Well with nearly a month away from letterboxing, leafcutters and I finally hit the trail on Labor Day! We planned a short trip to Mecca (Tyler State Park in Newtown, PA) to pick up a few boxes that were new or we had missed.
We started off getting the Schofield Bridge letterbox by Crazy Dogs. Leafcutters had found this stamp back in April, so I was just playing catch up. We do this a lot, Leafcutters finds a box without me and then I have to go back and find it on my own. But we decided to keep separate log books just for this reason.
After being rewarded with a hitch hiker and a quick stamp up, we were on to the next box, B.O.B I still haven't found what I'm looking for by mizscarlet.
We hiked along the creek, carefully following the clues. It seems that the recent heavy rains had brought out the toads, and I have an obsession with toads. I love them, I want one. Leafcutters was indulging me in my toad obsession for a while, until we were hiking and not recognizing any of the landmarks in the clues. It seems my toad problem had led us down a wrong trail! Well it really was a wrong trail! Imagine four inches of rain, thick mud paths and puddles the size of Volkswagen beetles and you can begin to understand. I (of course) never wear the correct shoes. It tends to be a problem, most likely inherited from my mother. Who would wear Dr. Scholl sandals to the most inappropriate places. But I digress, although wearing Crocs are incredibly comfortable on your feet, the are rather slippy in mud. I lost my shoe twice, but the plus side is that they wash up beautifully!
After re-orienting ourselves, we mananged to finally find the box. Trying to be discrete can sometimes be a problem. Two people sitting next to the trail, stamping logbooks and cause a bit of curiosity. So when we heard a group of teenagers approaching I freaked out a little bit. Quickly I hid the box, our logbooks and took out a granola bar and some water. Look like you are eating and no one asks any questions. The ruse worked and we were onto the next box.
This box was in a totally different area of Tyler State Park, so we decided to drive to the general location rather than walk. Lazy? A bit. Wanting to do something else than letterboxing on Labor Day? Yes. So we parked at the Boat House to begin our search for Anderson Cooper is Hidden in Tyler State Park letterbox. The clues were generally straight forward, so we forged ahead. Enjoying the nature trail, playing a little impromptu baseball with fallen walnuts and generally having a good time. While crossing the bridge on our way to the box, we happened across a man with his puppy, Simba. She really was a peach! And since our dog, Hunter, died on Friday- it was a moving encounter. It's funny how much you miss dog kisses until your own dog isn't there anymore. After a bit of tears, we headed on to the box. First of all, I have no idea who Anderson Cooper is. I know he's on TV but since we don't watch TV (we have a TV, but no cable and get only a fuzzy version of NBC and PBS and mainly watch movies, and the occasional History Detectives on PBS) I don't know why Anderson Cooper is important, except that he's hidden in Tyler Park and there is a letterbox dedicated to that fact. Anyway, the letterbox was hidden by JJMalone and it was a great find!
Our day at Tyler continued with a search for two Dog's with Wings boxes. First, Miyazaki's 'No Face'-Spirited Away letterbox. We figured we could find a nice little short cut to this box and bypass the having to move our car to the correct starting point. So we took a short cut from the nature trail, and followed an unnamed trail along the creek. Bingo, we were right where we wanted to be! We found the box in no time, and the stamp was really interesting. I don't know anything about Miyazaki but after looking online, I will have to rent some of his movies. They really look intriguing.
Next it was on to Miyazaki's 'Tree Sprites'-Mononoke letterbox. So i get the clues, head to the bridge make a right on a dirt trail. HEY! this is where we just were!! So back we go, to the box we missed because we didn't know it was there. Had to cross a little creek (thank you Crocs- I love your plastic shoes!) and found this box in no time. Only to be sitting there and two golden retrievers show up. They disappeared soon after and we continued our stamping process.
We hiked back to the car and went on to find Specified Gravity near Isaac Newtons pub in Newtown. I found the box and took it back to the car, since it is a heavily trafficked location. We stamp our logbooks, we stamp the box log book and I am looking through the log and HEY! we've found this box before? No, we found it at a gathering (must have been a table box and I totally forgot that we had it)! So we found it twice which is always nice.
Our letterboxing day was nearly done, but not quite yet. On our way home we made a detour to Goodnoe's Dairy for some ice cream. Monday was their last day in business, which is an absolute shame. They have the best hard ice cream around! Going to miss their Muddy Sneakers.
