Wednesday Afternoon Drive-By

Wednesday afternoon, it was time for my junior boxing buddies to go back to their home. However, I knew of a quick drive by and when I asked if they wanted to find another stamp, the answer was YES!

We stopped by the location of the B & B CAFE letterbox. It was cold and the wind was blowing, so we used the car as a shelter. We had a great three days of fun!

Tuesday Letterboxing

After spending the morning watching Cinderella and The Polar Express, it was warm enough for us to get outside! We went first to find a local GOVERNER SERIES box. After replacing that box, we found a local WOM box.

After finishing up with these two boxes, we played at the park for about an hour, then headed back to my house for lunch.

Stinky Monkey, Baby Sister, and Roarin' Lion

Monday Afternoon

I was able to pick up Roarin' Lion, Stinky Monkey, and Baby Sister to take them with me for a few days. On the way to Navarro County, we stopped in Athens at the East TX Arboretum. There is a Children's Story Series here, and I thought it would be the perfect place to spend an afternoon.

Roarin' Lion, Baby Sister, and Stinky Monkey at the first box of the day!

We found the appropriate trail entry, and made our way to THIS LITTLE PIGGY. This was the perfect stamp for Baby Sister's first find! Her favorite color is pink, and the pink piggy delighted her! The boys enjoyed stamping in, then standing on the bridge and seeing what was in the water. After stamping in, we continued along the trail to find LITTLE MISS MUFFET, HUSH-A-BYE BABY, and BIG BAD WOLF.

After the fourth box, I decided it was time for us to pack it up and head back to the car. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that we were on an inner loop at that time instead of the main loop. We went all the way around an extra loop before getting back to the main trail, then the trail head. Luckily, we were no worse for the wear and have an interesting story to tell!

I spotted this little fairy princess in the woods....

Monday Morning

Monday morning was the official first day of my winter break! I woke up from Blue Butterfly's house and headed out to letterbox. I have a new logbook and it's high time I added some images to it!

I'd recently seen that the Texas Pioneers are in the process of placing their HOLIDAY TRAIL OF LIGHTS Series and there is one in Kilgore. This was my first stop. After following the instructions, I easily found this delightful box...and I was the first finder!

After leaving the cemetery, I headed over to the World's Richest Acre. I came up empty handed on this one, but I enjoyed learning about the history of this park and the oil boom that happened in Kilgore.

The World's Richest Acre. These derricks are decorated with lights at Christmas time.

I headed back to Henderson, and went to The Depot Museum. There are three letterboxes on this property, but I only had time to find two of them. I stamped into THE DEPOT MUSEUM and SYRUP FESTIVAL. By the time I stamped into those two boxes, it was time for me to head out to pick up Roarin' Lion, Stinky Monkey, and Baby Sister. I couldn't keep them waiting!!

A look inside the outhouse. The corn cobs add a nice touch to the display.

My Secret Santa is Better Than Yours....

For the first time ever, I participated in the Secret Santa exchange at my school. I decided that it might be fun to try and sneak around to leave a present for a colleague...you know...in and out without being noticed....? We filled out a questionnaire concerning our hobbies and favorite things.

Favorite Color: Purple
Animals: one cat
Scents you enjoy: Vanilla, Cinnamon
Hobbies: hiking & camping (You can't expect me to put letterboxing...these people already think I'm nuts.)
The last question was : Magazines you enjoy reading

Well, I'm not really a periodical kind of person. I get most of what I need from watching the news and reading articles on the internet. So, on a whim, my answer was--- April 1998 Smithsonian. If you can find this, you will be my hero.

For the first four days, I got very nice gifts. I even managed to deliver my gifts without being caught by the receiver. Thursday afternoon was the big reveal.

We all met together for the reveal. Unfortunately, my Santa wasn't there due to a death in her family. Luckily, she made arrangements for my gift to be delivered to me at the party. I opened the gift....and there it was.....a magazine....hmmm? It was upside down. I had no clue what this was. I turned it over and saw the word SMITHSONIAN across the top. WHAT?? I looked for the date...April 1998 ....WHAT? Yep. My wonderful Secret Santa had found the magazine that I've been wanting for....how many years?? Not only that, but she knows about my letterboxing activities and she guessed that the article I was after was the THEY LIVE AND BREATHE article.....she had a sticky tab on the page. I was able to turn right to it. Talk about a happy camper!!! I was just sitting there at my table in the reveal party....about to burst.

Thank you, secret Santa!!!! Now, I need to take you out and let you go on an adventure with me!

I will cherish this magazine for a VERY LONG time.

Maybe it's time I get a safe deposit box......

This is me with my April 1998 issue of Smithsonian Magazine :-D

THANKSGIVING DAY LETTERBOXING!

On Thanksgiving Day, after the dust had settled around the kitchen, Blue Butterfly and I packed our things and headed out to find some boxes! It was close to 4:00 p.m. by the time we got on the road, so we knew we didn't have a lot of daylight left. We headed out to Faulkner Park and found 3 boxes in the Hobo Trail series there. We were so thrilled to be letterboxing on Thanksgiving, it didn't bother us (too much) that we were FREEZING. Unfortunately, we didn't get the entire series, so we will be back!

Waco

There are a few "art cows" at the Art Center of Waco.

I had to work this morning in Waco, but made plans for some possible covert activities afterwards. I finally got off around 1:00, ate lunch, then headed out for some letterboxing. I stopped first for JBK's HOTM: Dr. Pepper box. I came up empty handed on that one. Then I headed over to the Mayborn Museum. There are two HOTM boxes behind the museum in their pioneer village. When I got there, however, I saw that the village is closed down due to construction. So, off I went again. I made my way to the Waco Art Museum. There are sculpture displays outside and oil paintings inside. I visited the inside of the museum first, then headed outside to find the box. After deciphering the clues, I found the box and enjoyed the weather as I stamped in. I looked at my list and saw there was a box near the suspension bridge, so I headed that direction. After I got there, I realized that the group that planted this box probably didn't find a very good hiding place. I found the designated area, but no box, just as I suspected. I hung around the park for a bit and eyed the river and the river trail. I happened to have my bicycle in my car, so I got it out and took a ride on the river. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed my afternoon!!!!

Eat, Play, LB Weekend-Day 3

I don't have a lot to report about the third day, because it is shrouded in secrecy. Blue Butterfly and I had FINALLY cracked a code of a puzzle letterbox, so we decided to get it on this beautiful Sunday. Let's just say, it was TOTALLY worth it and just thinking about finally stamping in puts a smile on my face!!

Eat, Play, LB Weekend-Day Two

On Saturday morning, I got up early and hopped on the computer looking for bike trails. I found a great bike trail that Blue Butterfly, PS Guru, and I decided we could try on Sunday. For now, we ate breakfast and then took a ride on the seawall. It was a beautiful ride!
We came back to the hotel to get ready for the event. We decided to head to the visitor's bureau to try and find a map of Galveston and some information on the Oak/Chainsaw sculptures that I'd found online. We had a time of that!! We went to three different places before we finally found it! This made us a little late for the event, but that was ok.

When we got there, the group was already busy stamping in. Blue Butterfly and I greeted folks, then ate lunch, then got to stampin'! Boots Tex had hidden a few HIPS boxes inside the candy jars and IRA had somehow managed to sneak in and hide one, too! The event stamp was lovely and very detailed, too. I don't know how Boots does it!


After some exchanges, Boots called a meeting for us to divvy up the assignments. Blue Butterfly and I agreed to check on three boxes, one of which was my own, and hide my new letterbox, TREATS ONLY, PLEASE. We headed off to Galveston SP to hunt down my Watering Can LB. We got to the designated area and searched, but we found nothing. We believe that the tree that it was hidden beside may be gone now, Post-Ike. We did manage to find Dawn's Glory's box that she had hidden this weekend, though.

Our next stop was to find one of LSQ's quilt blocks. We easily followed the directions to this lovely box and stamped in. I decided to hide my box on the same trail.

After leaving Galveston SP, we headed to Lafitte's Cove to look for a couple of older boxes there, as per our assignment. We found HIDING FROM PUTTY TAT and added a few index cards for future finders. We then headed around to find SYLVESTER. We had a hard time finding that one, as some bushes or vines have grown up considerably over the past few years and are now over six feet tall. Blue Butterfly made her way back there, but could not find the box.
It is my understanding that Dawn's Glory was able to find it on Sunday.

We headed back to Kempner Park to report on the boxes that we'd checked on. We also made notes of those who had planted that day with the intent of hopefully finding them on Sunday.

The most special part of the day was when we ate dinner with Boots Tex, Will's World, and Lucky 13. We called PS Guru to join us, but he was about 8 miles from the hotel on his bicycle, so we had to go without him. We had a great time "talking shop" at The Original Mexican Cafe with this trio! We wish Lone Star Quilter could have made it to this event, but we understand that she had other obligations. I think a good time was had by all!!!

Stamps I earned on Saturday:
Don't Be a Barnacle Head
Happy Halloween
Lucky 13-Exchange
Will's World-New Sig Stamp
Karloff
Caw-Mosaic Butterfly PT
Open Space-New Sig Stamp
JMarie-Exchange
Lore-Exchange
XXX
NLW-Exchange
Mardi Gras Galveston
Cool Ghoul
The Storm of the Century
Eat...Play...Letterbox Event Stamp
Quilt Block-Ridley Turtle
Quilt Block-Angel Fish

Eat, Play, LB Weekend-Day One

On Friday, October 29, I took off from work to head down to Galveston for the Eat, Play, Letterbox Event. Of course, I wanted to find a few boxes on the way down, and Boots Tex gave me a suggestion of one of his boxes in New Waverly. Of course, I added that one to my list and headed south on Friday morning.

I made it to New Waverly and easily followed Boots' directions to the cemetery. I found a lovely display of butterflies at one particular grave. I visited Minnie Fisher's grave, then headed to find the box. I was proud to be the first finder of this box!


After rehiding Minnie, I moved south toward Houston. There were a few boxes in a cemetery that I wanted to find. After making my way to Washington street, I realized that I had been here before with Blue Butterfly. I was able to stamp into ANGEL BAND and GTT-TX GOVERNOR SERIES. There was one more that I wanted to find, but it was getting late and I knew that Houston traffic on Friday afternoon would be challenging at best.

I made my way down I45 to Galveston and met Blue Butterfly and PS Guru at our comfy hotel. There would be no more letterboxing for the day....it would have to wait until Saturday!

Poe and a Gun Fight

Last Sunday, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head to Fort Worth. I had my eye on Oakwood Cemetery, where there were five boxes for me to find. I had the pleasure of stamping into three boxes for the EDGAR ALLEN POE SERIES by Black Widow and two boxes in the GUNFIGHT AT THE WHITE ELEPHANT SALOON series by Viewfinder. I absolutely enjoyed my afternoon of letterboxing and finding beautifully carved stamps!

Cradle of Texas

Blue Butterfly made a trip through Deep East Texas this weekend. We wanted to find some new boxes as well as do some box maintenance. I am proud to say that my CRADLE OF TEXAS box is still alive in San Augustine, TX. It is almost five years old! Thanks to all of the finders of this little box!!

East TX Letterboxing

On September 11, Blue Butterfly and I decided to take a drive through East Texas. She wanted to check on her box in Nacogdoches, and I wanted to check out mine in San Augustine. Of course, we would find some boxes along the way. Listed below are the boxes we stamped into on this wonderfully fun Saturday!

Winnie's Leg-San Augustine, TX
Historic Walking Tour-Nacogdoches, TXNo Man's Land-Shelbyville, TX
The Finest Bale of Cotton-Woods, TX
Country Legend-Mystery, TX
ASL Fingerspelling Series-B, Nacogdoches, TX
Millard's Crossing-Nacogdoches, TX
Regulator/Moderator War-Shelbyville, TX
Church Hill Battle-Shelbyville, TX

Blue Butterfly took this shot while I was finishing up with the last box of the day. Isn't it beautiful?

Round Rock, TX

On Saturday morning, I had to attend a meeting in Belton, TX. So....I took out the map and found Round Rock was not too far from Belton and decided that I would spend Saturday night in RR to go letterboxing! I finally arrived to my hotel around 3 PM and decided that letterboxing would not be in the cards for me this afternoon or evening.

Donuts and a Letterbox!

When Sunday morning rolled around, I got up, took a look at the clues, and headed out. There is a three part TEXAS PUZZLE Series that I wanted to tackle. The second box in this series is located at a famous donut shop that I'd seen on the Food Network. I decided that my first stop as well as my breakfast, would be here. I made my way to the designated bakery and was lucky enough to find a parking spot. I hopped out of my car and found the box, tucked it in my back pack, then went inside to order. I even got to see two of the famous "as big as your head" donuts! I took my donuts outside to a picnic table, stamped in, then began eating my donuts. A local couple sat down and struck up a conversation with me. They said I'd picked the perfect time to come because it wasn't so busy. I asked if they would mind taking my picture, since they already knew I was a tourist, and they obliged. After that, I packed up, drove around the corner, then rehid the box. I was on my way!

I made my way to two more boxes that were hidden in the same park. The first box I tried for was hidden under stairs at the mansion in Settler's Park. When I got to the stairs, someone's barbecue and cooler were right next to it. I didn't want anyone to think I was going to try and run off with their things, so I left without without snagging that particular box.

The Open Space Team

Now, it was time for me to find the third puzzle piece. I made my way to the parking lot and the designated tree, rooted around for a bit, then finally found the box. I walked across the trail to a shady spot and commenced to stamping. After I got everything packed up, I still had no idea what park the first puzzle piece was in, so I continued to sit in the shade and attempt to look things up on my phone. As I'm sitting there, I notice a family looking around the tree where the box should be hidden. I wonder what they are up to..... I see the man has a compass...... I wait to see if they are just examining the tree, then I finally ask if they are looking for something. YES! We are looking for the letterbox! I tell them that I have it and they were in the right place. I share the box with them while we chat and exchange. The Open Space Team has already found the first box, so I ask them if they could help me out. They were nice enough to give me a map and show me where the park is. I was so grateful! They also mention that they had hidden a box in the past 24 hours, so as she is describing it to me, I recognize the name of the box. I promise to go find it and hopefully be the lucky first finder!



We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I was able to complete my puzzle and I easily found OH THE PLACES YOU'LL QUACK, which is a beautiful carving! By the time I found these boxes, it was time for me to head back to Navarro County. It was a fun letterboxing morning!!!

A Hot Day in July

Even though it was a hot day on July 31, Blue Butterfly and I decided to get out and letterbox that morning. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from that day, but we did manage to find a few letterboxes!

Harvest Time-Jacksonville, TX
Tomato Flower-Jacksonville, TX
The McCowan Brothers-Jacksonville, TX
Neil McCoy-Jacksonville, TX
In Honor of Eliza-Tecula, TX

New Mexico-Day 4

On Wednesday morning, we went back to White Sands and we took our log books to get the National Park Passport stamp added to our stamp collection. We spent most of the morning there, then headed back to Alamogordo to find a few letterboxes. The first one we found was FLY LIKE AN EAGLE. We had a bit of trouble at first, because I had the East/West directions reversed. Luckily, Blue Butterfly figured it out for us and we were able to stamp in!

Next, we attempted a box at the space center, but couldn't quite get the clues to work for us. Our next stop was a the Toy Train Museum. We decided to break out our lunch here. Again, we couldn't get find this letterbox, so we sat on the grass under a shade tree and ate our lunch.
Our next stop was TulaRosa. We drove about 15 miles to this town and found the library, where two boxes are located. We went into the library and asked for the first box and also asked for use of the internet while we were there. The friendly librarians were very accommodating. After stamping in and planning our box-finding route back home, we went outside to find the second box on the library grounds. Both of these boxes were great carves and fun finds!

We drove around the Village of TulaRosa a bit, then headed back to Alamogordo. On the way back, we stopped to see the World's Largest Pistachio, located at a pistachio farm. After visiting the pistachio store and the unique landmark, we continued on our route.
We had one more box to try and find in the area, so we made a small detour to nab it before getting back to the cabin. The ironic thing about this box, is that it is at a scenic overlook that we had stopped at on our way into town the first day. We didn't realize there was a box here ! So, we headed to find THE TUNNEL LB near High Rolls.

After we finally made it back to the cabin, two exhausted letterboxers, we rested for a while, then Blue Butterfly prepared dinner for us. While eating dinner, we could see that in the distance, there was a rain storm and we were graced with a beautiful rainbow.

New Mexico-Day Three

On the third day, we did not letterbox. We spent most of the day at White Sands National Monument. We had a wonderful time hiking a couple of trails, despite one of us getting sun burned. I won't say who it was. :-)

Lucy Locket

Flowers in the desert.

Lucy Locket and Blue Butterfly on one of the beautiful white sand dunes. This photo is courtesy of a park ranger who suffered from logorrhea.

This is our one-room cabin in Alamogordo. Move over, Bobby Flay, Blue Butterfly's at the grill tonight!

Headed West-Day One and Two

A few weeks ago, Blue Butterfly, PSGuru and I decided to take a trip out to White Sands, NM. A few days before the trip, PSGuru had a conflict come up, so BB and I went on without him. BB met me in Navarro County on Sunday, July 11, and we headed out west.

Our first stop was in Eastland to find Boots Tex's box OLD RIP. We had to bypass paying our respects to the Real Old Rip since it was Sunday, but we found the LB and were once again in awe of a BT carving. Boots' attention to detail is amazing.
After repacking Rip, we continued to head west toward Abilene. Here, we searched for and found FLITTER FLUTTER by Batty Girl. I can't remember if it was in Eastland or Abilene, but in one of those two cemeteries that we visited, we found the grave of the man who wrote the 40-Hour Work Week for Texas.

We made our way to Big Spring, where we spent the night. We decided not to set our alarms since we were on vacation. :-)We got up on Monday and continued our journey westward. First, however, we found a box by Maydelle Queen Bee in Big Spring called A DEAF ARTIFACT. Our next stop was in Andrews, TX. We made a stop in Andrews to find Astro D's box KIRBY WEST. She cleverly had the box made out of a pouch that was wrapped around a tree limb.

We finally made our way to New Mexico and drove through several small towns before finally winding our way into Cloudcroft. There were four letterboxes hidden on/near a roadside trail. THE CLOUD CLIMBING RAIL ROAD is a tribute to a railroad that used to run through Cloudcroft. We were only able to search for three out of four because by the time we stamped into #3, there were some workers from the Parks Department hanging out near the fourth box.

After packing up in Cloudcroft, we continued towards Alamogordo. We stopped after going through a mountain side tunnel to take a look at the scenic overlook, then finally made it to our destination!

Athens, TX

On June 26, I met Blue Butterfly in Athens for an afternoon of letterboxing. We met for lunch, then headed out for a stampin' good time! We started out by going to the B&B CAFE LB. I had already stamped into this one, but BB hadn't found it yet. After leaving downtown Athens, we headed toward a cemetery to find PEATINI. We easily found the box there, then headed to Fuller Park.

We found the entry gate to Fuller park, and were relieved to see that the first box in this series was outside the gate. As we were looking for the box, a car stopped and asked us if we were from "around here". We told them no, but they were on a hunt to find those people who were buried in the cemetery inside the park. We chatted for a while, then bid them adieu. We stamped into the box, but decided to not pursue the rest of the series since it was inside the park and everything looked like it was overgrown and possibly snake heavy.

Tomato Fest

The annual Tomato Fest Letterboxing Event was a blast! Even though it was HOT, HOT, HOT, we had a great time traipsing around the festival area, deciphering clues, and collecting our beloved stamps. Blue Butterfly and I got to spend time with PurpleNic during our morning of letterboxing, then we met up with the rest of the crew for lunch!

Stamps I gathered on this day:
Wag Time-Exchange
LB The Cat-PT
Event StampLight House Luvin' Mama-Exchange
Baby Bee-Exchange
Hands On-Exchange
Happy Trails-Exchange
From Seed to Salsa: Peppers
From Seed to Salsa: Tomato
From Seed to Salsa: OnionFrom Seed to Salsa: Garlic
Flamenco Dancer: Traveling Event Stamp
With Love PT
Fairy PT
Dawn's Home Town Movie PT
Ocean View PTB&B Cafe -Athens, TX (I got this one on my way home)