Hitting the Ground Running in Houston

The day started early, dark and very cold (26 degrees). I left Santa Fe and headed to Albuquerque for my flight to Houston. Checking in, going through security and the flight were uneventful and before I knew it I was landing at Hobby Airport. I grabbed my bags and picked up my rental car. The guy at the car rental desk told me that it was about 74 degrees in Houston and I had noticed that it was very overcast. No matter. I put my luggage in the car and headed out to start my letterboxing adventure.

I headed south from the airport and in no time at all I was arriving at Challenger 7 Memorial Park in Webster. I had clues for eight boxes in the park. The first box I wanted to look for was near the boat ramp so that is where I parked. It turned out that I could access six of the boxes from this spot. I walked down the road toward the boat ramp and followed the clues for Horsing Around. It didn't take me long to find the box and there was a picnic table close by where I could stamp in. After stamping in and hiding the box I followed the paved path to the Mother Earth Eco Sculpture. In my hands were clues for five boxes. I looked for and found Open Space's So Many Books box. A beautiful carving. I stamped in sitting on a swing and was attacked by little bloodsuckers. Luckily I had some deet in my letterboxing bag so I applied a liberal amount hoping to be spared losing more blood. Then I continued down the trail and looked for Aduceus-Cay and Peanuts: Silver Snoopy Microbox. I struck out with both. I think I was in the right spot for the first box but I had trouble finding the landmarks for the second box. I spent about 40 minutes walking around looking for these two boxes before I gave up and moved on. I headed down the trail reading the clues for STS 51-L. Easy to follow and I saw the box on the ground before I reached the tree it was supposed to be in. When I opened the box it had some water in it and the logbook and stamp were soaked. I had a napkin in my bad and I was able to dry things a little but I wasn't able to do much with the logbook. Unfortunately, since I flew to Houston instead of driving I didn't bring any supplies for first aide. After stamping in I made sure to put the box back where it should have been. I was finished with boxes in this area of the park so I drove back to the front and parked near a small pond. I walked around the pond finding The Doubtful Guest and Nasa Hitchhiker Hostel. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with these two boxes because the deet didn't seem to be working. I stamped in fast and I did take one hitchhiker from the hostel and left two.

Leaving the park I headed for Countryside Park to find another Open Space box - did I mention that I love her carves. Getting to the park was easy and the clues to the box were easy. I found the box quickly and found a place to sit and stamp in. I took my time with this one and used markers to color it the way she had it in her logbook. A beautiful stamp and I am glad I stopped to find this one. Once the box was back in place I drove to Texas Avenue Park a few miles away. Here I was looking for a four box series called Body Works. The first box was planted in a flower bed at the entrance to the park. It was hard to look for the box because there were a lot of people all around. I sat for about 15 minutes on a rock and nonchalantly searched the edges of the rock for the box. I kept coming up empty handed. There was a break from people and I bent down to look better but still found nothing. The flower bed was very manicured so it could very well have been nabbed by some grounds keeper but then again i just may have missed it. Anyway, I entered the park and found the remaining three boxes - Bones, Heart, Brain. I was glad to find these three but disappointed I missed the other box because it looked to be a nice series when put all together. When I got back to my car I looked at the time and decide I could go and look for one more box before I needed to head to the hotel. So I headed toward Houston and made my way to find a Mystery Box that I solved a few years ago but never was in the area to find the box. My letterboxing adventure for the day ended on a great note as I found that last box, making it 10 finds for the day. So I stamped in and replaced the box, then headed back to the car.

Once I checked into the hotel I got my things into the room and I got cleaned up. I started logging my finds and organizing things while waiting for some friends to arrive so that we could go to dinner. My friend Regina called a little while later stating that she was almost to the hotel just making slow progress through the traffic. She arrived and we visited until I received a text message that Astro D and The Great Wuga Wuga were in the lobby having cocktails. We joined them and visited for a few minutes before heading out for some dinner. We ended up at Ninfa's on Post Oak. We had an enjoyable meal and a great visit.

Now that I have logged everything and gotten this blog written it is time for some sleep - it has been a long day but I had a great time and it was the perfect start to the adventure. Tomorrow I tackle Memorial Park.