The Unofficial End to Fall.

Well, here we are, November 30th. Most if not all the leaves have fallen from the trees and cover the ground like a blanket. We find ourselves working hard in the yard collecting those leaves, putting them in bags, throwing them in compost piles, sneaking them into neighbors yards. Well, maybe not the last one, but there are a lot of leaves.

With the falling of leaves came some wonderful colors. New England gets most of the attention as it has a old feel given to its already vintage areas lined with stonewalls of about 200 years in age. But not to be out done, are the majestic areas around the country that get a bit of different color. The Rocky Mountians that reach higher than any mountain in the states, and the southern states that stay warm for most of the year, lucky to see a snowflake.

About a month and a half ago, I called out to other letterboxers to show me your Fall. Well I didn't get many pictures sent to me and I can't for the life of me, remember who sent them to me, but I can tell you where the pictures came from. I hope you enjoy the pictures and enjoyed the fall season. To find out where these pictures were taken, just scroll your mouse over the pictre and a caption will show up.

2nd Annual Turkeyboxing Day

Well, I was up at the butt crack of dawn ready to head out and grab some boxes before filling my face with some delicious, mouth watering, turkey. Only, I found one problem this year. The kids didn't wann ago boxing this time around. I have to say, it was probably my fault for that. Last year for Christmas, Sarah had gotten a portable DVD player for the van. I figured because it was wet and cold out this year, I wouldn't drag my youngest out into the woods. A movie to watch for the ride would be nice for him. Only, the other 2 decided they would rather watch the movie then search for a box with me.. Not exactly what I was thinking about when I brought letterboxing into our family. So we ended, sorry, I ended up only finding 3 boxes out of I think 8.The first being Liar's Paradise in Gilford. Saltmarsh Pond was so fogged in, it almost looked scary. Our second box was Bob O Bob-O-Link. This box was located in hard to find Prescott State Park in Laconia. The only reason I knew where it was, was because I have a box there already called Ants. Then after some frustration with searching for other boxes, I headed to find 1 last box before calling it quits. Sturtevant Saga was located in Bean Cemetery, in Center Harbor. This was a bit further north than our house and north of any of the other boxes I found, which meant that there was still some wet snow around. While stamping into the box, my socks started to get wet. Not the most fun for those of you that never had wet socks.

So with the finding portion of Turkeyboxing Day complete, it was now time to head to my Dad's house. I have never seen so much food before. Well actually, it has been a good long while anyway. When I was young, we would always head to my Great Grandpa's house in Holyoke, MA for Thanksgiving dinner. He past away when I was fairly young, but I can still remember the fun times we had there. Since then, dinner hasn't been much the same. The family has spread out a bit, and my parents have split and remarried. But there still was plenty of people at my Dad's house and the food was amazing.

After dinner I went to replant a box flooded out last spring. I wasn't sure I was going to replant this box. First off, it was a store bought stamps. I didn't want to replant with another store bought stamps. I have moved past store bought and can carve whatever I want now. So i compromised. I took the image of the store bought, transferred to some rubber, added a few things, and made it my own. The Blue Spider is now replanted.

With the day now winding down, we played a little chess and, beating Billy badly, and headed off home. I was really tired with the turkey kicking in. With science the way it is, they should fix that!

Where have I been? Part 2

OK, so maybe your saying to yourself, this picture I just posted isn't really that funny! But in all reality, I think I would rather being doing something like this, then being so time consumed with my gathering I am trying to pull off. My gathering "New Hampshire New Year 2008" is my first ever hosted gathering. I didn't realize there was so much involved in hosting a gather. Over the past few days, I have carved 5 stamps and have been emailing about the same number of people about stamps to carve for my gather. Letterboxers from all over the country were generous enough to carve for my gathering. I have never seen such kindness. And on top of things, others have donated some things for raffle to help offset the cost. I am still looking for a few more things to raffle off if anyone is interested in sending me something. You can email me directly at Gingerbreadjunk@yahoo.com if interested.
So with my gathering closing in, I hope that by the first week in December, I can start heading out and planting boxes. The I need to write out the clues and print them out for everyone to have. It is my hope that with 2 weeks left before the gather, I will have nothing much to worry about. Unlikely, but I can dream right?

Where have I been?

Well for those who haven't heard, I have been doing nothing at all! Actually, I can't say that. You see, I had kinda lead everyone to believe that I have been really busy doing much of nothing. Way back when, there was a gathering called Frightnight 3. I had mentioned something along the lines of, "I can't come to the gathering because I can't get out of work." Well, I had repeated this and everyone thought I couldn't go. Then a week later, I couldn't keep it completely secret anymore. I told Mainekokopellian I was going and he was thrilled. But, I didn't tell him what I was dressing as.

So the day came of the gather. I drove there and walked in with a plan. For 1 whole hour, I drove people nuts. Not once speaking a word. I had 2 bags by my side. 1 bag contained cards with a special signature stamps image on them, to hand out. The other bag contained a slimy mix of worms and eye balls. Trick or treat is was. So for 1 hour I had fun. Hugging people, kissing hands, getting my rear grabbed in hopes of figuring out who I was, with no luck. For 1 hour, I was dying of heat! That mask was so hot, I couldn't stop sweating. So after 1 hour, I called it quits. I was ready to reveal myself to everyone. Boy were people shocked!

Liquid was something I headed for first after greeting some people. Then I got a chance to meet some new people I knew where there but didn't talk to yet. Ryan, better known by everyone as Green Tortuga, and Amanda from Seattle were in attendance. I had plenty to talk to Ryan about. What a nice guy he is, which is what I expected he would be.
Later in the evening, we headed out for a little trick or treating before taking a hike through the woods for a haunted letterboxing adventure. I have to admit, I wasn't scared, but had tons of fun walking through the woods at night with some of my friends, old and new. The hike we wet after a day of rain, and I was walking around in slippers. Not recommended for a hike through the mud. Ghosts, skeletons, jack-o-lanterns and scary people lurked through the woods, but nothing was as cool as the graveyard behind the house. Much props to the organizers of the gather. I had a long day and a long drive ahead of me, but it was all worth it.

Call me Crazy! I just had to go!

Well, I have been wondering about the condition of my Police Log Series - Call #1, being that I haven't had anyone mark it as found since April 2006. So with some wonder in my mind, I just randomly decided, because I was in the area, to climb the Mt. Kearsage and check on my boxes. For anyone that knows these boxes, and there aren't many, you don't need to climb to the top of the mountain to get to these 2 boxes. So if your following, I climbed Mt. Kearsage. I really don't have any idea why I did it, but when I got to the top, I didn't regret a moment.
Here in New Hampshire, most of the autumn colors have reached there peak and there really inst much to see. But once you get to the top, nature welcomes you to a whole nother world. First there is some color to see and you can see all that color for miles. You can see the White and Green Mountains in both New Hampshire and Vermont respectively. I'm sure you can even see Maine, but I didn't know what to look for that would tell me "Hi, I'm Maine!" The temperature was well above normal, sitting at a warm 70 degrees, Normally around this time of year, it is around 50-60 degrees. It was a bit breezy. A beautiful day to fly a kite. Oh, it was! Actually, someone was on top of the mountain flying a kite. It was a site to see. Not only was the view beautiful, just seeing everyone at the top, families picnicking, dogs running around, and yes, kite flying, was enough to make me happy. I like nothing more than seeing people out and about taking advantage of what nature has brought forth for everyone to see. Open your eyes. See for yourself.
Oh ya! I guess I might wanna let you know that the boxes where there the whole time. I did find it hard to check up on them with all the visitors to the mountain. But I managed to wander off the trail a bit without being noticed. Box #1 and #2 are safe and sound. Now someone go out and look for these boxes.

Welcome to Canada, now go home!

Well, I wouldn't suggest anyone do what we did, but it can be done. Canada. A different land with vast space filled with corn. It reminded me a lot of Quaker Country in Pennsylvania. The roads were small and lots and lots of corn fields. I really wasn't expecting that. Kinda thought we would see some Canadian tress. Is there a such thing as Canadian trees? Either way we didn't see many of them, at first anyway.
So we started from the house at 4 in the morning. Nothing to see in both New Hampshire and Vermont on the way to the border because it was still dark. What I did see in Vermont though, was bear crossing signs. I said "Great!" Sarah was sleeping in the passenger seat and woke up when I remarked. She asked what and I told her. She said "Oh." and went back to sleep. She slept most of the way to the Canadian border. It finally started to get light about 30 minutes from the border was I thought kind stunk, but whatever. It would have been nice to see some fall color in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
So we made it across the border and were now in a strange land filled with corn fields. The speed limit changes from MPH to KM. Quite a change for me. A bit hard to follow the speed limit, especially since there were cars behind me that clearly wanted to go faster than we were. Suddenly, I see a sign that looked like a covered bridge sign. Without my wife's permission, we headed down a road that we thought could have been a bad idea. We traveled it for about 2 miles before almost giving up, but there it was. Our first sighting of a covered bridge in Canada. Little did we know, it was going to be our last. I was more excited to see it that Sarah, but I am just weird like that.
After leaving the bridge, it was straight to Montreal. All in all, it took us about 5 hours to drive there, which included the stops for gas and the covered bridge. It was a nice drive, and when you finally get on the highway in Canada, you can see Montreal in the distance. Oh boy! First stop, Parc Mont Royale.
It was in the park, stood a mountain of which anyone could climb. It stands at 764 feet, in the middle of Montreal. It was told that you can get the best views of Montreal from the top, as well as a scenic vista halfway up. And I hate to tell you this, but we got lost on the way to the top. We didn't get any scenic pictures of Montreal from the mountain. But I did take some of the park itself. We would have stayed longer if we actually had stuck more money into the parking meter. All we had was 70 cents U.S. to put in the meter, which it took, but little did we know, it only gave us 8 minutes to look at the park. We still spent about an hour and a half there, but decided we should head off. Sarah was getting cold.
The temperature in Montreal was around 40-48 degrees, which was fore casted before we left. I was fine, but Sarah though otherwise. So we were in the car, ate lunch and headed off for a visit to Olympic Stadium. Olympic Stadium opened in 1976 as a place for the 1976 Summer Olympic to be held. The following year, the Montreal Expos, a Major League Baseball team, moved in and played ball there until September of 04. Now the stadium sits for random spectacles to visit and inhabit for a short time. We went to tour the stadium. Fun thing though, well actually, it didn't turn out to be so funny, when we got there and parked, we walked across the street to the stadium and walked around the side. There were signs pointing to where we needed to go for the tour. Suddenly the signs stopped and there was no place to go. The building wasn't open for tours and there was nobody around to ask. I was frustrated. We tried to walk around to the other side of the stadium but gave up shortly when we both found ourselves freezing. We headed back to the car.
From there we went to Old Montreal. I would bore you will all the historical feature I found out in the Museum of Montreal History, but I won't. What I will tell you is that while you were there, You felt like you were in of old times. The buildings looked old and the streets were very narrow. We thought about taking a tour, but at $45 for a half hour ride, we thought not. We were just as happy to walk around. We stumbled across Notre Dame which was a location I wanted to stop at. If I had food, I would have feed the birds, but instead, let them peck at my hands.
Afterwards we went to watch a show at the Planetarium De' Montreal. This was at 7:15pm. I was tired and so was Sarah. We had a hard time watching the show and by the end, we were kinda disappointed. We both have definitely have seen better. But after a long day, we were ready to head home.
All in all, we had a wonderful time checking out the night life in downtown Montreal before the show. The fall colors in Montreal were still nice and the city itself was as kind as could be. I had ever intention of planting a letterbox in Parc Mont Royale, but I didn't feel safe leaving one there. That and it would be the only letterbox in Montreal right now. But with that said, if everyone gets the chance, I would recommend Montreal as a spot to visit, letterboxing or not. My only suggestion! Spend the night!

Update on Gingerbread Jim.

The last time we had heard or seen Gingerbread Jim, he had been rescued by the Ryan Family after being kidnapped. Something I'm sure he would like to forget. Well since then, he has moved into a assisted living home for better care. You see, since the winter, he had spent lots of time in the hospital with illness and his girlfriend Sherri couldn't handle it. She got very stressed with everything going on and left Jim. Jim really had no one else left to turn to. We had gone to visit him at the hospital for support and he liked that. The court case began for the man responsible for kidnapping him and he was found guilty and sent to prison for 5 years. Because Jim was in the hospital, he was unable to go to court and stand on the bench. If he was able to do so, the kidnapper would have gone to prison for much longer. Sounds kinda wrong to me. But nonetheless, Jim shortly after that, left the hospital for a assisted living home.
The other day I had gotten a phone call from the home. They had said that Jim had gone for a walk and hadn't come back yet. They regularly allow the residents to go outside for walks for a hour at a time, usually without supervision. Most of the residents do not need supervision. They are there just so they have someone if needed. So back to the phone call. Jim had been gone for about 4 hours now. I was at work and I had asked that they keep looking for them and when I get out of work, I will join the search.
I got out of work around 9:30. I started out around my work and found nothing. From where I work, the home is about 2 miles away, and at this time it had been about 6 hours since he went for that walk. Downtown Concord I started to search. State Street, Pleasant Street, and then there he was. I found him walking Main Street. We sat on a bench and talked for a little bit before heading back to the home. He had stated that he hasn't been feeling well. He has been forgetting things and he was afraid that he would soon not even remember his name. He woke up this past Saturday morning and didn't even know where he was. When he took that walk, he mentioned going to the park. Nothing looked familiar to him. From talking to him, he really sounded as if his memory was slipping away. He had told me most all the stories he had told me in the past except. There was one he didn't tell me. I tried to see if I could mention something that could catch his memory but nothing worked. He had forgot about his 65th Birthday in Belmont. I told him about what he told me and he started to cry. He was now scared and alone.
We got into the car and we started off back to the home. When we got there, the assistance were happy Jim was back. I had discussed things and they told me they have noticed a bit of the same over the past few weeks. They had been walking him closely until he wandered off. They assured me they would watch him closer now and keep me in touch of any changes.

Do to Gingerbread Jim losing a part of his memory, a box has been retired.
The Adventures of Gingerbread Jim #5 - My 65th Birthday
As his memory disappears, so will his boxes.

It's that time of year again!

Here we are. The beginning of October and the weather is getting to be rather comfortable for letterboxing. The days are starting to become filled with the colors of the season, the bugs are looking for a place to hide for the coming winter cold that will soon be here, and more peopple venture out into the woods for a hidden treasure. But not all those people are out looking for the same hidden treasure we are. This time of year is full of hunters lurking into the weoods in search for something to take home to their families. Not that any hunter would fire at something they couldn't identify first, but to help lower your risk of any injuries, here is a list of hunting schedules for the state of New Hampshire:

Sept. 15 - Dec. 15 - Deer - archery
Sept. 15 - Dec. 15 - Fall turkey - archery
Oct. 15 - Oct. 19 - Fall turkey - shotgun
Sept. 2007 - March 2008 - Small game - dates vary by species and region
Oct. 1 - Dec. 31 - Pheasant
Oct. 20- Oct. 28 - Moose (by permit only)
Oct. 27 - Oct. 28 - Deer - Youth hunting weekend
Nov. 3 - Nov. 13 - Deer - muzzleloader
Nov. 14 - Dec. 9 - Deer - firearms

So what can you do to be safer into the woods? What I do, is carry around in the trunk of my car, an orange hat for every member of your family. Since there are 3 of us usually hiking though the woods, 3 hats. If we have more than that with us, I wouldn't be to worried about it. The orange that shows off the 3 of our heads should be enough of a warning that a deer isn't walking with us. Now we only have orange hunting hats. You can get more orange hunting clothing if you wish. Wal-mart carries an array of hunting wear you can pick up as weel as most other department stores. Actually, I don't think that Target sells anything hunting related. But it doesn't hurt to look I suppose. Either way, I am sending out that reminder we all might need, while hunting in the woods for something that doesn't have 4 legs and a rack. Unless someone planted a stamp of something with 4 legs and a rack. Be safe and wear your orange.