This past weekend Boxing Turtle, Daddy's Favorite Princess, Lil Ewok and I attended the Homerdoodle event. We left home at 8:30 Friday morning and drove up to Moonshine, Ill. The princess and I had stopped here a few years ago with friends. There were 2 boxes here but they have both gone missing. We enjoyed some Moonburgers, got t-shirts, and planted a box.
Then we headed to Casey. The princess and I had been here before but they have added several new things since then. And there were a few new letterboxes to find too. We planted the first boxes here. One of them has been marked missing and I checked on it while we were here.
Then we headed north to St Joseph. We found 1 and planted 1. I as hopping to get more boxes here but we were running out of time. I had promised the kids that we would only box until dinner time and then the kids could swim at the hotel.
We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel and got a box there. We checked into the hotel and the kids swam for about 30 minutes. They were pretty tired, we went back to the room, and I logged my finds and posted the clues for the 2 boxes I planted.
Saturday, we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and set off for Homer. We checked in and hit the trails. I wish someone would have remined us to use bug spray. The mosquitos were horrible. After walking the first trail, my younger two said they would spend the rest of the day in the car. But we did get them out again and they enjoyed the nature center.
We boxed until 5. I told the kids we would have dinner on the way home. We stopped in Paris and had pizza. We got another box while we were close. Then I drove until we got to Vincennes and Boxing Turtle drove the rest of the way. He has his permit and needs night hours. We got home about 9:30 pm.
For the two days, we found 146 boxes and 3 hitchhikers. It was very different from a normal letterboxing event but we had a good time once we got the bug spray on.
2018 is the year of Illinois Bicentennial. TeachJR posted an event asking people to celebrate by planting boxes. I decided that I would do 3 and a bonus *spoilers*. I carve my stamps, make the logbook, get the boxes together, and plant. One week later I get a message that 2 of the boxes were missing. I think this person is crazy, they have to be there. So I drive an hour back to the park just to check and they were missing.
What do you do? Retire? Re-carve? I decided to re-carve and add a box to the bunch. I left 2 boxes on the trail, re-carved, returned to plant, and guess what happened? One of the first boxes was gone! I think the park is cursed! What is with people? Do they have nothing better to do in rural southern Illinois? I'm not going back. I'm done. Get them while you can because I will not re-carve those.
Last box of the day selfie :)
Did I mention that G-MA and I drove over there today. I picked her up about 1:30 and we drove an hour to the park. I grab my bag of boxes and we take off to the trail. As we walk up to the trail head a family is exiting the woods. They mention that the mosquitoes are bad and we will need bug spray.
G-MA has some in her bag and we start spraying. As we are standing there we are attacked by them! It was worse than yesterday! G-MA says she is not going. I run off to plant the boxes that I have re-carved and discover that one of the others is missing :( Unless someone else plants a few boxes in that park, I will not be back. It has been nothing but trouble. >:(
My original boxes planted in Ill
When we are done, we head to Grayville. There were 5 boxes that I needed and 6 that G-MA needed to find. We start at a cemetery that has 2 new boxes. We struggle with the planters description of the tree. We even text someone for help. I looked in one tree and G-MA looked in another. We decided to switch and she looks in my tree and I look in her tree and we each find the box the other person was looking for! It's a good thing we box together :)
We had no problems finding the rest and had an enjoyable ride back home. For the weekend, we found 29 boxes and left a few hitchhikers.
Back in the fall, my boxing buddy was telling me about giant stuff she saw on TV in Casey, Ill. I saw it too and said we had to go in the spring. My kids are on Spring Break this week so I took off one day to box and one day to clean. On Tuesday G-MA, Puppy Love, Daddy's Favorite Princess, and I ventured up to Casey.
According to Atlas Quest there were no boxes in Casey but one nearby in a place called Moonshine. It didn't look too far out of the way so we stopped. Moonshine is famous for their Moonburger. We all had one, got a tshirt, and looked for the box. We couldn't find the letterbox but enjoyed our short time there.
World's Largest Rocking Chair
We got out on the road and finished the trip to Casey. It was probably 2.5 hours away and it rained almost the whole way up. Our first stop was the World's Largest Wind Chime and World's Largest Rocking Chair. The rocking chair is huge! It was my favorite big thing :)
We also went up in the World's Largest Mailbox. We mailed a few letters and postcards from there. The flag on the side slowly goes up when you drop your mail in a slot at the top. In the Candy Depot directly behind the mailbox is the World's Largest Wooden Shoes. While we were close, we checked out a big bird cage and pencil.
Big pencil and World's Largest Mailbox
Then we got back in the car and drove to the country club to see the World's Largest Golf Tee. And drove a little further to see the World's Largest Pitchfork. I planted 4 boxes in town- at the rocking chair, mailbox, golf tee, and pitchfork. Casey is a very clean place and I hope the boxes last a while for folks to find them.
The Princess @ the
sculpture park
We drove down the interstate to Effingham to get a few boxes. We looked for 4 and found 3. Then we went on to Mt Vernon, Ill and got two boxes at an art center and sculpture park. We arrived at the sculpture park 30 minutes before it closed. We had a good time finding the boxes but wish we would have had more time to explore.
We had dinner at a Steak and Shake in Mt Vernon and plotted our trip home. We couldn't decide if we should stop for rest area boxes on the way home or not. It was raining again and we passed them by. We did stop in Carmi at a cemetery in the dark, and in the rain to grab a box that I already had, but my boxing buddies needed. The princess kept saying zombies were going to get us for being in the cemetery at night.
Even thought it rained most of the day we had a great time. We got to see some really cool stuff. I found 5 boxes, planted 4 and a hitchhiker. It was a wet day but a lot of fun :)
Here is the story we saw about Casey on CBS Sunday Morning:
And here is Bill Geist, CBS Sunday Morning and his visit to Moonshine:
A few months ago one of my Facebook friends posted a pic of the Shawnee Forest Bigfoot. I thought I have to plant a box there. I got the box ready but never made it over to plant it.
Last week some of my kids were on Fall Break and we took advantage of the time off and nice weather to go over and play. We hiked, climbed, and hid two letterboxes.
I hoped the leaves would have been more colorful but the weather was beautiful. The kids really love climbing all over the rocks. There were more people there than I thought there would be. I guess a lot of kids were on break.
Kids at Garden of the Gods
It would be nice if it was closer to home. I thought it was an hour away but it is an hour and a half. And of course my kids can't sit that long without trying to kill each other. We got almost there and I had to move the kids around.
I hope we can go camping over there sometime soon. Maybe we can talk everyone into going there Mother's Day weekend :)
On Saturday, the kids and I went to the Homerdoodle Event in Homer, Ill. We left at 6 am and arrived just after 9:30. We only made one stop on the way up to go potty and grab breakfast. I had my phone take us the "fastest route". I think she was having problems because the roads kept getting smaller and at one point she told us to go east and then turn into a corn field. I deiced that we would not be coming that way home.
We checked in, exchanged with the hostesses, and got our clue packet. I think I grabbed two table top boxes and then we hit the trail. We found a series of 19 stamps called, "Frogs are lucky! They eat what bugs them!" All of the stamps (except for the last one) were bugs. They were great carves and we found the stamp that I sent to the event too.
Kid Table
When we finished that trail it was time for the group photo and lunch. After lunch Daddy's Favorite Princess wanted to stay in the a/c and stamp event/table top boxes. We asked the hostesses if she could stay and they said yes. They had a kid table set up with papers, markers, stamps, etc. They also had bubbles, side walk chalk, and popsicles.
Trail Selfie
After lunch the boys and I hit the trails again. We did a nature series and found 22 boxes. This was a nice shady trail and I found my 800th box during that series. But the boys were getting grouchy and fighting over who would get the box, who would stamp first, who would put it back, etc.
Event/table top boxes
When we finished those I promised them we would stay at the shelter for a bit. We got back and we only had 40 minutes to exchange, stamp table tops, event boxes, etc. We stamped as many as we could and ended up staying a little late. You know they want you to leave when they start taking your chairs away. So we threw in the towel.
One of the hostesses had talked about a fancy playground area and I let the kids play there a while. Lil Ewok ended up slipping on the rocks and getting a little wet. After a while I talked the kids into getting 5 more boxes. The stamps were wildlife in the park.
Playscape
I would have liked to have gotten more boxes but the kids were hungry and tired so we left. We went up the interstate and found a restaurant. While we were there I studied the map and picked a different way home. We got back just after 10:30 that night. Homer is about 3.5 hours from home and my husband said that he didn't realize how far we were going.
We found 55 traditional boxes, 3 hitchhikers, 1 cootie, 64 event boxes, and a few exchanges. I was hoping to get more traditional boxes and exchange with more people but I guess there is only so much you can do in a day.
Like a lot of the country, we had a long cold winter here in SW Indiana and I didn't do much letterboxing. Last year I went around and did maintenance on all of my boxes but not this year.
Last week we had such nice weather and on Saturday I was able to sneak away and do some boxing. Someone planted some new boxes in our area but they are both about 45 min from me and about an hour from each other. One of the boxes was in an area that I hadn't boxed before so I took off northwest of Evansville.
Tank in Greyville park
I started off in a cemetery in Griffin, In. I was the first finder, woo hoo. It was a nice little stamp of a hummingbird. Which reminds me that i need to clean out my hummingbird feeders.
Albion Cemetery
Then, I shot over to Greyville, Ill. I had never been here before but always imagined it to be a tiny place. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. They don't have a Walmart or anything but they have a lot of little stores. I found a hitchhiker here! (I love hitchhikers :)
Next, I went up to Albion. G-MA and I had boxed here before but I didn't print off any clues. She just took me to the one box she remembered while we were passing through. I got two really nice boxes at the Albion Cemetery.
Wanborough, Ill
Last, I went to Wanborough. It is just a few miles west of Albion. It sounds like it was a hopping little place in the early 1800s. I believe the marker said that it was the first town in Ill to have a distillery. But as Albion grew everyone moved there.
It was such a beautiful day and I am so glad that I was able to get out. And I found all the boxes that I looked for.
