Just got back home from a little bike ride over to Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Managed to plant three boxes...
"Beware The Ninja Mafia".
"Celtic Tribal Flame", and
"Celtic Tree of Life" are all now available for finding! :D
(P.S... Those who seek Celtic Tribal Flame MIGHT benefit waiting a wee bit before searching for it... :D Or at least save themselves a second trip...)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
A Mass. Bunny Suicides Road Trip
Last Tuesday, whilst BfloAnonChick and I were out and about in Lancaster letterboxing, she told me about a series of boxes that had been planted that day in Massachusetts. The series is called 'The Bunny Suicides', which for those who are unfamiliar, are a set of books by artist Andy Riley. More info can be found here, but basically, they are a series of images of cute, fluffy little bunnies that just don't want to live anymore. As a result, they set themselves up to die in interesting ways.
Some of you may be familiar with the books and images because of Kitten Without Mitten's 'A Morbid Affair' event back in 2007, which was entirely focused around these books and those images. BfloAnonChick has been aching to get a lot of those Bunny Suicides stamps from that event, but alas, many are retired, and many are simply missing, leaving her with only two or three still in place, and a whole bunch of Bunny boxes filling up her search screen and teasing her :DThis brings us to why she was telling me about the new 6-box series that was recently planted. Knowing her affinity for road trips and her desire to have bunny boxes in her book, I innocently suggested a Bunny Suicides Mass. trip. After some intial amusement and debate over gas money, it was decided that this was a doable idea.
So, yesterday morning I found myself waking up at 3am and getting ready to go to Massachusetts on my first random letterboxing road trip. Bag packed, BfloAnonChick picked me up shortly after 4am, and we headed out on the road.
We made brief stops in Pembroke, NY to snag Turkeyfeathers' box 'Play Ball!', Syracuse, NY for one of Lock Wench's 'Leprechaun's Revenge' series boxes, box #5, and Canajoharie, NY for GreatBigSeabres' box 'Anime Bikini Babe'.
It was at one of these rest stops where I stopped to take my first random picture of the day; as a huge Nintendo fan, I couldn't help but want a shot of this pickup truck and trailer I spotted as we were getting ready to leave.
Once over the border, BfloAnonChick was quick to find a service area to pull over at in order to buy out a store's supply of Vanilla Crack-er, I mean, Coke. It seems that it's her favorite flavor, but very rarely makes appearances in our hometown of Buffalo, NY. So anytime she heads out of state to the Northeast, she makes sure to buy a supply to subsist on for a while at home.
While there, we also stopped and found our first Massachusetts box for the day (my first MA box ever), Arf!'s 'Lee Plaza'.
A
fter the long drive, we arrived in Holyoke, Massachusetts somewhere around noonish, and drove ourselves to the McLean Water Reservoir, where our desired boxes reside. We packed our bags, grabbed our clues and drinks, and headed off to the trail to get our Bunny boxes.
Despite the sign saying no trespassing, apparently hiking and walking are permitted, which is great, because it's a great hike with a nice little view. The 6 box series takes you around the whole water reservoir, the whole trail is very flat and straightforward, and a great spot for these boxes.
The series doesn't take long at all to do (the planter, nosox, only left a logbook in the final box for the series) and the images are well carved and seriously funny.
In addition, each of the stamps was labeled on the back with more than just an arrow indicating which was was up- each had it's own cute little fluffy bunny! Both BfloAnonChick and I were so amused by this we had to take pictures.
And, as we discovered when we found the final box and logged in, we got to be First Finders! Which was exciting, considering we were from out of state and the boxes were 4-5 days old :D
After we finished up with the Bunny Suicides, we crammed back into the car and headed over to Mt. Tom, looking to go after a few boxes there. However, as we were driving over to find Mt. Tom, a wrong turn luckily took us past an interesting sign, which we had to pull out and check out.
Dinosaur Footprints? How cool! So we stopped the car, went over to read the information bulletin board, and walked down the short trail to the rocks in which dinosaur footprints are forever left impressed into.
A pretty cool random find, if I do say so myself :D I snapped a few shots of a footprint as well as a shot of a set of footprints colored in with chalk.
Once we found Mt. Tom, onward we headed, onward and upward...and upward...and upward. Turns out, when BfloAnonChick printed the clues to these boxes, she hadn't quite grasped the magnitude of the incline for the hike, so by the time we were at about a mile, we were ready to stop and crash.
Luckily for us, we weren't the only boxers to feel that way :D Emajn5 had gone after the same boxes some time before us, and on the way back down, planted one for letterboxers such as us. So it was there we stopped for our first (and only) box at Mt. Tom, 'Mt. Tom - On The Fly'. After a slight rest to regain energy and our breathe, we turned around and headed back down, stopping only to plant a letterbox of my own for other letterboxers seeking these series to find (and hopefully give them a quick respite from the incline). As such, my new box 'Blue Rose and a Knotted Heart' can now be found on route for 'On The Fly' as well as 'Castles In The Air #4'.
At this point, we were tired and starving, so we headed back to the car and over to Red Robin to scarf some food, and made a pit stop at a Barnes and Noble before hitting the highway once more to head home.
En route back, we stopped for four more boxes: Arf!'s 'Highway Robbery!' (Blanford, Mass), GreatBigSeabres' 'Slow Poke'in Verona, NY, and Turkeyfeathers' boxes 'Kidnapped' (Victor, NY) and 'Magic Eraser' (Henrietta, NY).
Shortly before one of those last two boxes, we pulled over for a rest, as we'd had an exhausting day. BfloAnonChick was all tuckered out :D
Tired, we eventually pulled back into Buffalo and got home around 1:30am, bringing our total box finds for the day to 15 (slightly less for BfloAnonChick, who already had several of the rest stop boxes, but who was letting me get them). But a highly successful random letterboxing road trip, indeed!
Some of you may be familiar with the books and images because of Kitten Without Mitten's 'A Morbid Affair' event back in 2007, which was entirely focused around these books and those images. BfloAnonChick has been aching to get a lot of those Bunny Suicides stamps from that event, but alas, many are retired, and many are simply missing, leaving her with only two or three still in place, and a whole bunch of Bunny boxes filling up her search screen and teasing her :DThis brings us to why she was telling me about the new 6-box series that was recently planted. Knowing her affinity for road trips and her desire to have bunny boxes in her book, I innocently suggested a Bunny Suicides Mass. trip. After some intial amusement and debate over gas money, it was decided that this was a doable idea.
So, yesterday morning I found myself waking up at 3am and getting ready to go to Massachusetts on my first random letterboxing road trip. Bag packed, BfloAnonChick picked me up shortly after 4am, and we headed out on the road.
We made brief stops in Pembroke, NY to snag Turkeyfeathers' box 'Play Ball!', Syracuse, NY for one of Lock Wench's 'Leprechaun's Revenge' series boxes, box #5, and Canajoharie, NY for GreatBigSeabres' box 'Anime Bikini Babe'.
It was at one of these rest stops where I stopped to take my first random picture of the day; as a huge Nintendo fan, I couldn't help but want a shot of this pickup truck and trailer I spotted as we were getting ready to leave.
Once over the border, BfloAnonChick was quick to find a service area to pull over at in order to buy out a store's supply of Vanilla Crack-er, I mean, Coke. It seems that it's her favorite flavor, but very rarely makes appearances in our hometown of Buffalo, NY. So anytime she heads out of state to the Northeast, she makes sure to buy a supply to subsist on for a while at home.While there, we also stopped and found our first Massachusetts box for the day (my first MA box ever), Arf!'s 'Lee Plaza'.
A
fter the long drive, we arrived in Holyoke, Massachusetts somewhere around noonish, and drove ourselves to the McLean Water Reservoir, where our desired boxes reside. We packed our bags, grabbed our clues and drinks, and headed off to the trail to get our Bunny boxes.Despite the sign saying no trespassing, apparently hiking and walking are permitted, which is great, because it's a great hike with a nice little view. The 6 box series takes you around the whole water reservoir, the whole trail is very flat and straightforward, and a great spot for these boxes.
The series doesn't take long at all to do (the planter, nosox, only left a logbook in the final box for the series) and the images are well carved and seriously funny.
In addition, each of the stamps was labeled on the back with more than just an arrow indicating which was was up- each had it's own cute little fluffy bunny! Both BfloAnonChick and I were so amused by this we had to take pictures.
And, as we discovered when we found the final box and logged in, we got to be First Finders! Which was exciting, considering we were from out of state and the boxes were 4-5 days old :D
After we finished up with the Bunny Suicides, we crammed back into the car and headed over to Mt. Tom, looking to go after a few boxes there. However, as we were driving over to find Mt. Tom, a wrong turn luckily took us past an interesting sign, which we had to pull out and check out.
Dinosaur Footprints? How cool! So we stopped the car, went over to read the information bulletin board, and walked down the short trail to the rocks in which dinosaur footprints are forever left impressed into.
A pretty cool random find, if I do say so myself :D I snapped a few shots of a footprint as well as a shot of a set of footprints colored in with chalk.
Once we found Mt. Tom, onward we headed, onward and upward...and upward...and upward. Turns out, when BfloAnonChick printed the clues to these boxes, she hadn't quite grasped the magnitude of the incline for the hike, so by the time we were at about a mile, we were ready to stop and crash.
Luckily for us, we weren't the only boxers to feel that way :D Emajn5 had gone after the same boxes some time before us, and on the way back down, planted one for letterboxers such as us. So it was there we stopped for our first (and only) box at Mt. Tom, 'Mt. Tom - On The Fly'. After a slight rest to regain energy and our breathe, we turned around and headed back down, stopping only to plant a letterbox of my own for other letterboxers seeking these series to find (and hopefully give them a quick respite from the incline). As such, my new box 'Blue Rose and a Knotted Heart' can now be found on route for 'On The Fly' as well as 'Castles In The Air #4'.
At this point, we were tired and starving, so we headed back to the car and over to Red Robin to scarf some food, and made a pit stop at a Barnes and Noble before hitting the highway once more to head home.
En route back, we stopped for four more boxes: Arf!'s 'Highway Robbery!' (Blanford, Mass), GreatBigSeabres' 'Slow Poke'in Verona, NY, and Turkeyfeathers' boxes 'Kidnapped' (Victor, NY) and 'Magic Eraser' (Henrietta, NY).
Shortly before one of those last two boxes, we pulled over for a rest, as we'd had an exhausting day. BfloAnonChick was all tuckered out :D
Tired, we eventually pulled back into Buffalo and got home around 1:30am, bringing our total box finds for the day to 15 (slightly less for BfloAnonChick, who already had several of the rest stop boxes, but who was letting me get them). But a highly successful random letterboxing road trip, indeed!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Back from the dead
Yes, that's right. CQ has risen from the grave. Letterboxing-wise, anyway.
After a nearly two year coma as far as lettesboxing was concerned (excluding carving stamps, which I never rally stopped doing), I'm hitting the trails with a fury once more. In the few short weeks since the WNY event at the end of August, I've found over a hundred and fifty letterboxes, and planted 2 (as well as gotten several more ready to plant, carved even more, and passed a kong several boxes for others to plant for me).
Yeah, it's been a fairly letterboxing-intensive few weeks.
And I'll have you all know that it's largely due to the efforts of one very enthusiastic boxer by the name of BfloAnonChick, who has become my letterboxing partner extraordinaire. Besids providing transportation (of which I've lacked over the last yeear or so), she's super convincing at getting my lazy ass out there :) Her enthusiasm is rather inspiring.
So, needless to say, there may be more posts to this blog from now on in the future. :)
Sone highlights of my letterboxing jaunts over the last few weeks include:
-getting Falling Leaves' 'Children's Books' series out near UB, as well as several other area boxes
-planting two letterboxes near my new apartment in the city, 'Trapped!' and a mystery box, 'When The World Comes Down'
-heading out to the L.O.S.T. Event in Elmira, NY with BfloAnonChick and GreatBigSeabres, getting over 50 boxes in one day there, including the 'Haunting Woodlawn' series, which also allowed me to visit Mark Twain's grave
Keep your eyes peeled...more boxes to be planted soon, more posts to make!
"Well...one more box?"
After a nearly two year coma as far as lettesboxing was concerned (excluding carving stamps, which I never rally stopped doing), I'm hitting the trails with a fury once more. In the few short weeks since the WNY event at the end of August, I've found over a hundred and fifty letterboxes, and planted 2 (as well as gotten several more ready to plant, carved even more, and passed a kong several boxes for others to plant for me).
Yeah, it's been a fairly letterboxing-intensive few weeks.
And I'll have you all know that it's largely due to the efforts of one very enthusiastic boxer by the name of BfloAnonChick, who has become my letterboxing partner extraordinaire. Besids providing transportation (of which I've lacked over the last yeear or so), she's super convincing at getting my lazy ass out there :) Her enthusiasm is rather inspiring.
So, needless to say, there may be more posts to this blog from now on in the future. :)
Sone highlights of my letterboxing jaunts over the last few weeks include:
-getting Falling Leaves' 'Children's Books' series out near UB, as well as several other area boxes
-planting two letterboxes near my new apartment in the city, 'Trapped!' and a mystery box, 'When The World Comes Down'
-heading out to the L.O.S.T. Event in Elmira, NY with BfloAnonChick and GreatBigSeabres, getting over 50 boxes in one day there, including the 'Haunting Woodlawn' series, which also allowed me to visit Mark Twain's grave
Keep your eyes peeled...more boxes to be planted soon, more posts to make!
"Well...one more box?"
Friday, May 18, 2007
A Morbid Mini-Quest
So, last week, Falling Leaves, Kitten without Mittens and myself headed back out to Ellicott Creek Park to collect a few of the Morbid Affair boxes that we hadn't gotten at the event (namely Chadams' boxes and a few by Lock Wench). Kitten and her mother were busy during the event exchanging, stamping and overall just chatting and never got a chance to pick up the boxes planted by those two, and since I spent the majority of the event time over at UBCon gaming, neither did I.
We didn't feel it was right to leave those boxes unfound by the hosters of the event, so we packed up our 'boxing stuff and drove out there. The first thing we did upon arrival at the park was to check on a few of Kitten's boxes that were remaining in the park. Namely, The Joust, Violation: Improper Use of Gnomes, and Hara-Kiri for Two are still there and in good condition. We also went over and checked the tree where Fish Food was planted, because we realized it wasn't in the bunch of boxes that were pulled after the event. We were quite disappointed that it wasn't still in the tree and had no clue what happened to it. (Thankfully, I found it later in the week amongst the stuff we brought home with us- it had been misplaced.)
Happy that those boxes were still in place, we pulled out our clues to Chadam's boxes and set off. We searched for a good fifteen minutes for Bunnies Are a Real Scream, but had no luck. (A later email to Chadams reveals we may have been searching in the wrong area- so, we'll be back!) However, our quick hike for Evil Bunnies Love to Dance was fruitful, and we sat down in the middle of the trail to stamp in, letting a group of walkers pass us with their dogs. One of them even made a comment ("Find what you were looking for?") that made us think it wasn't the first time they'd run into letterboxers on this trail :D
After this, we had to change locations, since Lock Wench's boxes were not planted within Ellicott Creek Park, but in a nearby 'mystery' location. This would technically be our 'second' try for these boxes (or rather, one of them), since we had previously attempted to find just ONE of these boxes a week or so previously. Unfortunately for us then, Falling Leaves had only written down PART of the clue. This part of the clue was very helpful for finding the PLACE where the boxes were planted, but not so much the actual boxes' locations. Today, however, we were armed with the full text of all the clues. We were able to drive right into the area where the boxes were planted, which was rather nice since it was a little chilly out, so we could just bring the boxes right into the van to stamp.
Our first box to hunt in this area was Bunny Kill, which the Wenchy one tells us is based on a cartoon video online. Well, it was rather well hidden, and I managed to JUST miss seeing it on my first search. So, Kitten popped out of the van and came with me along the edge of the fence, searching other possible hiding spots. I guess we quickly got frustrated because pinecones started flying :D Eventually, we came back to the first place we looked and discovered the very well-placed box.
Our search for Death Bunny - Master of Disguise was short and sweet- we found it right were it was supposed to be. Or, rather, Falling Leaves and Kitten found it; I thought I saw something through the bushes near the water, and went bushwacking to see what it was. So, a few moments after they yelled 'We got it!', I emerged from the bushes carrying my prize- a lost oar.
Yeah, an oar. A little beat up but otherwise intact. What a neat thing! I just had to bring it with me. Of course, I probably looked a little odd walking around a cemetary with that thing...especially with how it's shaped :P
Next up: Necronomiconey. This one took a few minutes- we actually scoured the WHOLE area before finding the most helpful clue, but once we spotted it, the rest fell into place.
Our last box for the evening was Donnie Dies, which actually took us past the time that the cemetary closed. We realized this because someone drove it, and closed the gate! Luckily, that guy drove through the whole cemetary to make sure there were no other motor vehicle visitors in the cemetary before he finished. Also fortunate for us, we found the box JUST before he made it to us, and we ended up driving back out of the cemetary so he could lock up with the box still in our possession. Parked outside, we stamped in and packed it back up, only to have the man who was locking up drive back over to us and ask "Did you find it?"
Apparently, this guy not only knows about the letterboxes in the cemetary, but even knows where they all are. Good for him. Anyway, Falling Leaves ended up taking the box back to it's hiding spot while Kitten and myself discussed some boxes we are planning to plant.
And, much to my satisfaction, we ended the evening by heading down the street to the Shannon Pub, where we bought ourselves some tasty food to fill our empty bellies.
I had a lovely shepard's pie. Two, in fact :D
And that's it for today's post. I hopefully will come back tonight or tomorrow and add a picture or two- and future posts will hopefully have pictures as well. (Except the next one- don't have any from the event :P)
CQ
We didn't feel it was right to leave those boxes unfound by the hosters of the event, so we packed up our 'boxing stuff and drove out there. The first thing we did upon arrival at the park was to check on a few of Kitten's boxes that were remaining in the park. Namely, The Joust, Violation: Improper Use of Gnomes, and Hara-Kiri for Two are still there and in good condition. We also went over and checked the tree where Fish Food was planted, because we realized it wasn't in the bunch of boxes that were pulled after the event. We were quite disappointed that it wasn't still in the tree and had no clue what happened to it. (Thankfully, I found it later in the week amongst the stuff we brought home with us- it had been misplaced.)
Happy that those boxes were still in place, we pulled out our clues to Chadam's boxes and set off. We searched for a good fifteen minutes for Bunnies Are a Real Scream, but had no luck. (A later email to Chadams reveals we may have been searching in the wrong area- so, we'll be back!) However, our quick hike for Evil Bunnies Love to Dance was fruitful, and we sat down in the middle of the trail to stamp in, letting a group of walkers pass us with their dogs. One of them even made a comment ("Find what you were looking for?") that made us think it wasn't the first time they'd run into letterboxers on this trail :D
After this, we had to change locations, since Lock Wench's boxes were not planted within Ellicott Creek Park, but in a nearby 'mystery' location. This would technically be our 'second' try for these boxes (or rather, one of them), since we had previously attempted to find just ONE of these boxes a week or so previously. Unfortunately for us then, Falling Leaves had only written down PART of the clue. This part of the clue was very helpful for finding the PLACE where the boxes were planted, but not so much the actual boxes' locations. Today, however, we were armed with the full text of all the clues. We were able to drive right into the area where the boxes were planted, which was rather nice since it was a little chilly out, so we could just bring the boxes right into the van to stamp.
Our first box to hunt in this area was Bunny Kill, which the Wenchy one tells us is based on a cartoon video online. Well, it was rather well hidden, and I managed to JUST miss seeing it on my first search. So, Kitten popped out of the van and came with me along the edge of the fence, searching other possible hiding spots. I guess we quickly got frustrated because pinecones started flying :D Eventually, we came back to the first place we looked and discovered the very well-placed box.
Our search for Death Bunny - Master of Disguise was short and sweet- we found it right were it was supposed to be. Or, rather, Falling Leaves and Kitten found it; I thought I saw something through the bushes near the water, and went bushwacking to see what it was. So, a few moments after they yelled 'We got it!', I emerged from the bushes carrying my prize- a lost oar.
Yeah, an oar. A little beat up but otherwise intact. What a neat thing! I just had to bring it with me. Of course, I probably looked a little odd walking around a cemetary with that thing...especially with how it's shaped :P
Next up: Necronomiconey. This one took a few minutes- we actually scoured the WHOLE area before finding the most helpful clue, but once we spotted it, the rest fell into place.
Our last box for the evening was Donnie Dies, which actually took us past the time that the cemetary closed. We realized this because someone drove it, and closed the gate! Luckily, that guy drove through the whole cemetary to make sure there were no other motor vehicle visitors in the cemetary before he finished. Also fortunate for us, we found the box JUST before he made it to us, and we ended up driving back out of the cemetary so he could lock up with the box still in our possession. Parked outside, we stamped in and packed it back up, only to have the man who was locking up drive back over to us and ask "Did you find it?"
Apparently, this guy not only knows about the letterboxes in the cemetary, but even knows where they all are. Good for him. Anyway, Falling Leaves ended up taking the box back to it's hiding spot while Kitten and myself discussed some boxes we are planning to plant.
And, much to my satisfaction, we ended the evening by heading down the street to the Shannon Pub, where we bought ourselves some tasty food to fill our empty bellies.
I had a lovely shepard's pie. Two, in fact :D
And that's it for today's post. I hopefully will come back tonight or tomorrow and add a picture or two- and future posts will hopefully have pictures as well. (Except the next one- don't have any from the event :P)
CQ
Introduction
Welcome to the letterboxing blog of Celtic Quinn.
Here, I'll give you the tour.
Uhh....here's where I'll post stuff.
Over there, (*points to the right of the screen*) there's a picture of a guy (*eyes dart back and forth*) wearing a lampshade.
*looks around*
Uh, I believe that's the tour.
Hope you enjoyed your stay.
Check back periodically for updates.
CQ
Here, I'll give you the tour.
Uhh....here's where I'll post stuff.
Over there, (*points to the right of the screen*) there's a picture of a guy (*eyes dart back and forth*) wearing a lampshade.
*looks around*
Uh, I believe that's the tour.
Hope you enjoyed your stay.
Check back periodically for updates.
CQ
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