We spent the better part of today tramping around in
the rain-soaked woods of Cherokee County - found 4
boxes and had a wonderful time. It's been ages since
all four of us could get out somewhere together - my
husband, our 15 yo daughter, our 7 yo son, and me - so
it was just what we all needed! My kids and I have
been interested in letterboxing for awhile, but my
husband was a reluctant recruit (although I can't
imagine why - it has all the elements of what he
considers a good time to be!). By the end of the day,
he was full of great ideas for new hiding spots and
clues to go with them. I'm a little worried about all
our erasers coming up missing from our homeschool and
all my butter tubs being appropriated from the
kitchen! I promise, no butter tubs in the woods, but
I do feel a glut of boxes coming on in East Texas!

Silver Eagle and BabyBear have been busy planting
boxes in our area. We found Silver Eagle's Spanish
Flag and BabyBear's Tejas at Mission Tejas - both dry
and in perfect condition. We were the first stamps in
both of these, besides the two of them. Mission Tejas
is always beautiful, no matter what time of year you
go! We did have a close encounter with a coral snake
on our way to one of the boxes - okay, it wasn't
CLOSE, but we did see one, following the trail in
front of us! We stepped a little light through the
area where we saw it disappear, worried that we would
find it again at the box, but apparently it wasn't a
letterboxer - but we should've known that anyway - it
didn't have inky fingers!

We went on to the Caddoan Indian Mounds and found
BabyBear's Stone Celt box. Before heading for the
box, we toured the visitor center and walked the trail
around. The Mounds are technically a State Historic
Site, not a Park. The curators there are excellent
and there always seems to be some sort of
archaeological project going on somewhere on the
grounds. I learn something new about the Caddo
Indians every time I go there! As a bonus today,
there was a small class of students from Rusk who were
touring the Mounds. While my husband and son ventured
to the top of one of the mounds, I talked to the
teacher. The students had signed up for a project to
learn in depth about Indians, learning their ways and
methods, as well as their history and customs. He
told me about a lady in Jacksonville (hey! That's
where WE live!) who is the
great-great-great-great-granddaughter (give or take a
great) of Quanah Parker. As I told him about my son's
interest in Indians and our attempt to begin studying
Native American culture in our home school last year,
he called her and got permission to give me her name
and phone number so we can go visit her - WOW!
Something interesting always happens to us at the
Mounds! We let the class slip past us before we moved
on toward the box, stopping for a snack of water and
homemade bread (my daughter called it prison rations).
As we walked, we could almost visualize the Indian
village that encompassed the area almost 1000 years
ago. We found the box in great condition and stamped
in, once again the first stamps besides Silver Eagle
and Baby Bear.

We headed back toward home, stopping in Rusk at Hogg
State Historic Site to eat another snack and find
another of Baby Bear's boxes - Hogg, named after James
Hogg, the first governor of Texas born in the state.
My son loved that stamp! Before we hit the trail to
find the box, we ate another snack of prison rations
and as we were eating, an absolutely huge tree fell in
the woods, right before our very eyes! We laughingly
hoped it hadn't fallen ON the box, given the recent
discussion about boxes being destroyed by natural
events. We hit the trail and were relieved to
discover that the box was safe from falling timber and
drenching rains - and hidden beautifully, as they all
had been. Once again, we were the first to stamp in.
We were just buttoning everything up again when we had
two groups approaching - one from each side! We broke
out the bread again and had ANOTHER snack, although we
were less enthusiastic about this one (hope no one
finds moldy bread crumbs left behind in the box).
They all passed us by, thinking the telltale
tupperware container was nothing more than our snack.
We decided to go ahead and take the nature trail on
around, and as we reached the innermost part of the
trail, we ran up behind one of the groups who had
passed by us. As we all met on the trail (and our one
boy and their three had to do the human form of
sniff-and-greet), one of the boys in their group
suddenly shouted that he saw a deer. We all turned
around and not ten feet behind us was a young buck,
almost finished losing his spots with down still on
his antlers. The kids all scrambled for food to feed
it (my son grabbed the bread from the backpack - of
course!). Before I could caution them about not
approaching him so that he wouldn't be too familiar
with humans as hunting season gets closer, the deer
walked right up to us! He started rubbing his antlers
against my daughter's hand and wouldn't have any part
of quitting until she had thoroughly scratched his
head. All the boys got to pet him and get a good
close look at him, then the other group moved on. The
buck was still trying to get his head scratched, so we
stayed a moment or two longer. My daughter, ever the
animal lover, wanted to take him home with us. We
told her that if he followed us to the car, we would
take him. Finally, we headed out ourselves, only to
turn around and find him trotting along behind us,
having fallen in just like he was a part of the party.
I was starting to worry we would have to make good on
our word - when will I learn not to make foolish
promises? We finally lost him at a creek. Still
concerned about him being overly familiar with humans,
I mentioned to the park ranger that we had run into an
awfully friendly deer - he told us the deer's name is
Bambino and he thinks he's a dog. He assured me that
Bambino is not likely to leave the park area, and that
if he does, he'll have to cross quite a bit of
concrete before he can get to a hunting ground. As I
thought about it, I realized that is probably true,
but even so. What a shame it would be if he actually
DID leave and he actually DID cross all that
civilization. Hmmmm.

It started to rain, so rather than go for the last box
we wanted to find, we headed toward home. We figured
we'll get that one when we return to plant a couple of
our own.

Now I know I've been a little long-winded, but I
wanted to give anyone in shouting distance of East
Texas the idea of what they are missing by not
visiting the boxes Silver Eagle and Baby Bear have
planted up here. They really are worth the drive, for
the boxes and the scenery and the learning
opportunities!

BarefootLucy

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