When Nature Attacks

On August 23 my boys and I attended an event that was actually thrown because we were going to be visiting the Hudson Valley - Not Playing With a Full Deck. We started out the morning meeting with The Farmer of 3 Blind Mice, SuzieToots, Lady Liberty Tee, Welcome Crew, Justice League Friend, and Travelin Shorts to hunt some of boxes that 3 Blind Mice hace in a local Preserve.

After 9 boxes it was time to break for lunch, some PTs', exchanges and odd looks ffrom the wait staff. After lunch, SuzieToots and gang decided to tour some of the historic homes while the rest of us went on to grab the newly planted Creepy Crawly boxes. After a brief ride we arrived at a beautiful spot perfect for letterboxing.

We started up the trail and found the first box. Just as we started to pass the stamp and logbook around, I heard my oldest, King of Hearts screaming from the edge of the trail. I rushed over to discover that he had kicked some leaves just off the trail and kicked up a yellow jacket nest. They were swarming around him and had started to sting him and were also after the daughter of Welcome Crew.

I grabbed him and moved him away from the nest and was swatting the bees away from him as quickly as I could. As I pulled his shirt off, Welcome Crew started apllying mud to ease the pain as I was still getting the last of the yellow jackets away and moving him further down the trail. Just then I noticed The Farmer running back up the trail crushing something in his hands. It was plantain, I found out later. It takes the stinging out of bee stings and the like. He started to apply it to the 16 bee stings that were on King of Hearts.

My camera had been in my pocket from taking pictures of us on the trail, so I decided to take a quick picture of the first aid that was going on. Event pictures always show smiling faces, inky fingers and full pages of stamps. This was something you never see, the dangers of the trail. There is only so much real estate on my son and there were 3 sets of hands on him at the moment. After I snapped the picture I looked at my left hand and realized that I had 5 yellow jackets sticking out of my hand and arm and one stinger.

I learned first hand that plantain really works for bee stings. King of Hearts came through the ordeal fine. With the quick actions of those around and the trail knowledge of The Farmer, there was not a mark on him. He decided he didn't want to continue on the trail, actually the only youngster that continued was Jack of Hearts. But the kids did have a great time at the Event later that evening. Ice Cream can cure whatever the trail can dish out, I guess.

That night I found two more stingers in my left calf. So for the day we had 24 stings, 20 traditionals, 12 travellers, 2 cooties, 16 event stamps, 1 LTC, 5 others, many exchanges and I was gifted and amazing stamp that will be a new PT. King of Hearts was back out on the trail the next day proving to himself that it was just a fluke.

And we learned that you can never take nature for granted. King of Hearts and Jack of Hearts have learned that you always stay on the trail and you never kick around in the leaves, because you might stir up more than you ever wanted too.

Lions and Penguins and Cops - Oh My

Last week my oldest - King of Hearts went to the zoo with his summer day camp. I decided that I would take Jack of Hearts to the zoo as well and we would pick up the letterboxes that were there, see the animals then grab the King after camp and do some boxing around Syracuse since we would be right there. Simple plan, what could go wrong.

The night before I printed clues, mapquested directions to make sure I wasn't going to backtrack or get lost and I packed lots of snacks and extra goodies for the day. Friday morning rolls around and we were off. The camp counsellors knew of our plan and thought it was great and said that they would see us up at the zoo. We made a quick pit stop and were off to the zoo. But I got a little turned around and took a back way there and even though we left 30 minutes before the campers did, we arrived just 3 minutes before the bus did. But Jack of Hearts and I said hello to the King of Hearts and set out to see the animals and search for our boxes, while the King of Hearts spent the day with his friends at camp.

We found our Lion and Penguin without a problem, but alas, the Flying Pig was no longer in captivity. We kept seeing campers that said hello to us and the counsellors smiled and waved and counted down till lunch time in case we wanted to join them. We did have lunch with the campers, then tossed our LB gear in the Jeep to enjoy the Zoo without the extra weight. Some how I became an extra chaperone for the group with King of Hearts in the afternoon. I didn't mind, except my water and popcorn disappeared at an alarming rate.

We soon finished at the Zoo, said goocbye to the campers and headed off to more letterboxes. Our first box was hadnd picked by the boys. It was Pokebox. Being a huge pokemon fan, I didn't complain. We found the park without any problems, and aside from some overgrown weeds, we got the box, and we on our way to the next stop - Armory Square. Then my luck hit.

Construction everywhere. No matter what road Mapquest had us on, there was construction, and when we finally got to our destination, there was no where to park, and the traffic was nuts, so we decided to jump ahead to Oakwood Cemetery. One quick U-turn later we were on our way. I followed my directions perfectly. A left here, a right there, straight for a few blocks, then a Right hand turn. I made the turn and followed the road for a few blocks, but something seemed off.

As I reached the end of the street about to make my next turn on the directions, a left, a Police car on my right turned on it's lights and pointed at me. So I pulled out and pulled to the curb. I wasn't sure what I had done, but the boys were sure we were going to jail. It turned out that I was pulling out of a One Way street - going the Wrong Way! Thank you Mapquest. I explained to the officer what had happened, and I got one of those Yeah Right looks, and then I showed him the directions I had printed out. He looked at them in disbelief.

He double checked them and since he couldn't remember if there was a One Way sign at that intersection, he let me go with a warning. The boys were happy that they were not going to go to jail, but upset that they didn't get to play with the handcuffs. We went on our way to Oakwood Cemetery, but got derailed by more construction, when I noticed a road from our next set of directions to our next box, so I decided to skip ahead again.

If you are ever in Syracuse, I highly recommend you search for the box No Such Letterbox. I just don't recommend you do it with Jack of Hearts. He decided that he did not want to cross the stream on the rocks. So I had to give him a piggy back ride while balancing on stones in the middle of the stream. This would have been fine, if I hadn't been walking at the Zoo all day, and if I had two good knees, a good back, and a decent sense of balance. We made it across, but not before I twisted my knee and tore part of the sole of my sneaker 3/4 of the way off. The whole time King of Hearts is standing on the far shore cheering us on.

We ended the night with Happy meals, a bath, and curling up together watching Star Wars. We were all tired from our adventures, but very happy. My knee has recovered, and we have found more boxes, and are planning more trips. But maybe next time we will skip Mapquest, and I will get a good GPS for my birthday.