Frankie Arrived Aug 13, 2007

Got Frankie the Moose today! Thanks!!
Jenny B
Pancake Aficionado

Photo Slide Show of Frankie's time with NitroCat

July 20, 2007 Another missing post found

Hi, everybody! We had another great letteboxing weekend with Nitrocat and her kittens. Tweeter and Pinky and I are each going to tell a different part of the story. I get to tell about going to Nelson Lake.
Friday morning, we left with Nitrocat's crew to go up to Batavia and try to find some letterboxes. We even took Kirby with us! Stacy only needed seven to reach her goal of 100 by her letterboxing anniversary. The first place we went was the Dick Young forest preserve. It was a really neat place with a huge lake and large areas of prairie land being restored. It was in full bloom and beautiful! There were two boxes in the park and we headed around the lake to look for the first one. We walked and walked and walked and walked. We ended up going completely around the lake and couldn't find the box. Nitrocat found out later that we had walked over three miles, and the kittens had the blisters to prove it. They did really well though. There was a little complaining by the end, but Nitrocat said that they had earned the right. She realized later that we should have gone the other way around the lake and the walk would have been less than a mile, but she made all of us promise not to tell the kittens.
The second box was also missing, and had been for a while we learned later. Nitrocat was a little disappointed, but she told us that the preserve was so awesome that she was glad we came anyway even if we didn't find any letterboxes.
You will have to read the rest of our adventures on Tweeter and Pinky's blogs.
More later!
FtM

The Quest!

We found a great surprise waiting for us when we got up this morning! Nitrocat had costumes all laid out and a wonderful adventure planned for us. I got to be a Knight in Shining Armour! I was Sir Frankalot and I had to rescue Princess Pinky from the Sorcerer, Tweeter the Magnificent. We had lots of fun acting out the story in our costumes.
Since we aren't going to the Faire, Nitrocat decided to take us on a "more local Quest". We had already gone and gotten "The Quest Begins", the first box in the King's Ransom series here in Kendall county. Now we also got to get the images from the other boxes. The whole series has the adventurers defeating a dragon, rescuing a princess and receiving a reward. You have to answer a lot of questions about jewels, royalty, and dragons to find the letterboxes. Nitrocat made us promise that we wouldn't tell the secrets about the series though. She said they are Mystery boxes and they are her "planter's choice" or favorite boxes of all.
What a great ending to a fun stay here in Newark! I'm off to Pancake Aficionado's tomorrow!
I'll write when I arrive.
FtM

The Storm

You should have seen the storm we had this evening! There was so much lightning! One of the strikes was really close and loud. It popped a couple of light bulbs and killed one of the fans here in the house. And it messed up the colors on the TV too!
Nitrocat broke the news to the other two today that they are not going to be able to go to the Ren Faire. I think Pinky was the most disappointed, but then Nitrocat told us that she had a surprise instead. She said it wasn't quite as much fun as the fair, but she thought we'd like it anyway. She said she had a few details to finish after we went to bed. She also told me that if I wanted to stay one more day so that I could enjoy the surprise too, she thought it would be okay. That means that I won't be leaving tomorrow like I planned, but she thought I'd be ready to go on Wednesday for sure.
Good night!
FtM

July 23, 2007 The Missing Post

Hi, Mom!
It has been so busy for the last few days that I have not had a chance to write about our activities. Tweeter, Pinky and I sat down and decided that each one of us would write about a different part of our adventures. I get to tell you about going to Nelson Lake.
On Friday, Stacy wanted to try to get the last boxes she needed to reach her goal of 100. The sitter she had lined up for the kittens was sick, and they ended up getting to come too. We headed up to Batavia to a preserve called Dick Young. There were two boxes there for us to find. Following the clues, we headed off around the lake. It was a beautiful day, there were butterflies everywhere and lots of people were out with their dogs. We had Kirby with us. (Nitrocat says that the stamp that will become his personal traveller is in a postal ring right now. It is almost done, and she hopes it makes it home before we have to leave so that we can have the image.) There was a field of wildflowers in bloom and we saw lots of birds too.

We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. We ended up going all the way around the lake! Both boxes ended up being AWOL, so it was a bit of a disappointment for all of us. Stacy tried to help us look on the bright side and remember all of the neat things we had seen. She said the park was worth visiting even without the letterboxes. Later we found out that the trial around the lake is over 3 miles long! She also told us that we had gone the wrong way around the lake. If we had gone the other direction, we would have only walked about a mile looking for the letterboxes. She made us promise that we wouldn't tell the kittens. Poor J had blisters! I wish I could have carried her.
More later!
FtM