Drive-by Letterboxing

Cute Card

    On Thursday November 7th Courtney and I embarked on another great letterbox adventure! The only catch was that I had no clue there was a letterbox in my future.(I had hatched the plan the night before, checked my maps and everything. Surprise!!) Courtney arrived on time at ten in the morning and she was sticking like glue to our original plan we had hatched days ago. We were going gift card hunting! We love to collect gift cards and with Christmas just a stones throw away this becomes our favorite time of year. Stores embrace gift cards putting up huge displays and presenting a wide variety of cards you won't see any other time of the year.

We started our quest for gift cards at the Chapel Hills mall and found many new cards. Then we made a side trip over to the Goodwill Store where we both used to work. One of our favorite former mangers, Marilyn was there and we spent some time reminiscing about our time working there and she told us how the store recently changed management. We enjoyed our visit and trip down memory lane. Marilyn had to go back to work and our stomachs were insisting it was time for lunch. So off to Arby's we did go for roast beef and horsey sauce(and in my case Arby-Q and three pepper sauce)! Yum! We chatted as we ate and we enjoyed every bite before we returned to the car and resumed our great gift card search. Our next stop was to be Toys R Us, however, Courtney asked if we could make a quick stop because she had something she wanted to check out. I said I didn't mind, after all she was driving and it wasn't like we had a deadline to reach.

She happily turned off of Academy Blvd and onto a side street and then turned once more into Palmer Park. A quaint little park I've driven by many times but never stopped to get a closer look. She drove a little bit further to the Palmer Park Dog Park and pulled into the dirt parking lot and turned off the the car. I was clueless. Though I had to admit the fenced in dog park full of happy dogs and their owners was a pleasant sight to see I had no idea why she brought me here. She reached behind the seat and like magic she produced our trusty letterbox bag! I didn't even know she had brought it! What a fantastic surprise! "There's a brand new letterbox here; it was planted about a week ago!" she read to me the instructions on how to retrieve this letterbox and I hopped out of the car and went to make friends with a lone boulder. I found the letterbox with ease because it wasn't hidden very well. A little dirty with a cobweb clinging to it but in tact. I returned to the car and enlisted a tissue to remove some of the dirt.

Once the dirt was removed we popped open that Tupperware container and set to work. The stamp inside was hand carved and cute as a button! And to our surprise the logbook had a lot of stamps in from other Letterboxers. For only being a couple of weeks old a lot of people had already made a point to find it. We added our stamp to the log book repackaged it and sealed the Tupperware container. I returned to the boulder and replanted the box hiding it well.

I returned to the car and we drove away giving each other a fist bump and saying "on to the next!" We raved about the cuteness of the stamp and we talked of the other boxes around town we've yet to find. We both agreed we would have to pick a nice day and go find those other boxes. After that moment of letterbox greatness we returned to our gift card collections spree. And when our day was all said and done and Courtney was driving me home we both agreed we had a fantastic day. We got a ton of gift cards and finding a letterbox was like icing on the cake.

You can record a message!

The Longest Night

Like Alice, we should have just gone back to bed!

Every letterbox comes with its own unique adventure, whether short or long, many boxes found or only just one, each forms its own memory and story. This is more than just a stamp on a piece of paper. Our latest letterbox adventure was unexpected unplanned and the longest journey yet.

(Tuesday August 20, 2013, I decided Tina and I just hadn't seen each other because of the three weeks of rain and I texted her to go out with me. I picked the day of the week that was supposed to have the least chance of rain -Thursday, only 30% chance, and I kept watching the news to make sure. We were going to go to the Manitou Springs cemetery, the Woodland Park cemetery and then up to Cripple Creek with my mother-in-law to the Jail Museum up there, and swing by the Mt. Pisgah cemetery to grab a letterbox.)

On Thursday August 22, 2013 our adventure began with a telephone call. Courtney was having car trouble she’d be running late. We had big plans to go out. We were going to go the haunted cemetery in Manitou Springs and then go check out the cemetery in Woodland Park then meet Courtney’s mother-in-law Arlette and go to Cripple Creek to see the haunted Jail and maybe if we had time we’d check out a cemetery in Cripple Creek and then come home. Simple plans, something we’d been trying to plan all summer and now due to her cars battery we were probably going to miss out on this adventure.
(I was supposed to pick Tina up at 10... and that's where this story stared to go wrong. I was leaving at 9:30 A.M. to go pick her up, got the dog, dog's kennel, all our stuff packed in the car. I had to bring the dog if I was going up to Cripple Creek; it's like an hour and a half from where I live and I couldn't leave my dog at home all day. (Turns out not leaving her locked in the yard was a good thing...)  
My car wouldn't start. Battery dead. I had to wake up my husband and help get it jumped(He works 3rd shift, so he's at work 3:30 P.M. to 1 or 2 A.M. depending on parts he's running). So I get him up at the butt crack of dawn(well for us at least!) spend half an hour getting my battery running. Call Tina, tell her I'll be late - finally get to her house and...)

 A short while later she came over to my house to pick me up. We could still hang out just wouldn't be having such an awesome adventure. She and her dog Alice came in to say her hello’s to my parents. She told my Dad she thought the problem was the car battery and true to form my Dad was breaking out some tools and doing his own evaluation of her car. Conclusion was the battery needed replacing. Courtney called her husband Chris relaying the information he said he’d pick up a new battery and meet us at their house. So off we did go driving to Courtney’s house and hanging out as her husband installed the new battery.

The wait was a pleasant one. Courtney introduced me to a new delicious hard candy called Tea Candy (very tasty) she brought out her laptop and showed me some awesome new developments in her family history research.(Found out my g-g-g-great grandmother is buried in Canon City! I never knew that!) She’s also helping a friend uncover his family tree and they have some fascinating people in their family tree.(I went out to the Canon City cemetery to get photos for him of his ancestor's graves and I found a TARANTULA!!! NO! I will NEVER get over it!) He was even kind enough to send her pictures of his relatives so she could put a face to a name. Courtney really enjoys researching family histories. [If any of our readers are interested in her help, feel free to leave a comment or drop us an email.] Our wait ended as Chris announced the car was good to go and we could go up to Cripple Creek since we had a new battery we didn't have to worry about breaking down somewhere.
(Now it's getting close to noon, and it's hot outside. We had almost considered just staying in town, but with a new battery we knew we could go to Cripple Creek, we just couldn't go to the Manitou Springs cemetery. No time. Weird thing is - every time I try to go to that cemetery, something happens. In high school I drove around for 2 hours with a former boyfriend looking for it, and he had been there a hundred times! I must not be meant to go.)

He didn't have to tell us twice! We grabbed Alice and hopped in the car and drove out of Colorado Springs down highway 24 and into Woodland Park. She showed me the Woodland Park cemetery somewhere we’ll have to visit when more time allows but at that moment all I could think of was lunch.(Umm, I showed you the cemetery AFTER lunch remember? The McDonald's is on the other side of the Highway from the Subway. The cemetery is right behind the McDonald's. You should have seen Tina's face when I gave her a little driving tour, it was awesome.) I was super hungry. We ate at Subway, yum!(I had a gift card!) During which Arlette called and said she was on her way home and we told her we’d be there shortly. We took our leftovers with us. And continued on our drive up into the beautiful spacious Colorado landscape. Arlette lives in a beautiful little mountain town of Florissant.(A 30 minute drive from Woodland Park.) Not far from the Florissant Fossil Beds.(Yea, like right friken next to it!) The drive was very nice and one I haven’t taken in years. There’s comfort in how those little mountain towns rarely change. Florissant looked the same as I remembered it. Turning off the main road and heading toward our destination Courtney pointed out an old homestead(It's called the Adeline Hornbeck Homestead. You can google it. Also, I do have a picture of Adeline Hornbeck's grave!) by the side of the road “does it look familiar to you?” she asked me. I said yes I just couldn't place why and then she told me two words that jogged my memory. “High Trails.” High Trails was a week long camping adventure that all 6^th graders embarked upon and that homestead was the one they took all us campers too and told us it was haunted. They would tell us the tale of the haunted tricycle and how it would move around the room. Creepy but I never saw the tricycle move.(and for some of us, we got to experience High Trails in the middle of fricken winter! I mean come on, a bunch of 11 year olds running around in the MOUNTAINS in the middle of winter! The snow was knee deep in some places. My hands, feet and nose were numb for a week straight!) 

We drove a bit further and arrived at a sweet little A-Frame house. Sky blue in color with white trim and a picture perfect view. Pretty as a postcard. Arlette was waiting for us greeting us with big hugs and much happiness. Alice was happy to see Arlette too and very grateful for the hugs and big bowl of water. We chatted as we set up Alice’s kennel and then we left her there to snooze and enjoy the coolness of the house as we went on to Cripple Creek.


Arlette drove us along the winding Colorado roads leading to the mining town of Cripple Creek. Another scenic view and wonderful conversation too. Cripple Creek was once a mining boom town, became a ghost town and now has been revived by casinos and gambling. Despite all the new additions, Cripple Creek clings to its mining heritage and pays honor to it daily in the preservation of many historic landmarks and buildings. (Ride the train! It's awesome!) The jail being one of them. We pulled into the parking lot of the jail and it was completely deserted, not a single car besides our own. Abandoned and not a soul in sight we grabbed our camera’s got out and walked up the steps only to see the sigh on the door reading “we’re open.” and the doors locked. They were closed. (Open 10-5, 7 days a week. Pshaw! It wasn't even 3!!) The one day we get there and they’re unexpectedly closed. We were disappointed but Arlette was not discouraged peering into the glass door and pointing out the jail cells where the women prisoners were kept and were the men were kept and how nine men were assigned to each cell. Living conditions were terrible. There was even a nine year old girl incarcerated for being incorrigible. Arlette continued the tour of this closed jail by walking around the side of the building pointing out the morgue in the basement and how its off limits to the general public. However if the Ghost Busting team is staying in the jail you can pay 40 dollars and spend the night in the morgue if your brave enough. Our tour of this closed jail concluded with the iron door that was part of the cremation system of the morgue. I have never experienced such an enlightening and informative tour of a closed jail in all my life.(Arlette still told us many things about the jail and we must have looked silly with our faces pressed to the glass in the door looking in, but that was our tour of the inside!) I felt like I learned more about this jail in its closed state than I do in some museums that are open. I guess it all depends on your tour guide and we had the best in the whole world.
 

Tina & the Teddy Bear!

As we got back in the car Arlette suggested we should take in the sights at the Cripple Creek Heritage Center. Not far from the jail and overseeing the view of the town this free attraction is worth the visit. Inside the Heritage Center is a wonderful collection of displays and exhibits giving an overview of the history of mining in the Cripple Creek area. Again we had Arlette leading the way giving us an extensive fact filled tour. Our highlights included the elevator to the second floor, Arlette’s husband actually helped build the elevator shaft, She also included the very spot she was standing when Courtney called her to tell her she and Chris were getting married. And the view from the second floor out the windows where they discovered Olivia, one of Courtney’s nieces, had true artistic talent and the very first covered wagon Arlette ever saw in person is right there at the heritage center. These spots on the tour would be sadly overlooked by many for they’re not marked on the pathway. All too soon our tour had come full circle and we were back where we started and realized we had some time left to kill and decided a wonderful place to visit would be the Cripple Creek Cemetery.(What you mean is I reminded you there was a letterbox in the cemetery.)

Haha - all three of our shadows are in this photo!

Our drive to this cemetery was filled with ghost stories only Arlette could tell and in no time at all we arrived at this mountain cemetery. Nestled on a hillside surrounded by aspen trees this cemetery was at perfect peace. No rolling green carpet of lawn here just a rocky uneven landscape with many graves humbly marked, others had old and well worn tombstones. And here in this beautiful peace there is a letterbox to be found, if you know where to look. We followed our clues on our way to the letterbox Arlette pointed out a flock of turkeys - mostly hens but a few gobblers in there. They were awesome to watch as they trotted across the path. Courtney and I read our clue and I went to the tree which held the letterbox snuggly and secretively at its base under some rocks. Success!

This little Tupperware container was Arlette’s first letterbox and she was super excited to see how this little hobby is played.(Oh the joy on Arlette's face can only be compared to the surprise on Tina's when I showed her the Woodland Park cemetery!) Courtney explained as all three of us balanced ink pads and stamps. Arlette was truly smitten with the idea and very happy we included her in our search for the letterbox. Her passion and enthusiasm regarding something as simply as a stamp in a Tupperware container is one we know very well. We experience the same thing each time we find a letterbox. We were happy to share our hobby with her and hopefully in the future we can include her in the search for more letterboxes. I returned the box to whence it came. I rejoined Arlette and Courtney and after putting our letterboxing gear in the car we went on a further exploration of the cemetery.

Arlette and the grave of Pearl de Vere.

I have never been to a cemetery with Arlette before and it truly was a unique experience.(This is the best way of putting it. It's honestly an adventure in and of itself to go looking at graves with Arlette.) She is eager to explore, happy to see the graves, and more then willing to read cards and tokens left for the deceased. “They like to hear them more than once.” she told me. I think everyone has a different form of cemetery etiquette and as long as respect is given the rest is purely to your own taste. Many of the graves we paid our respects to were those of young children and babies. We did pay our respects to the Madame(Pearl de Vere, the Soiled Dove of Cripple Creek. You can google her.) of the town. Courtney and I left pennies on her grave and Arlette left a small cross. We also saw Fred E. Krueger’s(No, we're serious. Fred E. Krueger.) grave which is close to Madame’s. We moved on seeing other graves and spending time talking and chatting. I have to admit it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. And as we walked along the road back to where the car was parked I turned around for I felt I was being followed I thoughts simply “I enjoyed visiting with you but you must stay here we don’t have room for you in the car.” and that feeling of being followed dissipated. The feeling was a sweet innocence nothing evil or spooky even.

Fred E. Krueger
See - I told you so!

Back in the car we drove to Arlette’s home. Talking of Jesus and God and all the blessing they have given us over the years along with other ghost stories. The drive was a lovely one. We arrived at Arlette’s and spent some time visiting with her husband Robby. Arlette not only gave me a tour of her beautiful home but shared some family photo’s with me. All to soon it was time for Courtney, Alice and I to make our way to our own home. In the distance we could see storm clouds but feared nothing more than some light rain. After all the weatherman had said there was a 30 percent chance of rain for today. (Robby told us if it looked bad we could come back and stay there for the night. Arlette got all excited and said if we did, we could try the museum again! At this point in the day, it's a little after 5 P.M. and Highway 24 was open, which we have to drive to get from Colorado Springs to Woodland Park and back.) We thanked Arlette for all the fun and said our goodbyes and got in our car and headed on our way.

The road was clear the sky okay we drove for awhile; all was clear then we found some light rain and then the heavens opened!(We were in Divide, it's the only town between Woodland Park and Florissant on Highway 24. There are two stop lights in Divide, we hit the second one and it became winter in about 3 seconds.) The rain decided to mix with hail and come down all at once! Fast and furious the rain and hail turned the streets into small rivers. (We drove out of nothing right into winter! There were rivers of rain and hail! We got up the first hill and pull over with a line of cars and wait. The hail is hammering down and then it quiets, so we follow the line of cars again and then it gets worse.)  Courtney’s phone let out a large siren of a wail alerting us the emergency alert that this area was a possible flood zone and not to be here. Too late! We’re committed to the road and the weather. Oddly before us in the dark sky was a rainbow. Despite all the rain and hail there was a rainbow which did escort us back to Woodland Park. Though our way turned out to be treacherous. The storm was moving in fierce waves of hail so intense that we pulled off the road four separate times. When we could drive progress was slow with our flashers on as other drivers were also doing. We utilized each of our pull over on the shoulder of the road and wait moments. The first time we became more familiar with the windshield wipers and their various speeds, the second I ate some of my leftovers from lunch and we received a call from Arlette informing us of the storm and that highway 24 was closed. Despite that news we didn't turn around we were closer to Woodland Park and didn't want to fight that violent storm a second time. (We were getting close to Woodland Park, pulled over for about the 4th time, the hail is so bad, you can't see, it's piling up on my windshield(I had to get out of the car and scoop it off the windshield. I was standing on about 6 inches of hail) , it's so loud that Tina and I have to scream at each other just to be heard, dog is in the back shaking so violently she looks like she's seizing.) 

We closed the distance to Woodland Park little by little and the storm gave up its fierce battle cry and decided to just rain on our parade as much as possible. We pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot desperate for bathrooms and anxious for news.(Usually a 30 minute drive from Florissant to Woodland Park took us over an hour!) Those we talked to were as surprised by the sudden storms as we were. Some were like us stranded waiting for the road to reopen. (At this point it's about 7:30 P.M., and the reports are the Highway will likely open around 9 P.M. So we figure it won't be that horrible waiting it out for a couple of hours.) We walked around some taking in the safety of Wal-Mart and calling Arlette, Chris and my Dad, informing them all of our whereabouts. We returned to the car the rain had let up a bit more coming constantly but relaxed. Courtney was able to let Alice get out and stretch her legs. We decided to go to Safeway and walk around killing time. Then returned to Wal-Mart. The road home was still closed. Arlette called again telling us not to come her way for the storm was upon them and quite intense. So between the storms we did sit. (Whoever we called told us another storm was coming from both directions. It's almost a nightmare. At almost 9 P.M. we got another emergency alert on the phone saying avoid flood zones until midnight!)  My Dad informed us the road wouldn't be open until after midnight because another storm was building and causing a fuss down in Colorado Springs.

We decided to visit Courtney’s niece Sarah as she lives close to the Wal-Mart so over to Sarah’s we did go. We didn't stay long because she had to go to bed and get ready for school in the morning and we were fairly certain the road would be open in an hour or so. Still it was nice to bring Alice inside and give her a reprieve from the storm. Back to good ole Wal-Mart we did go. The rain was relaxing to listen to and watch through our fogged up car windows we chatted about the day and played tic-tac-toe on the fogged up sunroof. Around midnight or so we were in need of stretching our legs and getting some drinks. So into Wal-Mart to get the blood pumping and something to drink and while we were walking to the registers with our drinks we heard a wonderful announcement. Highway 24 was open! Yay! We could go home!(We only had to wait 6 hours!) We paid for our drinks and called my Dad from the car confirming the good news we told him we’d be home soon. 

Our final leg of our journey was the dark and twisting very wet stretch of Highway 24 followed by a spooky drive though town where we were the only ones on the road. It was like everyone knew something we didn't. We did see one other truck and two car but that was it. Everyone else was inside sound asleep out of the rain. Happily we arrived at my house. My Dad was waiting. He gave Courtney a big hug for getting us home safely. Alice and Courtney had a little more driving to do to get to their own home and so they left to do just that. I personally talked with my parents about the storm and then jumped into a nice hot shower. After I received a text from Courtney saying she was home safe and sound, I went to bed. It was well after two am. I hugged my pillow and thanked God for the adventure and guiding us home safely.

Moral of the story: 

If your car battery dies in the morning, go back to bed!!

Letterboxing - the Adventure Continues!

Oh the butterflies!

Letterbox Adventure March 21, 2013

An awesome day!

Both Courtney and Tina agreed this letterbox adventure was a fun filled experience with excitement around every corner! This day consisted of two places a dentist office and Focus on the Family.


Tina texted Courtney on Wednesday night: Can I get a ride to the Barnes and Nobles tomorrow I need to pick up a book for my Dad's birthday present. Courtney was happy to help me out and so the plan was hatched.(As I recall, I texted you about something else entirely and it morphed into you bumming a ride...) She'd come over at ten am to pick me up and we'd spend the day running a couple of errands and having a ton of fun.

Thursday came and with it Courtney arrived shortly after ten in the morning.(So I accidentally slept in a little, and I had to put gas in the car, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten too far. It was the slowest moving gas nozzle and at that point in the morning it was still cold.) We chatted a bit and then I locked up my house and we both hopped into her car. Before I could even get my seatbelt buckled Courtney had flung the Letterbox bag into my lap. "Your going to need this! Pull out our clue book!" She said with enthusiasm. I handed her our clue book and she flipped through it and pointed out the Sonrisas Hermosas clue. This letterbox is hidden at a dentist office, to get this box you must go during their office hours.(Mon-Thur 8am- 5pm) And today was perfect, they were open and we had time before we had to run our errands so off to the letterbox location we did go.

Courtney and I both know only one way to get to this letterbox. Drive the old bus route to Liberty High School that would get us to the area. Courtney said she'd never driven to the high school before. We both attended Liberty High School; we actually met while going to Liberty High School. We rode the bus together  - I was a senior she was a freshmen and she said to me at the bus stop "I forgot my glasses." and we've been friends ever since:) (I ate her chips at lunch time, followed her home and proclaimed: Hey, I know your dog!!)We both remember Liberty High School as being surrounded by a field full of cows. Now there's a church nearby, a few office buildings, and Powers Blvd runs directly behind the school. The school still looks the same just the surroundings have changed. (Many of the roads were not there all those years ago when we attended... or at least never went as far as they do now.)

We found the twin office buildings with ease. Courtney navigated the parking lot like a pro and parked the car. We both jumped out. I commented that the letterbox bag felt ten pounds lighter. She said she had cleaned it out. I was so thankful for that. Together we walked up to the building. An interesting building with a tinted glass wall and smack dab in the center of that wall was an elevator. I wondered how on earth we were suppose to catch that elevator from out here then I noticed the two glass doors on either side of the elevator. Courtney had been thinking the same thing. Most buildings which have a glass wall like that have the doors in the middle not an elevator. We opened the door and stepped into a very clean neat and spacious lobby.

According to our clue we were actually on the second floor though it feels like your on the first. Our clue pointed us to the direction of the dentist office directly in front of us. Courtney told me I had to ask for the letterbox. I happily accepted the great honor bestowed on me and polite as I could I asked the receptionist for the office letterbox. She said she had it and asked us to wait for a moment while she finished her phone call which was only a few seconds. She rummaged in the cabinet behind her while commenting to us that she had nearly forgotten about the letterbox because no one has asked for it in a year. She found the box and handed it to us. The office was empty, no Muggles around so we pulled up a couple of chairs and a corner of table and dove into the letterbox box. Sure enough the last person to stamp the book had been there in 2011. We stamped our sheep doctor stamp and stamped the cute letterbox stamp into our stamp book. Packed it all up and handed the box back thanking the receptionist as we left the office.

We happily hopped into the car and Courtney flipped to another clue in our clue book. Two clues actually, and both located in the visitor center at Focus on the Family. For those of you who haven't heard of Focus on the Family it's a Christian ministry that reaches millions of people world wide with its books, radio and television broadcasts. The Focus on the Family visitor center opened in 1994 and since then three million people have come through its doors. Although Courtney and I have both lived in Colorado Springs for a long time and we've driven by Focus of the Family off and on over the years neither of us have ever been there, yet we've both been curious about the place.

We both walked in unsure of what we would find and a little nervous. We were greeted by a nice old lady at the front desk who happily welcomed us to Focus on the Family and asked if we were first time guests. We were. She asked us to sign in on their computer system and put on a sticker. Courtney took an extra sticker and put it in our stamp book. Then the nice old lady gave us the run down of the place. The movie theater was on the side to our left and the bookstore was on the right she even told us there was complimentary free hot beverages too. We decided to head toward the movie theater. When we walked in there was a movie playing about the founders of Focus on the Family and the theater was completely empty. The seats looked super comfy so I just had to sit in one and check it out. We sat in the back row watched the movie for a little bit. Then I told Courtney about a dream I had the other night about letterboxing.(Chocolate or Vanilla LOL!!) She said it was funny and I'd have to add it to the blog sometime. We also took the moment to review and look over our clues for the two Letterboxes hidden in the visitor center. Just as we were finishing up a family came in and we decided to let them enjoy the theater we needed to move on.

We walked into the main room, lobby if you will, and pondered the walls of history and the displays. We saw the three story tall slide and the long line to it. And we both chickened out. (You saw the pictures in the last post!! The only thing I could think about really was what if I slide and my purse spews it's contents forth?? Well?? It would be a mess! I couldn't bear the thought of cleaning...) That slide is more intimidating in person then it looks from the roadside! We decided it was safer to check out the balcony and the beautiful view of the front range. The view truly is spectacular but most Colorado views are. Pikes Peak was breathtaking this morning with a snow covered peak and just enough clouds to look mysterious. The Air Force Academy Chapel and Stadium were easily seen and danced in the shadows of clouds assuring that no two people would take the same photograph. Above us a plane towing a glider could be seen and the sun shone merrily in the sky. Courtney asked me to stand under one of the large lantern light fixtures on the side of the building and I did I pointed up to the lantern light and said "how's this for a bright idea?" a couple of people laughed. We went back inside. We wandered around the bookstore looking at all they had to offer everything from mugs to books to fun T-shirts and other souvenirs.(I liked the parody ones, Thelight looks like Twilight... and especially I liked the shirt with the cupcake, Sweet Jesus!) We left there and found ourselves in a quiet little art gallery room. The pictures reminded me of Thomas Kinkade paintings but were done by a different artist.(G. Harvey I believe it was.) Nonetheless, we enjoyed the paintings and quiet gallery. We found the complimentary hot beverages coffee and hot tea. Yay hot tea!(Yay! Free stuff!) We helped ourselves to a super hot cup of Lipton black tea sweetened with a little sugar. It was nearly too hot to drink. Courtney opted for lids because those letterboxes were calling our names it was time to get down to business.

We took the stairs down to the children's play area and found ourselves face to face with a giant plane! Ok, maybe not giant, but it sure was big and unexpected. There was also a soda shop called Whit's End. That's where the letterbox clue begins for us. Courtney was reading the clue trying to get her bearings and I was just looking around taking in the scope of the place. I said "Courtney there's chess pieces on the roof." a nearby woman over heard me and told us about a scavenger hunt that Focus on the Family provides for the children. There's three different hunts and there's crazy stuff hidden all over the place. She lead us to the little table where the scavenger hunt papers were. We decided to do all three plus hunt for our Letterboxes!(We only finished one!)

Sipping tea and looking for items for the scavenger hunt and following clues lead to an amazing adventure. There was so much to take in! Different painted murals and scenes and fun props and rooms with different themes and I never did find that bowling ball.(I never found that wig...) We found the first location for the letterbox by the abandoned mind shaft but try as we might we couldn't lay our hands on letterbox itself. We decided to move on - maybe there's another abandoned mine. There wasn't but oh, the rooms, the themes! The Narnia room was a highlight for sure. We got to walk right through the wardrobe and into Narnia! Very magical! We climbed up into the plane. Courtney even climbed through a tunnel! Still that first letterbox eluded us. We searched and searched but no letterbox.(and searched and searched some more and stuck our fingers into corners that in my imagination was full of spiders...)

The second clue mentions an atrium and a green garden hose. We hadn't seen those either. We had gone around the whole thing twice. I suggested we go around again but in reverse maybe something would pop out at us. We found Whit's office and we found the theater room empty and seized the opportunity to jumped up on the stage and dance and act silly. We checked out the costumes and found a few more items for our scavenger hunts but no atrium, no green garden hose. No letterbox. At one point I thought it was outside at the picnic area so we went outside and got locked out! So we had to walk around the building and enter through the main doors again.(That will teach us! Although, the air was nice, it must have been 2000 degrees in the building! Well maybe not, but it felt like it to me, Tina and I had to take off our jackets... at which point her sticker from earlier promptly got stuck to her butt and stayed there...)

Still no atrium. We went around the play area again. Doing one last thorough investigation of the mine shaft and came up empty handed. We concluded it possibly had fallen and gotten picked up by a muggle. We wandered a bit more and just when we'd nearly given up Courtney spotted the most beautiful green garden hose I'd ever seen! I've never been so happy to see a garden hose! Courtney discovered the letterbox right in the atrium right near the garden hose. We zipped over to Whit's End and plunked ourselves down at a table to do our stamping. Yay we finally found a letterbox! We returned the letterbox to its rightful place in the atrium and then we took some pictures of the atrium. For a stairwell it certainly captured our imagination with its beautiful garden murals and all the little butterflies on the walls and suspended from the ceiling.

We decided we had exhausted the play area. Though we had a ton of fun we really needed to attend to our errands. We left the building embracing the fresh air as we walked outside up a path to the car. We were a little disappointed we didn't find both Letterboxes but happy we found one letterbox and finished one scavenger hunt:) the only downside was it was so hot inside! Overall the experience was a good one and if you get the chance to go to Focus on the Family I'd recommend going. There's at least one great letterbox there and don't miss out on the scavenger hunt they provide. It's a lot of fun!

P.S. About that letterbox we couldn't find... when I went to Atlasquest to log our days finds, I listed that I couldn't find it(though we tried) and the status went from active to unknown. I checked the whole log of finds for that particular letterbox and the LAST 4 PEOPLE who looked for it couldn't find it. It seems it went missing sometime between 2011 and 2012. 

I guess a few pictures come first

Oh by the way - in thes picture 2 people were standing in the way, I didn't know them,
so I removed their heads lol. They have bricks for heads!

So today we finally went out and about on our second letterboxing adventure! First we got a stamp at an Orthodontist's office and then we went to Focus on the Family in search of 2 more. Sadly we only found one stamp there, but it was quite an experience. We've lived here forever and never went to Focus, oh sure we've driven by it about a billion times, but this was truly our first stop in! I'll let Tina do the awesome retelling of all of today's events later(when I get the e-mail with it written down!) and I'll just get onto showing the around 8 pictures I took. :P

Looks like the Front Range :)

View from the balcony

Ah Pike's Peak!

Zoom in and you can get a good picture of the Air Force Academy Chapel!

The crazy slide!

Yea, we chickened out on the slide....

Uhhhh....

Sorry a head got in the way....

Another landscape

Butterflies!!

All over

Butterflies on the ceiling!

It's called the Butterfly Atrium

This is the passageway from the bookstore to downstairs

They might not be real but they're pretty

Camera phone!

Close up

Tina surrounded by butterflies :D

OK so it was closer to 20 photos... But that's all of them!

It's just a side effect...

Good night, Moon....

Letterboxing is an exciting, enriching hobby, any good letterboxer will tell you that; however, they might not tell you about some of the rather odd side effects that comes with this hobby. Such as seeing an ordinary rock and thinking to oneself, if I were a letterbox I'd hide under that rock and no one would find me. There is also a far more interesting side effect one that you sneaks up on you in your sleep, dreaming of Letterboxes. Yes, letterbox dreams do happen and if you experience them do not be frightened. They are perfectly normal and can be entertaining as our two heroic letterbox adventurers found out.

~Tina's Dream~

My letterbox dream was an odd one, at least to me it seemed odd, I've never dreamt of letterboxing before and I knew this may be the first of several dreams on the subject. I don't remember many of the fine details. I knew I was at home watching TV and my favorite show was interrupted by a late breaking news flash. "This just in: A Letterbox has been found!" reported the woman reporter. "I'm told this is the location of the letterbox. Somewhere in this store the letterbox remains hidden we will keep you posted if any further developments occur." The Muggles had found out! Leave it to them to break all the rules of letterboxing and reveal the location to the whole world. I rushed to call Courtney and get a ride to the Chapel Hills Mall where the Muggles had revealed the location of the box. Courtney couldn't come in with me because she had to go to work(Really? I had to work?? Where?) but she said she'd join me later and wished me good luck.

I went into the mall using the Sears entrance on the upper level. In reality the tools and hardware are up there but I my dreams the merchandise was pots and pans, sheets and towels. There was chaos everywhere! People throwing merchandise, people tearing apart shelves and one ambitious muggle had dug a hole in the floor he didn't find anything and covered the hole with a rug. The reporter I saw on TV had now been joined by news teams from across the nation reporting the scene and all it's chaos. Apparently the letterbox itself had been found several times and replaced by crafty Letterboxers disguised as Muggles. One of these disguised Muggles was an Official Letterbox Officer in uniform he said to me, "Find the letterbox and report to me. I'll record your name in my book." I went on the hunt. Watching silly Muggles take the Letterbox Official spoons and bath towels hoping they were the actually letterbox. They weren't. The silly Muggles thought if you got your name in his book you'd win cash and prizes. The Letterboxers such as myself knew this was not the case. The notebook he carried would be the new book for a letterbox to be replanted in the spring when the Muggles had forgotten it was there. Sadly I never did find the box because I woke up.

~Courtney's Dream~

Courtney's dream was a far different dream than mine. Loaded with details and sent to me via a series of entertaining text messages. Here is her dream:
Damn, last night I was dreaming that I found two Letterboxes. I was walking home from Liberty High School because I had missed the bus. (Let me clarifiy - I had detention so that is why I missed the bus. Really one shouldn't start fights with hall closets.) On the way home, I was trying to call my mom from my tablet and it kept calling random numbers. I tried about 7 times before I  witnessed a man drive up on a motorcycle, jump off and start climbing the big tree to my right. I looked up to see what he was doing and I found the first letterbox located at the intersection of Rangewood and Divine(PS as far as I know, there is no cross street on Rangewood named Divine) up in the tree. The man was climbing up the tree and he had a knife in his teeth... as much as I wanted to see what that stamp was I needed to call my mom. I stared up in the branches and noticed the letterbox itself was a soup can tied with green yarn to three tree branches. I never did see what was in the first box as I thought it unwise to tangle with a man with a knife, and also phone call(WHY WOULDN'T IT JUST DO WHAT I TOLD IT TOO?). I figured I'd go back and get it later. I kept walking down Rangewood trying to make my phone call and my tablet kept calling my cousin Kyle. I jumped a wooden split rail fence and came up on the 7-11 and Blockbuster. The second box was behind the Blockbuster under a pyramid of rubber ducks. All of these ducks were different versions of Michael Jackson. (The top duck on the pyramid was wearing the black leather jacket from Bad...) This second box was a video cassette tape. Once I got that stamp Jermaine Jackson stepped out from behind the dumpster and told me how to re-stack the pyramid of Michael Jackson duckies correctly.  And then I woke up. (By the way, this isn't even one of my crazier dreams! I could write all about the dream I had the other day in which Tina was eaten by a teacher and I couldn't save her because I had to save my pet french fries. Yea you heard me!  ...If only the dinosaurs hadn't gotten out....) 

At this point I texted Courtney and said she really should write her dream down she replied to me saying, "I'll never write the dream down. You do it and email it to me lol." And so I have done just that and have sent this very email to her. I hope you, our devoted readers, have enjoyed this glimpse into a rather amusing side effect of letterboxing.

Letterboxing - the First Adventure (in pictures) Pt 2!

Evergreen Cemetery - Colorado Springs, CO

After we had gone to the Dinosaur museum and puttered about trying to find the monster, we went back to The Springs and decided we had time for one more stamp.... and TO THE GRAVEYARD!!

I do like graveyards. I find them wonderful and fun. I love the history!

Nice view!

Are your eyes closed? Really?

The leaning tree!

Oooh

Quite a sizable cemetery!

Thought this one looked cool

The family of Blood

This one is just a cool picture! XD

Pioneer monument

Fake flowers are all over the place

Again - it's a big place!

Father

Mrs. Kitchen, I love your name

This one looked good!

A family plot

All the rocks had biblical inscriptions. I loved it.

Looking none too uncomfortable

Bessie! <3

It kept going

This was quite a table!

SQUIRREL!

The section of war veterans

I loved how the sun kept getting in the pic

The cannon monument to those who fought
in the Civil War

FLT

Beautiful angel statue

Monument to women

One of the mausoleums - there were several 

Tomb to a pioneer family

And their monument

I took almost 400 pictures that day, and this is only a SMALL sampling. We drove around to MAYBE 3% of the graveyard. I could spend a week in there from open to close and not see all the graves! I'd dearly like to go back and see some of the other parts I missed. There was a beautiful church building and I'd like more pictures. This graveyard is across the street from where my father's funeral was held. Maybe one day I can plant a letterbox in his honor around here... It's truly beautiful.

To honor my daddy