> I see that you only planted 2 of the planned letterboxes. What
> happened?>
> Kat :)
(((Kat))), and several others who asked. Here is how our first day
of letterbox hunting went:
Our grandson, Zachary, and I started off this morning around 10:15.
On the way to the Fred Jones Nature Sanctuary, near Portland, to
search for Funpig's P-3 letterbox, we discussed cotton farming.
There were cotton crops all along the way in all states of harvest.
Some were bare stalks, from already being picked, some had been
sprayed with defoliant and were turning brown, while others had
already lost their leaves and were awaiting the picker. Others were
still unsprayed and still others were being covered by the crop
duster as we watched. There was quite a bit of picked cotton on the
roadside that had been lost from the trucks. Zach wanted to stop and
get some, so we did. He got a piece for himself and a piece for me,
so we could add them to our logbooks, since ours have a scrapbooking
slant as well.
Once we got to Portland, we had some little bit of mix up finding
the right road, but found it shortly. Then we drove out of town and
taking a wrong turn, pulled alongside two historical markers. One
was about early farming in the area, but the other was about the
hurricane of 1919. It had been a summertime weekend and the storm
had been out in the Gulf building strength for two weeks. The
lodging along Corpus Christi Bayfront, just across the way, was
filled with vacationers. They were warned that the storm might be
bad, but many were unwilling to cut their last summer weekend short.
On Sunday, September 14 the storm made landfall there and demolished
all structures. The marker said that "It is estimated that as many
as 1000 were killed, although only around 284 bodies were ever found
or noted on official accounts of the time. Many of the bodies were
never identified as whole families perished and so there was no one
to identify them. Nearby oil tanks were breached and the bodies were
also covered in oil, hampering identification.
Many of the bodies washed up near the area of Portland, and so they
were brought to the schoolhouse located at the site of the
historical marker. There they were first buried in what is now a
cotton field. Later the bodies were moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in
Corpus Christi.
I found two interesting webpages about the 1919 hurricane if anyone
wants to learn more.
http://www.geocities.com/baysidehurricanes/1919hurricane.html
http://members.tripod.com/~douglk/flinn/hurricane.htm
After that we turned around to go to the Nature Sanctuary. It was
noon and very hot, but the trail was very thick with trees, bushes
and many other plants and vines that grew overhead as well as all
around us, so the sun did not beam down on us all that much. We
hiked several trails and saw anagua trees, bamboo thickets, Turk's
cap, Spanish olive trees, cat tails, yellow daisies, and many more
interesting plants. I noticed that the Turk's cap bushes were all as
eaten up by White Skipper butterfly larva, as mine are at home.
There were some tall flowers that had dried and gone to seed
sticking out from the path in many places. I wish I could have seen
them when they were growing in the spring, because I would really
like to know what they are. Even dead and gone to seed, they have a
nice form. Many of the trees had identification markers beside
them. As for animals, we heard so many birds calls, and saw two
varieties of butterfly and lots of coyote spoor. There were benches
along the way also. When we came to a bridge, following our second
trail, the first having ended in a dead end, we were both so
excited! We crossed as per the clues and found our first letterbox
P-3, a `Nimble Pig collaboration'.
We sat on a bench to examine the contents. There was a nice
logbook with a rough homemade paper look cover, and a wonderful
stamp inside. I was amazed at the skill and `cleanness' of Funhog's
stamp carving! You might remember that so far, the only hand carved
stamps I had seen were my own! ;) His was truly a beautiful stamp.
Zach and I both stamped ourselves in to the P-3 book, then stamped
the box's stamp into our log books. I also took Zach's photo with
the box.
After a little more hiking and looking at the great variety of
plant life, we headed back to the van and went back into town for
some lunch. THANKS Funhog, for a great first letterbox! :)
We started back towards home, stopping at another location where I
hoped to plant the `normal' sized letterbox I prepared. That hike
was much hotter, as it was partially on a cement paved hiking trail,
and the plant life was mowed in wide swaths back from the sides of
the path. Eventually, we ran out of sidewalk, and continued on for
45 minutes in the blazing sun halfway around a lake. There were
several piers into the water, but still, we found no place suitable
for the letterbox.
We came upon a large flock of snowy egrets, resting along the
water and in the trees, which flew up and around after we startled
them, eventually settling back down where they had been. As for
other animals, we saw a cardinal and a frog and again lots of coyote
spoor.
The heat and sun got to us, and when we got back to the car with
the prepared letterbox still with us, we again started down the
highway for home, not stopping in the park to look for hiding places
for the micro-boxes that I had also hoped to hide there today.
After getting some distance away, I pulled off the road to a rest
stop to a place I had also thought about checking for a hiding spot
for one of my letterboxes. There was another historical marker in
that area, and we were fascinated by what it said. I had better luck
in that area as far as finding hiding places for my micro-boxes, and
so planted my first too. Zachary took my picture by the historical
marker, and then we sped home, tired but happy.
Tomorrow my son and I are probably going to a different area to
hopefully plant the rest of my letterboxes. As soon as I get them
all planted, I will post clues.
So how did your day go, Kat?
Wanda (Busy Bee)