Remembering

This was the perfect walk on a beautiful Cape day with Cubed, Hot Lava, and Joe Money! I read the comments from challenged "In Memory of" finders. After some deep searching, we found it.

It's in great condition but the logs which it was under have rotted. We moved it just a little bit under two small fallen limbs between two standing live oaks that are beyond the large pine referenced in the clues. 

It's such a great carve, we don't want it to be impossible for others to enjoy it as well. 

Vive le Monde!

I love to kill time in cemeteries.

Vive le Monde!
Long live the World!





...and I might've heard the muted sound of accordion playing as I turned to leave...

A Visit to the Lunatic Hospital

We spent the last part of our afternoon at the City on the Hill.  The Harrisburg State Hospital formerly known as the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital. From 1851 to 1937, this city on the hill was Pennsylvania’s first public facility to house the mentally ill and disabled.

Did you know that Girl, Interrupted was filmed here?

We also visited the on-site morgue.  Building #35.  Boy did that give us the creeps. Three men went into the place while we were "taking pictures" and "eating lunch."  We asked them what it was like inside. Their answer will not surprise you.  "Creepy!"

The Greenbelt

The Greenbelt could not have been any more beautiful or scenic (or fun).  The trees were just starting to change color.  Even the poison ivy (which abounds in many areas here) was beautiful as it changes to bright yellow.  

Location of the snoozing Grandpa Miller

We stopped by to meet Grandpa Miller but really struggled to find him.  I was thankful to have Blue Delft with me and not my usual noxers.  Our persistence paid off and taking time and rot into consideration, we finally located him.

My souvenir. Doesn't it look great in my garden?!

Thanks to all of our bushwhacking I found a little souvenir for my garden - a rusty piece of a fence that must've been pitched over the embankment from the cemetery next door.

I know Blue Delft got a kick out of me dragging that thing through the woods and across the street to the car. Getting it jammed into the car got a good laugh as well. But I think it will look great next year with gourds or peas or some kind of vine growing over it.  And I will remember Grandpa Miller and today's fun adventure when I look at it!

I Love the Sea Too

Over at the Paxtang Cemetery we remembered why we love the sea.  Of course, the royal fish would be a fan.  

Although, the "bowl" was quite deep. I have to admit that I didn't love reaching in. But it was worth it!

A Purple Start to the Day

Since the kids are older and into other things, it is harder for me to get out on adventures because I don't like to go alone.  So when Blue Delft asked if I wanted to hit the trail I jumped at the chance.

Our first stop took us to a winter's blossom in a neat little old cemetery.  What a super way to start off the day.

From there we headed over to the castle.  We noticed that hopping across the stream was easier than anticipated. And with a little help from my guide, I crawled to freedom through the window.  Wow, what a great experience and what a wonderful gift.  Truly a labor of love.

Adventures in Eastham

Of course we were familiar with the Evergreen Cemetery. Not only had we been here before but it is just across the street from Arnold's and that's hard to miss.  A lot of people love Arnold's but I don't believe they serve pasta.  More like lobster rolls and fried clam strips.

As we were exploring the cemetery, we encountered a coyote.  That was pretty exciting for us.  Fortunately, it didn't take much interest in us but we were a bit spooked to see it out in broad daylight.

Of all the time I've spent on the Cape exploring and I've never met the three sisters. I have never even heard of them.  Until now.

They were very cool to visit. We will have to return in the off season so we can get to the images that eluded us today.

On our way out we spotted this guy making a trek across the road.  We stopped and provided crossing guard services to make sure he was safe. We don't see box turtles around like we used to!

No Luck in Lancaster

One of my kids had day camp at Millersville University so I decided to seek out the highly recommended (and anticipated) Safari Man attractions while I had a few hours to kill.  I found the cemetery with no problem and located the Viet Nam Memorial immediately.

But then things weren't so easy....

I followed the clues but it was obvious that some major pruning and landscaping work had been done very recently.  There was a finder just 10 days ago.  Unfortunately for me, looks like I just missed it.

The box must've gone missing with all of the recent landscaping.

I quickly texted Blue Delft who confirmed along with her partner in crime, idlemoon, that they remembered the box being hidden under some large arborvitae type of bushes.  Now only two small bushes remain at the back of the circle around the memorial.

Bummer.  I heard it was superb.






And between that, the fresh grave a worker had just begun to dig, the creepiness of being (kind of) alone in a very large graveyard, and the promise of stinging nettles and poison ivy guarding the other boxes, I decided to move on.

I'll be back in the off season to catch up to the ones I passed on today.

Thanks for planting, Safari Man.

Here's a 2008 photo I found of the memorial from online.
 I can see many other bushes that are no longer there.

The adventure was an interesting one none-the-less!  

The End

On our way to Ptown for some Black Friday finds, we stopped to find the End of Days.  Again, I didn't have much time to search so we ran the clues a couple of times, coming up empty each time.  There has been a lot of clearing in the area.  I have to say that as we draw nearer to that end date of 12/21/12 the adventure seems more and more interesting.  

A long drive to Osterville

We left south-central Pennsylvania at O dark 30 and arrived in Osterville just after lunchtime.  We had a car full of tired travelers including two doggies who were not welcome here.  But I was successful finding the Winged Deaths Head.

The others will have to wait for another day since I had trouble finding the dirt road past Whitehead.  I didn't have time to search too hard and unfortunately, the two possible nearby paths I took quickly ended up in dead (pun intended) ends.

Neat place.  Thanks MM for recommending it.

Wellfleet Hippie Swamp

The Atlantic White Cedar Swamp trail is where we found but a single greenhead.  Perhaps we didn't see more because the swamp was pretty dried up.

We really enjoyed the walk after our delish lunch at Moby Dick's.  In fact, we enjoyed it so well that we did the boardwalk loop two times!

Some folks in our party were getting squirrel-ly,   running off ahead, and causing havoc.  We had to scurry out of there pretty fast to keep them in tow.


Quote of the day, as Johnny Law would say:  "We don't be knowin' dem like dat!"

After leaving the swamp, by happenstance we drove by Cemetery Road and decided to stop and check out the hippie brick.  We enjoyed looking around this old cemetery.

Seaside Cemetery

Since the Zip fell asleep in the car we decided to press our luck and punch out one more.  I've been to the Seaside Cemetery before but never turn down the opportunity to explore a cemetery, especially one in this area.

After Easter brunch

After Easter brunch, we needed a break so off to yet another cemetery we did go.  This time we met Betsey and learned about her hobby.

From there we headed over to Ridgevale Beach where we were not successful.


Then the Caped Coder wanted to check out the lighthouse.  Unfortunately, the whole area around the memorial rock has been recently landscaped.

Unda where?

I never tire of checking out cemeteries in this area.  This time it was an old cemetery in Orleans.  A wicked cool spot, we dove right in and were thrilled with what we found.

Sopping Wet

After lunch in Yarmouth Port, we searched for a little peace and quiet.  I've never seen anything wetter, moldier, and rustier.  I'm not really one to infringe on someone else's box but this one needed so much help, I didn't see any other option.  There were three logbooks in it and the first two (full ones) were in terrible shape. I left the third which was dry.  I brought them home to dry them out and will either mail them to the owner or return them to the box soon.

Peace Day Logbooks after drying

Scary Sandwich

I finally got over to Sandwich to plant a box at the Saddle and Pillion cemetery.  Edmond Freeman was my 10th great grandfather.  He is buried with his second wife (no relation to me).   I used a stamp that E man had carved years ago that I thought was pretty cool.  We had fun exploring the area.

An unexpected meeting

As I was basking in the glory of my trip around the world, I took some time in the afternoon to visit a few of my ancestors in the Brewster area, Chillingsworth Foster (1680 - 1764), his wife, Marcy Freeman Foster (1687 – 1720), and her father, John Freeman (1651 – 1721).

Anyway, I've had a letterbox ready to plant that I wanted to put in a cemetery and was checking this one out to see if it would be suitable. As I was walking the perimeter of the cemetery yard I found an upside down container. When I picked it up and looked closer it was a letterbox. I didn't know where to hide it, I didn't even realize that any were planted here. So I brought it back with me and sent the owner a message. The box was missing a logbook which I replaced. Two days later I returned and hid the letterbox in its correct spot. I was unexpectedly pleased to meet Mr. Jonathan Cobb and have a little tour of his family. Unfortunately, Reliance was was not there, but her hollow was hard to miss.

Nothing to Crow(e) about at Quivet

Came up short again in Quivet. But it was a beautiful spot nonetheless.

Hallowed Ground

We were fascinated to learn about the untimely demise of some native Americans. It is a very cool spot and I was really glad the adventure brought me here.

The Liveliest Cemetery

Another recent outing took me to a cool place. Hydeez Mom and I headed out to find the Dead Ahead series. I was interested in this series as I am a Dead fan but I was pleasantly surprised with the location. I thought it would be a typical cemetery but this was far from the case. This cemetery was like none other than I've seen. It was happy, whimsical, and had a good sense of humor. Hydeez Mom and I found it to be highly entertaining.