It's Our Anniversary!

Two years ago today we began a paultry effort to initiate our first webpage based on our new hobby - Letterboxing. That first entry was just a listing of our finds to date. That individual page from December 29, 2002 has now grown to nearly 70 pages of individualized content in 2004 and is still growing! What began two years ago today has blossomed into something that neither of us could have ever imagined, even in our wildest dreams!

After our first year online, we hit almost 16,000 hits. Our hits to date have exceeded the 98,000 mark and we now average about 125 individual letterboxers visiting this site a day! That's over 82,000 hits in this, our second year! When we first started out - we were happy if we had 10 letterboxers visiting this site over the course of a week!

While we realize that we are blowing our own horn somewhat by citing these stats, we also realize that the key to this success is you. We thank our loyal readers who visit this site - many every day and some multiple times per day. Without your support, through email, website visits and personal encouragement, this site would not exist. Because of that support, we continually strive to raise the bar and offer new and exciting ideas and content. Don't ever be shy about contacting us to suggest improvements, a Poll of the Week or a Box of the Week entry. As we've said in the past "This is your site too!"

Several people have been instrumental in encouraging our efforts over the past 2 years and deserve to be singled out from the crowd of our supporters - Legerdemaine, Funhog, Jay Drew, Alafair and Lori & Brian of TeamGreenDragon. Our heartfelt thanks to you all. Each of you has made a huge impact on our letterboxing lives and ultimately, this website. But - no one has offered me more support and encouragement than Sue. She's watched me, night after night, pounding away at this keyboard or composing interview questions while we're in VT or listening to some new, hair-brained scheme of mine! Who else would have given up a 30th anniversary trip to Italy and followed my dream as we visited Dartmoor on the 150th anniversary of the Cranmere Pool letterbox with 11 other letterboxers? This game and website are never more than one thought away and we thank her for her continued indulgence for she realizes my passion and commitment to this hobby and website!

But, this is not a time to rest on our laurels since there is much more work to be done and mischief to make! We hope to continue offering new and innovative content. One of our major goals is to see the Other Boxers' Sites page grow and become a useful tool for the letterboxing community. We want to offer those of you that may not have the ability or time to have your own place on the net that includes some of your clues. Just email me your clues and I'll take care of the rest. We feel this is a great way to hide a WoM clue and give everyone that opportunity to stake their claim in this amazing digital world.

Another goal is to maintain the ongoing Interview Series by offering new insights into this hobby through "talks" with influential movers and shakers from yesterday and today within the letterboxing community. This has been one of the most widely-accepted and popular features of our website and we are still dedicated to the importance of keeping this feature strong. As new boxers continue to come into the fold in increasing numbers, the importance of realizing our history and roots remains all the more vital.

Which also leads to the growing membership on our New Boxers Talk List. This forum continues to grow daily, enforcing the idea that this was a needed addition to the letterboxing community. While we struggled with this idea before it's inception as to whether a new talk list might further divide the community, our feeling now is that it was the correct action to take. We have just instituted a scheduled Chat Session every Sunday night, beginning at 8pm EST. Our hope is to further expand this talk list to possibly include a gathering in the near future.

Our Dartmoor trip is another project we'd like to expand. At present, 12 of the original 13 Baker's Dozen will return to Dartmoor in the fall of 2006 with us. We are planning to expand the trip to another 6 people. At present, there is a 25 person waiting list! This indicates a growing interest in Dartmoor and the origins of letterboxing and a vehicle we will pursue. Our intent is to possibly host a Dartmoor trip every 2 years. The success and interest in this trip and the home of letterboxing has also presented us with another idea - why not host letterboxing trips to different parts of this country? Might there be interest in a trip to the Pacific Northwest? How about Georgia and Texas - areas of the country that are growing in the number of letterboxers and boxes. We'll see what happens there. Heck, I might as well open up Pinecone Letterboxing Travel Agency! ;-)

As you can see, our appreciation and energy for this hobby and its participants are boundless. We've been so very fortunate to find a diversion about which we are truly passionate, enthusiastic and excited. Thank you all for traveling this road with us for the past 2 years and making it such a wonderful ride. We look forward to your continued support and participation. And - Happy anniversary to us all!