What's With The Bugs?!?!?

So, first it was the fat, hairy spider that landed on my face on our first letterboxing trek.

Then it was the popping tick that I pulled off Roxy~ Eeew!

Today, I'm pulling out a left over bagged ball of Zephyr from my knitting bag and find something slimey land into my hand. I'm looking at it closely, thinking it kinda looks like a large, sliced kalamata olive and what the hell would it be doing in my knitting?!? It still skeeves me out since I really have no idea. I'm just about to drop it into Randy's palm while exclaiming "Ew, its slimey!" when Randy pulls away from me. I fling it into the kitchen sink where he informs me its a SLUG!! what the freak?!?! what in the world is a slug hanging around my knitting bag for?!?!? Oh my god, it was so gross! I'm really not afraid of bugs, but it's entirely different when you come in contact at the most unlikeliest of places!

Of course, Randy took the opportunity to share with Ant what happens when you dump salt on a slug. Oh, family times!

CFLLB Winter Gathering '08

We drove out to Moss Park in Orlando yesterday for the gathering. We had an absolute blast! It was so great hanging out with other people and families that also letterbox. We learned a lot of the ropes that are involved with these gatherings and will be better prepared next time.

I got several personal travelers,but didn't realize I should have printed out the clues and brought them with me. People that carry PT's don't exactly tell you what you're supposed to do~ you just need to figure it out. Sometimes it's as easy as asking a question. Other times you have to perform a feat or answer a riddle. I had answers to many clues that I had previously researched, but could have done much better. oh well, now we know for next time.

There were also Hide n' Seek boxes which were hidden right under our noses. Like literally hidden amongst the food! Some were passed to me without my even knowing it! Absolutely crazy! You just never know where you'll find a box!

The people there were very friendly and outgoing. We felt like a welcomed part of the group. Even Anthony had a great time since there were tons of kids there. There were a few other newbies there as well as people who have been letterboxing for many, many years! We'll definitely be going to the gathering in April as well.

Back to the Grind!

After being off for two weeks, sadly I have to return to work tomorrow! I'm not too happy about it! I got used to having all day to trek around town searching for letterboxes and caches. Now what?!? ARgh! I'm sure I'll have a rough night trying to sleep~ it always happens when I have to return to work from a break. I worry about missing the alarm clock or it simply not going off at all.

Oh well, what can you do?!?

CFLB

stands for Central Florida Letter Boxers!
We've joined the group and are going to attend their Winter Gathering which is at Moss Park in Orlando next Saturday. We can't wait! Tons of personal travelers, boxes, and cooties to catch! Should be lots of fun~ the boys are excited!

My New Crack!

Geocaching is quickly becoming a second addiction with letterboxing. What's nice is that there are a bagillion more caches than there are letterboxes. Although, I have to admit it's much trickier than letterboxing, and you don't get any cool stamps to log. The first day we went out was pretty difficult. Many caches are micros. Could be anything from small metal bison tubes to 35mm film canister. Of course all the ones that are super close to our house are of the micro type. We found the first one right away which gave us a false sense of "WeCanDoThis!" We couldn't find any of the rest after that! We had to go home and download new coordinates for slightly larger caches located in Lake Park. Of the 4 sets of coords, we found 3. Not bad. This was Monday.

Yesterday, Ant and I went out. He was quite a trooper considering the cold weather. We hiked down the Upper Tampa Bay Trail to our first locale which was a bust. Moved to the second one which we must have been on top of but still couldn't find. Backtracked for a 3rd which was really off the trail. We got to a point in the woods where we'd have to cross a wooden plank over the creek. Ant didn't like this too much, so we decided to nix it. We went box to spot #1 where a little more thinking put us in the tree we started but in the right place and VOILA! we got one. We found one more on the trail that day. Then we headed behind a local gas station. We were trying to be stealth and inconspicuous as a pizza delivery boy was getting in his car. He has obviously seen other cachers because he told us we were warm and needed to look down! Great hint! We found another. We went to 4 more locations~ only finding 2 caches. But we did pick up another geo-coing along the way.

Surprisingly, Ant asked me if it was too cold to go geocaching today! I asked if he really wanted to and he said yeah! So, off we went. We found 3 (all of which were really easy!) but we had been out searching for 5 others as well :o( At one spot, I think we were on the wrong side of the fence (i'm gonna try again tomorrow). Another one was in the woods behind a strip plaza. It was laden with trash and I had busted my ass back there at one point. I felt nervous having Ant back there so we left. One was at a Walgreens and I'm sure we were in the right spot, but couldn't find it. Didn't help that someone parked and sat in their car right next to us. We headed for a cache next to Sonny's, where unfortunately, 2 police cars were parked nearby~ not getting in trouble with the law while hanging out with my 7yo!

When Randy got home, we headed out and found 5 more (not the 5 we were looking for earlier). 8 for the day! not bad!

Tomorrow I'm going out to hit the trail again. There are 9 at various points on the trail. I figure it'll be a good way to get some fresh air and exercise. If I get an early enough start, I can also try some of the places we missed in the past couple days. Some of which we were so close to it pisses me off!

Addicting! Very addicting!