Heading Further East

Today started really early, mainly because the hotel I was at was pretty noisy so I was awake at 5:00am. So once I had everything ready I loaded the car, checked out of the hotel and hit the road. The road I took out of Odessa was US385 and I headed for Crane. Actually a little south of Crane. I stopped at a roadside picnic area to find El Lobo's Beer for My Mules letterbox. It was still very dark when I arrived at the area and the entire area (including the road) was deserted. So I used the car and the headlights to find landmarks and when I thought I had the right spot I got out of the car and headed over to see if the box was where I was looking. When I turn my car off the lights stay on for 60 seconds so I had light to see what I was doing. Luckily I was right and I found the box on the first try. I took it back to the car to stamp in so I could use the inside lights to see what I was doing (this makes the 700th box I have found in Texas). It wasn't long before the box was back in place and I was backtracking to Crane. In Crane I took TX329 to make my way to Rankin.

Outlaw Historical Marker

On the way I turned onto FM2463 to look for another of El Lobo's boxes. This one was 75 Miles - No Water. Unfortunately for me it was No Letterbox. I followed the clues and I found the sign but from there the landmarks from the clues did not match up with what I was seeing. So I got back into the car boxless and continued on my way. When I reached Rankin I stopped to get some coffee to help energize me. From here I continued on TX349 to I10. Once on I10 I was a very happy camper. There was very little traffic and the speed limit was 80mph. So in no time I reached my next destination - Junction. I headed south on US377 for about 10 miles to an historical marker about the "Outlaws of Pegleg Station". Here I found Baby Bear's Ft. Clark - Ft. McKavett Military Road box. It was an easy find and a quick stamping.

Bird at South Llano

Once the box was back in place I headed back toward Junction making my next stop at South Llano State Park. I paid my fees and headed to the back of the camping area to hunt for two boxes - Silver Eagle's Junction Boys and Baby Bear's Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp. I didn't have any trouble finding the Old Bear Creek box but I never could locate the landmark's for Junction Boys. I think I might of kind of sort of been in the right location but I never did find the box. Anyway, I returned to the car to head back to the front of the park to find Boots Tex's Mr. Texas box. This was an easy find in a great spot. I was able to take the box into a bird blind to stamp in and I could watch all the birds feeding. It was so relaxing and I really enjoyed my time at the park - but as usual it was time to move on.
My plan for today was to get to Kerrville to visit a friend. She was working until 4:00pm and would probably get home by 5:00pm so I made my way to Kerrville-Schreiner Park to letterbox for the afternoon until I could meet up with Regina. There are a lot of boxes at the park because there was an event back in October 2012 and I knew I didn't have time to get all the boxes so I decided to stop at the first trailhead I came to and just letterbox there. That happened to be Trailhead 2 which leads to the red, green and blue trails. So I went through the clues for this area and tried to organize them a little and headed out. I ended up walking the entire red trail (I think I might have done this twice), the entire green trail and most of the blue. When 4:00pm arrived I had found the following boxes - All Wrapped Up With No Place to Go, Last Laugh, the Creepy Character Series, Haunted Rock, Witch Way? and The Hobblin' Goblins in Kerrville.

I left the park and went to Regina's where we visited and ate spaghetti (that Regina cooked) and just relaxed. It was great to visit with her and I am glad I took the time to stop here. Tomorrow I head to the Hill Country.