Squeeeee!

I got the best gift ever this weekend. As you may know from my incessant whining on this blog and/or in person, I have been swamped the last month or so with work things regarding the annual budget. This is the busiest time in the world for me since I support the folks entrusted with this gargantuan undertaking. During the month or so the major budget prep and hearings are going on, I tend to work 12-16 hour days and not much gets done at home on weeknights since I just go home and fall into bed. Since I’m not doing home chores much on weeknights that means a ton of chores are waiting for me on the weekend. Not only chores await me, but those nasty home projects like the floor that we’ve been working on forever. Sometimes it feels like I never get a break. I try to be adult about it and suck it up, but I usually want to go and play on my days off. So when the date for the Spring Flinger 4: How the West Was Flung letterboxing gathering was set at May 3rd, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go.

I was sad. All my favorite people were going to be there and I was going to miss out…again. All my letterboxing girlfriends were going up on Saturday to help plant boxes and party and stay at a hotel and giggle until the wee hours and I was going to miss it. Sigh. But I had completely reconciled myself to this fact and only sniveled about it a little, fully prepared to be an adult and work around the house on all the things waiting there for me. Boy was I in for a surprise.

I lolled around in bed on Sunday morning reading my book (the new Kim Harrison “White Witch, Black Curse” which was awesome) when Greg came in and asked me what we were doing for the day. I offered up the options of dishes, laundry, cleaning, working on the floors, mowing the lawn, weeding. To my absolute shock and delight, Greg said he’d go with me to SF4 for the day if I wanted to go. WHAT??? Who are you and what did you do with Mr. Grumpy Pants??????

Before he could change his mind I showered, dressed, grabbed my bag and the Wonder Whippets and we headed out the door. The gathering was at Lewis & Clark State Park in Winlock, Washington which is about an hour away (exit 68 on I-5 to be precise). I’d never been there before, and it was a really nice park with lots of hiking trails and great letterbox hiding places. Crappy trail maps, though. It’s a campground too, but I sure didn’t see many muggles around, just letterboxers. We got lucky with the weather, too, and it was mostly sunny until we were about ½ way home.

So we got up there about noon and surprised the heck out of everyone. Greg hadn’t met many of my letterboxing buddies, so he got introduced around a lot and Carmen & Sophie were oohed and ahhed over. I stamped in to the event stamp, did some exchanges and chatted with folks in the shelter for a bit then went out and ended up boxing with X Marks the Spot and Bobguyman which was really fun. I wish they weren’t going to be moving so far away. Stupid Coast Guard. Then we did some boxing with Maiden and the Gischer Gryffindors (who will probably hate me forever for my accidentally snotty "well it's right here" comment on a box they had trouble finding and I walked right to) Crazy Dave, and James Bond who were two young friends of Marmalade’s, which was great, although I don’t think I managed to exchange with the Gryffindors now that I think about it.

We let the Wonder Whippets (who forgot their letterboxing stamps) off leash while we were out on the trail and they had the best time racing around, eating mud, chewing on sticks, and at one point, snacking on other species feces. You could just see the big smiles on their faces as they raced each other around the trails. I loved seeing them so happy. I really need to train them to hunt Tupperware, though.

Greg was a good sport all day. He not only didn’t complain about being there or holding the dogs, or carrying the dog poop for 3 hours, he seemed like he might actually have had a good time. While I did introduce him as Mr. Grumpy Pants to people, he really deserved to go back to his original trail name of Seahunter (he forgot his letterboxing stamp too. I just don't carry it around with me anymore like I used to. Guess I'll have to start again.).

We found about 20 boxes, did a couple of exchanges, and left about 4:00. InI really wanted to find the rest of the boxes that were planted there for the event before we left, but I wasn’t going to push my luck. We did stop at Jackson’s Cabin for one box that has been there for ages (You may remember that "find 10 boxes that were planted before I started letterboxing" is an item on my 101 in 1001 list) and I picked up a hitchhiker which was fun. I haven’t gotten a HH in ages.

It was such a fun day and I had the BEST time. Greg even took a few pictures for me.