Wonderful Week

My family just had a very nice week of visiting. We had a picnic, put up our May Pole, and went on a rail trail bike ride.



We picked up Ravenboy last Tuesday and got to hear bits about his tour to Kansas City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It's amazing some of the things that they had to deal with. The week he was in Chicago, there were few food options left open nearby when they were done for the day. They had the choice of either room service ($68.00 for breakfast for 2) or a local 711. Ravenboy and his friend are trying to save money and opted for the 711. They don't have too many vegetarian choices so the poor guys ended up eating egg salad sandwiches for 5 - 6 nights in a row. His friend started to get a stomach ache because of it.

He also told us of cool things he saw in LA. He reunited with a very good friend on the west coast and she took him around the city sight seeing a few times. He got to see Hollywood and spent an afternoon at the beach. Ravenboy's skin never gets to see sunlight so this meant instant burn and a quick search for aloe.

While he was home, we had our annual picnic for friends at Spring Creek Park. It was chilly but we had fun playing games and eating.

We also did a stretch of Lower Trail on our bikes. There are sections that are closed due to the damage Hurricane Ivan did but we found a nice section to pedal and chat and goof around on. We passed snacks from person to person without stopping, took photos of a mysterious outdoor cafe, and discouraged Ravenboy from doing his Jet Li moves on a speeding bike.

We took Ravenboy back to NYC yesterday. We were going to go to an Indian restaurant for a meal but found we needed reservations. We decided to go to our favorite place, Zen Palate. We jumped into a cab and got to Union Square in just a few minutes. As we were going into the restaurant, we saw that a group was on a stage and we decided to check it out. They were speaking and giving some type of award and Morgan Freeman was standing up there smiling. Ravenboy's radar kicked in because Morgan Freeman's last movie was "Unleashed" with Jet Li (set to be released here in the states in about a week.) Sure enough, there on the stage was the man. Ravenboy was able to snap a couple of photos of Jet Li before he got into a car an zoomed uptown. We were lucky to have a approached the stage from the back, just at that moment.

Letterboxing

The thing I like about letterboxing is the stealth factor. You go out to a location that sometimes is used by others for recreational activities other than boxing. You have to be careful about not giving away the location of the box so that "noxers" (non-boxers) will not find it nor plunder it. It's a lot of fun waiting until it's clear before diving under a bush to check a location or carefully peeking under a pile of rocks in the woods while other hikers are walking away.

RGBisMe insists that I need to hone my stealth skills. "Bug," he says to me, " everybody is wondering what you are doing out here on the trail. You are giving too much away and it's pretty obvious you aren't just hiking."

"What do you mean!?" I countered,"I wait until there is absolutely nobody anywhere near me before I seek and retrieve the box. I move the box to a location that is far away from the hiding place before I stamp in. I repack the box carefully and make doubly sure that there is no one around or watching me when I replace it to it's hiding place." I insisted that he prove to me that I was a careless letterboxer, giving away that I was doing anything more than just enjoying a day in the woods.

"You are correct on all of your careful boxing techniques," he agreed, "but you also stand out like a sore thumb in the woods. This photo is what you look like after you are done stamping up."

Maybe I should change to using a solid color inkpad.

Happy May Day

As I sit here, waiting for Ravenboy to wing his way back to the east coast, I thought it was a good time to blog.
It was an ever changing weekend weather wise. RGBisMe and I ran around on Saturday when it was overcast for most of the day but got caught in the rain when we went to find our last letterbox outside of York near the Shoe House. Sunday dawned with sunshine and hopes of warmer temperatures but it changed from sun to clouds to rain all day. We decided to see the balancing rock and letterbox at Trough Creek State Park near Lake Raystown.

The hike up to the rock was not bad at all and the Rainbow Falls were very nice. RGBisMe thought that the balancing rock was going to be more spectacular than what he found.

I told him that it must be farther up the trail. He was perplexed and even less impressed with the next sight he saw.

We kept walking, enjoying the plants and birds. Many summer birds are coming into the area and this past week we were lucky to see indigo bunting, towhee, and heard many others.

We made it to the balancing rock, found the letterbox and had plenty of time to go home and get ready for our May Day picnic this Friday.