Event #4033

School Daze: Letterboxing Poker Run and Swap Meet

Sonoma County, CA

Registered Boxes: All Traditional HH/Cootie/Flea Postal LTC Event Box Traveler Other

Starts	Sat July 28, 2018 10:00am
Ends	Sat July 28, 2018 4:00pm
Owner	Yosemite MJD
Admins	Yosemite MJD
Signups	12/∞
Location	Sonoma County, CA View Map
Add to Calendar	Google calendar ICS file (e.g. Outlook, iCal, etc.)

Description

Come for a fun road trip where you will collect cards for a poker hand. (Just for fun, not gambling)
Afterwards we’ll determine the best and worst hands for a prize! Potluck in a park to follow. Bring Letterboxing stuff to Swap if you would like, too!

More details to follow.

Jul 16, 2018: Stamps
There will be a stamp at all five stops. More details to come!

Jul 21, 2018: Poker Run Event Details!
School Daze! Poker Run and Swap Meet

Amazing as it sounds, just 75 miles north of Silicon Valley there are still several rural one-room schoolhouses (ORS) that continue to serve the local farming and ranching community. Your journey will take you to several.

First, The Game. At each of the stops on your roadtrip, there will be a box containing a stamp (no logbook), and 52 envelopes enclosing 1 card each of a deck of cards. Stamp the stamp in your logbook and take 1 envelope per person. DO NOT OPEN THE ENVELOPES. Collect 4 envelopes at each of four ORS, and at the end your trip at our lunch spot there will be a box with the last stamp and set of envelopes. Take your 5th envelope and you will have a complete ‘hand’. Come see me and THEN you can open the envelopes and I will record your ‘hand’. At 2:00pm, hopefully all letterboxers will have completed their trek and we will determine which is the best and worst poker hands for a prize! BOXES WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE UNTIL 10AM Saturday, July 28th.

The Roadtrip. Start your journey at

Watson School, 14550 Bodega Hwy, near Freestone. This restored schoolhouse sits in a small park. Local little ones were taught here from 1856 until the 1960s. Under the back stairs find your first box. (Interesting side trip: a 4-minute drive away is the Potter School, 17110 Bodega Ln. in Bodega, famous as the school in Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. Worth the trip if you haven’t been before!) Next…

American Valley School, 14355 School Rd., Valley Ford. The school is at the edge of this tiny village. It is now a rental facility. I have been unable to find out when it was built. Also under these stairs is your find. Be discrete!

Now you have choices. You can take scenic backroads down to rural Petaluma, or head east to Hwy 101. Either will take about 45 minutes to the next stop. You can take backroads Valley Ford Rd and Springhill Rd to get to the general area of the next ORS (check paper or online maps). Or, you can go to 101, head south to Petaluma, and take D St., which becomes Red Hill Rd. to

Union School, 5300 Red Hill Rd. Local children have attended school here since 1895. I love this charming school, with it’s arty bathtub and shady grounds. Sadly, with only 6 students currently enrolled, it may soon be combined with another ORS and closed. What you are looking for is next to the road between the oak tree and the fence near the Wildcat’s backstop. Continue along Red Hill Rd. and take a right onto Hicks Valley Rd to

Lincoln School 1300 Hicks Valley Rd. With 13 current students, this ORS has been at this spot since 1872. Don't check the mailbox, but look in the plants beneath it. Onward to lunch!

Go back to Red Hill Rd. and take a right. It turns into Point Reyes - Petaluma Rd. In the middle of this scenic valley, past the fire station, is your final stop, the Marin French Cheese Factory, 7510 Pt. Reyes - Petaluma Rd. Special note: some maps consider this to be Petaluma, some Novato. Some refer to the road as Red Hill Rd., some as Pt. Reyes - Petaluma. There are wonderful picnic areas and a small pond. We will probably be at a picnic table in the shade by the pond. The Cheese Factory has been here making cheese since 1865. They also have deli sandwiches, drinks, coffee…in case you want to pick something up. Oh, and their cheeses are wonderful!

Notes: Please bring RED or dark PINK ink for the stamps within the boxes. NO BLACK. I don’t anticipate any issues with the boxes at their locations, but if a local is upset or concerned about it, please just take the box and leave the area. Bring the box to our picnic and we’ll deal with it there. This is just a game, after all! Enjoy your road trip through this beautiful area. Watch for bikes. This isn’t a race, just try to get to the Cheese Factory by 2:00pm so we can determine our prize winners! Have fun!

Things you might want to bring: camp chair, coolers, tabletop boxes, personal travelers. ALSO, we will have a Swap Meet, so bring any letter boxing stuff you want to swap or get rid of, unwanted boxes, logbooks, carving material, etc.

Jul 27, 2018: Internet
FWI WiFi. There isn’t t a lot of connectivity for internet networks, nor many cell towers on your journey.

My cell number, if i’m connected, is 510/701-6907.

Signups

Total signups:12