Remembering the Remembering the Railroads Meet

Okay, so it's been a couple weeks, but what better time to rehash the Remember the Railroads meet than when I'm stuck home on a Saturday night with food poisoning? (Rhetorical.)

So, St. Thomas is a beautiful place and all in all somewhere I haven't taken the proper time to visit.  I tried to go in early in the morning in order to snag a few boxes before we checked in.  A Fiddleheads box on the 401: nowhere to be found... First Big Blue Team box: exactly where it was supposed to be, but now my feet are soaked.  Next box, attached to the proper tree, but tree now on the ground.

Off to Waterworks Park to meet everyone... Sign into the park says to use the hill at my own risk and it occurs to me that the meet itself could have been an elaborate ruse to confuse and haze new letterboxers.  Luckily my rusted out Mazda made it down the hill and I finally met some fantastic boxers.

Finally off to get some boxes.  Ended up going to the museum and learning about Jumbo.  In horrific detail.  I want this to be a family-oriented blog, so I'll spare you all the gory details, but Jumbo didn't have a peaceful death.

I was off then to find quite a number of other boxes, had lunch with the boxers and did some more exchanges, and then back out to nip a few more boxes.  Along the way, I learned about St. Thomas, the war, the City's influence on the national and international railways... and I became jealous of Big Blue Team's ability to convince unsuspecting store owners to keep boxes in their stores.  But, I have to say, it makes economic sense: I think I bought something in just about every place I went.  (I am now the proud owner of a beautiful elephant tea set.)

High density bird living.

The last few boxes I found in Pinafore Park, where, based on the clues and dates the boxes were planted, were part of previous year's letterboxing meets. The park was just amazing and I wish I had more energy to continue and search them all out - but as it was, I was swaying as I stood.  Fun fact: the park has some amazing bird condos.  Love them.  It's this decade's answer to suburban birdhouse sprawl.

I had planned out a lot of boxes to find that day, but having left so early in the morning from Burlington, I petered out pretty fast.  On my way home, I planted my new Annandale box (found a mere 24 hours later). I was lucky enough to find the perfect place to plant the box... Love it.

All in all, a fantastic day.