National Name Yourself Day

A geocache event! Nation Name Yourself Day, Fun!

It was a mini flash-mob event with a twist. At 9 am today we looked for the green Mazda in a local parking lot. We brought along Lego characters that we designed to look like us for the contest

1) most unique character
2) look-alike


The competition was open for 20 minutes and we got a chance to vote for other peoples lego folks. There was also a tossing game where you could win prizes but I didn't want our people to break and literally shied from it.

The judging has yet to take place but we loved how our lego people turned out. Many folks dressed as existing lego people, that might have been easier.

Here are photos of what we did:

Jim wasn't sure what he was going to wear at first so I painted both sides of his reversible geocahing jacket. Out gps is in the foreground.

ABT logo added to his khaki cap and we are holding mini signature stamps (not venti coffees). Jim is also holding the printed info for the event.

Just in case it rained I made our umberella and Jim got a final gray beard added.

The day was chilly but folks were friendly and turned out.

Jim and our mini lego people!

We stamped into the log and it even had an event stamp!! YAY!

The dahboard of the host's car - fun!

Letterboxing, Mr. E. P. A.

Checking out a hunch.

The very cute but wrong bridge.

A cool tree on the creek.

Narrowly escaping death from falling branches and muzzle loaders.

The right bridge! Two successful first finds!!

Labor Day with the Crayola Posse

I was moving pretty slowly after my long run on Sunday. Getting together with the folks to find a new mystery letter box was just the right idea for my Labor Day. We could put our thinking caps on, explore some ideas in the field and see what we could turn up as we visited and enjoying a sunny drive south.

We started in Mifflin County to check out how Toolman Luke was doing with the 1967 Corvair he has been polishing up since... well it feels like 1968 but I know it was really more like 1978. It is really coming together! Look for him and Maga11 at the Car Show in Carlisle at the end of the month!

Maga treated us to some beautiful muscadine and scupadine grapes to fortify us until we found a place that was open for lunch. Holiday weekend are more difficult but we wanted to leave our dining options open to what ever Juniata County through our way.

We drove south but no eagles were seen on our trip along the Juniata this time. We loved seeing our ancestor's grave stones in Thompsontown, Center and obscure places not mentioned on maps but know as locals as Texas Hollow and Up the Pinnacle and Muskrat Springs.

We stopped in Mexico for a break at the Mexico Market. Their hand dipped ice cream can't be beat. The "small" is a huge cone of multiple quality dips and the price is an amazing $1.00. Toolman Luke started off with a cone of raspberry and we had some sandwiches before our dessert.

We drove a short way to a Juniata River access near Buttonwood Campground. One of our old mystery letterbox was at this location but we removed it because it was totally water logged, a hole got ripped in the logbook baggy. It is so much fun to see the names who had puzzled out where it was since the logbook had been replaced in 2006. Last finders were exactly a year ago.

We enjoyed seeing white herons fly low on the river and look at the map with a lot of the Juniata access points, State Game Lands areas and camping areas. I saw the section of Lower Trail I had run the day before. I showed the folks where I ran from Alexandria/Water Street access past the Mt Etna access and back. A lovely 1/2 marathon along the dear Juniata.

Time for dessert, we went back to Mexico Market and were greeted by a bunch of chickens in the parking lot. They wandered around looking right at home. I found them to be a little intimidating.

We each chose a different flavor of ice cream. I got Cherry Vanilla, RGBisMe got Vanilla, Maga got Butter Pecan and Toolman got Chocolate this time. It was warm enough that driving anywhere with our melting treats would not be a good idea so we found some nearby picnic tables. It happened to be where the chickens had settled and they got all excited as we walked toward them.

RGBisMe got it into his head that the one chicken was asking for a lick off of his cone and bent down to offer it some. That chicken took such an agressive bite of icecream that his thumb cracked right through the cone with the force he had to use o hang onto it. Crazy man, crazy chickens.
We did have success with the letterbox. Toolman's knowledge of the surrounding area aced us a first find on a cute local letterbox. All of the pleasant conversation, mellow activity and good times allowed me to feel good enough this morning to take on a 4 mile recovery run. Thanks for the great Labor Day, Crayola Posse!

Why I Speak Up

It certainly isn't because I am a bold person that I will speak out against something. I find myself shaking in my trainers as I gather confidence to speak up when I witness injustice. It's seemingly easier to just turn away but the mental images and consequences of doing so usually plague me much more than just swallowing hard and continually being labeled as a crabby person, a bitch.

I see many turn a blind eye to things they know aren't right. Sometimes it's because they are experiencing a bit of personal gain until the wrong is righted. They see no reason to speak up if it isn't hurting them. Like testing a candy machine whose handle might be broken and doesn't require a coin, they will give it another twist each time they walk by to see what they might get for free. If it's broken, it's a rare person to take the free candy to the service department and let them know the machine needs attention. Who is the winner; one who gets free candy or the person who reports it? Who is the loser; the candy eater or the reporter who has someone jeer at them, "Why d'ja go and do that!?"

I found myself in a situation of overhearing a situation similar to the broken candy machine. The people it had to be reported to were actually the ones who were enjoying the "free candy." I wondered if I should keep quiet all together. That would allow them to continue to unjustly tap into something that was not theirs to take. I knew I would not be met with any thanks for bringing it to their attention. They already knew and were glad for the unearned bonus. I would be the bitch, again. I was the bitch, again.

The thing they were most disturbed by was wanting to know exactly how I found out. They wanted to know how the information leaked out, who spoiled the fun, who squealed. Silence was my response and it all had me asking myself, "What benefit would come to sharing how I found out? What good would come to those whom I had overheard talking about the 'free stuff'?"

The one thing that finally came to mind and has stuck with me were some words I had once read on how it's easier to remain silent but how it benefits no one in the long run.


In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller

Thank you to those who speak up, even against groups they are benefiting from. Hopefully you will never be alone and that many will in turn speak up for you and your rights.

Victory!

Thanks to Janila, RGBisMe and I were able to find our 1,000th letterbox.

I was really exhausted when I posted this blog entry. I want to come back to add that Janila was such a gracious hostess. When it was rainy, she was up to having breakfast first. As the skies cleared, she took us to a few excellent grab-n-go boxes of which she had printed the clues out for us. She was flexible about letting us choose which boxes to go for in Nolde Forest and when we wanted to give up on a trail or lead, she didn't complain and shared stories of her enjoyable times in the same park. She gave so much of herself and then she planted a surprise for us as we were seeking our 999th box. Just as RGBisMe found it, she told me of a set of WOM clues. I followed them and there was our 1,000th box along with a bubbly treat!

We did go on to find a few more boxes, one had been giving her a few problems. That 1,0001st box was just as sweet because we could all share the victory. We laughed and chatted all day. As the skies finally cleared to a patchy blue, the temperature had dropped. I started to get tired from the hiking and excitement and I was the one to say I was all in.

As she would say, we are on our way to 2,000. What I like is looking back on the various planters who made it possible. We look forward to all of the new experiences that greet us along the way.

She planted a special Celebration letterbox just for our 1,000th find and packed a bottle of bubbly so we could pop the cork on the trail! YUM! Thanks Jan, it was a great day and we are both exhausted.

Autumn Breeze

Maga11 and I got out in the wind for some local letterboxing yesterday. The couple of miles that we hiked and climbed included a historic home, creek side ramble, swamp view, and more than three vistas of central PA's rolling farmland in autumn.

The wind gusted more than 40 mph and was loud on the ridge top. We made our way along, enjoying the woodland and colorful leaves. Much of the trail had downed branches so our progress was not speedy. This allowed a lot of time for chatting and visiting. We talked about the couple of times this month she spent putting up hot peppers and how she was still coughing from the oils they had thrown into her sinuses and lungs.

We only saw three other people on the trail yesterday. One was a jogger who came upon us so quickly as we were stamping into one letterbox that we had no time to do anything but watch him run by. Who knows what he thought we were doing off trail.

Hickory nuts, puff balls and big old black walnuts also littered the path on our hike out and back. The walk was just wonderful as we took the descent slowly and carefully. We were glad to have parked well away from the black walnut tree in the parking area. It had been dropping its large heavy fruit the whole time we were hiking.

When all was done, we came away with three new letterboxes and a hitch hiker found. We celebrated with a pack of crackers before we went shopping at Wenger's. It easy enough to get carried away shopping in that store and best to not go in hungry.

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

This past weekend I spent a lot of my waking hours hiking in the dark. RGBisMe and I set up a series of night only letterboxes for anyone in the Elysburg area the evening of 9/11. We knew the date itself conjured up images of darkness but there is a lot we can do to take back that date. We wanted to celebrate things that are enjoyable in the darkness and at night. We had some folks pitch in and carve stamps that could be inked up in colors other than black yet were indicative of images that were pleasant manly at night.

Are you noticing no photos? The entire day and evening we set this series to be found it poured buckets, pretty much non-stop. We had one unique way of hiding a letterbox that required the finders to lower the box from a branch 30' up. The twine was so waterlogged from when we left a trail run rock in place weeks before that it would not allow us to lower it to put the box in place. We had to replace the twine and RGBisMe spent 10 minutes looking up into the pouring rain and trying to trow a rock over the branch. All that time he was getting rivers of cool water pouring down his sleeves. We laughed and laughed.

We took a break and met Maga11 to set up camp and have a hot lunch before heading back out to activate over 100 little colored glow bracelets that acted as blazes along the trail. Until about 5:30, we hung out with her at Mossy Point Camp Ground. I must say that place is NOT for everyone.The owner is friendly and low key and the woods are nice but the ground were really trashy and quite expensive for a wet lot to crash in. Maybe next time we will just camp in Weiser SF.

Janila, Sepia Slipper, Tracdc and the unnamed RumiKube boxer joined us at the camp ground right before we had to cut out. Back we went into the pouring rain and from 6 - 7:45 PM we activated the glow bracelets and placed them in sometimes very specific places according to their colors and the clues that had been set up on the trail earlier. I forgot to mention that the clues were not visible during the day but I will hopefully be able to use the idea in the future for when they are replanted. I would hate to spoil future fun for anyone.

We finished blazing the trail just at dusk. Having worked from the far end of the course back to the parking lot, we were a little surprised that no one was waiting to start finding the boxes. It was good to have a break and we grabbed our left over Chinese food from lunch and ducked under the shelter of the out house for a romantic supper.

The food and break were welcome, I had at one point broken down into tears in the middle of the trail about 45 minutes earlier. I could tell it was going to get dark soon and I was starting to get disoriented as to exactly where I needed to put a yellow blaze that marked where a bonus box was hidden. There were just too many shaggy barked trees near dense pines on that stretch, my personal notes nor the gps that was refused to keep sat' lock were totally helpful at all at the moment. I couldn't even find the darn bonus box we had hidden 8 hours earlier. RGBisMe was less than .10 mile away and I found myself crying, "I have no idea what I am doing or where I am! I can't find the Luna Moth! Where am I!?"

As we waited for letterboxers to brave the rain and darkness, we enjoyed a few bites of food and looked back onto a moment we had just experienced. Having been so focused on completing the task and because it had just finally gotten dark we hadn't really looked down the trail to appreciate our work. Near the end of the trail but before the parking area, we turned to check back to see if we had placed enough blazes to lead the way around a turn. Lovely glowing little rings spaced along the now dark trail looked like magical Will o' the Wisps. The muted colors in the mist were something to behold and we agreed that if the evening ended there it would have been gratifying.

As gratifying as the view down the trail was, we couldn't really consider the evening a success unless someone actually came out and found at least one of the 12 letterboxes we had hidden along the mile of wide gravel road. It was looking more and more like everyone had decided that it was just too rainy. There were sections of the trail/road that were puddled up and we knew that it was probably flooding in places around the region.

I think it was pretty well after 8PM until the first car pulled into the SF parking area. I had been assured by the ranger that we were allow to park there for our night hike and he was fine with the little additions we made to the trail as long as we cleaned them all up the next day. Mososo Kruppe were the first to arrive and they brought the intrepid Barghest who was recovering from Lyme Disease. The joined us under the outhouse shelter and soon Lotus, Leaf Cutter, Dolphin Lover and Horse Whisperer pulled up. I thought it was Maga11 and Tracdc so I started making weird noises at them to get them to come over. That poor crew hustled down the trail, not knowing it was us being goofy.

Maga11 and crew came along and soon after that Janila with Sepia Slipper. We felt compelled to make sure people were interpreting the clues correctly. With the pouring rain the last thing we wanted was for someone to be frustrated at clues that we may have messed up.

We walked with one group, then another and then headed back toward the trail head with yet another group who chose to start at the end and work their way backward. It was closer to the parking lot than not when we met up with the Booshmen, Ralph Spoilsport and the GrizzlyCats! That made 15 brave letterboxers giving the night series a go on a very wet night.

We were exhausted and fell asleep very soon after returning to the camp ground. Close to midnight we heard Janila and Sepia Slipper pull in but I had no energy to even get up to see how it went for them.

Morning came very quickly and it was about 6:30 AM when we grabbed a quick coffee at Sheetz before mounting up onto our bikes one last time on the trail. Our 4 panniers were filled with soaked twine, spent glow sticks, clues and 12 letterboxes after 2 hours of tearing down in the morning rain. We were gratified to read in the final logbook that everyone who had set out on the trail that evening had made it to the end.

A dark evening in less than perfect conditions might make for some carelessness but we saw none. Every clue and letterbox were returned as intended, no logbooks were waterlogged, every stamp was replaced and the land that was walked upon looked fresh in the morning light. The most telling sign was the one section where the clue required walking off trail for a bit. There had been a delicate mushroom right on the heading the clue asked seekers to travel. In the morning light,as we collected the letterbox at that location, stood the same proud mushroom. It witnessed a careful group of adventurous souls who warmed our hearts on a date that could have been filled with bleak thoughts. My thanks goes RGBisMe and to those 14 who made it a success.

The Real Master Carver

Sometimes we get compliments on stamps we have in our letterboxes. We almost always defer to each other and swear that not just one of us has carved the stamp but it's a collaborative effort. For those of you who don't believe us, you are right and we have a photo showing the real master carver in action. All we do is put out a piece of carving material at night and in the morning it is complete.

Thanks Miles!

A Sunday Walk

Strolling by a sunny lake.

We saw a Brown Thrasher.

Two Northern Water Snakes.

A geocache from 2002.

We added our mark to the inside.

MK weekend

We spent a good part of the weekend with Mososo Kruppe. We were off to find some letterboxes but this was all on the way to Harrisburg's Melting Pot Restaurant. Mososo Kruppe were treating us to a meal in celebration of finally selling their house in Georgia.

On of the first stops had a terrific view of the Susquehanna River but we forgot our cameras in the car. There was no way were were going to make the climb twice so we all just enjoyed the view of the river and then the man in the green velor pants with the George Hamilton tan.

Another stop was to find Fox Run Skunk Cabbage letterbox. It was the perfect time because the spring peepers had started to sing and the skunk cabbage was just popping it's purple spike like noses out of the ground.

The meal at Melting Pot was a lot of fun. We started with cheesy fondue that the waitress blended and melted right on the table in front of us. There was no doubt this was that what they brought out was quality ingredients and not some velveeta with pepper shaken into it.

Next we had our different salads and then the big production was cooking our entrees in a Mojo cooking style right on the table. Mososo Kruppe were good sports and let us throw our veggies in to cook up before their different meats went into the broth. Everything came out just right and tasted terrific.

The meal ended with a chocolate fondue that came with loads of fun dippers. The style of the fondue was Yin Yang with dark and white chocolate and we all shared a similar frozen drink. They looked really cool on the table together.

It ended up being quite late as they drove us home and the top of the seven mountain was terribly foggy. We were all glad to arrive home safely just after midnight. Mososo Kruppe had dog training and we thought maybe some more fun with an "MK" twist could be explored.

This morning, we printed out some clues to a Mososo Kruppe letterbox in Gallitzin. It is based on the 1947 train wreck of the Red Arrow. The history is really amazing. MK had wanted to come along to see how we interpreted the clues but we were impatient and decided to go find it while they had dog training. It was too late when we realized that they were less interested in seeing how we did but rather were concerned with protecting us from the spooky things on the trail.

We brashly decided to try to cut to the chase and walk a short .2 mile to the letterbox, cutting off a couple of miles we thought. Sugar Run Rd tried to elude us with no sign to direct our turn but we were too smart for that and passed the suggested road to grab what we thought was a closer parking space. Bad idea, it was littered with many animal sacrifices. Even avoiding those, we then saw we would have to cross a rushing creek and would have to face a muddy and thorny .2 mile bushwhack. We turned back and went to the suggested parking.

After the first parking area, I was all jumpy about what we would see in this area. I glanced around and was sure I saw a dead skunk so bloated that it's intestinal walls were about to burst. I had to avert my gaze and RGBisMe looked over at it after I warmed him. He was really perplexed and even more grossed out than I was with what it actually was. The toy it turned out to be really spooked us both but we continued onward to find the ghosts from the derailed train.

RGBisMe and I went to check out the tunnels next and a low rumble immediately came from behind us, the direction in which we knew the wreck had occurred. My skin started to crawl and I wish we had waited for Mososo Kruppe to come along with us. I had real regrets at that point because I was sure a ghost train was going to come zipping around the bend. The photo I took of RGBisMe he is looking warily at it and I look so creeped out in the photo he took that I am not printing it.

I was done with the tunnels and wanted to get out of there. We started walking along the suggested road and it started to really rain. We knew we were on the right track as it were because of the crazy weird furnaces that we saw. They were so amazingly spooky and wonderful. I pulled my camera out on the pouring rain because I had to shoot some photos of them.

We did calm down as the walk progressed and there was never a moment that we felt confused about being at the right place. MK's clues were paced in just the right way to keep us going and not wondering if we had missed something or made a wrong turn. It was not a cute little trail in the woods but the history of what happened made it so worth being able to stand where we did.

More trains sounded from the distance just as we were ready to leave the final location. Yes, my skin prickled and I did indeed want to crawl under the boulders because I was again unsure if I was going to see a Norfolk Southern or the ghost of the Red Arrow coming around the curve.

Toona-Holidays