THE MOON & STARS/CHICKS IN DISQUISE

A perfect Sunday.  It's Dad's birthday and I had come home from Geneva.  There was some pending nasty rain clouds hanging over our heads while we went hunting, but it never rained until we got home and started to cook dinner.

We love the Stone Quarry Art Park, but today we stayed on the outside of it to find these boxes.

There were suppose to be a total of 4 boxes, but silly me forgot to cut and paste the second clue to The Moon & Stars clue, and we believe the first box in the the Chicks in Disquise is missing in action - so we walked away with two boxes!!!  Well, that gives us an excuse to go back out another nice summer day!

The first box we came to was close to the road OUT of the Stone Park.

Then up the hill and thru the field we went.  The air was cooler and dryer than the days earlier in the week so it was quite pleasant except for the darn horse flies!  They sure are loud when the buz your head!

Into the woods for the next box we found.  Very cool and dark in there.   Here is a shot looking out from where we stopped to stamp in.

While Scott finished stamping in I went to the edge of the woods and peeked out to see if there was a view.
Look at this!

The lovely hills of Central NY.   What a pefect summer day!
Happy Birthday Dad!

MICHIGAN TRIP - JUNE 7-12, 2012

Heading home to visit my MIL for a few days. We made several stops along the way and relaxed doing some letterboxes. Several we tried were either missing in action or we struggled terrible with poorly written clues. I dislike general discriptions like: big rock, tall tree, bush on right..... you get the idea. So here are the boxes (4) we were able to get. FAMILY MYSTERY, IMLAY, MI After we got to our hotel the first night on the road we treated ourselves to this letterbox in the cool of the evening. After we go home here to NY I realized that I did not click a picture! It was a simple stamp, and a nice clear cut find. DURAND UNION STATION, DURAND, MI After a couple days at my MIL's house we needed to break from her and she wanted to lay down and take a naps. We headed straight out to do a couple letterboxes. We already have been to this train station several years ago for another stamp, but it is always a pleasure to come back to this quaint old style - STILL WORKING station. I would love to sit on this platform and watch the trains go by all day, but it was almost 91 degrees and it was not something to do that day anyway! They had a great disply of train memories and it was air conditioned! FREAKER'S CAP, BANCROFT, MI Another cute location in a quiet peaceful cemetery. Clues were just enough to make us think but not totally confuse us. Sat in the shade to log in because it was so hot! MICHIGAN STATE FRUIT, LAPEER, MI We did not get to letterbox again until we were heading home. Just before the bridge to Canada we stopped at the last American rest stop to grap this stamp. The box was located in the hollow of a tree and unfortunately it was totally under water and the log book was completely soaked and honestly, ruined. The stamp was great AND there was a hitchhiker in there that was nice and dry. We brought that home with us to send on it's way here in NY. That is always exciting!

JREL WAS HERE - DEWITT, NY

It was Memorial Day - it was HOT and I wanted to stop on Erie Blvd. to get more sock yarn. We stopped at AC Moore, shot over to the location of this letterbox (don't want to give it away as the clue makes you solve the mystery) - successful! Then off to the mall to watch The Avengers (not in 3D)in cool air conditioning. Great letterbox/stamp. Great movie! Great weekend with family.

FINGER LAKES WINE TOUR & CYMRU

On a visit to my Mom's house in Geneva, NY we went on down the farside of Seneca Lake and found this little gem of a letterbox in an old church cemetery. Scott and I love exploring cemeteries as I mentioned in prior posts. There were two stamps and they were hand carved and very nice. It was just a perfect Saturday afternoon. The scenery was just stunning and it made my heart proud to be able to say that I am from the Finger Lakes region.

The next day after church we took a ride over the hill to Nelson and did another old church with a sweet old cemetery. This is the Welch church in Nelson, NY. It only has summer services as they do not heat the building during the winter months. Scott and I have wanted to go there, but never did. Some of the grave stones were in Welch.

Another beautiful day! The sky is perfect and the air was so sweet smelling.

SWEET VIDALIA ONION AND GREEN ZUCCHINI SQUASH

Could us mothers have asked for a nicer day? I really could have letterboxed in the woods all day long, but ...... well, I had other things I wanted/needed to do. These boxes (the two we did and we "left" two there to do another time) are in a little known Madison County historical park site called Nichols Pond. The planter of the boxes gives a lot of nice history about the area in their clue. These signs should give you a quick insight to how historic the area is:

Nichols Pond is located among the wonderful windmills of Fenner Wind Farm and you can see one through the trees in this photo, which is right where one box is hiding.

When the planter talks about the grain pits the Indians created - you can actually still see them.

Checking out all the sunshine and green??????? My fave colors!

OXBOW ROAD FALLS PARK

Scott and I have lived 5 miles from this park and have only been here once. When our children were toddlers. Wow, it is so very nice now with well groomed trails and just breath-taking views!

Everything has greened out nicely and the walk down the trail was just filled with new growth and my favorite color - green!

I happened to look UP and got this view - wow, my second favorite color!

The whole time we are walking the path there was this lovely smell. I traced it to these little flowers. The honey bees loved their smell too!

Walked along quietly running little streams, dabbled with sunlight.

The lboxes were hidden near the bridges we crossed. And all on the forest floor bed were newly "hatched" white trilliums.

Perfect day for letterboxing!

CANAL - BABY BARRUS

Another LB near the Erie Canal. We were once again out of time at the very end of a busy day and we needed a quick find. This was near the Erie Canal Boat landing site in Chittenango, NY. The walk was quick, it was busy on the path but we were able to get a break. The stamp was a tiny store bought stamp - almost like a flea but not quite. I took a few photos of the surrounding buildings of interest.

This is an old factory of some kind that has long been left to crumble and look totally in need of being tore down. Some of its exterior show the construction type from the era that it was built.

This building use to host field trips and canal open house events. They have since built a nicer facility and I am not sure what they use it for now.

This is a display of a dissected canal boat from different levels and angles. I have ridden on an actual restored canal boat and it was very cool. Those must have been some exciting days!

NESTING NEAR BY

Here in CNY we are currently between two rain storms. Yesterday (4/21) was a total washout, but the promise of getting at least one letterbox done today looked pretty good. Armed with all type of weather gear for whatever may befall us after church, away we went. It did not rain but it was damp and cold. We had a couple other boxes on our list to try and get, but ended up just doing one that was planted by dear friends of ours from church. She wanted us to let her know how everything was doing with her box because she had not been out to check on it in a long time. This box is located along the tow path of the Old Erie Canal that goes from one end of NY to the other going West to East (or East to West). Most people know the history of the Erie canal even if you are not from NY State.

We had no trouble finding the box and it was in great shape. I will have to tell Mrs. B that she needs to put a new log book in and the main zip lock camo outer bag is not closing and everything inside is in danger of getting wet. She only has two empty pages left on the log book! Mrs. B makes very nice handmade stamps.

The canal just seems to be endless and go on for miles and miles and miles. (Which it does!) We started to get cold and I still didn't feel good coming off of some virus, so we called it done and didn't do the other boxes we had talked about doing. I think we would have if the sun was out and a few degrees warmer.

ON MY ARMOR

Scott and I don't do an awful lot of "city" letterboxes. Not because we don't like them, but when we are in the city it is usually on errands that we do not have time to stop and letterbox etc. We decided to pick up a city letterbox because we actually had wonderful weather and time on this early Saturday night. It was very easy to find, it was behind a small school. No school in session, but the big problem arrived AFTER we found the box and was logging in. I imagine that the summer time will hide the area where the box is hidden better than right now, but I know that all the neighboring backyards were able to view us fully while we reached in where the box was hidden. What also didn't help was in one of those neighbor's backyard was a HUGE dog and he announced plainly that we were bothering him! We still were fine and went to the nearest spot to sit and log in:

All of a sudden appears a full grown man (out of nowhere!!!! I suspect one of those neighboring backyards) who "pretends" to start throwing hoops. He signals to another person (in the direction of the same backyard) and a young man shows up on a motorized scooter. We now have a full fledged audience! We calmly finished up logging in, packed up all our things, including the letterbox and walked to the car to drive away. We both agreed that we would come back when it was dark and rehide the lb because it was impossible to do so with our inquiring minds watching us. It was a little inconvenient, but it was necessary. I think that is also another reason why we don't do too many city locations. Too many people and too many things can go terribly wrong. Now swinging back to replant took about 10 minutes out of our time, but what if you were just passing through a city on a trip and something like that happened? I am not sure what we would have done! I guess if I could talk to the people who plant letterboxes in cities I would strongly suggest that they think about ALL the seasons before putting it in a spot that, in the down seasons, the place would be directly out in the open! Nice stamp and it still was nice to find!

P.S. The pictures are small because we forgot the camera so I took the shots with my cell phone.

WHISTLE CODE AND HIGH FOUR

We could not stay home on such a wonderful Easter Sunday, even though we had company coming around 5:30! One of our favorite questions is: Do you want to do a quick letterbox? Usually neither one of us has to ask twice - and it's out the door we go. Scott and I are very familiar with the Link trails sprinkled all around our area BUT had not been on this trail where the letterboxes were planted and had a wonderful time exploring new territory!! And so close to home!

It is part of the old railroad bed that ran all through the hills of Madison county in the 1800's. Still able to see lots of signs of the tracks, rails, spikes etc. laying all over the ground. It is still early spring so everything in the photos look pretty blah right now. There is a tiny tint of green in there if you look hard enough though. The above photo is of the trail heading north and this photo is of the trail heading south.

We missed the High Four box on our way south, but we were rewarded for our extra walking with this spectacular view of the countryside and this HUGE gorge!!! Not just a ditch or a drop off but a gorge! It was deep and it was awesome! I bet in the fall it was just alive with colors. We made a point of saying that we will come back in the fall to check out the colors. The boxes must have just been planted because we were the first!

Happy Easter to all!

CENTER STAGE and REMEMBER

It is always so much fun to expose a newbie to letterboxing. My daughter's college roommate was here from Boston visiting her so we brought her along for the adventure. She actually has letterboxed with us before and when we attended her wedding last October there actually was a letterbox on the property where the wedding was taking place! It was just the best of all worlds!

The first box we went to was in Caz on the little pond in the village. We were the first ones to find the box so we got the first prize! Never had that happen before! Great fun!

It was a rainy cool day so the pictures are not very exciting. We had fun and the girls (adult girls) were thrilled with their first prize!!! Then on to Manlius (we were heading into the city to do some shopping so letterboxing fits into any situation!) and so we stopped at the duck pond.

Here are Julia and Jessica sitting on a nice bench while doing their stamping. Here is what came along to keep us company.

Pretty isn't he? Here they are working hard at their craft....... having a grand time reading all the others that had been before them.

It was a wonderful time and I believe that Julia had a great time. I suggested that the next time her and her husband come up for a visit that we take HIM out with us. Julia thought that he would enjoy it very much! Always love winning someone over to the light!!! lol Happy LBing!

Time Is Limited- Link Trail

It was a misty fogging late afternoon. It was a split second thought to go grab a quick letterbox to finish off the weekend. I didn't mind the foggy mist, but it sure was a lot different than the weather we had all week long. 80 degrees and bright sunshine.

First we signed in at the traihead and see that the author of the letterbox had just planted it on 3/23!! Then on the path we walked for not so very long and there was our treasure! To our wonderful surprise there was a newly planted hitch hiker inside the box as well!!! BONUS! While Scott sat and filled out the books and worked on the stamping of the main stamp and his stamp - I wandered on the edge of the woods and found several different treasures. Ever hear of skunk cabbage? Well, here is what it looks like:

and another shot:

The best advice I have for you is to keep your distance with them! Their name is a serious indicator of what they smell like if you get close to them and if you touch them. They love to grow on the edge of stream beds, and in this case they are growing were a stream bed use to be . I took this picture to show you how they are growing in a line following the stream bed - even though it has dried up (for the most part).

Saw Indian Paint brushes and some sort of funky tall thin mushroom looking plant as well. I love going on walks in the woods in spring time because all these new green growth is growing up from underneath the dried leaves of fall.

KATIE'S BELLS

This letterbox is located in the Peterboro (new)Cemetery in Peterboro, NY. This is the cemetery that Garrett Smith was laid to rest. To help you brush up on your American history. Wiki says: Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874) was a leading United States social reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist. Spouse to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860, but only served 18 months in the federal government—in Congress as a Free Soil Party Representative, in 1853–4.[1] Smith, a significant financial contributor to the Liberty Party and the Republican Party throughout his life, spent much time and money working towards social progress in the nineteenth century United States. Besides making substantial donations of both land and money to the African-American community in North Elba, New York, he was involved in the Temperance Movement and, later in life, the colonization movement.[2] A staunch abolitionist, he was a member of the Secret Six who financially supported John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.[3]

It was a beautiful night. We didn't really have a lot of time to do a long search, so this one sounded good to us. Jessica came along and ended up filling her original stamp book up after all these years with this stamp.

We like to letterbox in cemeteries because there are so many interesting grave stones, and especially the old ones around here in NY because there is so much history from Revolutionary War to current. We walk humbly and respectfully through the headstones and learn as much as we can about people we know nothing about.

Little Known Cemeteries of Madison County -- Willow

What a beautiful day! We came home from church and worked outside and got so tired (being out of shape and beating a record high of 80*!!!) that we changed our original plan to do one at the Stone Quarry Art park because of how tired we were. So we picked a drive by. Little known cemeteries of Madison County - Willow. This is a series that has three different cemeteries and we already had the others and just ran out of time at the end of 2011 to get this one. It was a beautiful place, so peaceful and a great view! The white birch trees were in rough shape and I was taken by the fungus that was growing on them!

The cemetery has three Revolutionary vets - I took a picture of one. They were in terrible shape of course because of their age.