Southern Ill Boxing Adventures

Moonshine, Ill

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:

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 :'(

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 :)