Bad Day on the Trail

Lone Star Quilter and I decided on a letterboxing trip early in the week and marked Thursday on our calender. Rain was forecast for Wednesday so we should have known better. We needed to check on a couple of boxes in Spring, so we headed out early. One box had been attempted and as you know, an attempt on the "found" log is not a good thing. Turns out that a dogwood tree mentioned in the clue had been removed and replaced with a Camelia bush, rendering the clues inaccurate. Well, it was in an arboretum, so I guess they can play games with the flora if they wish. The other box, By the Billabong, had been reported missing, and was, indeed, missing. It was swept away, along with all the leaves and sticks that had covered it, into the billabong, as far as I could tell. I might replace that one. The next three boxes, Shell Game, Kokopelli and Batter Up!. we knew going in, were iffy. They had been placed by a one-time boxer who is no longer boxing, at least regularly, and one who obviously doesn't maintain her boxes. We didn't find any of them. In one park, the tree that was supposed to be hiding Batter Up! was behind a new chain-link fence and inaccessible. The fourth box, in the Heights, could not be found either, nor the fifth. I won't mention their names since I am not claiming an "attempted find" and am not 100% sure I didn't just miss them. Five boxes and we were batting zero. We did have better luck in 11th Street Park. We found the Box of the Month for January, safe and sound and right where it should have been. This is a fun series and it's interesting to see the stamp images from other parts of the country that we don't normally see in local boxes. We also found the bonus box that we had missed before. Good stamp. Next we found dewberry's Arts & Crafts Rose. This was a good hide and a pretty stamp. Three for three in the park. In fairness to Hawk, one of her letterboxes, and a good one, I might add, is still available in this park. It's called Take a Hike. Okay, on to the White Oak Bayou to find the Rabbit House. Unfortunately, all we found was an open box and a wet baggie. We put the lid back on the box and put it back where it should have been, but with no stamp or logbook. The next finder may find that rather odd, but the placer has been notified. We did find Baby Bear's Bart just around the corner of the trail, snug as a bug and dry. We went to look for his Bugs Bunny box, but along the trail we came across the makeshift abode of a homeless person blocking the trail and decided not to intrude into his territory, whether he was "home" or not. We had 3 other boxes, all by the afore-mentioned retired boxer, but, discouraged by the lack of good luck, or the abundance of bad luck we had experienced earlier in the day, we decided to call it a day. So, what was the tally? Four out of Eleven, I think. That may be our worst day ever, but look on the bright side. We got to hike together in 44 degree weather along mostly wet, sometimes soggy trails and got back home with 4 great stamps in our logbook. Not so bad, after all.