After finding our initial box in June 2002, we have since found letterboxes in 18 states and placed them in 13 states; 4 countries: Aruba, Bermuda, The Netherlands, Great Britain; and on a cruise ship! Thanks for stopping by our website and we appreciate your continued support.
"Have fun and just get out there & box!!!"
Email us: mjpepe1@comcast.net (Mark) or suepepe1@comcast.net (Sue)
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Fun was no Mystery at the RI Gather!
Laurette with the Event Stamp Tom Noone did a wonderful job in bringing the local tribes together for a great Mystery Gathering today in Rhode Island. Despite the constant drizzle, the event was a huge success. It was a more intimate gathering than most, with maybe 35 or so in attendance. The boxes were great, especially Russ' Event Stamp as well as Dr. Hawley Griffen's Personal Traveler! It was good to finally meet Tom Noone, who was responsible for this event.
Phyto & Alafair up to mischief!
It was great to meet names that are very familiar to us and whom we've corresponded with over the years - Mary from VA and Turtle McQ as examples. Also good to see buddies like TeamGreenDragon, Dynamic Duo, Alafair, Phyto & Isoceles, Sadie & Russ, Butterfly, Bluebird, Mary [from RI] & Safari Dan, RustyPuff & CSCM, Tony & Veronica, Laurette, Moonstone Baby and others whose names I'm sure I've forgotten.
CT boxing contingent: Sadie, Bluebird & Butterfly
Thanks to all who organized, cooked, baked, hid boxes and just showed up! While this was our first RI Mystery Gathering - you can bet it will not be our last!
Tom Noone has been posting clues about the upcoming Mystery Gathering. Check out the big talk list and hope to see you there. I've even seen some hintson the talk list to help you find your way! And don't forget, per one of the posts: "To stave off unfriendly intruders when we meet you may bring your quill or your mashee nyblick."
Our friend, SpringChick, has released a series of Haunted HH's, which consist of 10 total HH'sthat were spread to the four winds early in October. Each of the 10 HH's contain a piece of a clue that eventually will lead the finder to a permanent Haunted House Letterbox. See her webpage for details on this very creative approach to letterboxing.
Our Box of the Weekis Zurcher'sBethel By Night. A letterbox located on a trail lit by reflectors is suggested as a great night time activity for those daring enough. For those that are faint at heart, you may also find this in the sun-filled hours!
Our Poll of the Weekfollows the same night themeand inquires whether you have yet to attempt night letterboxing.
Isoceles, Phyto, Sue, Mark, Kellie and Seth -
Taking a break from night boxing
Sue & I spent the weekend in Maine, along with the Dynamic Duo, Seth & Kellie. On Sunday evening the four of us had dinner with Phyto & Isoceles in Bangor at Salty Dog's Brewery. Monday found us in Portland, letterboxing by the sea.
The Autumn Maine Coastline
We did manage to pick up some of those great Maine letterboxes: from Augusta to Bangor, Ellsworth to Portland and finally in Wells. A very busy and fruitful weekend. We even had time to plant a mystery box!
Here is the story of the final leg of Betty the Pink Pig and phynstar to the finish line:
" I am not a city girl by nature so the thought of heading into NYC to plant a HH seemed a bit crazy to me...but I just had to take on the challenge. "Betty" and I got up and headed for the train station in Pougkeepsie, NY. After a 2 hour ride to Grand Central then a bit of a turn around when coming out of the subway at Astor Place, "we" located the Halloween Adventure box using a compass to get our bearings straight!! The grin on my face was a picture to behold while walking toward the store. It was insane with "costumers". 'We' looked about and saw, there, in the corner, stood Frankie...the Pink and I raced over and was blocked by a mother and child. After "flying" over them we landed at the chest. Next the Pig tried the combo but to no avail; hooves got in the way. I then tried the combo several times when an employee asked if they could be of assistance. I told her what was up and she radio-ed Tony!!! I told him the combo and he said the first number was off...I showed the sheet and he said "I can say no more". Other employees zipped their lips. I figured it out on the first recount of the "the"s. Betty did the honors and the stamping in began! And there you have it. One racer at the finish line.
Tony had fun looking at the Mansfield Monster Stamps that had been logged into my journal so far. Although he could not take the interest and time he would have liked to because it was real busy in there! Two of his employees took an interest in the activity saying they would like to try it someday!"
Thanks, Phynstar, for the report. [Wish Rosie had won!]
This week's Box of the Weekis Putting It All Together by Tiger & BuzzBee, who now live in North Carolina. Since their attendance at our Prince of Naples gather last spring with surprise guest, Randy Hall, we have been in touch with them on and off over the past months. A recent email invited us and others to check out this new series of 5 boxes located in Beacon Falls, CT.
The Poll of the Weekasks for the number of Monsters you have already slayed in Mansfield, CT during the on-going but short-lived Mansfield Monster Mash.
Another great day in Mansfield, CT among the monsters. The other Schmoopies ended up getting 21 boxes; while Sue & I got 18 -
enough to put us over . . . .
F1000!
Did you feel the ground shake? Sue and I did the F1000 dance and the Schmoopies took our picture with our 1000th box. No resting on our laurels - now our goal is 2000. Ended up the day with dinner, a special F1000 toast and a humungous ice cream sundae at Kathy John's - not a bad day at all!
Sue and I met Tony & Veronica for a quick 4 hours of slaying monsters today. Sue and I ended up just shy of our F1000 so we'll hit that mark tomorrow, when we return to Mansfield. Tony gave us their very first box, a HH, named "Wimpy" to plant for them. The name is inspired by a name I called Tony since he's not crazy about letterboxing in the rain! Thanks to 2 special friends for sharing their very first box with us and giving us the honor of dropping it off somewhere up north. Tony's first attempt at carving is very good - much better than my initial try!
I received an email this afternoon from a couple in Torrington, CT. It seems they found our Silver Sage Martini box on the street in front of their house on Jones Street in Torrington last Saturday! After taking the time to do some research on the internet, Craig discovered it was a letterbox, learned about letterboxing and contacted us. It sure traveled a long way - and it wasn't even a HH. I am making arrangements for its return, except as of this moment, I'm not sure if the stamp survived.
Many thanks to Craig and Cyndi from Torrington for rescuing the pieces, taking the time to time to find out about letterboxing and emailing us.
This photo just arrived in our email this morning. Seems this letterboxing trio was spotted in a popular Hartford nightspot - carousing, plotting, gossiping and kvetching. Who knows what might develop as a result of this meeting? Any ideas?
Sue and I have only 22 boxes to find before we reach our F1000. With one and a half days planned for Mansfield this coming weekend, we should hit our goal by Sunday.
If you feel the ground shaking in the Mansfield area on Sunday, you will know it's the Pepe's Mad F1000 Dance - not a pretty sight but very entertaining nonetheless!
We also have a trip planned later this month for a long weekend letterboxing on Mount Desert Island. We have a fistful of clues to search - a veritable beehive of boxes!!! If we miss our F1000 in Mansfield, we should reach our goal in Maine.
Our Box of the Week is the AIM Letterbox by The Dawnlanders. Located in Cornwall, CT this letterbox made it's debut at Saturday's Four Directions gathering. We were privileged to stamp this image into our logbook.
Poll of the Week deals with gatherings and what you feel is the proper size for a gather. With all of the posts about the Monster Mash being too large, just right, etc., we thought it would be interesting to see what our readers thought.
Website of the Week is MonkeyToes Letterboxing Page. Find the details of this letterboxing Texan via the link in the right column.
Friday, Sue & I played hookie from work and hit the Mansfield Monsters as hard as we could. While on the trails, we ran into Chuck & Mollie and Chickabirdie, Paul from The Maplines, and the May Day Lillies and friend Tigger, who soon became an exchange. The day was completed with a quick pizza at Mama's Pizzeria where we counted our total for the day - 16 monsters and 4 other boxes.We return to Mansfield next Saturday for 4 hours with Tony & Veronica and on Sunday with The Schmoopies for a full day of letterboxing.
Saturday found Butterfly joining me on the trip to the Four Directions gathering, while Sue worked. The day was almost perfect! We got there early and had some time to talk with Koyote and the Dawnlanders. Also found the time to admire thewonderful event stamp carved by Rush Gatherer.Next, it was time for frybread - mmmmmmmmmm! As more people arrived, clues for the special 1 day boxes started to be available and a bunch of us did those - Wanda, Pete, Phynstar, Butterfly, Rubaduc and myself.
After returning to the base area, Koyote shuttled Wanda & Pete to drop off their car and they headed out to the South Direction, while our group of Butterfly and Sadie & Russ and myself headed to do the East Direction. Phynstar and Rubaduc headed to the more difficult North Direction. First finder prizes and HH's were treats for us all.
This series is a very well done, thoughtfully prepared, and wonderful hike on Mohawk Mountain. The vistas with nature's painted palette of colors are phenomenal. While not quite at peak, the views on the East Direction were awesome and gave us pause to reflect on earlier times when these lands were owned by the Native Americans and nature was so unspoiled. Thanks to Koyote, The Dawnlanders and the carvers of these stamps from around the country for such a special, meaningful gathering.Hope that you all find the time to get to experience at least one if not all of the Directions in this most important and innovative series.
I received an email from Pinecone yesterday. It seems that while she and Chuck Straub were checking for Phynstar's lost stamp in many of the Monster Mash boxes, they discovered the elusive Legerdemaine's bee stamp in several of the logbooks!While no one has come forward with an actual sighting, it seems that letterboxing's most famous bee keeper could have made a clandestine appearance at this past Saturday's Monster Mash in Mansfield.
Apparently, Brian from TeamGreenDragon told Pinecone on Saturday at one point during the MMM that there was a rumor that Legerdemaine was in the crowd! We do know Alafair showed up with Patrick. Might they have some more information? And who is Patrick, anyway?We'll keep our ear to the ground in hopes of hearing more buzz on this subject!
I've just activated a new poll. Seems there was a ton of interest in people wanting to go to Dartmoor from conversations at the Monster Mash and private emails we have received. Andy Wilkes, one of our British friends who took us around, emailed me with news that someone from New Zealand contacted him after reading about the Baker's Dozen's adventures on this website! I gave him our address for my commission checks but he quickly responded that 20% of nothing didn't amount to much!
Sue and I have discussed this and we are thinking about running trips every other year. The next trip would be in 2006 for those of you who never have been. 2008 would be for veterans of Dartmoor, 2010 for newbies, etc. Please email me if you are interested in the 2006 trip.
Slowly but surely we are getting back into our routine. Look for our next installment of our Dartmoor trip sometime later this week. The design and copy input of The Four Directions pages have consumed much of our free time lately - hope you all will appreciate the efforts of Koyote and the others. Our normal goodies will begin again next Monday. Thanks for your patience while we adjust to everyday life again.
Koyote, of the End Gang, announced yesterday on the LBNA talk list a last minute gathering to kick off the Four Directions letterboxing series. I am pleased to host the clues on this site and encourage all of you to attend. Clues availability will be announced later by Koyote.
This series of 22 letterboxes celebrates the individual Native American tribes and their contributions to our nation. Letterboxers from around the country have contributed wonderful stamps and have researched individual tribes. You will come away from this series with a whole new respect for Native Americans and the months and months of hard work put forth by Koyote, Rush Gatherer, PowWow Dancer and others, who have helped plant and write clues for this most important series.
Please contact Koyote if you are planning on attending. As someone who has watched this series develop, I strongly urge you to attend. While the monsters in Mansfield may be tempting, they are there for the rest of the month. This gather is one day only, this Saturday, October 9. It should be amore intimate gathering where all can have some time to chat, meet and greet each other and get some premier letterboxing. And don't forget the beautiful foliage that is abundant this time of year - great colorful vistas that will make these hikes well worth the effort!
The Monster Mash was such a blast! Thanks to Chuck & Molly, Chickabirdie, Teach & Preach, The Maplines, MommaFox & Bald Eagle and all of the volunteers who made this the best gathering we have ever seen! By the way - Dave the Letterboxing Ham looked brilliant in that apron while on grill duty! With about 350 attendees, the line for the event stamp lasted throughout the day. What a great time Sue and I had: meeting all of the enthusiastic newbies who we've corresponded with over the months, gossiping and getting reacquainted with old friends and especially enjoying the interest in our Dartmoor trip. At dinner, on our last night in London, we decided to wear our Baker's Dozen t shirts and pin or sew our Dartmoor 100 patches to the front of them. What a great idea! People stopped us during the gathering inquiring about our trip and looking at the 3 photo albums of pictures that Sewsobizzy brought up from VA. Cries of "Spannerman" are still ringing in my ears!!!
There were many states represented at the Mash. We exchanged with a couple that had flown in that morning from WI. Sue and I also met boxers from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachussetts, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. We had several special things happen to us at the gather - one was Alafair and Patrick showing up for a brief visit.I finally got a chance to exchange with them both - I was too excited when I first met Alafair at the Louise Donovan gathering this summer and forgot to get her exchange.
The second surprise occurred while we were waiting in line for the second time for an impression of the event stamp for Andy Wilkes, our UK friend. He had emailed us earlier in the week, asking for an imprint and we could hardly say no after all he did for us on our trip. Standing in line this second time [we forgot to get it our initial time in line!], Sue and I started talking to a very pleasant woman in line behind us. When we introduced ourselves, she responded that she was Rae Record! For those of you that may not recognize the name, Rae is another of those letterboxing pioneers who started this game back in the late 1990's. I was so excited to meet her and quickly told her that that I had this Interview Series on our website, yada, yada. Before you could say "Mystery Letterbox," I had asked and she agreed to do an interview with us. Come to find out, Rae knew all about our series and even clarified a few of the points that others eluded to in their interviews! Rae also told us that the photo you've probably seen on the old letterboxing.org website of that very first gathering in Vermont in the late '90's was taken by her! We're honored that Rae has agreed to do this interview - look for it's debut some time this winter.
Hope to see you all at the Monster Mash tomorrow! Don't forget to say the word "Spannerman" to me to get the hand-carved stamp from Dartmoor that Spannerman/Steve Fanstone gave me. I will be using it as a personal traveler at the Mash so you will get an extra find! Can't wait to meet all of you new boxers and those friends of old!
Letterboxing enthusiasts hide and hunt weatherproof containers in remote or scenic places. Each container holds a logbook, a rubber stamp and stamp pad. The planter of the letterbox distributes clues to it's location via the internet, Word of Mouth, on websites or via other means. Clues can be easy to difficult. Finding a letterbox may require a combination of skills such as mapreading, orienteering, and puzzle-solving.
Letterboxers carry their own logbook and personal stamp when hunting for hidden boxes. Upon finding a letterbox, they will imprint their own logbook using the found stamp, and leave their own stamping or personalization in the letterbox's logbook. Some artistic letterboxers carve and even design their own stamps and logbooks. Letterboxes are hidden in various locations throughout the world.
Letterboxing has its beginnings in Dartmoor National Park in England, where the first letterbox at Cranmere Pool was placed in 1854 by a Dartmoor guide named James Perrott, who left his calling card in a container there while guiding tourists through Dartmoor.
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bravenet.com
