Birthday. We found all of these in great shape.

Now, it was my turn to hide a box. I 'd recently carved Just Ducky and wanted to place it in the new park on the river front. The Catfish Row Art Park has a replica of a steam boat-with some original parts-and a fountain that children can play in. After I'd planted this box and BB and SM found it, we headed west....back home to Texas.

Butterflies and Stars

This weekend, Blue Butterfly, Stinky Monkey, and I combined family business with pleasure as we set to cross over from TX to LA to MS. Of course along the way, we just NEEDED to plant and find some letterboxes.

The first place we stopped to visit was a park in Henderson where there was a brand new box. The box is called Butterflies in the Park. This was a fun box...we enjoyed the logbook as well as the decoration of the box itself. SM enjoys visiting this park...since he loves stars....because there is a big star on the ground here. I believe this was the first plant by this family of boxers and it was nicely done!

Next, we wanted to stop in at Catch a Fallin' Star and Peggy Hill so SM could stamp in here. As you may recall, the Fallin' Star box was placed in honor of SM. He also wanted to play on the playground, but we were trying to get to Vicksburg before the sun went down.

Lake Tawakoni

Today, I took a ride up through McKinney, Plano, and Wills Point. I was on a mission to find a few boxes, of course....and hopefully find one. After taking care of some personal business in Farmersville, I headed to McKinney to find the Sister Grove Park. This is a nice park, which has a view of the lake. I started my journey by following the instructions and looking on the trail map so that I could find Sister Grove #1. I journeyed around the trail and into the woods and easily found this box. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten my signature stamp! So, I stamped the #1 stamp into my log book and made a note in the box's log that I'd been there, but with no stamp.

In order to get to Sister Grove #2, I just needed to stay on the same trail, so I continued my hike. By this time, there were a couple of other people on the trail. I found #2 and found a place to stamp in. This was a great stamp, too and not very many people have logged finds in these boxes. I would encourage boxers to visit this little park and enjoy it.

After finishing up here, I headed to the Community Center Natuer Trail in McKinney. This is another beautiful urban park. It has paved trails, a nice pond, and a fountain. There were families fishing and just enjoying the beautiful day when I was there.

As I looked for the box, I easily found the log, but I looked in the wrong hole "pointing towards the sun". I continued on down the trail a little ways, then came back to try again. This time, I found the box. KCSB (KC and the Sunshine Band) is a box by Sprite and Highlander, which is retired postal LB.

After dancing with KC, I went to the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve, to find another box by a non-Texan boxer. No Directions Needed! is located in a beautiful part of Plano, and when I was there, they were having free concerts one night a week.

After finding all of these treasures, I wanted to plant one myself. I made my way to Lake Tawakoni State Park. I'd carved Fairy At Work a few weeks ago, and had been itching to get her placed. This is a fairly new state park and everything in it is in top condition. I enjoyed finding a home for my fairy here.

It was a very satisfying, fun, productive day. I always enjoy my time letterboxing. I think I have a date with a certain monkey next week to do it again!

Boxing with a Lion

This morning, I got up early and stopped by Roarin' Lions house so he and I could go do some boxing. He still had some boxes to stamp into that had been placed in honor of the TX RR Gathering, so we piled into the car and headed to Rusk.

We started out by going to a couple of new boxes placed by JB Kokopelli placed in a park that used to be Rusk College. We found Linus Goes to School, but the Snoopy box escaped us. RL had fun climbing all those stairs!

Next we went to Rusk State Park and picked up Letterboxing Coyotes, Boxcar Willie, Crash at Crush, and Baja Oklahoma. I was pleased to see there had been a few visitors to these fine boxes since I'd been there last. After we found these boxes, we went to the train station and ate our picnic and of course RL wanted to play on the playground for a bit.

After we finished with our lunchtime activities, we headed to Maydelle. We found Barefoot Lucy's Loblolly Pine box. As she states in her clues, this box is at a very serene location. It was beautiful and peaceful there. When we arrived, however, there was a small dog in the parking area. I got out of the car first to see if the dog would be friend or foe, and he seemed friendly enough. This puppy followed us around and sat with us as we stamped into the box and made some whimpering noises. RL said he must be looking for his family. After we stamped in, we headed back to the car and the dog followed us. We had to leave him there, but I hope his family found him later.

Even though RL was tired and ready to go home, I wanted to check on my Camp Out LB and let him stamp into it. We were pleasantly surprised to find a fun HH, Big Foot Without Big Socks. We can't wait to let this foot loose to make some more footprints in other boxes!

Tomorrow, I'm taking a little trip for a job interview, but I'm going to try and plant a box while in the area and find a few, too!

...Thinking....

Yesterday, before heading off to celebrate Stinky Monkey's birthday, Blue Butterfly and I went to Jacksonville to find a few boxes. BB has already found these, but I hadn't yet had the pleasure, so she patiently trekked through the cemetery and park as I made the discoveries.

We made our way to Nichols Green Park to find Silver Eagle's Barefoot Den Mother. This was another fine and creative carving by the talented Silver Eagle. Next, we went to the Jacksonville cemetery and stamped into Urban Legend and What Do You Think? by JB Kokopelli. The weather for boxing was perfect today.

Next, we went to the big city of Tyler and ran a few errands there. On the way home, we stopped at Henry's Chapel Church and Cemetery so BB could plant a box there. I waited in the car while BB traipsed through the cemetery to find the perfect place. Afterwards, she gave me the clues and I stamped in.

After this, it was time to head to a special monkey's birthday party, so we put our stamps away, washed the ink off our hands and got ready to celebrate!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STINKY MONKEY!

This week, Stinkey Monkey turned four. He enjoys finding boxes, and he even enjoys looking through his log book and showing off all the "clues" he's found. Blue Butterfly recently planted a new box, Catch a Falling Star, just for SM because he likes stars so much. I can't wait for him to find his special box at one of his favorite parks!

It's Been a While....

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. There is no excuse, except the usual.....other things have gotten in the way of my "blogging time". Since finding the Spring Flower Series, I've been down to Double Lake and found a few of Lone Star Quilter and Boots Tex's WONDERFUL carvings in that area. I've also found a few others that I can't quite put my feeble memory on right now, but I had fun finding all of them.

I also went to Lake Livingston (seen in the picture) and found several on the trails there by Baby Bear, Silver Eagle, and the Frye Team. I even planted my Hank Hill box at Livingston SP while I was there.

Last weekend, I went on a journey with Blue Butterfly. She planted the Great Texas Balloon Race near the site of the annual race in Gregg County. We then headed over to Tatum to each plant one in a park where Roarin' Lion and Stinky Monkey enjoy playing. BB planted Catch a Falling Star, a box she made especially for Stinky Monkey, while I planted Peggy Hill. I can't wait for others to come enjoy our stamps!

Spring Flowers

On Saturday morning, I started the day out by carving myself a new signature stamp. My old stamp (a custom made one) is starting to show signs of wear and tear...plus it's high time I did this anyway. After this, I went in search of two boxes in Nacogdoches. I started out by finding Batty placed by Josephine. She placed this box close to an area where bats exit in the evening and it's a great stamp with a cute little poem to boot. After encountering this friendly bat, I went in search of New York City. After I found the park and the hiding place, I decided not to go after the box since I was boxing alone. The climb up the rocky slope seemed a little scary for someone as klutzy as myself. This is a nice park, however, and I'm thinking of placing a stamp there myself.

After this, I went home and did a few chores, then headed to meet Blue Butterfly and Stinky Monkey. We headed to Martin Creek Lake State Park to find BB's Spring Flower Trail Series. We had so much fun finding all of these flowers on this trail. Even though there were a lot of people in the park itself, they all seemed to be out on the lake swimming/boating/fishing, so we had the trail to ourselves. The stamps in this series are well done and the boxes are cleverly hidden. Even this afternoon, Stinky Monkey still wanted to look at his "pretty flowers" that he got yesterday. I hope others can get out to enjoy this series!

When we got back to the trail head, I left SM and BB resting in the amphitheater while I hid my newest box, Coffee Break. After hiding it, I met back up with this dynamic duo who didn't want to leave the park without finding this box. So, I followed them as they deciphered my clues and took a short "coffee break". Then, we loaded up the van with our inky fingers and headed home. However, we stopped at a convenience store to get something cool to drink. As I was paying for our refreshments, the clerk looked at me and said, "Have you been coloring Easter Eggs?" I just chuckled and told her no, but it was something else I'd made a mess of.

Flowers Are Blooming

It's spring and we all know that in TX, the flowers are already blooming. Unfortunately, I did not get to enjoy spring, flowers, hiking, or boxing today. I was stuck indoors. Blue Butterfly called me in the early afternoon and asked me how many boxes I'd found today. I told her I'd only found one box-the Turbo Tax box at Wal-mart. I did my civic duty today and calculated the amount of money that I owe this great nation.

The good news is, I've now got that out of the way and can do something that's more fun and more personally fulfilling. I carved two stamps this evening...they are Hank Hill and Peggy Hill from the Fox show King of the Hill. I'm hoping to add Bobby and possibly Luanne to the mix, too. Tomorrow will be a great day because I'm supposed to do some boxing with Blue Butterfly and Stinky Monkey. I can't hardly wait!!

Cherokee County

Yesterday after the birthday party, Blue Butterfly, PS Guru, and I loaded up the van and headed out to Rusk State Park. BB and I needed to get the rest of the boxes that we missed at the gathering while PS Guru wanted to take a few pictures.

We arrived in the late afternoon and immediately picked up Letterboxing Coyotes. This is a fun, innovative box. Even the physical box itself fits in with the theme of LB'ing Coyotes. After stamping in here, we went on down the trail to find Baja Oklahoma, which our friends HappyDays had left for us to find. We had a bit of trouble because their landmark sign was missing, but we managed to seek out it's hiding place. After returning this box to it's rightful place, we headed up to find our good friend, Box Car Willie. After seeing this stamp, we are DEFINITELY looking forward to finding more of the Music Box series.

We had one more box to find, but we'd forgotten to print out and bring along the clues. BB and I decided that we'd read through the clues for General Sherman enough times that we may actually be able to find it. We made our way down to the appointed RR track, estimated where it may be, and began the search. After only about two minutes of looking, BB pulled our prize from the track.

After stamping in here, we located PS Guru and headed to Maydelle to eat at the famous Big Bertha's. The three of us enjoyed the All-You-Can-Eat Catfish. While eating dinner, we decided to try and head for ID Fairchild State Forest while there was still a little bit of daylight left. There are two boxes in that forest and I also wanted to try and plant my Camp Out box.

After paying our bill to Bertha's niece, we headed toward the forest. We found the trail head and BB and I began our journey. We easily found the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker. After stamping in, I left BB to do the obligatory rehide while I went off in search of a hiding place for my box. I found a nice place for it next to a good landmark. By the time I'd gotten it hidden, BB had caught up with me, so I gave her the clues and she stamped in.

By the time we were finished with this, it was getting too close to dark to try for the Loblolly Pine box. We'll definitely have to make another trip out in order to stamp in there!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROARIN' LION!

Today is Roarin' Lion's 5th Birthday. Now, when he counts his age on his fingers....he can go all the way to his thumb!!! (Something he was excited about a few weeks ago.) After we attend the big birthday party today, Blue Butterfly and I are going to sneak off to hit those boxes we missed in Rusk. I think it will be a great day with family and boxing.

Camp Out & Coffee Break

I have two new boxes that are ready to be planted! Camp Out and Coffee Break are two stamps I carved last weekend while making myself stay at home instead of going out boxing. I was going to try and plant at least one of them today, but had to change my plans. I may go out and try to find a couple of new local boxes instead. I also heard a rumor that Blue Butterfly has a new series which will be planted soon. I can't wait to go find it!

Galveston Boxes

Blue Butterfly and I spent a couple of days boxing in Galveston last week. We stayed in a hotel that had a MAGNIFICENT view. We even stayed on the west side to enjoy the sunset. Our first day of 'boxing, we found Tribute to England Series #7, Celtic Cross, and Pirate's Puzzle. We looked for a few more that day, but were unsuccessful.

Day two of the adventure found us at the Corps Woods catching up with Felix. Other boxes we stamped into included Kemp's Ridley, Hiding from Putty Tat, and Sylvester. We were impressed with the stamps and locations of each of these. We attempted a few others, including Running Rain's Lightening Bolt Scar. We found the box and log, but the stamp was missing.

We also visited the state park in Galveston, where we'd camped a few years ago (prior to boxing). I planted a new box there, although I'd definitely advise extra care in retrieving it. There are signs at the start of the trail head warning of poisonous snakes. The box is called Watering Can. I'd love to hear about it if you stamp in!

Happy Trails!

How Do You Spot a Letterboxer?

On Monday, Blue Butterfly and I faced the rain and cold to do some boxing in the greater Houston area. We started off by putting together Mother of 5's Texas Snowman. We'd had so much fun putting together Mr. Bones back in October that we didn't want to miss out on this one. MO5 didn't let us down! While we were in the park, we also stamped into Gleeful Grinch and Wile E. Coyote. Blue Butterfly also got some nice duck pictures while we were there.

Next, we moved onto find a mystery box and a WOM box or two at an undisclosed location....

After eating lunch, we were back on the road to capture a few animals from Birds of a Feather's Runaway Circus Series. Out of the 8 stamps, we were only able to find 6 of them. As far as we know, the leopard and the lion are still out there roaming around somewhere. We hope that someone will be able to capture them soon! While in the park, we also found Runs for Chocolate's first planted box, Seven. This box was planted in honor of Lance Armstrong.

This was a great day of boxing!