The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

Each year in March, the Texas Letterboxer's gather at one of the State Parks or other outdoor venue to tell tales and make friends and memories. Our first T.A.L.E. (Texas Annual Letterboxing Event) hosted by Silver Eagle and Baby Bear, was March 2006, at Rusk State Park, Rusk, TX. Stinky Monkey and Roarin' Lion was with us that very first year. I am so excited about the event this year and looking forward to seeing all my "old" friends and meeting new ones. to me, this is the "most wonderful time of the year" I set-up a timer at the bottom of my blog to count down the days to the event. See you there!

Lost Maples Sp

We left Bandara and headed for Lost Maples SP. We were hoping for some fall foliage for which this park is famous for, but we were about 7-10 days too early for all the leaves to be at their peak. It is a beautiful park and I was able to stamp in Lost Maple, a box by Silver Eagle that has been there since July 2003. I love stamping in boxes that have been around a long time. What a history this box has too!
The weather was just perfect for the four days we spent down in Uvalde County. I did leave a little treasure at Garner SP for others to find and stamp in, A Cowboy's Delight. Have fun finding the box, and be careful, you just might see a skunk or two while you are there!

Cowboy Capital of the World

We made a side trip to Bandera, which is billed as the "Cowboy Capital of the World" there are several nice boxes there, and we had a great time exploring the city, and stamping in three boxes. Thanks CanCan for a nice location! The Old Jail is a very interesting site, and the muriels are awesome!

Uvalde Letterboxing

I attempted to find a couple of boxes that were listed at Garner SP. We made our way up the steep trail to look for Crystal Cave , to no avail. PsGuru enjoyed exploring and getting pictures of the cave. We decided to continue on that trail, to the top and back down the other side of the mountain. the views were AMAZING!!! Psguru took great delight in documenting our hike with his camera.



We made it to the top which on our trail map said the elavation was 1800 ft. which was quite an accomplishment for both of us!

Skunks!

After getting the tent and camp all set-up and organized, we sat down for a relaxing evening under the stars. About 7:30, PsGuru heard something. UhOh! The flashlight revealed a skunk in our camp! We of course did not know that Garner SP is well known for abundance of skunks that abide there. We immediately ran for the tent just in case one decided to get closer. We watched from the safety of the tent as the little black and white creature took his time foraging around our camp. We of course had everything in containers, and no garbage of any kind was around for him to take advantage of. Every night, about 7:30 one or two would venture into the camp in search of something to eat. One night we sat outside to watch them and one got close enough to sniff my foot!! Thankfully, I did not panic or scare him and he just wandered away when the flashlight gave away his position. The next time we camp at Garner, we will probably camp in the "new" camp area where there aren't any visitors at night.

Drought!

At least once a year, Psguru and I take a week off to spend together and find some interesting places for letterboxing and photography. October 2008 found us traveling to Uvalde County, Texas. We were looking forward to our adventure which would have us camping at Garner SP for the first time. Our activities were to include: letterboxing, photography, hiking and fishing. After driving around San Antonio, we made our way west looking at the scenery before us with great delight. PsGuru was really looking forward to casting his line in the Frio River which runs through Garner SP. The closer we got to Uvalde County, we begin to notice signs that named various creeks that were along the highway, but the creek beds were DRY!!! The Ranger at the park said they were in a drought and it had been months since the last rain. We were very surprised to find the Frio River very shallow in places, even to the point of walking across without a problem.
We were instructed by the Rangers, that we could walk down the river from where we were camping and possibly find a deeper part of the river where we could catch some fish. We did manage to find a spot, and caught and released about 10 bass in about an hour. We could actually see the fish swimming for the bait. We did keep about three of them for lunch. Psguru prepared the fish and I fried them for a delicious lunch!