Our Thanksgiving getaway to visit Thomas' brother in Phoenix.
November 22 - 26, 2006
November 22 - 26, 2006
Showing posts with label Letterboxing in the Grand Canyon State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Letterboxing in the Grand Canyon State. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Arizona Photo Album
I finally got all the photos organized and picked out a few that I liked. They are now arranged in a photo album and are ready for viewing. Click on the cactus and away you go. I hope you enjoy!
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Quest for The Thing?
Well, our trip is coming to an end. We are on I25 as I type. Thomas is driving and I am summarizing our last day of letterboxing in Arizona. We should get home around midnight, no problemo, we can sleep in tomorrow - in our own home!
We left Phoenix around nine this morning and decided to head to Picacho Peak State Park. Three letterboxes and a couple of nice hikes - seemed like fun to me. Well we spent about three hours in the park and found Picacho Cactus, The Cercidium and Picacho Wildflowers. This was a great place to hike. Nice trails and beautiful views in all directions. The weather was fantastic, warm but not hot and incredible blue skies. And Saguaros everywhere! It was great - we got to see young Saguaros to larger multi-armed ones, as well as skeletons of Saguaros long gone. We also got to see a large variety of cacti. We encountered some that at a distance looked as though they were soft and fluffy - up close this was not the case! There were also those that had spines everywhere - it didn't seem that there would be a safe place to get near them. Others had these three to four inch spines - OUCH! But all of them were beautiful, if you haven't been to Picacho Peak State Park, what are you waiting for? Get out there! The letterboxes and hikes are worth it.
After we left the park we headed east on I10. We stopped just before Tucson in Marana at "The Thing" billboard and found Kristal and Ron's The Church of Logic, Sin and Love. The billboard intrigued us, but was it enough to get us to stop and see what "The Thing" is. You'll have to read on to find out if we found out. From here we drove to Tucson, stopped and had a little lunch and rested a bit before we got back on the road. Okay, so we drove the 93 miles to Dragoon. In all honesty we only stopped because AZroadie has a box near here (What is the Thing?). We found the box and I stamped in - NO, the stamp does not answer the question - it is the question. So did we stop and see "The Thing" --- we didn't, so the question for us remains unanswered.
By this time it was getting late so we headed out, remember our goal is to get to Santa Fe tonight. As we drove, there was an incredible sunset in our rear view mirror. I got a picture and I'll post it in the photo album when I get home (unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the sunset justice). It continued to get dark and we wanted to stop in Lordsburg, NM and grab one more letterbox. Well, it was completely dark by the time we got to the rest area. This did not dampen out letterboxing spirits. Out came the flashlight. So, I'm walking around with a flashlight and the clue for the box. There were only two other cars in the parking lot and I think we may have freaked out the people in those cars. We were walking around the pet area and then heading off into the darkness with these people just staring at us. I'm glad it was dark - they couldn't tell what we were doing. We found the box and I was glad - another great AZroadie stamp (we got seven of his boxes on this trip).
We should be home any minute so I'll end this post. Look for the photo album soon!
We left Phoenix around nine this morning and decided to head to Picacho Peak State Park. Three letterboxes and a couple of nice hikes - seemed like fun to me. Well we spent about three hours in the park and found Picacho Cactus, The Cercidium and Picacho Wildflowers. This was a great place to hike. Nice trails and beautiful views in all directions. The weather was fantastic, warm but not hot and incredible blue skies. And Saguaros everywhere! It was great - we got to see young Saguaros to larger multi-armed ones, as well as skeletons of Saguaros long gone. We also got to see a large variety of cacti. We encountered some that at a distance looked as though they were soft and fluffy - up close this was not the case! There were also those that had spines everywhere - it didn't seem that there would be a safe place to get near them. Others had these three to four inch spines - OUCH! But all of them were beautiful, if you haven't been to Picacho Peak State Park, what are you waiting for? Get out there! The letterboxes and hikes are worth it.
After we left the park we headed east on I10. We stopped just before Tucson in Marana at "The Thing" billboard and found Kristal and Ron's The Church of Logic, Sin and Love. The billboard intrigued us, but was it enough to get us to stop and see what "The Thing" is. You'll have to read on to find out if we found out. From here we drove to Tucson, stopped and had a little lunch and rested a bit before we got back on the road. Okay, so we drove the 93 miles to Dragoon. In all honesty we only stopped because AZroadie has a box near here (What is the Thing?). We found the box and I stamped in - NO, the stamp does not answer the question - it is the question. So did we stop and see "The Thing" --- we didn't, so the question for us remains unanswered.By this time it was getting late so we headed out, remember our goal is to get to Santa Fe tonight. As we drove, there was an incredible sunset in our rear view mirror. I got a picture and I'll post it in the photo album when I get home (unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the sunset justice). It continued to get dark and we wanted to stop in Lordsburg, NM and grab one more letterbox. Well, it was completely dark by the time we got to the rest area. This did not dampen out letterboxing spirits. Out came the flashlight. So, I'm walking around with a flashlight and the clue for the box. There were only two other cars in the parking lot and I think we may have freaked out the people in those cars. We were walking around the pet area and then heading off into the darkness with these people just staring at us. I'm glad it was dark - they couldn't tell what we were doing. We found the box and I was glad - another great AZroadie stamp (we got seven of his boxes on this trip).
We should be home any minute so I'll end this post. Look for the photo album soon!
Friday, November 24, 2006
Turkey Day and the Day After (A No-Shopping Day)
Yesterday Thomas and I spent Thanksgiving with his brother and family in Phoenix. We enjoyed a great meal. Turkey with all the trimmings! It was a great day, very relaxing and perfect weather. We returned to our hotel and made it an early night - after all we had a big day of letterboxing planned for today.
This morning we were up and out letterboxing by nine, we did not go anywhere near a mall or shopping center. We covered a lot of ground today, boxing in Scottsdale and Phoenix. We attempted eleven boxes today but only found nine. Not sure about the two we didn't find?!?!? So we did find . . . The Badger; Papago Park Boxes 1 & 2; Great Horned Owl; Desert Botanical; AZ Roadrunner; Camel Come Back Letterbox; Agua Linda Happy Gecko and All Aboard! in AZ. We enjoyed finding all these boxes as well as getting a great tour of the Phoenix area. But I have to say that our favorite places were hanging out in Papago Park and the hike on Camelback Mountain. The views from Camelback Mountain are incredible!
We saw some neat sculptures, incredible views, beautiful flowers, huge cacti and holes in rocks. Below is a sampling of what we encountered today. I will create a photo album when we get home.
This morning we were up and out letterboxing by nine, we did not go anywhere near a mall or shopping center. We covered a lot of ground today, boxing in Scottsdale and Phoenix. We attempted eleven boxes today but only found nine. Not sure about the two we didn't find?!?!? So we did find . . . The Badger; Papago Park Boxes 1 & 2; Great Horned Owl; Desert Botanical; AZ Roadrunner; Camel Come Back Letterbox; Agua Linda Happy Gecko and All Aboard! in AZ. We enjoyed finding all these boxes as well as getting a great tour of the Phoenix area. But I have to say that our favorite places were hanging out in Papago Park and the hike on Camelback Mountain. The views from Camelback Mountain are incredible!
We saw some neat sculptures, incredible views, beautiful flowers, huge cacti and holes in rocks. Below is a sampling of what we encountered today. I will create a photo album when we get home.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Boxing in the Grand Canyon State
Thomas and I left Santa Fe on Tuesday evening and arrived in Flagstaff, AZ very late that night. This morning we started boxing just outside of Flagstaff in Winona. We found our first Arizona box at nine o'clock in the morning. It was Don't Forget Winona 66 Letterbox by Azroadie. A great box and stamp and a great way to start our boxing in The Grand Canyon State. We did a little more boxing in Flagstaff and found artTrekker's Native Designs (well we found one of them, unfortunately we had trouble finding Box 2) and we also found Azroadie's Fort Tuthill.
Our next stop was Sedona. What a beautiful place. We didn't find one box we were looking for due to the campground and trail where it was hidden being closed due to a fire this summer. But we did find J. Peter's Plato #2: Greek Education - what a great spot, the view from the box's hiding spot was fantastic. The picture above is the view we had today.
After spending about half an hour just relaxing we were back on the road headed to Phoenix. The drive most of the way was good but then we encountered a lot of traffic. The drive was tedious and moving very slow. I realized that there was a box just outside of Phoenix in Pioneer. We got out of the traffic and found this quick, almost drive-by box. It was a nice break from the driving and traffic. We decided to just sit and relax a while after stamping in to avoid the traffic. We were rewarded well, not only did we miss the traffic when we got back on the road, we also got to enjoy this incredible sunset - what a great way to end a day of boxing in The Grand Canyon State.
Our next stop was Sedona. What a beautiful place. We didn't find one box we were looking for due to the campground and trail where it was hidden being closed due to a fire this summer. But we did find J. Peter's Plato #2: Greek Education - what a great spot, the view from the box's hiding spot was fantastic. The picture above is the view we had today.After spending about half an hour just relaxing we were back on the road headed to Phoenix. The drive most of the way was good but then we encountered a lot of traffic. The drive was tedious and moving very slow. I realized that there was a box just outside of Phoenix in Pioneer. We got out of the traffic and found this quick, almost drive-by box. It was a nice break from the driving and traffic. We decided to just sit and relax a while after stamping in to avoid the traffic. We were rewarded well, not only did we miss the traffic when we got back on the road, we also got to enjoy this incredible sunset - what a great way to end a day of boxing in The Grand Canyon State.
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