Muddy Feet

After leaving Litzenberg, we took a short drive to Van Buren State Park for a couple more letterboxes. This time of year, with the chilly weather, and being that it was the middle of the week, middle of the day...there really was not a lot of people around, making stealthiness a little easier. :)

At one of the letterboxes in Van Buren, there was a man walking his dog. We got out some sandwiches and snacks and walked over to the picnic table to eat...and wait for him to leave so we could follow the clues to the letterbox. It was an easy find, and soon, with a little food in our bellies and another stamp image in our logbooks, we traveled on. We hit the freeway, and around Bowling Green, took a break at the rest area...mainly because we wanted to find a box hidden there, but the girls needed to get out and move around as well.

It is a nice large rest area...and on this particular day, it also happened to be flooded in spots. One of those spots was where we needed to go to get the letterbox! Even the ground everywhere else was soggy and muddy...the girls were having a great time! ;) Jones and I still tried for the letterbox...we saw it, the hidey-hole surrounded by water. If we had stepped close enough to reach for the box, water would engulf our feet and ankles...we were not willing to have drenched feet for this box (well, not yet...) But then a bright idea came! We'd have to have a bridge of some sort! Jones found a long fallen branch, and pulled it over to the mini pond that protected our prize...and then carefully stepping out onto it, she was able to reach the letterbox! We would not leave empty handed! We would also not leave clean. The mud had covered our shoes, and lower pants legs...and the girls had it on them too, of course. We cleaned off our shoes the best we could, and piled back in the car and drove into Michigan. Exhausted, we reached our aunt's house before the sun had set all the way.