We're on Vacation!

Sue, Steve and I are on our way down south for 10 days, with 8 days in Atlantic Beach, NC. Check back with us for the letterboxing details from our trip. We hope to find boxes in each of the states through which we drive. Who knows, we might even bring back a souvenir!


But . . .

before we go . .

I'd like to leave you with a message regarding the latest flame on the LBNA Talk List . . .

Memorial Day and Letterboxing

As the Memorial Day holiday weekend stares us in the face, we hope you all will take a moment from your letterboxing activities to honor those who have given their all for our country. Remembrance can be in any form: a prayer, taking a moment to read Presidential remarks, visiting a cemetery or war monument or just flying the American flag at half staff. We wish you all a memorable and safe Memorial Day weekend.

Help! Please, Murder!

We finally have the answer to JustBeth's recent and very cryptic Talk List post about a missing friend! We have chosen this creative mystery box as our Box of the Week. Thanks, Beth, for this unique approach and hope to hear more about your missing friend!

Website of the Week honors go to MommaFox & Bald Eagle. Click to view their site in the left column. They, along with The Maplines and Teach & Preach, recently threw the wonderful May Day gathering in Thompson, CT.

Our Poll of the Week asks for your opinion on the approaching summer and how, if it all, it might effect your letterboxing activities. Vote now!

That Elusive Hartford County Mystery Letterbox!

Well, I finally have published clues to the Hartford County Mystery Letterbox! We are still awaiting the 8th and final county to be planted.

Our website has had a major overhaul! I've redesigned many pages and put some photos or clip art on others. Over the next few weeks you will find more changes. You never know what you'll find here, hidden in the cracks and crevices of these webpage!

Isoceles does History and the Hartford County Box!

Kudos to Isoceles, who took it upon himself to read through, digest and place the most important "Brief History" of the LBNA Talk List in an easy, concise format for all to just click and read how this hobby was initiated. These early posts show the development of this pastime in the words of its founders. This is truly fascinating reading and we thank Isoceles for taking the time to organize these posts in a great, easy-to-read format.

Finally, after much controversy, a poll and some anger!, I have decided to plant the Hartford County Letterbox, which is part of the CT State Stamp Series carved by The Engraver and given to 8 different letterboxers located in the individual counties of CT. Look for clues here and on the LBNA website Tuesday. I will plant it over the weekend. As a compromise to the original Hitchhiker idea, I have decided to place it somewhere permanently, but will make it a mystery box as I have announced previously.

Changes on the Letterboxing.org Website

Wes Garrison has set up a new "Links" section on the LBNA website. Anyone with a letterboxing website can email Wes from the Links page to have their site included. More info is located on that page.

Time is running out for your submission to the Design Contest for the new, updated LBNA website. Read the directions on the Contest page and submit your design by the June 1 deadline.

A New Maine Gathering has been Announced!

Phyto just emailed me that Deb Blanchard is planning a Maine gathering on July 24. It has a winning formula - an historic location, wonderful letterboxes and all of this takes place on the shores of beautiful Sebago Lake! Check out the info on our New England Area Gatherings page.

Tough and Interesting Week on the Big Talk List

We want to urge everyone to stay on the LBNA ["big"] talk list. Things are being sorted out and peace should reign in the letterboxing kingdom soon. The most important thing, as we see it, is to respect each other and realize that we all look at letterboxing in a different light. Let's agree to disagree - but temper that with respect for one another! We now return you to your regularly scheduled letterboxing . . . .

Looks like Dr. Van Scott is up to his tricks again! A recent post on the big talk list warned us about not heeding his word and his next post would be full of biblical references! We can hardly wait.

The Lone Letterboxer posted a cryptic and harried post about a friend gone missing and something about an expensive piece of jewelry. Read that post also!

Our Monday Goodies

Box of the Week honors goes to a new letterboxer, Hello From Joe, and his new letterbox, Bikini Bottom Series. While I thought this might be an X-rated series, on further inspection of the clues learned that this new series has a Spongebob Squarepants inspired theme! So no disclaimers are needed!
Our Weekly Poll deals with the inception of our new talklist for New Letterboxers and your opinion of it's formation. Vote away and please strongly consider the last item as your answer!!! ;-) Really, I want you to vote your real opinion!
Our Website of the Week is Azroadie's My Letterboxing Adventures. Find the link in the right column.

New Yahoo Group for New Letterboxers Started

After the activity on the LBNA talklist since Friday, I have thought about it all weekend and Sue & I decided to start a new Yahoo Group where new letterboxers could ask any of the questions on their minds, without clogging up the big list with repetitive questions. I encourage both established and new letterboxers to join so we will have a good mix of experts and new boxers; the first group to answer questions and lend help and the second group to ask the questions. This list in no way is meant to circumvent any of the established letterboxing lists but it's a vehicle by which those new to letterboxing can ask a question or comment on letterboxing as their skills develop. Maybe we can keep the LBNA list freer of these questions and still offer a venue for the curious, enthusiastic, new boxers.

New Map that Shows States We've Found Boxes

Another new feature of this website is a map that shows all of the states in which we've found letterboxes. In 2 weeks, we leave for a North Carolina trip, so those red states should really increase!

Another New Gathering Announced

Chuck Straub announced on the LBNE talk list that preliminary plans are underway for a Mansfield Monster Mash gathering. There will be letterboxes all over the town of Mansfield for this event [as if there weren't enough in this area as it is!] to last for the complete month of October, then this special series will be pulled forever. Saturday, October 2 is the date to mark on your calendars. Check out our New England Area Gatherings webpage for details. Chuck called for volunteers to make a letterbox in the theme of TV or Movie monsters or science fiction characters. I have volunteered to submit two: Karloff's Dracula and The Mummy. Hope you can help also. Email Chuck if you are interested. His email is on the LBNE talk list.

Vermont Here We Come!

After 4 weeks of plans, Sue and I finally can make a weekend trip to Vermont this coming weekend. One of the items on our agenda is to plant the Prince of Naples Letterbox in a permanent place in southern VT, as well as the great Jay Drew event stamp to commemorate Mapsurfer's Ungathering. Look for clues early next week. I am thinking about just posting clues to this website and not the LBNA site. We'll see how that goes. Sue and I also have a bunch more boxes to plant in VT and hope to get to those this weekend as well.

Another plan in the works is to plant that pesky Hartford County Mystery Letterbox. Looks like Friday is the day that will happen. Clues will be posted on the LBNA site. That will leave only 1 of the counties left to plant. Engraver, get ready, the race is about to begin!

Keep those Letterboxes Safe and Watch for Ticks

A recent post on the big talk list by Danny spoke about letterboxes going missing and the importance of leaving letterboxes better than you found them. Make sure the zip lock bags are properly zipped, the outside container well-closed and the box hidden better than you found it. It is your responsibility to properly treat these little gems so that they are in place for the next finder. If we all follow these suggestions, there will be a rapid decrease in missing boxes.

Thanks to Lobsta Lady and Butterfly for their recent post to the LBNe talk list, bringing our attention to the on-going snake and tick situation. Be sure to be safe out there and take the precautions needed.

Thanks for all of the Positive Feedback!

Your feedback on our new web page design has been tremendous. Thanks for all of the positive comments and support for this site. As we get approach our 40,000th visitor, we are thankful to all who visit daily to read our letterboxing ramblings! I have been told by many that this website is a gossip page. I never really thought about it that way. Are we the grocery store checkout tabloid of the letterboxing world???

I have decided that the Harford County letterbox of the CT State Stamp Series will be a Mystery Box. This seems to be the best compromise: it will be somewhere permanent but not your everyday type of clue. Look for it's placement soon.

Looks like Sue and I finally have figured out the clue to Pete's Dancing Men! There are 1 or 2 words that just need a little refinement. Now the problem is finding time to get there!

Welcome to our New Webpage!

Sue & I hope that you like our new look and name. The Davidow's are still our original boxing buddies but with their busy schedules, our boxing time together has been few and far between. We will slowly change over sub-pages to reflect this new look. Check back often for revisions and new features. We will post on both talk lists once we change over to this site permanently, and you will have to change your bookmarks to reflect this new page. Hopefully the transition will be a smooth one. The old main page will be left up for awhile with a link directing our visitors to this new page.

We hope to plant our CT State Stamp Series: Hartford County letterbox this week. Now that everyone has calmed down about it, you will find this letterbox in a new, permanent location. I still think that this box as a HH was a novel idea - a different way to play this game - but looks like many of you disagree. At last look on the new poll we set up on the LBNE talklist, it was about 50/50 for planting it permanently. By the way - those 4 people who want us to slowly fade into the sunset should not expect that to happen too quickly - you are stuck with us!

It looks like Irish Tinker found time to place her CT State Stamp Series: Windham County. We have updated our page with the link to those new clues.

Our Monday items are up. The Poll of the Week deals with our website changes and your thoughts about it. The Box of the Week honors go to Louise for her newest addition to her hat series, Hat City Series #5. This newest series reflects nearby Danbury’s serving as the center of the hat industry from 1790 until the 1950's. If you head out that way, check out Series 1 - 4 also. Our Website of the Week goes to Phyto and Iscoceles' Letterboxing in Maine. This site is now the only place you can find Phyto's clues, as she has pulled them from the main LBNA site. Check out the link in the right column.

Hitchhiker Hostels

I've noticed the recent trend to place hitchhiker hostels at gatherings. While I enjoy stamping into them as much as the next boxer, I have been thinking about this practice. An infamous letterboxer stopped by our house the other night and we got talking about this practice of hitchhiker hostels and their place at gatherings. Sue and I hit 21 letterboxes last Saturday in Rocky Neck with our Dartmoor group and never found 1 hitcher. This other letterboxer just got through with a marathon of boxes in Hartford county and didn't find 1 hitchhiker. With the abundance of HH's out there, is it possible that letterboxers are saving these HH's for gatherings so they can trade them for another? We came to that conclusion and decided hitchhiker hostels were like zoos for animals - they shouldn't be caged in a small area - they are meant to be out roaming free in the wild! Please release those hitchhikers from captivity and let them roam the boxes of the world!!!

New LBNA Website Contest

There's an exciting new contest on the LBNA website. Wes Garrison, webmaster extrordinaire, has seen fit to announce a contest for a new web design for this site. While keeping the traditions of the past, the thought is to give the website a newer, more modern and updated feel. Our hope is that this newer update translates to larger and deeper changes to this pastime. There are things that need to be fixed in letterboxing and maybe this new web design is just the beginning. Changes like more communication with the public land trusts and the National Park Service in order to demonstrate that letterboxing can cohabitate with these organizations' agenda. We all have a common interest in preservation of our national resources and, as we all know, no one respects these treasures as much as letterboxers. I suggest a national letterboxing committee be formed to set up an agenda, elect officers, meet with land authorities, develop a national media strategy and determine the future course for this pastime before it spirals out of control as our numbers increase exponentially. Now is the time to put these changes in place. Please take a moment to email me and let me know your thoughts on this. Thanks.