Fall Break boxing in Louisville

My kids are on fall break for a few days this week.  Yesterday, Daddy's Favorite Princess and I went to Louisville to look for the new Who Killed Colonel Sanders boxes.  I have been thinking about hiding a Clue series myself and wanted to find these boxes.   We left home at 7, stopped at McDonalds, and stopped to find a box at a rest area on the way.

We arrived in Louisville around 9:30 our time and found the first few boxes rather easily.  With the route that I chose to get us around the city, in a way I thought was most efficient, we discovered who the killer was, what the weapon was, and the room quickly.  The series has 21 boxes and we found 18.  Most of the time, when we box in Louisville, we visit cemeteries.  We really enjoyed all the places that these boxes took us.  

I planted a box while we were there and we left 2 hitchhikers and found none :(  I really like hitchhikers and rarely find them.  I will keep making them because I enjoy them.  I have an idea for a large series of hitchhikers that I can use my scraps to carve.  

Altogether, we looked for 23 and found 20.  I was worried that we would not be able to find them all in one day but we actually made it home before dark.  The weather was great, even though we drove home in rain.  

It's Fall Y'all and some boxing

 

It's Fall Y'all: Autumn

This is my card for jlsd0218's "It's Fall Y'all" LTC swap.  My card is called, "Autumn."  For this tracker, you were supposed to use some sort of embellishment.  As you can see, I used eyelets.  I bought them a long time ago but I don't know if I ever used them.

THIS was the inspiration for my card.  I considered carving a tree blowing in the wind but couldn't find just the right image.  

For the background, I used my Geli Plate.  I have been having problems with my plate lately.  Can they dry out or go bad?  I bought new paint at the end of last year and thought it may be the problem.  So I got new paint and it worked better.  I'm very happy with how the cards turned out.

Haubstadt, Ind

I went letterboxing last Saturday and had a great time.  The weather was beautiful and I found all 7 boxes that I looked for.  

I started off in Haubstadt looking for a box that someone planted passing thru. I also explored a nearby park.  Next month is my 10 year letterbox anniversary and I have been thinking about planting a ten box series.   I checked out a park that used to have a few trails.  Now it is a disc golf course.  I think I will plant there anyway if I can get my butt in gear and carve the stamps. 

Owensboro, Ky

Then I went to Owensboro, Ky.  Big jump, I know.  There is a new boxer there and she has planted a bunch of boxes.  I went over back in July and got some of the boxes.  This time I got all of them but one that is inside a library.  

A while ago, I got a message that one of my boxes in Owensboro was missing.  The area had flooded and the box washed away.  We went on a field trip to an orchard just 2 miles away and I had to check while we were so close.  I found the box!  It was in a pile of flood debris.  It was in bad shape so I cleaned it up and rehid it in a better place last weekend.  

I was great to be out boxing again.   I love this weather and all the awesome stamps :)

Life Update & Some Boxing

Hi.  I'm still alive :)  I haven't made a blog post in a while.  I had a little bit of free

Western Ky Botanical Garden

time and decided to send out an update. 

So, I was a stay at home mom for 13 years.  Then I worked part time at a day care for 2.5 years.  When the corona virus hit, people stopped sending their kids to the day care.  I thought I would be off for 2 weeks.  But after 6 weeks of not working and hearing almost nothing from the day care, I started looking for a job at an essential business.   

I now work full time at Rural King, where I am on my feet for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  During the first 2 weeks, I could barley walk when I got home in the evenings.  My husband cooked supper those first 2 weeks because I was so exhausted.  I have very little time or energy for letterboxing.  

Elmwood Cemetery

Any LTC swap that I didn't finish before I started working at "The King", I dropped from.  Some of them I was very excited about and had images on rubber, ready to carve.  I just didn't have the energy to do it.  My Etsy shop has been on and off  this whole time.  I get an order or 2 and I am ok.  But then I get a ton, overwhelmed, and behind and close it up for a bit.  

I am already off on weekends so I was off today for Independence Day.  And I spend most of the day letterboxing.  I got 4 boxes in Evansville, 9 in Owensboro, 1 cootie, and I planted one.  It was so nice to got out and box.  

Things should get better.  My husband has decided that we should home school our kids this fall.  So I will quit my job or drastically cut my hours and I'll be home with my kids.  I'll be able to carve stamps and make cards while the kids do school
work.  

That is it for now.  I know I'm behind on a few blog posts for cards.  Maybe I can type them up this evening.  Hope you are all doing well :)

PS-Blogger has changed the website and it may take me a while to figure it out. 

Louisville Twice

Cave Hill Cemetery on Presidents Day 

My boxing buddy, G-MA, and I have been talking about going to Louisville all year.  We made plans to go 3 times and each time we canceled due to rain.

I always plot the course for our trips and I realized that G-MA had been to Louisville without us.  I was looking at boxes in Cave Hill Cemetery and saw that she already had some.  I assumed that she had all the boxes there so Daddy's Favorite Princess and I went over on Presidents Day and got all the boxes at Cave Hill and a small cemetery next door. 

Cave Hill Cemetery on Easter Monday

When I got home and started logging the boxes I realized that G-MA didn't have all the boxes there.  Oops.  So, when we finally went together we had to go back to Cave Hill so we would both have all the boxes there.

Most of my kids were out of school on Monday, I took the day off, and G-MA, the princess and I went to Louisville.  We left at 8 am and traveled 2 hours. 

We started off in Cave Hill Cemetery and the small cemetery next door.  We performed maintenance on my box and went to lunch.  Then we slowly started heading south stopping at cemeteries and parks to get boxes. 

Calvary Cemetery  

After a while we decided to go downtown and look for just a few more boxes before heading home.  Downtown was very busy and we were not able to find the boxes we looked for there.  We stopped for ice cream and then looked for one more box on the riverfront.  The riverfront park was so busy we thought there was no way the box was still there.  But we were pleasantly surprised to find it.  It was a great way to end our trip.

When we were done there we headed back home.  There is a rest area box along the way that I need but the rest area is currently closed :(

We arrived home at 8pm.  Altogether G-MA found 15 while the princess and I found 23. We found and left a few hitchhikers on both trips and I planted a box on the second trip.   

Campcation 2018

Ft Boonesborogh SP, KY

Yesterday my family and I returned from our 2018 summer vacation.  We are calling it a campcation because we camped almost every night.  It was an exhausting trip but we got to see a lot of great stuff.

We are from Indiana and we went down thru Kentucky toward the Cumberland Gap.  We were not going to make it by dark so we camped at Ft Boonesborogh SP in Ky.  We found our first LB of the trip here.  After checking out the fort we continued south.

Cumberland Gap Pinnacle Overlook

We arrived at the Cumberland Gap National Park around lunch time.  We checked out the northern visitor center and found a picnic area near a creek.  We ate lunch, played in the creek for a little bit and headed to the pinnacle overlook.  The overlook is a spot where you can look down and see the tunnel going thru the mountain.  We hiked around here for a while and then went to set up camp.

Pigeon Forge LB

We hung out in the campground for a while, went to town to eat dinner, and went to a nearby state park to look for a letterbox.  The state park had a nice playground and some old cabins so we stayed there for a while before going back to the camp site.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, tore down camp, and drove to an Iron Furnace.  Then we hiked up to the Gap Cave.  This cave is just a hole in the cliff but the kids enjoyed playing there.  The hike up was a little rough.

Dollywood, TN

Then we went down to Pigeon Forge.  We stopped at the Great Smokey Mountain Knife Works for a little bit and set up camp at a KOA campground.  After we set up, we went to the Smokey Mountains National Park Sugarlands visitor center to get maps and whatnot.  Then we had dinner and went back to the campground to swim.

In the morning, we got up and went to Dollywood.  We got there 45 minutes before they opened so we left and found a LB.  It took us a bit to find it but my husband said we shouldn't give up so easily.  After stamping in we went back to Dollywood and spent the day there until 7pm.  When we were tired and hungry we went back to the campground to eat and swim again.

Newfound Gap TN & NC

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, tore down camp, and heading off to explore Smokey Mountain National Park.  We stopped at Newfound Gap and hiked to Clingmans Dome.  The lookout at the top was closed but we came all that way so we walked to the top anyway.  The walk down was beautiful with clouds rolling in.

Clingmans Dome

Then we pulled off and had lunch in a lookout/
parking area.  We continued south and saw a sign for a mill.  It wasn't on the map but looked close to the parking lot and we stopped to check it out.  It had a real short trail and was a nice place to stretch your legs.  When we were done we went on to the Oconaluftee visitor center.  There was a historic farm and a creek trail so we stayed here a while.

We stopped again for dinner and stayed the night at a campground in North Carolina.

One of the main points of the trip was to eat at Chef and the Farmer in Kinston, NC.  We watch a show on PBS called, A Chef's Life.  We love the show and talked about going last year on vacation but it was to far away.  We made it this year.  The chef, Vivian Howard, was not there the night we ate there but her husband was hanging around.  We left with full bellies, t shirts, and an autographed cookbook.  We also planted a letterbox in a nearby park.

The place we stayed at, the night we were in Kinston was just barley a campground.  It was a field with a shower house.  The kids were worried something might happen to us here and were happy that we only stayed one night.

Hotel in GA 

That morning we got up and consulted the old atlas and Google.  We discovered that going the long way back was just 45 min longer and would add 2 new states to box in.  Instead of driving back straight across NC we went thru SC and Georgia.

It took us a while to get out of rural NC.  When we got to a big rest area there were supposed to be 3 LB.  I looked for all 3 and only found 1.  When we stopped for the night in SC we were at a state park.  It had 2 boxes but we could only find 1.  The state parks in SC all have stamps and we were able to snag that too.  The woman at the park office fussed at me for putting it in my National Park stamp book but it's my book and I can stamp what I want in it ;)

Ruby Falls, TN

We drove thru Georgia without many stops.  The rest area that we had lunch at didn't have any boxes :(  But we did find one before leaving the state.  My husband was getting pretty tired and we stayed the night in a hotel.  The younger kids swam again.

We got up in the morning, enjoyed a hot breakfast, and went to Chattanooga.  In Chattanooga we went to Ruby Falls and Rock City.  Rock City has a Fairy Tale "cave" that is actually a building.  As we got to the end of the "cave" we discovered that it was raining cats and dogs.  We were at the end of the trail so we made a run for the gift shop.  We got some post cards, rock candy, etc and ran again to the ticket booth.  My husband was nice enough to pull the van around and we didn't get completely soaked.

See Rock City, TN

Next, we went to Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.  The place was a lot like Gettysburg.  It had many markers of where different states were stationed and signs detailing the battles there.  It was getting late and with the rain, we didn't spend a lot of time here.

We continued north stopping for dinner and camping at Old Stone Fort SP in Tn.  My kids learned that we were just a few hours from home and tore down camp in record time.  They were tired of camping and ready to go home.  We didn't look for any of the boxes there.

Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Park, GA

We had a great but tiring 9 days.  We only planted 1 box and found 8.  We added 4 new states that we boxed in: VA, NC, SC, & GA.  We left 1 HH and the only ones we found were in a HHH.  The rules of the HHH were to leave 3 in the box.  There were only 3 left and we didn't have any to trade.

Today we are doing laundry and unloading and tomorrow we will go to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Ind.

Back to the Ark and a Look at 2017

Light show on the side of the ark

A few days after Christmas we went to the Ark Encounter in Williamston, Ky.  The high was 15 degrees and we were happy that the ark was nice and warm.  You may recall that we went to the Creation Museum and Ark back in March.

Elephants :)

I follow them on Instagram and saw that they were having a big light show/display and I wanted to go.  We found an ark theme letterbox just before going to the ark.  I would like to plant one too.  Maybe I can find a good place right in between the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter for a box.  Something to think about in the new year.

Inside the warm ark

I usually take a minute to make a blog post about the past year.  2017 was a pretty good boxing year for me.  One of the highlights was that I found my 1,000th box.  I also boxed in 2 new states. 

Looking at my AQ stats, 2017 was my second highest year for finds.  I found 207 traditional boxes.  My highest year is 2015 with 225 boxes.  I credit these large numbers to the events in Greenville, Oh.  They put on great events with lots of boxes to find.  I also get away from home so there are other boxes to find in the area or going to/from the event.

My traditional plants were down in 2017.  I hid 28 boxes.  I hosted an event in 2016 so my plants are huge.  I planted 42 in 2015, 19 in 2014, and 40 in 2013.  So, my numbers are all over the board.  I started 2018 off on the right foot by planting my Secret Santa stamp yesterday :)

I participated in 2 postal rings in 2017.  I can't stand the wait for postals and I think I am going to stop doing them.

I made 33 sets of LTCs in 2017.  This is pretty average.  My highest year was 2013 with 35 sets and my lowest year was 2015 with 20 sets.  I will stick with LTCs because they are lot of fun and most hosts are good with getting cards back quickly.

I don't have any boxing goals for 2018.  I plan to attend the Great Lakes Gathering (GLG).  It will be about 30 minutes away from me.  I am also thinking about going to the Homerdoodle event this year.  I would like to make it back to St Louis to box.  And my boxing buddy and I have been talking about going to Casey, Ill where they have a lot of large things (Worlds Largest wind chime, rocking chair...) So we will see how it goes :)  Happy New Year to you <3

Perfect Day in Ky

Madisonville

Yesterday my boxing buddy and I went on a boxing adventure in Kentucky.  We found all 17 boxes that we looked for <3

We found a box in Hanson and Madisonville.  Then we got a 7 box series in a small rural cemetery in Dawson Springs.  I think got poison ivy here.  Thankfully it is just a small line on my arm.

Next we got another set of 7 in a Hopkinsville cemetery.  We had lunch at Arby's while we were in the big city ;)

My boxing buddy, G-MA, said there was another box that we needed to get.  I pulled up Hopkinsville on my phone and didn't see anything.  So she pulled it up on her phone.  The box she was talking about was a box that I planted.  She was with me the first time I planted it.  It went missing and the next time we went to Hopkinsville I replaced it.  She was with me both times I planted it but for some reason she never stamped it.  So we stopped and she got it.  Technically I got 17 and she got 18.

Dawson Springs

The last box of the day was in Fearsville, Ky.  The clue was a rhyme and vague.  G-MA and I are both bad at this kind of thing and almost didn't go for it.  But it was still early and we gave it a try.  It was easier to find than we thought it would be.  G-MA was hoping there would be a sign in Fearsville so we could take a pic but the place was so small that there was no sign.

It was really hot but we found all the boxes we went for and a hitchhiker.  When we stopped to find my box we discovered that 2 other boxers from SW Indiana were also in the area on the same day.  Funny coincidence :)

My 1000th Find!

Yes, my one thousandth letterbox!  Yesterday, my boxing buddy and I went down to Bowling Green, Ky.  I needed 11 boxes for 1000 and I printed off 13 clues.

Soap box race track near a letterbox

The ride down was nice but we started our boxing expedition with issues.  The first box we were looking for was planted in February, was last found in May, and we couldn't find it :(  I shot the owners an AQ email asking for a hint and they responded.  We were already down the road so we decided to try again on the way out of town.  If you remember my last blog post about Bowling Green, you may remember that while we were boxing that day two boxes were planted while we were there.  This was one of those boxes.

Beautiful water area in a cemetery

We did well on most of our finds.  One of the boxes was under a light skirt at a local library.  The area where the box was was fenced off because of construction.  The workers were on lunch when we came and we asked them if we could get the box.  They said yes, when we returned the box I gave them a muggle card.  They seemed interested in our "scavenger hunt".

One of the boxes we looked for was gone.  The tree that it was planted in was cut down.  I had a box in a nearby cemetery and we checked it while we were close.  The tree was covered in vines and I couldn't find it.  But other boxers had so I left it as active.  We also planted a new box in the same cemetery across the street.

We kept boxing.  My 1000th find was the second box in a 2 box series where the stamps were carved by Kirbert.  I have sent my gauges off to Kirbert to be sharpened a few times so I was excited to find some of his stamps.

My 1000th find!!

Once we had tried all the clues I took, we went to the first one we missed.  The planters checked on the box on their lunch break and left an item on the rock we were supposed to look under.  There were so many rocks in the area I think we would have never found it without their help.

We found 12 boxes and I now have 1001 finds.  We left two hitchhikers and found none.  On our way back we drove thru a patch of rain and saw a bright double rainbow :) We had lunch in Bowling Green and stopped in Owensboro on the way home for dinner & dessert.  Our next trip will be to Owensboro to get two boxes there.

Spring Break

Brownies with their paintings

Last week my kids were on Spring Break.  As a stay at home mom, I am happy that they are back in school XD

We started off the week with Girl Scouts.  My daughter's Brownie Troop is working on the Painting badge and we went to Snickerdoodle Art on Monday.  The girls painted a llama, which is the cookie mascot for this year.  They had a great time painting and hanging out.

Florence Y'all 

Wednesday morning we left early for the Creation Museum.  It is 3.5 hours east of us and this was our 3rd visit.  We got there right at lunch time.  We decided to explore the museum and then have a picnic lunch at the car.  Then we wandered the grounds and looked for a letterbox.  We couldn't find it and went through the museum again.

After all that walking everyone was tired and hungry.  We checked into our hotel and went out for dinner.  While we were out, I talked everyone into getting a letterbox.  It was my only one for the trip :(  I wanted to look for more but the kids wanted to go back to the pool and they won.

Ark Encounter 

Thursday we got up, had breakfast, packed up, and headed toward the Ark Encounter.  I didn't realize this, but the Ark is 45 minutes from the Creation Museum.  Good thing I grabbed a brochure at the hotel or were would have gone to the wrong place!

 The ark is huge and we had a great time checking it out.  We went through the ark, had lunch, checked out the petting zoo, the big kids did a high ropes course, and then we walked thru the ark again.  We got our money's worth.

Rockport, In

On the way home we stopped at a Cracker Barrel in La Grange, Ky.  Just out of curiosity, I looked it up on Atlas Quest to see if they had any boxes close by.  There was supposed to be one IN the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel but the previous finder marked it missing.  We looked and it was missing :(

On Saturday, I went to Rockport to look for 3 boxes.  It is about 45 minutes away.  I got to the first box and found it right away.  I left a hitchhiker.  I could not find the other two boxes.  I was really disappointed that I drove over there for one box.

When I was done looking I explored a city park that I had heard about and I planted a box in a cemetery on my way home.

So, my Spring Break boxing was a bust.  I looked for 6 boxes and found 2 :'(

Bowling Green, Ky

Hartford, Ky

My boxing buddies and I went down to Bowling Green, Ky on Saturday.  G-MA and Puppy Love picked me up around 8:30 and we headed out of town.

Bowling Green is about 2 hours southeast of us.  A new box had also been planted in Hartford and we stopped to get it on the way.   This box is what prompted our trip.  G-MA saw the new box come up and asked if there were any other boxes there.  I told her that if we were going to Hartford we would have to go to Bowling Green too.

G-MA 

The weather started off a little cool but it was nice.  We looked for 17 boxes and found 16.  A few years ago G-MA and Puppy Love went to Bowling Green without me (what?!) and they got one of the same boxes.  So it was 16 for me and 15 for them.  We left 3 hitchhikers and found 4, wow!

You might recall, that G-MA, Daddy's Favorite Princess, Lil Ewok, and I boxed in Bowling Green last spring.  We got 16 boxes that day too :)  On that day we got a box at an ice cream place and we talked about finding it again to get some more ice cream but couldn't remember where it was.

Once we were on our way back to Evansville, I looked up Atlas Quest on my phone, and the Bowling Green boxers planted 2 new new boxes while we were there!  One was for the Bowling Green Massacre and one at an ice cream place.  I guess we need to make going to Bowling Green an annual trip :)

Spring Break Boxing in Bowling Green

The princess took our selfie at Fort Webb

Yesterday Daddy's Favorite Princess, Lil Ewok, G-MA, and I went letterboxing in Bowling Green, Ky.  My boxing buddy, G-MA, picked us up at 8 am and we headed south.  It started off cool and the 2 hour ride went by quick.  I was in charge of plotting our route and I had many boxes for us to find.  Some local boxers had just planted 10 new ones and we looked for some old ones too.

The first stop of the day was a new two part series that we found very easily.  Then we found an older box.  This box was at Fort Webb and the kids enjoyed all the rocks at the Civil War Earthworks.

Inside the train museum.

Then we moved on to a Historic Train Museum.  It was an interesting place but the clue was really vague and we wasted a lot of time here.  The name of the box was Letters and Boxes.  Finally it hit me that we needed to look for the mail car.  Then it was easy to find.  The stamp was store bought but nice.

WKU

We found a few more boxes and I planted a box in a cemetery while we were there.  One of the boxes we found was on the Western Kentucky University campus.  The campus was very pretty and we ate lunch in their food court.  Another box was located a local pizza joint.  The stamp was great and it had two cool sculptures outside.  Unfortunately, my phone was dead at that point so I got no pics of them.

We got a new box near a local ice cream shop and had to get some ice cream while we were there.  The princess and G-MA got "Petite" sundaes while Lil Ewok and I just got a small scoop.

Ice cream break

The last box of the day was at an old bridge.  We started off looking at the wrong end of the bridge but eventually found the box.  Local legend has it that a young woman fell off this bridge and drowned.  If you stop your car on the bridge she will push you across.  And if you put powder on the back of your car you will be able to see her hand prints. Spooky.  Well, we didn't stop on the bridge.  It actually had a lot of traffic while we were looking and stamping.

Metal truss bridge over Barren River

We looked for 18 boxes and found 16.  One of the ones we couldn't find had two snakes in the hiding spot.  We left two hitchhikers and found none :(  The letterboxes took us to several parks with playgrounds and the kids loved playing while G-MA and I stamped.  We got back home about 9pm.  It was a little windy but a beautiful day to be out boxing :)

3 States in 1 Day

Sword and the stone

Today my 2 younger kids, my boxing buddy, and I boxed in 3 states- In, Ky & Tn.

So there are some folks in Hopkinsville, Ky (about 1 1/2 hrs south) that have been boxing up here a lot lately.  I was thinking that even though there is only one box there I should go there and plant a box for them.  But before I could they planted a new box in Hopkinsville.  So this meant that I really had to go down there!

Getting ready to stamp at the round table

The two boxes there were both on a college campus.  They were easy to find and fun.  My kids loved playing with the sword and the stone.  The princess was determined that we could pull it out.  When we found the box there we stamped in at the round table and then played around at the amphitheater.

After playing for a while we left to plant my box.  I knew that I wanted to put it at a military memorial park.  It was bigger than it looked on Google maps.  We walked around for a while, planted, and found two geocaches.   When we left the park we had lunch and a potty break.

Statue selfie

Then we continued south and found two more boxes (and one geocache) in Clarksville, Tn about 30 minutes south of Hopkinsville.  These were cool boxes too in neat locations but they needed maintenance.  We replaced all the baggies in the boxes today except for the new box.

Now for the 2 hour trip home.  The kids were pretty fussy and the princess napped for a little while.  She would have napped longer but Lil Ewok kept yelling at her.

Memorial Park

When we got back to town we dropped the kids off at home and looked for a new box planted by a geocacher.  This is his third letterbox/hybrid.  So far I'm not impressed.  He left a clue for letterboxers but it was very vague.  I am pretty sure we were in the right spot but couldn't find it.

We had a pretty good trip.  It sprinkled early but it cleared up and was nice.  Now if I can get my kids to act better on car trips.

Day in Louisville

Colonel Sanders at Cave Hill Cemetery.

A few months ago my boxing buddy, G-MA, asked me about boxing out of town.  We both have all the boxes in Evansville and have to travel to get more.  G-MA is trying to find her 800th box by the end of the year.  She asked if I would be interesting in going to Louisville.  That sounded good to me so we set a date.

The stamp I planted.

I was in charge of getting the clues together and as I went through the Louisville boxes online I started to panic.  Many of the boxes were old and had not been found since 2011.  I thought this is going to be a complete waist of time and that we were not going to find anything.

I have never seen stained glass
 memorials like this before.  There are
several in Louisville. 

We left Saturday morning at 7 and arrived in Louisville at 9 (our time) and started our adventures in Cave Hill Cemetery.  We spent our morning here and I planted a box here too.  Most of the boxes we looked for we found and it was a beautiful place to be.  I was also worried about the cemetery being really busy due to the holiday weekend but it was not.

G-MA, Lil Ewok, and I left the cemetery about 1 and ate lunch at Mc Donalds.  We got lost after lunch but we also boxed in Eastern Cemetery, St Louis Cemetery, Calvary Cemetery & St Michael's Cemetery.  It was really convenient that these cemeteries were all close.

The Conrad-Caldwell House.

For our last boxing stop of the day we went to The Conrad-Caldwell House.  It is an old Victorian home/museum and the box was planted by some folks who had traveled 2234 miles from Sacramento, Ca.  It was a fun stamp and location.  And while we were there a sky writer was making a message in the sky.  We were busy stamping and didn't see all the message.  But it was interesting.

When we were done there we headed back to Indiana.  We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Corydon and then finished our trip home.  We found 13 boxes and had a great time.

Paducah, Ky

4 different Log Cabin quilt tops

This year has been the year of quilts.  Back in the fall I found a Facebook group making a mystery quilt.  (I actually found the group through AQ.)  The group was making Bonnie Hunters Celtic Solstice.  I had never heard of a mystery quilt but at the beginning Bonnie Hunter tells on her blog how much fabric to buy, what colors, etc.  She gives you a few weeks to get everything together and then every week for 5 weeks she tells you what quilt square to make.  She tells what size, colors, gives step by step instructions, etc.

On January 1st, Bonnie Hunter has the big reveal and shows how to assemble the squares into her Celtic Solstice quilt.  Every one on the Facebook page was showing their progress and finished quilts.  Earlier this year I decided that I had to make the quilt.  I got all my materials together and completed the top in just a few weeks.  When I was done I sent it to a local woman to quilt it and I am eagerly waiting for it to be finished.

Outside the National Quilt Museum

During this process my kids have really enjoyed watching me make the quilt and then they all wanted quilts.  The first quilt I ever made was a Log Cabin quilt.  So I told the kids that I would make a bunch of Log Cabin squares and they could arrange them.  I just finished the tops this week and to celebrate we went to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky.

Paducah is about 2 hrs southwest of us and it has 5 letterboxes (now 6).

You are not allowed to take photos inside the quilt museum but here are the kids goofing off with a sculpture outside.  While we were there we planted a box nearby.

 Also in Paducah is a RR museum and it has a letterbox inside. You might recall that we went to a train museum on spring break and it was awesome.  Well this one was not so much.  Oh well, you win some you loose some.

Oak Grove Cemetery

There were two boxes in a local cemetery and they were easy to find.  However, the grounds crew had nothing to do on this gloomy rainy day so they drove in circles the whole time we were there.  We ended up taking the first box with us to the second box because they were hanging out too close to the first one.  We eventually were able to get everything back where it belonged.

Just down the road was a nice large park.  It had a cool amphitheater that the kids ran around on while I stamped the near by box.  We were almost attacked by ducks on the way back to the car.  The park had several play grounds so we had to stop and play for a little while.

The last box we looked for was another Whispering Giant mystery box.  This is our third one to look for and the second one that we have found.  These stamps are amazing!  If you haven't looked for one, you should!

Wacinton made of Red Oak 

We had a great trip.  The quilt museum was nice, we found all of the letterboxes that we looked for, and the kids were pretty well behaved.  We did miss our turn on the way home and went a little out of our way.  I always tell the kids that letterboxing is all about driving in circles ;)