I took my wife to her mother's for Thanksgiving in Syracuse. Tuesday
was last-minute shopping and drive down day.

Wednesday I took off for Green Lake Park. No admission fee during the
winter months. The parking lot that's mentioned in "Noodles in a
Basket" is closed for the winter. Instead of turning right at the
ticket station, turn left, park and walk to the other parking lot.
This will add about 1/4 mile to your hike. I found "Noodles" without
a problem. If you're going after "The Gambler" series, there's a
point on the trail where some trees have fallen down. You have to
walk up to the tree, eyeball the path until you find your next
landmark, then cut through the woods until you're back on the path and
backtrack to your landmark. I found "Ace of Spades", "Ace of Clubs",
and "Ace of Hearts". I returned to the car and drove to the Boathouse
parking lot. Unfortunately, I didn't find "Ace of Diamonds" to
complete the set. As a computer systems trouble shooter, I am
extremely literal minded. Poetic clues like "trees that look like the
number eleven" and "the tree with the ugly trunk" are ambiguous to
me. I found "Tom's Letterbox" without a problem. I have to say that
Green Lake has a richer class of pigs than I've met elsewhere. I
always take a litter bag and fill it with whatever trash I find on the
trail. This time, the garbage included empty champagne, cold duck and
brandy bottles.

Thursday was Turkey Day. While the women cooked, I tackled the
"Honeydew" list that my mother-in-law has been writing since Mother's
Day. :D The feast was excellent!

Friday I left for Clark Reservation Park. I found "It's Good for a
Dog Walk" without a problem. I was also First Finder for "Little
Jewel"! Yippee! I was just a little disappointed because "Dog Walk"
was stamped by "Honeymoon HH" with the notation that it was too large
to fit in the box, so they didn't leave it. I returned to the park
entrance to track down the "That Darn Cat" Alice in Wonderland series.
At this point, I would have sworn under oath in court that I was
completely alone in the entire park. The only other car that I had
seen was leaving when I arrived. I found "The White Rabbit" and
discovered "Dolphin HH" sharing it's hiding place! I had a hitchhiker
after all! I went to the picnic bench and opened everything up. At
that point, a small child called out, "Mom! We're not alone in the
park!" and a horde of children descended on me. Literally, descended.
The trail went uphill and they were charging down the hill towards
me! They swarmed around me and began picking up the log books and the
stamps and looking through everything and asking me a thousand
questions. Their parents came down the trail a moment later and
de-swarmed me. :D There were only five children, it just seemed like
a hundred. I spent about twenty minutes explaining what I was doing
and how letterboxing worked. They asked if children could participate
in this and I showed them a stamp in the log book by "Maggie - Age 4".
I handed them several of the info sheets that were in White Rabbit's
box. They said when they got home they would check this out because
it seemed like a good way to keep the kids interested in their hikes.
They continued on down the trail I had come up. Ah, there is a
traveller's box for recruiters, right? Whaddya mean no?!? Oh, well.
I logged into "White Rabbit" returned things to their place and
continued on. I found "March Hare" and logged in. When I continued
on to "Red Queen" I found that portion of the trail had been closed
for the winter. There was a fence across the stairs and it was chained
in place. I checked the rest of the clues to see if any of the others
were on open trails. They weren't.

I returned home and had dinner with my family. After dinner, I
went out to the bar to meet "Alice". See what letterboxing leads to?
Philandering! I was leaving my wife at home and meeting strange women
in bars! :D I have to say it's the easiest letterbox I've ever found.
Because I had arrived just as the place opened, I was alone in the
bar. So I opened the box right on the bar. The bartender didn't have
anything else to do so she watched me. "Did anyone tell you what this
is all about?" "No, I was just told to hand the box to anyone who
asked for Alice. It's some kind of scavenger hunt?" Well, sort of.
I then went on to explain letterboxing for the second time that day.
She also got a handout sheet. :D I left space in my log book for
stamps #3, #4, and #5 in that series and stamped "Alice" in.
The stamps are gorgeous and I strongly recommend this series if you're
ever in Syracuse. I'll be coming back around Mother's Day to get the
ones I missed.

Saturday I was all set to go to Highland Forest. Mother Nature
dropped six inches of snow, sub-zero temperatures and gusts up to 35
mph. I stayed in and finished off the "Honeydew" list. What can I
say, I'm a wussy pirate :D Ah well, Mother's Day is coming.

Sunday we packed up and returned home. I started letterboxing this
past April. Because I live in a letterbox poor environment, I only
had 12 stamps to date. If I gotten onto that last trail, I would
literally have doubled the number of stamps in my log book. Do I still
have "Dolphin HH"? Or did I leave it somewhere in Syracuse? I could
tell you, but then I'd have to make you walk the plank!

-- Dagonell the Pirate
P1 F20 X0 HH2 FF2