PAL Day 2019

Indiana Military Museum, Vincennes, In

This year is the 14th Annual International Plant a Letterbox (PAL) Day.  PAL was May 25th but Lil Ewok, Daddy's Favorite Princess and I, went out May 18th and planted 7 boxes.  We went camping in the area back in October and thought some of the cities that we went thru on the way home needed letterboxes.

We started off in Vincennes, which is about an hour north of us.  We planted our box in a cemetery near the Indiana Military Museum.  We have not been to this museum but my husband keeps talking about it.  My husband works in Vincennes a lot.

Inside the birdhouse paradise, Loogootee, In

Then we headed east to Washington.  They have a huge park and we panted a box there.  This one may not last very long.  The park was very nice and busy and I just have a feeling that it will be found.  They were having an event the day were there but there were no people in the area that he hid our box.

The next box we planted was in a cemetery right on the highway near Montgomery.  This is Amish country and this was an Amish themed box.  We have eaten at a few of these Amish restaurant and they are very good.

Outside the birdhouse paradise

We discovered the next location when looking at geocaches in the area.  The place is called Birdhouse Paradise in Loogootee.  He has 6,000+ hand painted birdhouses.  His property also has painted rocks, statues, painted trees, bridges, steps, etc.  He says that people come from all over to see his birdhouses; school groups, geocachers, tour buses, etc.  Everyone who stops by gets a free birdhouse.

Fire tower at Martin State Forest

When we left the Birdhouse Paradise we went for lunch at Bo Mac's in Shoals.  We had stopped here in October and thought it needed a box.  We hid a small box in fence and enjoyed some burgers.  Bo Mac's doesn't have a restroom, we used the one at the gas station next door and got some snacks for the road.

We like climbing fire towers and we knew there was one at Martin State Forest just down the road.  It was a short walk from the car to the tower.  We planted the box at the base but had to climb the tower.  Lil Ewok only made it half way but the princess and I went to the top.  I think this fire tower is taller than the ones we have closer to home.  We enjoyed the climb, the view, and the breeze at the top.

Jug Rock, Shoals, In

Because we stopped for lunch we missed one of the placed we wanted to plant at.  We went back and planted a box at Jug Rock in Shoals.  This is an interesting rock formation that the kids liked trying to climb.  We should have did this box first because our legs were so shaky from climbing the fire tower I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.

On PAL Day itself I planted a box in a Little Free Pantry/Blessing Box.  There are no Little Free Libraries on my side of town but I drive by the Blessing Box every day.  I hope to stop by regularly and leave some canned goods.

We had a great time planting our PAL Day boxes.  The weather was beautiful and kids were pretty good.  Unfortunately, my leg muscles ached for 3 days after climbing the fire tower. I also got a small patch of poison ivy on my leg.  My 8 boxes were the only boxes planted in Indiana for PAL Day :(  There was a total of 106 letterboxes planted on PAL Day, which is the worst PAL Day count ever. 

Vincennes Again & Lepidoptera

Caboose at Princeton Train Depot

My letterboxing buddy, G-MA, and I went boxing together on Friday.  About 2 weeks ago someone passing through planted a box in Vincennes.  It is about an hour away so I was not in a big hurry to go get it.  But when MiSs cHiEvOuS nEsS was in town for our recent event she planted a box in Princeton which is half way between Evansville and Vincennes.  I had planned on going for the boxes on Friday and G-MA contacted me to see if we wanted to go together and I said yes.

The Princeton box was at the Princeton Depot.  There is another box here but G-MA and I already had it so we didn't check on it.  We did look around inside the building for a bit a talked with the workers who were not very friendly.

Gibson Co Quilt Square

Gibson County has a trail of quilt squares.  We saw several on out trip and this is the one at the depot.  G-MA thinks I should plant a box at each one.  There are 212!!  I can not do that but I do need to check them out and see if any of them have good hiding spots.  Maybe that can be an idea for next year. I don't know, plant a quilt square once a month?

The box in Vincennes is planted near a running track.  It was a beautiful day so G-MA and I sat at the bleachers and talked for a while.  We ate lunch at a Chinese place in Vincennes and then headed home.

Lepidoptera  II: Question Mark Butterfly

This is my card for the Lepidoptera II tracker.  When I first made the card I really liked it.  But the more I look at it the more I hate it :(

To Vincennes and beyond

Wooden sculpture of Tecumseh

Yesterday I went letterboxing in Vincennes.  I went with my boxing buddy who recently turned 70.  It is great boxing with her because she doesn't give up easily.  She was stung by a hornet on the head while we were out and she really didn't fuss about it.  If it would have been one of my kids we probably would have just turned around and went back home even though we were an hour away.

We started off in Vincennes.  Vincennes is in Knox county on the Wabash River in southwest Indiana.  It was founded in 1732 and is the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in Indiana and one of the oldest settlements west of the Appalachians.  The city has a lot of history and I would love to plant a box there.  For more information you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincennes,_Indiana.

All together we looked for six boxes there and found two (if you count web boxes).  One of the boxes that we could not find was a mystery box planted near the wooden sculpture of Tecumseh.  I was very disappointed that it was missing.  We also when to Ouabache (Wabash) Park.  It was supposed to have 3 boxes.  Two of them were planted by a park ranger in January but we could not find them and no one else has found them either.

George Rogers Clark Memorail

When we left Vincennes we came back south and grabbed a letterbox/geocache hybrid and went on to Mt Carmel, Il.  We found that one and moved on to Bone Gap.  We could not find that one and it was the end of the clues that I brought.

But my boxing buddy took me to one in Albion and she had brought a clue for a box in Fairfield.  We found both of those and started heading for home.  We had dinner at a Subway and made it back to Evansville just before 8pm.

It was a beautiful day to be out letterboxing.  We only found 6 of the 11 boxes we went for but it was so nice to be out and about.