It’s been a full week (now more) since we attended the” "O" Boxer Where Art Thou?” event at Hickory Run State Park. I’ll start at the beginning of our trip (how original huh) because all of our activities added to the fact that I needed a day or two of vacation time after this adventure.
Our crew consisted of feralgyrl, Angrist, and the HolyCowboys with break out member D-SuperFly. We chose to caravan down Route 80. Hey what’s a road trip if we don’t all stick together? We made a few needed stops along the way because of the high liquid consumption one has. One of our breaks gave us the chance to look for the I-80 Walk in the Woods cache on an abandoned train bed behind one of the rest stops. After the quick breaks we continued on down 80 and pulled off into Hazelton PA to search out some Mexican food for dinner. Mexican food has been a passion of the group since the day we surprisingly met feralgyrl and Angist out in north western PA when we were on separate adventures. We happened to both stop at the same Mexican restaurant. How cool! Well we finally found Juan Pedros Cantina in Hazelton after making a few wrong turns to find ourselves at the right spot. Seems the city officials have change the name of the streets from block to block but that’s another story altogether. Our meal was quite satisfying compared to the service we received. I guess the social skills of some people vary depending on the distance you are from home. We left full and content and that’s all that mattered.
We rolled into the Hickory Run a few hours before nightfall and proceeded to being setting up our camp sites. Might I add the “Angrist loves the camping.” Our setup process was compromised by a sudden rain shower (that lasted for several hours) causing us to choose what was important or not. It seems that casually relaxing by the campfire was not going to be an option this evening so we all turned in early. We fell asleep to the consistent lightning bolts and thunder claps. How would we fair during the next few hours?
The next morning we were presented with blue skies and damp sleeping bags. Despite the tarp coverage the rain was able to sneak into the tent. The good morning weather was able to cheer us up and dry things out rather quickly. The blueberry pancakes that Angrist and ferylgrl whipped up also helped!
After getting freshen
ed up as best one can while camping we headed off to the boxing event. This was to be out first Letterboxing event so we proceeded with a bit of caution ;) towards the event pavilion. We were immediately met by Pink Panther (Pink as I called her) and LightningBug. They gave us a super welcome providing us all the needed direction to our new surroundings. Pink showing us the all the event
components in the pavilion and LightningBug showing us one of the stages of the orienteering (Letterbox course) nearby. So here we were knee deep in the middle of the event. What to do first? I chose to sit back and absorb the surroundings from the parameter while Angrist and ferylgrl jumped into the middle of the feeding frenzy. While we got a bite to eat we were approach by a variety of boxers asking us for stamp trades, and a bit of information as to who were and where we were from. It seemed that this group of Geocachers was being accepted into the world of Letterboxing with open arms. After the initial frenzy (we found several that day) we broke off to work the orienteering course. We found several other boxers on the course. 
We met up with the Magical Music Man (MMM) and his father right off the bat. It was interesting to see how others worked the different stages. Each of us had our own way of inking up and it was nice to see how everyone did it. MMM had a fancy ink pad which my wife and I were interested in. ;) We now have the same one! Traversing the remaining stages we also me Maple Leaf Red who mentioned that since we met on the trail we were able to receive her personal traveler stamp. “Are you going to be at the after event” she asked? “We can exchange stamps there.” We completed all the stages of the orienteering course that were part of the day’s event and headed back to the pavilion. This was possibly the 3rd frenzy of the day. Everyone who we did not meet earlier was met and stamps were exchanged. It was quite the fun time meeting new people, trading stamps and working the orienteering course.
After the initial event we went back to the campsite to regroup (consume a barley soda or two) before going out to 
grab a quick cache in the park and rock hop on the bolder field. A visit to the odd rock conglomerate in the bolder field was part of the Earth Cache was also visited. We posed for pictures and headed off for a well deserved dinner at Pink’s campsite.
Frenzy 3, 4, or 5….I lost count somewhere today…or did we ever slow down?
We found site 132 (I think that was the one) where many of the boxers had gathered for the evening. Since we arrived late everyone got to see us cook up some venison burgers (with blue cheese and red pepper) on the grill. Laura even took one back with her and that has its own story. Make sure you ask her all the details on that one. Plenty of sides were also available on the table. Small talk was had by us all. Angrist somehow got himself into a conversation about Geocaching with a bunch of Letter boxers. I’m not exactly sure what the topic was but he was smiling and the others weren’t throwing stamps at him so it must have been good. As it started getting darker D-SuperFly ran up to me and said he found something in the woods. “What are you talking about” I asked? “It’s a treasure box or something Dad” he replied. I went with him and he showed me the container which turned out to be a letterbox. Seems D-SuperFly had seen Pink floating about in the wood so he tracked her and found one of her night caches before she announced they we ready for us to go look for. Shortly thereafter she announced that all the night boxes had been set and anyone who was interested should go look for them. Plenty of seats were available at the campfire now. D-SuperFly got the night boxing bug so off we went to see what we could find in the dark. This was a completely different experience than we had had looking for boxes in the daylight. How fun! After that I was spent….completely exhausted so I found a nice spot by the fire to sit and chat with Mapleleaf Red’s husband and kids. Oh and anyone else who was willing to come close enough to me. After a while we figured it was time to call it a day and turn in. We rambled off to our campsite and fell asleep without too much effort.
I got up earlier than expected the next morning to find gray sky’s again. We were supposed to make our special scrambled eggs for Angrist and feralgyrl but I needed to get cleaned up a bit. 
They of course were already up and packing up their stuff. I trotted off to the bathroom. I was in the process of putting my head under the faucet when I overheard a few other campers talking about a storm cell that was going to hit the area in the next hour. I quickly finished up and ran back to our camp while a slight drizzle was starting to fall. Remember Kenny loves the camping! I let everyone else know what was going to happen and we decided to break camp as quickly as possible. 15 minutes later the rain started to fall harder. No, the guy in the bathroom said an hour. Guess his watch stopped during the night. We got the site packed up in record time. I knew I would be drying out tarps and tents on my front lawn as soon as we got back home.
We left the campground as the other poor soles just starting to move about. 
Off we headed to find breakfast at the closet place. Our special eggs would have to wait till another day. We found a diner in one of the local towns. Seems this was a hotbed for kayaking since just about every 
car had some large plastic suppository looking thing tied to the roof. We entered the diner to find we would get the next table. Again out waitperson lacked the social skills we expected but the food was top notch and the coffee was plentiful. When we were finished we had to fight to get the bill. Again strange ways in Eastern PA .
After breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed off down route 80. I must say I think we all had a great time at the event. And despite the rain the camping was not to bad either. After all Kenny love the camping.
Man life sucks! But at least I can blog about it! No caching, letterboxing or hiking in the woods for anywhere from 1-6 weeks. Last week I stepped in a hole, rolled my foot tearing the ligaments inside. Oh what a lovely popping sound they made. This all happened as I was walking into Central Parklet. Man that place is dangerous. I don't suggest going there unless you are the adventurous type ready to risk life and limb. You can see a slight depression in the ground in the provided picture but it really does not show the hole or uneven ground to well. It's really disguised by the grass and weeds.
So what am I supposed to do beside blog (whine) about my foot. Well I got a good Mob book called "The Ice Man - Confessions of a Contract Killer", the remote, and portable phone next to the lazyboy. If I am not reading or watching TV I am wasting time on a new Web 2.0 technology called PMOG-Passively Multiplayer Online Game. One good thing from all this is I have had plenty of time to research and plan out some clever puzzle caches. Man someone else has to feel my pain and what better way than channeling my agony into caches. I'm kidding but it sounded good.
