What a time!

Hello, Family!
We had quite a time this weekend! It was very hot and humid, but we spent the day recovering yesterday and feel fine now.
Early Saturday morning, we all left with Nitrocat and headed up to meet some of her friends near Rockford. We had a great day and found 17 letterboxes! That means that we finally got to help Nitrocat reach 100 finds. She also found her first cuckoo clue that day and we were close enough to go and find the letterbox that went with it too. That was exciting!
My favorite place was the Atwood Park and Education Center. They had some Birds of Prey in cages and we saw several large owls, a kestrel and a Bald Eagle. The Eagle was yelling at us and the Great Horned Owl hissed at us. I don't think they liked being disturbed even though we tried to be quiet and move slowly. Nitrocat took our picture by the Eagle. She said it was funny because there is a little poison ivy in the picture too and that was appropriate since we were dodging it all day.
We also went to the Goose Barn, which is a rubber stamping store owned by a letterboxer named Dumpster Diva. She wasn't there, so we didn't get to exchange with her, but we did get the two boxes at the store. We had our picture taken in front of the barn door. Can you see us by the handle?
We saw lots of other great things, and Tweeter and Pinky Poo have written about some of them. It was fun to meet Pastor's Wife and Prairie Dog and see all of the wonderful stamps carved by Krait and a couple of other people.
My time here in Illinois is almost over, I guess. I'm a little sad because I've had so much fun. But Nitrocat said that she won't be letterboxing as much next month because she has to get ready for school, so I guess it is time to move on. It doesn't look like it is going to work out for me to go to the Renaissance Faire with them. Oh, well. Where am I going next?
Frankie

What Boxing Buddies do on rainy days...

Hi, Mom!
Just a quick note to let you know what I'm up to. Yesterday, we got to exchange with Nitrocat's two letterboxing nephews who live next door. Today, it was stormy and yucky out, so we spent some time stamping some of the postals that Stacy has here. She said that they are "in transition" from being postals to being planted as traditionals. My favorite was "The real story of the 3 little pigs" because it has a funny story to go with it. She said the story is also on the clue page on AQ.
We hope to get to go boxing on Thursday if the weather is decent.
FtM

Box Maintenance and Meeting new friends

Hi, Mom!
Well, this has been a maintenance weekend so far. We have gone to check on 7 of Nitrocat's boxes. One, from the King's Ransom series, needed some revision to the clue for the first box. The next four were at Silver Springs where she said lots of people had been looking for a missing lady. She wanted to make sure that they hadn't found her letterboxes in the process. And they hadn't! Then we replanted the Favoritten. It was requested that she find a new hiding spot by the caretakers of the cemetery where it had been planted. There was some vandalism (Nitrocat says Not by letterboxers, though!) and they wanted to eliminate any extra traffic. And last, we rescued the Lake Mermaid because Nitrocat accidentally planted it on private property. We still have to find a new spot for that box though.
It was alot of work, but we got some neat stamps. Some of them were the first ones that Nitrocat ever carved. We got to see a natural spring, meet Combine Kid and Fast Track and see some really freaky looking spiders! Stacy says that they are the ones that spin the huge webs across the trails that we walk through sometimes. She said if my antlers were bigger, she'd let me go first on the trails. Since they aren't big enough though, she showed us how to pick a good walking stick to use instead.
We also got to stamp two fleas that the Yorkshire Tortoise sent from the UK! They are alot like our hitchhikers, but can go in any kind of box.
Well, the other buddies need to use the computer too, so I'd better go. More later!
Hey, did Starling123 get my postcard in time?
Love,
FtM

Boxing in Romeoville

Hi, Mom!
Yesterday was an amazing day! Nitrocat decided to take advantage of the great weather and take all of us letterboxing in Romeoville. We found 5 letterboxes. Three of them were from the Adult Swim Series, and one was from the Monty Python Holy Grail series. That one was in a great location even if there was a really steep and slippery hill to climb. We ate great food at a little hamburger stand for lunch and went back when we were finished boxing for an ice cream snack on the way home. Megan took great care of me and helped me stamp in my logbook. We also stopped at the Post Office so that I could mail my postcard to Robin.
We looked up the dragonfly that we took a picture of and found out that it is an Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly. We saw more of them today. Tweeter kept trying to eat them!
We are resting up today, but we might try to go again tomorrow while the nice weather holds.
Love,
FtM

Carving New Sig Stamp

Hi, Mom!

I have spent the last couple of days helping Nitrocat get caught up on postals. She calls it playing! There was a really neat one from the Dr. Seuss ring that she let me stamp into my logbook. She also helped me carve a mini sig stamp.

Tweeter arrived yesterday, so I got to exchange with him. Pinky Poo should arrive today or tomorrow. We hope to go up to Batavia and North Aurora on Thursday to look for about 10 boxes. In the meantime, Nitrocat says we will be pretty busy with "Life", or things like swimming lessons and grocery shopping. I don't think she likes those things as much. She says not everyone has their priorities straight though, so we have to pretend that they are important to us. Last night we stayed up and watched Jaws while we snapped beans (green, yellow and purple!).

Later,

FtM

Mather Woods

Hi, Mom!
I went letterboxing with Nitrocat this morning! We left about 5:20am to beat the heat and found four out of five letterboxes. My favorite was at Mather Woods in Plainfield. There was so much wildlife, I almost forgot that we were there to box! We saw two kinds of Herons, a blue jay, an indigo bunting, chipmunks, rabbits everywhere, and a deer! We also saw lots of really cool plants, butterflies and dragonflies.
We are watching for the mailman today, because they are expecting two more buddies. Then Nitrocat says we will have a big Exchange party with the other buddies and her two letterboxing nephews who live next door. The first thing I am going to do it cootie one of them with the pawprint cootie that one of the kittens stuck on me while I was napping yesterday! I should have known I was in trouble when I saw the Cootie Crew t-shirts in the laundry.
Nitrocat also wants to know if it is okay if she helps me carve a mini sig stamp? She says that there are lots of micro boxes in this area and the logbooks are really small. If I had a mini sig, then the whole image would fit instead of just my nostrils.
We are going to try to go again on Monday morning.
Love,
FtM

Meeting Nitrocat and Kittens

Hi, Mom!
I just wanted to let you know that I have arrived in Illinois safely. It was very hot and stuffy in my envelope, but Nitrocat and her kittens got me out as soon as I arrived (I think they were watching for the mailman!) and let me get some fresh air on the porch. You should see this plant that Nitrocat has! It looks like it has fuzzy pink caterpillars all over it!




She says that it is too hot to box today, but that we can exchange stamps and I can get their personal travellers. The weather looks a little better on Monday and hopefully we can go out and pick up a few boxes. Nitrocat also said that it is her 1year letterboxing birthday on the 19th and she wants to have 100 finds by then. She says I can help her get the last sixteen she needs! You should also see the pile of boxes that she wants to plant! This should be a busy month!
More later!
Frankie