I was looking through some old photos, and couldn't help myself.... I added a few new PSA's to the lineup. =) Enjoy!
The person doing the hanging, in case you're wondering, is Chadams. Thanks for being a sport and modeling for me, Chadams!
Many moons ago, there was a person who could not afford a premium membership on Atlas Quest. It was pointed out that even those without premium memberships can often be valuable members of our little community, however, helping answer questions, listing boxes for others to find, and so forth.
So I started periodically setting up "Free Listing Day," where every member on Atlas Quest, regardless of their premium membership, can have a whole day to list their finds for boxes that are not listed on Atlas Quest. Essentially, a premium member perk for a day as a thank you for your contributions to Atlas Quest and the letterboxing community.
I mix up the dates a bit and don't give a lot of advanced warning for "Free Listing Days" since it's meant for people who use and contribute to Atlas Quest on a regular basis. The last couple of years, I used Boxing Day as a Free Listing Day, but this year decided it had to move so I wouldn't become TOO predictable. =)
I originally moved it to Thanksgiving, but I ended up out in the proverbial woods and didn't have a chance to post the announcement in time! So as far as I can tell, not one single person took advantage of Free Listing Day, because I was the only person who even knew about. =)
So I moved it to Christmas this year instead. If you want a complete logbook of all your finds online, start recording your finds! You'll first see a list of boxes listed on AQ that match the box name you're looking for. Don't bother to search based on the author--unlisted boxes have no author listed. Assuming the box you're looking for really isn't listed on Atlas Quest, scroll down past those entries until you get to the list of "unlisted boxes."
Other people have been listing unlisted boxes, and to save yourselves a few keystrokes, you can see if someone else may have already recorded a find on the same box and use their data about the box. Or just click the "Create" button and add a find directly. The list of 'unlisted boxes' is just a convenience--don't get too wrapped up in finding your box in that list. If you do see the box you found and you don't like how it was entered, make your own with that Create button.
You'll have all of Christmas Day to use this premium member perk. Atlas Quest runs on Pacific Time, and the party ends at midnight. =)
Oh, and Merry Christmas! Post a comment and let us know what your favorite gift this year was! =)
Actually, my carvings I consider okay. There are those who truly are Master Carvers. I am a mere apprentice of these folks, but willing to do my part to help get new carvers started. =)
Way back when, I create a small little page with some carving tips I picked up along the way. When I slapped Atlas Quest together, I felt a more "professional-looking" tutorial was in order, and upgraded it. I included photos, expanded the prose, and added a whole new section for mounting the finished carving.
I've tweaked it a number of times since then. Added Mark's information about how he transfers images. Added Pungent Bob's tutorial about turning a photo into an image that can be carved. Fixed spelling and grammar errors.
Then, several months ago, someone told me that Speedy-Stamp no longer existed. It was renamed to Speedy-Carve. WHAT?! Another tweak was in order.... Updated the glossary, updated the Stampeaz page, and I would need to update the carving tutorial.
I headed out to Michaels to check out this "new" carving kit that's "ideal for letterboxing." They really did change the packaging! Look at that! =) I needed to update some of the photos in my tutorial, starting with the materials.
I went ahead and bought the kit (figured those pesky employees probably didn't want me taking pictures of it right there in their store). Anyhow, it would be nice to have carving tools at my mom's place here in SLO all the time. Then I wouldn't have to carry it from Seattle all the time.
And low and behold--even the directions for how to carve a stamp were updated. That acorn I used as a carving example was no longer there! The horror!
Well, heck, why not? I'd just redo all those pictures of my carving a stamp while I was at it. The existing photos were pretty lousy. Too small, and I squeezed the life out of them with the JPG compression. It needed to be updated.
So I chose to carve the ladybug from the directions. I needed a place for a photo shoot, however. I couldn't find anywhere in my mom's house that had a background I felt was satisfactory, so I started searching around the city for places. The catch is--most businesses really don't seem to like it when people go into their stores taking pictures. Even if it's just my hand carving a stamp. But there is one type of business that is unusually strange allowing me to do weird stuff and never saying boo about it: fast food. I can sit around for hours, and they just ignore me, even when I'm hunched over carving stamps.
I checked out the Carl's Jr, but their tables were white with black spots. Rather ugly. It wouldn't do for a background. The taco bell has these two-tone blues on their tables, and I didn't much care for a distracting multi-colored background. Jack in the Box, however.... A nice, solid, dark red color. Yes, I like that color. That will do for a background. *nodding*
I picked a seat by the window, with the sun low on the horizon making the table positively glow. Perfect.
Now, while the employees at these places will let me sit around for hours carving stamps, there is a catch. They kind of expect me to buy food. Go figure. *shrug* So I ordered a Sourdough Jack combo, filled up with soda, and ate a late lunch. Then I set the tray aside and prepared to carve.
I transferred the image to the carving block. It's not perfect--alas, my precious pencil sharpener is still in Seattle, so I made do with a much duller pencil than I would have preferred. But it'll get the job done.
Then I carved the stamp. It's kind of hard to take a picture with your left hand (I'm right-handed) while carving with your right hand at the same time. Actually, the pictures of my hand--I'm not even carving in those pictures. I'd stop carving, get the camera where I wanted it, pick up the carving tool and move it into a position that kind of looked like I was carving, and take the photo. Then I'd put down the camera, carve a bit more, and repeat.
I have little doubt the other customers and employees in the store thought I was crazy. =)
All-in-all, I really liked the results. The pictures are much bigger than before, and look a lot better. I went back home and started putting all the pictures together into a coherent tutorial. I updated the text, laid out the main steps in a table, and got something almost entirely new slapped together.
Since I was making all these changes anyhow, I figured I'd update the carving tutorial's navigation system. Before, you could only change from one page in the tutorial to another from links at the bottom of the page. I wanted links available at the top of the pages too.
Then I got to thinking.... Maybe I should try carving another stamp? Why limit the example to just one stamp? Or maybe that leaf would look better for the tutorial?
This time I decided to try the tables at Carl's Jr. I didn't much like the white tables with black spots--seems like they did that deliberately to hide dirt on their tables--but I'll give it a try. So the next day, off to Carl's Jr. I went, where I proceeded to carve the leaf.
The photos turned out, but I can't say I liked them much. As I expected, I hated the background. And the leaf seemed almost too easy to carve. I wanted something at least somewhat more intriguing than the leaf.
The sun design looked intriguing. Perhaps too sophisticated for someone's first carving, but it could be inspiration for people to challenge themselves too. But the background had to go. The back page of this weeks New Times (a free, local weekly paper) had a lot of clouds on the back which seemed like a nice, neutral background to use. Ideally, I'd have liked to go back to the Jack In the Box for their table, but I was itching to carve right then and there, so I figured I'd give the clouds a go.
And then there was sun.
I went back to my mom's house, and added both carvings to the bottom of the transferring and carving pages. No text--just more examples of carving stamps. I'm still half-tempted to take out the leaf since I don't think it really adds anything. It's even easier to carve than the ladybug was, and I hate the background on it. I liked the sun, though. The background still wasn't as nice as the tables at Jack's place, but it was a bit more complex to carve than the simple ladybug.
But what I wanted was a much more intricate carving. Something new carvers could really strive for, and I looked at the instructions that came with the kit again--and noticed that they had these wonderful line drawings explaining how to carve a stamp. They weren't meant to carve like the other images, but they were still perfect for tracing being bold, line drawings. I'd carve one of those!
The next day, I headed back to the Jack In the Box, ordered another Sourdough Jack combo meal (the things I do for you folks!), and carved another stamp--far more intricate than the previous stamps I had carved for the tutorial. I rather liked the final result--can't say I've ever seen anyone ever carve a stamp of someone putting a nib on a carving handle!
The tiny images I used for the leaf and sun wouldn't do for such an intricate image, so I made these a bit larger, and even added a small bit of commentary.
I still want to tweak the tutorials a bit more, but most of my letterboxing supplies are still up in Seattle so additional tweaks will have to wait. I want to use something other than black ink for stamping the ladybug and sun, but all I have with me is green and black. (Green = signature stamp, black = goes with everything!) And I also want to get a picture of the last stamp after coloring it with colored pencils. Throw a bit of color into the stamp, and a nice segway into the Art of Stamping tutorial. Details! Details!
Anyhow, the "minor" update of the tutorial has turned into quite the project for me! =) I've now carved four stamps for them, which I'm thinking about hiding as a series "How to carve a stamp in four easy steps?"--perhaps making that the basis of a Creating Great Letterboxes tutorial. (I bet most of you didn't even know about that page, did you? It's been there since the day AQ went up, but I've never publicized the link since I felt it needed photos and real-life examples which I never seemed to get around to doing.)
So that's what this last update has been about. =)
Oh, and if you click the column name in search results, the results will be sorted by the information in that column. That's the tweak I did that would have broken lots of things. =) (It looks simple, I know, but that 'little' feature took me the better part of a week to get working!)
Oh, yes, and one other thing.... Last Thanksgiving was a Free Listing Day--you know, the day that everyone can list finds on unlisted boxes. I didn't get to a pay phone to post an announcement until about 3:00 that afternoon, however, at which point I figured it was too late. I had hoped to post an announcement the previous day, but a pay phone did not make itself available to me. So I never bothered to make an announcement, and I suspect nobody even realized that anyone and everyone was able to record unlisted finds that day.
So I'm rescheduling it for Christmas Day. Merry Christmas! =)
I last left you, camped in a bug-infested site just south of Indian Prairie Canal. By morning, the temperatures had dropped dramatically--a welcome relief from the bugs. I also woke particularly early since it wasn't more than 6:30 in the morning when the rest of the hikers marched past my camp. Previously I had hiked out three miles or so beyond the day's starting point so it would take them an hour just to catch up to me. With the nice backpacker campsite where it was, however, I stopped a mere 0.8 miles ahead of this day's starting point, so it didn't take them more than about ten minutes to catch up.
The last of the group passed me by before I even finished eating breakfast, but that's okay--I'd catch up. I knew I could. At least to the slower hikers, I would. =)
My tarp was absolutely sopping wet--you'd have thought it rained overnight by looking at it! Not a big deal, but wow, the condensation was astounding.
I packed up camp, then headed off to catch up with the rest, which took me about an hour to catch up to the slowest of the slow. I fell a bit behind again when the trail skirted around Harney Pond Canal--there was a convenience store there which I felt I must stop at and splurg. I bought a sandwich, donuts, and grape juice for lunch. Most others also stopped briefly at the store, but for me, it was civilization. Everyone else was just on a day hike. I lingered longer than the rest.
The one other noteworthy point of reference was the "hikers' graveyard"--an area covered with stones used to reinforce the dike, but they are set upright sticking out of the ground looking much like tombstones. I caught up with a few more hikers resting here--it's a nice "resting" spot. I also planted a letterbox here, but I haven't posted the clues yet. (I'm bad, I know!)
Then it was foward and onward, the last couple of miles to a boat launch where everyone else would end the day of the hiking. I however, wasn't anywhere near done.
There were two issues I had to deal with. The first was the fact that the next three miles of hiking was road walk--the one section around Lake Okeechobee not protected by a dike. Camping alongside this road I did not consider an option, and I definitely needed to get past it before setting up camp. Additionally, the three miles immediately after the road walk did take me back on the dike, but it was also immediately alongside Highway 78 and all of its traffic. I could have camped up there, but it wouldn't have been fun or nice.
Secondly, there was the official Thanksgiving dinner the next evening at the Clewiston Inn. The other hikers who'd done the hike in previous years raved about how wonderful it was, and I wanted to join the festivities. However, the hiking schedule would have taken me into Clewiston the day after Thanksgiving. I'd need to hike ahead and get there a day ahead of schedule or get a ride to Clewiston at the end of the day tomorrow.
You can probably guess what route I decided to take--I would hike in a day early. But to do that, I needed to get in as many miles as I could today, the day before Thanksgiving. Seeing as the next six miles of hiking would largely be terrible places to camp anyhow, I decided to push on to another backpacker campsite nearly six miles away.
The hike was uneventful. I walked the shoulder of the road as cars sped up and down the road. I was happy to leave the road and get on the dike, though I still had to listen to the traffic speeding up and down the road.
When I knew the backpacker campsite was coming up, I kept my eyes open for it--and it's a good thing I did because I nearly missed it entirely. All of the other backpacker campsites were immediately off on the side of the dike, clearly visible. This one was tucked a good ways off the dike, barely visible in the distance. The only reason I noticed it at all was because I saw what looked like someone tromping through the tall grass off the dike and I wondered where the heck they were trying to get to. Then I saw the small glint of the metal shelter tucked within a group of palm trees. Was that the campsite? I pulled out my monocular for a better view. Indeed, it appeared to be the campsite.
I tromped through the tall grass, already dreading having to come through it again in the morning. I knew it would be wet with condensation, and the grasses came up past my waist. I would be getting very wet in the morning.
As it turned out, the campsite was absolutely wonderful! I didn't even realized it existed on my thru-hike last January. I walked right past it never even seeing it--but being so far off the trail, I could see how I missed it. The camp was situated on the lake side, away from the traffic on the road, and even away from the people traffic on the dike, right alongside a canal at the lake's edge. Very scenic and tranquil!
I set up my tarp and started preparing dinner when I heard the sound of a tracker. It confused me at first, then I realized--they were cutting the tall grass on the dike! Yes! I hoped they would cut a path all the way to the campsite, and I could see the machine on the dike doing its thing.
Alas, the tractor stopped just before reaching the dike where I was at. It stopped at the edge of the canal where the dike passes over, but on the other side of the canal. Had they cut 50 feet beyond the canal, I could have walked back to the dike without getting so much as my ankles wet from consensation in the morning, but no..... they have to take the day off just before it would have done me any good. *sigh*
Of all the camps I stayed at, this one turned out to be the busiest. A few times during the afternoon and evening boats cruised by along the lake. And shortly before sunset, two men walked into camp with their fishing gear and started trying to catch some fish. They tried for about an hour or so while we chatted, but they didn't catch anything and eventually left back the way they came. They seemed startled when they found my campsite--I guess they fish there quite regularly but had never seen anyone actually camp at the site before.
The bugs, I was grateful, seemed to take the evening off. It was much cooler this evening than the previous one which might have been a contributing factor. All the local Floridians kept complaining about how cold the weather was, but I was grateful. I considered the weather absolutely ideal. The lows overnight typically matched the highs in Seattle during the day. Cold? I don't think so.... And cold enough to keep the bugs away? You bet! I'll take it in a heartbeat! =) I was in my element!
I'd now completed almost six miles of the official hiking schedule for the next day, six miles out of 9.4. The next day, I figured, I'd probably be on the trail hiking before even the quickest of hikers caught up with me again in the morning, and I'd hoof it in all the Clewiston one full day before the official schedule would have gotten me there.
As I swore to do the night before, I slept in until I felt good and ready to wake up in the morning. I woke up at about 7:00 in the morning, noting that the last people who needed shuttle rides back at the end of the day were expected to have gotten on the trail at least a half hour before. Rumor had it that some early birds started at 4:30 in the morning. Losers. =)
I flipped on the TV to the Weather Channel--some thru-hiking habits are hard to break!--then ate breakfast, packed up my gear, and hit the trail at about 7:45. The frame on my sunglasses, I was sad to note, had cracked at some point since I got into town and one of the lenses wanted to keep falling out. After an hour of hiking, I passed by one of our vans that were waiting to pick up some hikers part way, and borrowed a small piece of duct tape to hold my glasses together. At least long enough to finish the hike. Hiking in Florida without sunglasses would be suicidal!
Today's day of hiking was the longest--14.7 miles. That the official count, at least. Because of my camping on the levy, I didn't always do the same number of official miles each day as everyone else. For me, 14.7 miles was just the minimum distance to hike to keep up with the pack.
At this point, a growing number of hikers had been dropping off the trail or doing partial days of hiking due to blisters, sores, and pains. I had no blisters, and nothing more than the dullest of pains. Leaving Okeechobee, my pack was filled with extra food and water that I hadn't carried on my way in, but overall, I only expected it to take me three days to reach Moore Haven--the next good place to resupply--so my pack wasn't as heavy as it could have been.
After an hour or two of hiking, I caught with with the slowest of slow who left Okeechobee over an hour before I did, eventually passing eight of "our" hikers before reaching Indian Prairie Canal and the official end of the day's hike. I hiked in another 0.8 miles to a small backpacking campsite on the dike--the site of the infamous summer sausage caper. I was in familiar territory now. I had memories here--not always good ones, but they were mine. =)
I set up camp, cooked burritos for dinner, but at dusk, the bugs came out in force. My other two nights on the dike had a few bugs, but in limited numbers that quickly dropped off after the sun set and the temperatures started to cool. Not this night. The temperatures stayed miserably warm, but I wrapped myself in my sleeping bag to escape the onslaught anyhow. I tried to read my book with my headlamp inside the sleeping bag, but it was a mummy bag and not especially suited for reading in. (I brought a Carl Haasen book--Lucky You--a Florida author which seemed like the type of thing I should read while I was in Florida.)
I finally gave up trying to read, and just laid in the sleeping bag bored stiff and sweating bullets wishing the bugs would just go away. Well after midnight, the temperatures finally plunged and the bugs quit for the night. I put on additional layers of clothing for warmth, and finally got a good night's sleep. =)
I got lazy typing up my adventures hiking around the Big-O, mostly because all things considered, it wasn't actually that interesting. It was a nice little hike and all, but not the kind of thing I'd normally write home about.
So... day 3, I woke up early enough to see a line of dots in the distance marching towards me. They looked a good mile or so off, so I had plenty of time to eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and join the hikers closer to the beginning of the pack than the end of it like I did last time. Gave me lots of new people to chat with. =)
There was Mark, from Colorado. Apparently, his mom lives in Florida and he was in the area visiting already. There was Phyllis, who I nearly poked her eye out with my umbrella when a gust of wind came along. (I was using it as shade from the sun, but it was a bit windy to use an umbrella.)
The hike was short this day--only about 7 miles from where I started at--and I trudged into the city of Okeechobee and civilization. At this point, I was familiar with the area since I had hiked out to Okeechobee to pick up a maildrop during my thru-hike. I knew where the KOA was that most people were staying out. I knew where the Dairy Queen was, where I had ordered a large strawberry milkshake. I knew where the Wal-Mart was, where I had resupplied last time I was in town. I knew there was a water spigot next to the dike, where I had filled up with water while leaving town. I was in familiar area now! =)
I wondered over to the KOA to find out the setup there. Each day at 4:00, they held a "happy hour" for people to meet up and chat, drink, eat, and do whatever. And each day at 7:00, they had a "mandatory" meeting to discuss the next day of hiking. Mandatory, I guess, unless you sleep out on the dike like I'd been doing and could not attend. =) So I headed to the KOA to find out where all these events were to take place.
Then I headed off for lunch and resupplies. I walked north a few blocks, stopping at Taco Bell for lunch. I really craved that strawberry milkshake, but the DQ was further up the street and I didn't want to walk that far if I didn't have to--and I didn't have to. =) I'd settle for Taco Bell, though.
Then I crossed the street and resupplied at Publix. I didn't really have a preference for where I'd resupply--any large grocery story would have worked equally well--but Publix and Winn-Dixie were the most convenient being the closest (directly across the street from each other), and I went to Publix.
Then I walked back down towards the KOA, stopping at the Flamingo Motel to get myself a room. They had a computer in the lobby with Internet access that I could use, and camping on the hard-packed ground of the KOA (keep in mind, I don't carry a pad to sleep on) didn't seem too appealing.
I took a shower, changed into somewhat cleaner clothes, used the Internet (yes, wassa, I saw that theme you up!), repacked my supplies from Publix into ziplock bags, and shortly before 4:00, headed back out to the KOA for happy hour.
Where everyone brought out bags of chips, dips, and an assortment of drinks and everyone mingled. It was kind of amusing.... a couple of people I talked to didn't realize that I was sleeping on the dike, and when they found out, they'd say something like, "Hey, I saw someone camped out on the dike this morning!" And I'd laugh and say, "Yeah, that was me." =)
I was invited to join a few others for dinner, and we piled into a car and headed off to a pizza place. Alas, it was closed on Mondays. We then stopped at another restaurant--a bar--but changed our minds due to the smokers smelling up the place. Finally we settled on a Mexican restaurant next to the Publix. "You realize," I said, "I could have walked here faster than it took for us to drive here...." =)
The food was good, then we got ourselves back to the KOA just after 7:00 for the mandatory meeting--my first! =)
They discussed the shuttling. How many people needed to be shuttled, how many cars were necessary, when to get going in the morning, yadda, yadda, yadda. I didn't pay a great deal of attention--I planned to sleep in as late as I wanted then hike out of town and camp on the levy. I didn't need no stinking shuttle. =)
They also discussed what sorts of animals everyone saw on the hike that day, who was planning to attend the Thanksgiving dinner at the Clewiston Inn, and miscelleneous tasks like that.
Then the meeting broke up and everyone split. I headed back to my hotel room and watched TV for the rest of the night. =)
Yesterday afternoon, I was at the library, working on some last minute tweaks for an update I planned to do last night. I set it so AQ would take itself down at 10:00pm (Pacific time) because, while there's nothing earth shattering in the update, it would break lots of things while getting the updates uploaded.
The best laid plans.... almost didn't work out. =) I noticed it first while sitting in the library--getting unusually warm. Took off a jacket. Walking back to the apartment, I started feeling genuinely sick. By the time I arrived, I knew it was a problem. I was sick. Bleh. I laid down, feeling absolutely pitiful, and considered postponing the update.
Except for one thing--I'd already set AQ go automatically go down at 10:00pm. Unless I logged in and fixed that, nobody would be using Atlas Quest at all.
So 9:00 rolls around, and I'm still trying to decide what to do. No matter what, I needed to get online to let others onto the site after 10:00. I was spending all my effort just trying not to throw up. Bleh.
Finally, I made a decision. Remembering back to an experience at Disney World where I got motion sickness after riding one of the rides, I ended up feeling SOOOO much better when I finally upchucked. So I decided to stop trying to hold my cookies. Keep in mind, I wasn't trying to throw up my lunch--I just stopped trying NOT to. And weirdly enough, I actually did feel a heck of a lot better.
The update was on!
Oh, what a mistake that was..... *shaking head* I was about halfway through the update and darned near passed out sitting up like I was, crashing my forehead in the desk I was working on. I laid down a bit, only for a couple of minutes, until I felt like I wasn't going to pass out anymore, then got back on the computer to finish the update. Postponing it now was too late--it was already half done, and the site wouldn't work in the half-finished update.
I managed to finish the update, brought the site back up, and promptly went to sleep without even bothering to turn off the computer. You all, I decided, would have to wait until later to find out what this update includes.
I woke up again, somewhere around 2:00 in the morning, and felt good enough to check at no major errors occurred during the update (quite a shock, actually, for such a huge change to not cause any recorded errors!), and finally turned off the computer and lights around the apartment.
This morning, I'm feeling a heck of a lot better. Still not at 100%, but wow, so much better than last night, and now have time to tell you about the update. =)
Long story short:
While you're out letterboxing, start keeping track of the miles you log on Green Tortuga's new website!
