The Adventure Continues, Too…..

 

We left off in my last post: The Adventure Continues, with our arrival at our House of Horrors Cabin within Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, North Carolina.

We thought we’d just unroll our sleeping bags and lay out our pillows, after a busy, long day and previous night, and just fall into blissful sleep. Nah. The Letterboxing Adventure was not over.

The hosts of the next day’s event had set up two series of Letterboxes to search for inside the cabin.

So, after visiting with some fellow Letterboxers and doing some exchanges (exchanging personal stamp images), we settled in to finding the first series “The House of Horrors”, which included 7 letterboxes hidden around the cabin with a clever set of clues to follow.

 

The boys and I had a blast with all the props that were used and placed beside the letterboxes.

There was a snake under the bed (guarding a letterbox!)

All the clue reading, letterbox searching, stamping in, and loads of laughter were great at keeping us going even though we were already very tired.

After we found that series, we discovered the second series, which was called The FireFly Trail. That series, 6 little letterboxes (film canisters and camo covered ziplock baggies) with cute stamps inside, was attached to 2 strings of lights, was supposed to be placed outside, but with the rain and cold weather was moved indoors instead. The string of lights was actually strung around and over the bunkbeds, which made for a cozy nightlight when it was finally time to go to sleep.

 

But it wasn’t time to go to sleep yet!

Our neighbors in the cabin next door were fellow Letterboxers who had driven down from Virginia. And with them, they had brought somewhere between 15-30 letterboxes and hand-carved stamps, and had placed them on the front porch of their cabin and hidden them all around the outside of their cabin(even hanging on a tree!), too.

Jax and Jem had a ball heading outside in the dark of night to locate the many different and creatively designed letterboxes and bring them back to me to stamp in to our logbook. That kept us busy for another hour or so.

We really got a kick out of this particular letterbox and it’s clever, appropriate wooden box and humorously themed hand-carved stamps inside.

But finally sometime around midnight we had had enough and were too tired to do anything but sleep. I must say that the gently falling rain on the cabin’s metal roof was a wonderful sound to fall asleep to and we all were asleep almost as soon as our heads hit our pillows.

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Our day started at 8:30am the next morning and by 9am Letterboxers started showing up to hunt for the 2 series of letterboxes in the House of Horrors and we were able to do a few exchanges with some of them before finally heading out to get some breakfast and do some more Letterboxing around town before The Night of the Letterboxing Dead Event began at noon.

(There was a letterbox placed in The National Cemetery in Salisbury. We spent an hour just reading the plaques, exploring, and learning more about the fascinating, but terribly tragic history of this place.)

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After finding a couple letterboxes and exploring the historic downtown area, we grabbed some lunch and made our way to a lakeside park for the event, where Zombies were already wandering around doing exchanges, hunting for letterboxes…and brains.

(Yeah…that’s me…Zombified Cowgirl!)

We got our own costumes on and got ourselves all Zombie-fied at the make-up table that had been set up, visited with some fellow letterboxers, did some exchanges, logged in Event Letterboxes, posed for photos, and then, with the clues we were provided with, headed out on the trails to do some more Letterboxing.

(Jax, Me and Jem. They received their official certificates from The Zombie State University after completing The Zombie Crossing Trail Letterbox Series!)

  

Everyone enjoyed both of my twinlings’ costumes, but especially Jem’s Goth look, which Zombie-fied really well.

Jem pretending to trim Papa Wolf’s hair (looks like he cut a little too much)…..ala ~ Edward Scissorhands.

  

Jax made friends with one of the Hosts, who happened to be wearing a similar costume. He fondly referred to Jax as being his “Brother from a Different Mother” because they were both dressed like redneck farmers in their overalls.

Such a friendly fellow, he made us laugh a lot!

There were also a couple of teen girls that we had met the night before at Dan Nicholas Park. They had driven down from Virginia, and one of the girls was an exchange student from Denmark (the girl beside Jax). The two girls and my boys had fun helping us adults search for Letterboxes for part of the day.

(My boys with the girls with their Mom, trail name "Castle Keepers")

There were 2 series, with 6-8 letterboxes, placed in a wonderful park and garden just across the street from the lakeside park, and there was 1 series, with 10 letterboxes, placed in the lakeside park, and another series, with 7 letterboxes placed in a cemetery across town.

(The letterbox below was placed behind a granite crypt in the cemetery. We liked the creative hiding place beneath the carved out floral foam and the hand carved stamp image was perfectly themed.)

(We really had a great time with that cemetery series, especially the creative boxes and stamps. Also it was just such creepy fun to be letterboxing in a cemetery while dressed like Zombies)

There were also various single letterboxes hidden in the lakeside park, too. All of the letterboxes were quick and easy to find, located on beautiful flat trails….so different from what we are used to here in the desert southwest, where our trails are rugged, rocky and steep.

We were surprised at how quickly we were able to find letterboxes and how many we were able to find by the end of the day! Even after almost 5 years of Letterboxing in over 10 states, the most we have ever found during a weekend of straight boxing was maybe 20.

All told, at the end of the weekend, we found a total of 81 letterboxes during our visit to North Carolina and South Carolina! Incredible!

(We enjoyed all of the old historic buildings and unique architecture in Salisbury. Check out this home. Even the porch balusters and railings are carved out of stone!)

Anyway, even after a full day of wandering around town letterboxing all over the place, our day of fun wasn’t over.

For dinner, about 40 of us Letterboxers, many who were still dressed as Zombies, met up at a local restaurant for a great Country Style Meal and some more personal stamp exchanges.

Then afterwards we headed out for an evening of Night-boxing! (after getting lost way out in the boonies near Gold Hill, and The Wolf Family coming to our rescue!) This was our first time Night-boxing and we were so excited! Wandering through the dark down thickly forested trails, searching for reflective tape or Fire Tacks, that mark the location of Letterboxes, is so much fun!

(We had taken off most of our Zombie-wear by this time, but we still looked pretty creepy!)

The 6 letterbox series we searched for were all Halloween/Spooky Movie themed and included incredibly detailed hand-carved stamps. True treasures to be able to stamp into our logbooks.

Our friends, The Wolf Family (their Letterbox Trail Name), including Mama Wolf, Papa Wolf and two of her 3 cubs, and also Grandma Wolf, accompanied us and showed us the ropes of Night-boxing, and then afterwards we were to follow them to their house about an hour south, in Charlotte. They had been generous and kind enough to offer their home to us to spend the night, so we could head out the next morning to fly back to Albuquerque.

(That’s Mama Wolf in the center)

But before we settled into The Wolf Family’s Den for a good night’s sleep, Mama Wolf took us to an old historic cemetery, just a few miles from her house to do some more Night-boxing and search for one of her letterboxes. She had placed this one near an old slave cemetery, forgotten and abandoned in the forest, with spooky sunken graves (which happened when the old wooden boxes the slaves had been buried in, disintegrated over time) behind an old stone wall that separated the slave cemetery from the main cemetery.

One of the highlights of our Night-boxing foray happened in the cemetery when a handsome, huge buck with an impressive rack of antlers, startled us as he wandered around the gravestones. Alas, it was too dark and he was too far away to get a picture, but Mama Wolf managed to take a photo of me and my twinlings within the old slave cemetery.

And Mama Wolf gave us a fascinating and fun history lesson about North Carolina during the Civil War.

It was a terrific way to end a fantastic weekend of Letterboxing with new friends in North and South Carolina.

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The next day started very early and was very long. It was spent standing by for seats on airplanes, while waiting and napping in the airport. The flights were horribly full and we ended up not getting on two different flights we had been standing by for, and we didn’t make it home until after 10pm, when we managed to snag the last 3 seats on the next to the last flight out of Phoenix to Albuquerque.

This photo was taken in the Charlotte Airport.

And a photo of a very cute service dog in the Phoenix Airport.

A photo of some snow covered mountains as we flew over New Mexico on our way to Phoenix.

 

And finally a photo as we flew over the city of Phoenix on the way home to Albuquerque.

Not the best way to end such an awesome weekend, but we can’t wait to do it again (the visiting, letterboxing, exploring part of our travels…….Definitely! The flying part? Not so much)     

The Adventure Continues

 

I’m finally getting around to completing my blog entries from our trip to North and South Carolina during Halloween Weekend.

This post is a continuation of The Adventure Begins.

And it is very very very very very very long.

Grab refreshments first. You’ll need them.

You’ve been warned………..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We left off with my twinlings and I spending a very fun evening with our friends in Rock Hill, SC. And then spending the night in Margie’s Cabin.

(This is her mailbox. Photo enhanced in PhotoScape)

The next morning I had hoped to get an early start so we could drive up to Salisbury, North Carolina, Letterboxing the entire way.

 

Unfortunately, between the previous day starting at 4am, a long day waiting in airports, and an exciting evening with dear friends and a whole lot of wine, that didn’t quite work out. My thoughtful friend, Margie had to get up early to prepare for a wedding she was catering over the weekend, but when she woke up she could tell how tired I was, so she pulled the curtains shut so the room would stay dark…and I continued to sleep, as did my sons downstairs in the other bedroom. Instead of waking up around 8am, we slept until 10am!

Margie had left the house already, but had made me some coffee and set out some breakfast foods for all of us.

Still in my jammies, I sat outside on her front porch beside her pond to enjoy the relaxing sounds of her bubbling, gurgling waterfall, as I sipped my coffee and rubbed the ears of her sweet Chocolate Lab, Reeces.

I wandered around taking photos of many of the unique and rustic items Margie and her family have collected.

And this beautiful table, handmade by Margie’s hubby.

It was a wonderfully relaxed way to spend the morning.

After a while I woke up the boys and they enjoyed some breakfast, and hanging out with one of Margie’s sons, who was one of their best friends when we lived in South Carolina. And by the time we were all packed up to leave, Margie returned from her errands, with a surprise for me:

A true Southern Treat! Boiled Peanuts!! Nom! Nom!

And then we had a proper goodbye…pictures and all.

I sure do miss her.

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But it was time to get rollin’

 

 

We drove north from her cabin and found a Letterbox in downtown Rock Hill. As we were stamping in, a train rolled right by the park and we waved at the driver and he answered with a hearty “TOOOT!….TOOOT! of his horn. That made our day!

Afterwards, we placed a Letterbox just a few miles away, with a stamp of an image of a chile pepper, that I had carved just before we left New Mexico. The location I chose has fond memories for my family because it is where we took the twinlings to practice riding their bikes on the flat, winding paths and bridges that encircle the lake and flow through the forest, and where we would go every Thanksgiving to feed bread to the ducks and geese. (Sadly they now have signs up warning not to feed them anymore)

(The Twinlings practicing their Zombie moves)

After leaving Rock Hill, we drove through the city of Charlotte, where I had hoped to find a whole slew of wonderful Leterboxes, but we just didn’t have time after we had slept in. It was only 1pm and I was shocked at how much traffic was on I-85, between Charlotte and Kannapolis. Sometimes it would come to an almost complete stop and when we finally got up to the area we figured must have an accident or construction…..there was nothing!

(Our Alamo Rental Car….with the tiny windows, tiny inside, and generous airbags)

We did make an exit off I-85 briefly to find two letterboxes in Richfield, NC, but they were easy drive-bys and we were soon on our way to Salisbury, NC, where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening Letterboxing all around the quaint historic town.

 

 

 

 

Many of the boxes we chose to hunt for were Zombie or Spooky related, because Salisbury is well known for it’s haunted old houses and Ghost Tours and Zombie Affiliation.

(Photo enhanced with PhotoScape)

Most of them were placed in old cemeteries, near crypts, and close to historic haunted houses and old haunted train stations.

There was even one Letterbox located beside the crypt of the Chambers Family below the Session House in downtown Salisbury. On weekends, there are Ghost Tours here and in other areas around town.

The clues used the famous Edgar Allen Poe story: The Cask of Amontillado.

As soon as we arrived at the location, we heard police sirens (thought we were already caught, even before we did anything. hehe), soon followed by a long white hearse and a funeral procession that drove right in front of us. That sure added to the creepy ambience!

(Yes, that’s Jax beneath the stairs…..searching for the letterbox……with the crypt on the other side of a wall, only a few feet away, but within sight through a hole in that wall!)

And these are the caskets and burial ground of the 10 family members of Maxwell Chambers, as seen through the iron gate.

(photo enhanced for creepiness using Photoscape)

It was probably our most favorite Letterbox to find during the entire trip, with the exception of the other Edgar Allen Poe Letterbox: The Tell Tale Heart.

In fact one of the letterboxes was even placed in a clothing store called Dead Ed's, where we only had to ask the manager for the Letterbox to receive it….but had to get past several creepy Zombie dudes first.

They were preparing for the Halloween Zombie Walk down Main Street in Salisbury, which we had hoped to participate in, too, but that night was calling for rain, and we wanted to get checked into our cabin at Dan Nicholas Park and meet up with some fellow Letterboxers for the Night of the Letterboxing Dead Event. (Click that link to see a video taken the next day. You can see both of my twinlings dressed as a Goth Zombie and an Creepy Amish Farmer Zombie).

But first we had one final Letterbox to find, in a cemetery, at night, near the infamous Gravity Hill in Rowan County. This was not actually a Night Box, where you wear a headlamp and go traipsing through the forest looking for reflective tape or Fire Tacks, to locate the Letterbox, but this Letterbox was supposed to be a more fun and creepy experience attempted at night. So, we visited Gravity Hill and felt our car seemingly roll backwards up the hill, and then we backtracked a 1/4 mile to the cemetery and started searching.

I’d just like to say, that wandering around in the woods beside an old cemetery on a pitch black night, while trying to stay invisible as cars randomly drive past….is a hilarious hoot! Jem was the watchman, while Jax was the clue cipher, and I was the compass reader. Every time our watchman called out “Lights Out”, we ducked down and switched off our headlamps. The thing is, Jem actually couldn’t see the cars coming because we were surrounded by thick trees, with the cemetery right in the middle, bordering the road. Instead, he had to listen intently for the cars, which wasn’t always easy for some of the quieter ones.

Sometimes an evenly spaced grouping of cars drove by and if someone had been watching us they were surely cracking up, because it seemed like we were ducking and blinking on and off like a string of broken crazy Christmas lights. It sure was a lot of fun, though!

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Afterwards we made our way to Dan Nicholas Park, and let ourselves in using the lock code, which had been given to us by one of the event coordinators, since it was 9:30pm, and the gates closed at 5pm. We found our way to the cabins and checked into the one we had been offered to use for the night: The House of Horrors.

(Photo taken the next day)

 

The House of Horrors Cabin was rented by Mama Wolf (her Letterboxing Trail Name) to contain a fun indoor Letterboxing series with some clever clues, as well to be used as a cozy indoor heated meeting space. Good thing, too, since the rain had begun and it had gotten quite cold outside.

 

There were 2 other cabins being used by fellow Letterboxers and they gave it their all in decorating their temporary humble abodes.

And there were Letterboxes hidden and tucked everywhere, all over and around these cabins!

We were very ready to get ourselves unpacked and ready for a good night’s rest, after we met a few of the Letterboxers still awake, so we could do exchanges with them. (ie, swapping personal stamp images)

But we were soon to realize that our long day was not over. We were very happy with the amount of Letterboxing and exploring we got done that day, and we knew the next day would be even busier with the Night of the Letterboxing Dead Event we would be attending.

But it wasn’t over yet. 

In fact we were in for a long night of adventure and Letterboxing before we could finally go to sleep.

To be Continued…….