Boxing Weekend

Well, I've discovered that boxing with my family can be a drag. They actually want to take breaks during the day and do silly things like eat!!

We left Thursday evening to get to our family cabin. We got up early Friday morning, went out for a big country breakfast (which, I assumed, would hold them all day) and then set out letterboxing. We hit two boxes at Anthony, WV on the Greenbrier River Trail. The first one was a combination letterbox and geocache. In it we found a treasure, and we left and exchange for it. When hubby was retrieving the box he got into some poison ivy. So, we headed down to the river so he could wash off, but he found some jewelweed, so he rubbed down with that. We went after the second box, and it was also near poison ivy. Hubby avoided it when he retrieved the box, but when he put it back he got into it, so more jewelweed was located! I'm writing this on Tuesday, and this was on Friday, and so far he hasn't broke out with a rash, so jewelweed works real well -- and here is a tip, you can almost always find it around poison ivy. While retreiving this box and stamping in, a black labrador puppy discovered us and wanted to get in the middle of what we were doing. I wouldn't have minded so much, but he had been doing what labs do best -- playing in the water. Ehw -- wet doggie!

From there we went up the road a ways to the Blue Bend park. We went on a hike for the box there. Hubby said it was about 2/3 of a mile one way, so I got my exercise in (a way for making up missing my Curves workout that day :) After that the natives started grumbling about food. We just ate 2 hours ago, what's up with this?? So we travelled to the nearest town, the place where we needed to pick up our next route to take us to VA. Hubby said, there is a store, let's go in there because it will be cheaper than eating at Hardee's. So, we went into the grocery store and left $45 later! Twelve dollars of that was fireworks (something that wouldn't have been there to tempt us in Hardee's.) They got things like chicken, fruit, etc. I got trail mix and jerky. Pack light, keep moving!!

From there we hit Route 60 to get to I-64 to pick up the VA Welcome Center box. Boy, that place was Grand Central Station! Fortunately we were able to drive right up to the box and do some normal activities to cover our retrieval of it. From there we headed for the Humpback Bridge box. This one had a note on it saying that the logbook was waterlogged, so I had come prepared to replace it. Well, when we got there, the clues were a little sketchy. We went one direction, and the spot was covered in poison ivy. Hubby had had his fill of PI that day and absolutely refused. I got a stick and poked and dug around in the spot but didn't feel or see anything. We walked in the opposite direction, and this section of fencing was covered in some kind of bush. Hubby did not feel inclined to crawl under the bush and hunt. What's up with this? Soldiers are supposed to be into this thing. I guess it is true -- my Marine is just getting old and cantankerous. We did cross the bridge (not in use for vehicles anymore) to appease our son.

From there we went to Hot Springs to find the 2 Brothers box. It was a drive-by, basically. At this point the natives were about ready to mutiny. My son asked "Is that the last box?" with a pleading tone, not a disappointed one like I would have liked to have heard. I reluctantly said, "Yeah" and headed for the cabin. I knew my Mom and brother had been at the cabin since at least 11am and at 4pm would be starting the pizza, so it was time to wrap up the day anyway. I at least have two left in VA for next time. The last one was a Confederate camp interpretative trail, so I'd probably want to spend most of the day there anyway.

On our way home on Sunday, I had several boxes picked out to hunt for. Out of the 8 sets of clues I had, we only found 4. One was MIA, and the other three were a little out of the way. We spent a lot of time at one location too. But I met my goal -- I wanted to hit 10 finds on Atlas Quest. I'm up to 16, so now I'm chomping at the bit to get it up to 20.