Thomas and I Spend the Day in East Hartford/Manchester

Thomas and I decided to spend the day finding letterboxes in the East Hartford and Manchester areas, but Thomas had to attend a meeting first. So I slept in a little and then got things ready for the day. I mapped out the locations we wanted to go to and got the directions written down just to make things easier. I then took a little walk downtown and looked at the Old State House and took some pictures. I only spent abut 30 minutes walking because I wanted to be at the hotel when Thomas was ready. When Thomas finished his meeting and we left the hotel it was already 10:30am. So we decided to try one or two places and then find some lunch before we continued the day. So we made our way over to the east side of the Connecticut River to Center Cemetery. Here we found some incredible grave stones. The oldest one I found was dated 1761. And the carvings on the tops were just beautiful. After spending about 30 minutes just walking around and admiring the stones we finally got down to business and found the letterbox - it was a stamp of an image from one of the grave stones - very nicely done. So onward to the next location - Martin Park. This wasn't an especially nice park but we had a nice time doing a little walking. We looked for a series of boxes based on Sponge Bob. They were hidden for an event in May and were only suppose to be there for the day per the clue. But I noticed they were still marked active. We found three of the six stamps - not sure if we missed them or if they were missing. Then we looked for two more stamps from a series about Kill Bill. Only two of the three were active and we ended only finding one of them - still we had a nice time.

On the way to our next location we stopped and had some sandwiches for lunch. A quick lunch completed and we were on our way. Another cemetery - this one was a nice Veteran's Cemetery. We found Blondie, stamped in and the got back on the road. Not really any interesting grave stones here since they were all exactly the same (you know the ones from any National Cemetery) so we didn't hang out here. I can't tell you exactly where we went next because the box was a mystery, we knew it was in East Hartford but you had to figure out the location. After a little work we found the box and we were really glad - it was a beautiful carve by Music Woman. Our next stop was James N. Leber Memorial Park on Love Lane. I think I liked this series of boxes the best from today. It was called Build a Snowman. You went around the park finding boxes with parts to actually stamp and decorate a snowman - there was the snowman base, arms, hat, earmuffs, face, buttons, holly and scarf. It was a nicely done series and I was just like a little kid stamping up snowmen. We also found a bonus stamp that went with the Snowman series and another box - Peace . . . in Rapanui. We ended up having a great time in this park. At the car we talked about where to go next - back to the hotel or try for one or two more boxes. We decided to do a little more letterboxing. In East Cemetery in Manchester we found three boxes - Dia de Los Muertes, Dia de Los Muertes II and Poopy's NEW BOX (#2). They were all nice stamps but Poopy's was the best. It is a beautifully carved stamp of a little boy named Eric who died a year ago at age 2 - this box is placed at his grave site by his parents. It was just wonderful. By the time we finished at the cemetery it was dark but we wanted to make one more stop. Connfederate has a box planted at his home - in his yard. The clues let you know that you can find the box anytime since it is hidden outside. I won't tell you where it was hidden or where Connfederate lives - you can figure that out on your own. But I will tell you it was nicely done and I loved his yard - it was completely decorated for Halloween and looked terrific.

Well, I guess all good days must come to an end so we started back to the hotel. On the way there we stopped for some dinner and just relaxed. By the time we got to the hotel we were both tired and needed showers. Once we were clean and ready for bed I decided to try and write about our day - I started but about half way I just couldn't keep my eyes open, so you guessed it - I am finishing it on Sunday night. And I will do another post in a few minutes telling you what I did today.