A 'WILD' Day at Brazos Bend

Even though I was up late last night I was still up early this morning to get started on what I hoped would be an 'eventful' day. Finally T.A.L.E. 9 had arrived. I left the hotel a little after 6:00am and headed to Rosenberg. I was going to look for boxes at the cemetery there and at a park. I arrived at the cemetery to find the gates locked and the sign said it wouldn't be opened for another hour. So I left the cemetery and headed for Seabourne Park. When I got there I the entrance was blocked and there were signs everywhere saying the park was closed for an event. My original plan was to letterbox in Rosenberg and then hit Wharton before heading to the event at Brazos Bend. After finding both areas closed in Rosenberg I decided to head to Brazos Bend State Park.
From Rosenberg is was a short drive to the park and an enjoyable one - no traffic and beautiful scenery. I arrived at Brazos Bend State Park and paid the entrance fee and got a map. I then pulled into a parking spot right near the entrance and made a decision of where I should start letterboxing. I decided to stop at the first parking area which is for 40 Acre Lake. Not only was I going to look for boxes here I needed to plant the one I had brought with me. So I hit the trails around the lake. I found Got Blood? (by accident, didn't have the clues but stumbled across it while trying to find a hiding spot for my box), Brazos Bend (Silver Eagle's very first hand carved stamp), Hat-N-Boots and Dancing Alligator. I didn't find Don't Feed the Alligators!, Keen Observer or Strong Poison. And I did find a good hiding spot for my box - Texas Wildlife. When I completed the loop around the lake I saw a baby alligator crossing the trail ahead of me. He was so cute and I was glad it wasn't a big one. After I was finished with this trail I headed toward the event site. On the way I saw a sign for the Nature Center so I stopped in for a look-see. I got to touch a teeny tiny little alligator - it was so cool. Then I continued to the Dining Hall.

When I got to the hall they were just finishing setting things up. So I visited with some old friends and met a couple of new ones. I then stamped the event stamp and a traveling event stamp. The next few hours were spent visiting, do exchanges, finding personal travelers and getting table top boxes. I also got one of the new Texas Letterboxing Patches and my 50 Mile Treasure Hikers Path Tag. I also had a little something to eat - there was so much food it was amazing. Then we took a group photo and next the raffle started. I ended up with eight winning numbers. I came home with five prizes and gave three of my winning tickets to some of the kids. Even though all of that was a lot of fun it was time to do some letterboxing.

Astro D, The Great Wuga Wuga, Bell Motel, Whiz Gee, Silver Sprite and I headed out to find some boxes. We had all gathered the clues that had been set out and had mapped them out so we were ready to go hunting. We first looked for boxes in the camping area near the dining hall. We found Old Buzzard, Live Oak and Catfish. From here we made our way to the Creekfield Interpretive Trail and the George Observatory. In this area we found Robert WILD, Girl Scout Badge - Sky Search, Star Gazer, Wish Upon a Star, Bonnie Parker and Please Touch the Alligator. Next we headed to the 40 Acre Lake area (the one I did earlier) - here the group found my box and then we went and found In the Name of Liberty and Girl Scout Try It - Watching Wildlife.

We were all having a good time and we were enjoying all the boxes and stamps we were finding so we continued on. The next stop was Hale Lake for the Whiteoak Trail and the Red Buckeye Trail. The boxes we found here are Largemouth Bass, Where the Wild Things Are Series (3 boxes), Yellow Rose of Texas, The Jaybird-Woodpecker War, Wild Thang and Ink Me Up.We almost missed Wild Thang - we were not paying attention to the clues (I think we were tired - it was the end of the day and getting dark) so we had decided to head back to the dining hall and call it a day. But then we met up with another group of letterboxers and they explained to us what we were doing wrong. I am so glad we went and found this box - first it was a Boots Tex carve and second it was incredibly funny. A must have for my logbook.
Back at the dining hall we visited a little and then said our goodbyes. Astro D, The Great Wuga Wuga and I still had to drive back to Houston and we were also hungry. Some of the letterboxers had gone to dinner on Friday night at a restaurant in Needville called The Jay Cafe (they are also on facebook) and it came highly recommended so we headed there. This restaurant is a family owned place is a small town and the food was delicious. I had chopped sirloin, onion strings and a salad with sweet tea. And for dessert I had peanut butter pie. We all enjoyed our meal and talked about what a great day we had. T.A.L.E. 9 was another great event by Silver Eagle and Baby Bear.