Galveston August 2010

We just returned from Galveston and found Bell Motel's Bishop’s Palace (a beautiful stamp fitting of the beautiful building). we also found Silver Eagle’s Brown Bomber 2, which was really cool because we’d just seen several Brown Pelicans dive bombing before arriving at the letterbox, so it was extremely educational! 

I was afraid I wasn't going to survive Bishop’s Palace because of the amount of blood I was losing to mosquitos! I high-tailed it back to the car with the box to escape, but in the process, let a bunch of them in the car. so of course we rolled down the window to shoo them out, and as soon as the window was down, the automatic window motor died! ACCCK! we sped away with the LB hostage to a less mosquito populated location around the corner to stamp in and try and get the window back up. fortunately it stayed up for the trip back to Waco!  My recommendation if you’re looking for Brown Bomber 2, is to make sure and have a stick! while I didn’t see any, this location was a perfect place for snakes! :-)

Charleston and Savannah

Ann and I took a trip to the Low Country while the boys stayed with my parents for the week. It was really wonderful for lots of reasons, but we restarted our letterboxing adventure (which had been virtually dormant for almost a year). We saw some beautiful parks and cemeteries, beautiful beaches, and some amazing hidden treasures throughout the area. We found eleven boxes on this trip. You can see them listed at http://travelin-ts.weebly.com/.

The Great Storm Goes Virtual

One of our Galveston letterboxes, "The Great Storm" had as part of its clues, a code that had to be deciphered from an historical marker on the Seawall at Galveston. Since the box was gone and the marker was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in September of 2008, I'd changed the status to "retired." I then realized I had a photo of the historical marker and decided to post it on the clue site and make a virtual version of this box. Click here to see how to find this now virtual box!

Texas Gulf Coast Boxes

Just returned from a trip to Port Aransas and want to thank the Boxhounds08 for all the boxes they've planted in the area. We found "Aransas Pass Shrimporee", "First Class Petty Officers", "Gem City of the Gulf Coast", and "Mr. Dewey's Curlew." Like many good letterboxes, these took us to great places we never would have otherwise encountered. In particular, we really liked Mr. Dewey's Curlew a lot. What a nice way to honor a friend and what a beautiful spot. We also looked for "Golden Fronted Woodpecker", located at a Nature Sanctuary, but the area where the box was supposed to be had been burned recently and we found no sight of the box.

Speaking of Gulf Coast boxes, we had two planted at Galveston ("The Great Storm" and "Just Off the Strand"), that we'd had mixed reports on, and dewberry was kind enough to check on them for us this past week and confirm that indeed they are both missing, likely casualties of Hurricane Ike, who followed the unnamed and terrifyingly damaging hurricane of 1900, 108 years later.

Bird Takes Flight

Our Twitter-based "Bird Takes Flight" box had a wonderful trip to Santa Fe and has now returned Central Texas for a bit. You can follow her travels at: http://twitter.com/birdtakesflight.

The Ups and the Downs

A definite "up" in our letterboxing adventures was the recent get together with friends in Santa Fe. Coming home and doing some checking on some recent boxes we'd planted provided some "downs" though. First stop was to a couple boxes in a cemetery that we'd received a message about some letterboxers unable to find them and a lot of clean up happening in the cemetery. Fortunately after checking them today, both boxes were still safely hidden away and we were able to clarify some clue issues for the finders. After that it went downhill though! A box planted recently by our six year old has had a handful of visits and lots of very kind words from finders, but the last one said the logbook was soaked. When I opened the LockNLock box, it was dry, but inside a baggy, the logbook was drenched like it had fallen in a river! After a closer inspection, the logbook smelled like beer! Not sure if someone thought it would be funny to pour one in there or what, but we'll try to dry out the logbook (to preserve the first few finders) and rehide in another place not so susceptible to beer spills! Our next check was on a box that we hid right before leaving town and one I really liked ("Davy Jones' Locker"). Received a note from a finder saying the container on this one was messed up and they found the contents sort of hidden nearby outside the container. We couldn't find it at all at first and then after some more looking, found PART of the container, the logbook and the stamp in an overflowing nearby trashcan!!! UGGGH! Well at least some of the pieces were salvageable!

Santa Fe Gathering

Santa Fe is one of our favorite towns and letterboxing locations and we were thrilled to return there this summer. While there, Astro D and The Great Wuga Wuga were kind enough to host a mini gathering along with Lionsmane, rubberpeace, and rbrhorno, and Thomas. Our first letterboxing trip to Santa Fe, two years ago, we met our dear friends Astro D and Lionsmane and we were glad to see them again and to meet several new friends. The evening was filled with great food and great company. We brought the "Bird Takes Flight" letterbox with us and it nested in town for a short visit- long enough for our Santa Fe friends to meet it.