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)
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Unique Ideas for Gatherings
You already know of the Float Your Boat gathering and the Great Urban Plastic Pink Flamingo Caper that we are co-hosting, but our fellow boxers from Texas have taken the gathering to a new level.
As a method of planting boxes in some vacant counties, they will commune to seed and build, just like raising a barn, to create some new boxes in virgin territory. This gather takes place on October 22 in Waxahachie, TX. Visit Barefoot Lucy'slink that explains more about the event.
As we watch the devastation that Hurricane Katrina left in her wake on the Gulf Coast, we wonder what is really important in our lives. Is it the boxes that we can't find, our F count, the number of times we post on the talk list, whether a stamp is hand-carved or commercially bought???
None of this is really important, as I'm sure you realize!
Imagine losing your home, your job, family members and all that is dear to you and the rest of the community is in the same scenario! Where do you turn? How do mothers find formula for infants? When will they be "home?" Americans in the southern US are now facing these and many more life-threatening circumstances hourly. Can we afford to stand by, cloistered in our little boxing world and not help?
While there are no answers to these questions, we can at least keep things in perspective. We encourage our readers to keep a good thought and prayer for our fellow Americans while they venture to rebuild their lives. We all joined together to raise money for tsunami victims. Now it's time to step up on behalf of your fellow countrymen and women. Make a donation to the American Red Cross as a way of helping a family have a future. That donation can be in many forms as the above link tells - cash, frequent flier miles, and even a donation of blood.
After all - it's more than letterboxing - this is LIFE!
Jem Heist have just planted A Letterboxer's Tour of Georgetown - a series of 10 microboxes that take the boxer on a tour of that historic district in DC. Click the image above to see the map and clues that look like a great series as well as a way to do some sightseeing and learn a little history as well!
We wish Cherokee Rose from GA a speedy recovery from her current hospital stay. She has been a longstanding reader of this webpage and we wish her the best and hope that she is out on the trails, hunting Tupperware real soon!
I heard today from a friend that a certain letterboxer has decided to use a Legerdemaine WOM picture clue as their IM or Yahoo Messenger personal picture! This clue has been sent to only the most trusted letterboxers per the author's wishes and now it's been bantied about as a letterboxer's personal chat image! Is there no shame?Would you want your WOM clue shown for all of the chatting public to see?Have we not been paying attention to how precious these Legerdemaine boxes are to those letterboxers who receive them?
I hope our readers are more discreet than that and realize that any Legerdemaine clues that are hidden on this website are with the creator's permission.If you receive a Legerdemaine WOM clue, or any other boxers' clues for that matter, and have not received permission to pass this along, you must keep it to yourself or send it along only with the creator's permission.
UPDATE: The WOM clue in question has been removed by this certain letterboxer - who now has a new avatar for IM besides the Legerdermaine picture clue.
Remember what I said a few days ago about things being slow? Well, I've been getting email like crazy the past few days so I thought this format might be the best format for letting you know what's going on in boxingdom: [You were so right, Azobox!]
Time is almost up for the CT County Stamp Series! Everyone who completes this series by August 31, 2005 will win a special engraved prize by, you guessed it, The Engraver!
Congratulations to Fish-or-Man who just reached the F-500 mark! Lou's 500th was The Schmoopies "Picnic in The Park" box in Manchester, CT. Great job, Fish-or-Man!
The Great Lakes Group now has their own official patch, based on the same image that graces the talk list's main page. Contact Wisconsin Hiker for more info. The patches sell for $1.50 each.
We heard that a certain southern letterboxer is working on an Extreme Letterboxing Page! While it won't be ready for a while, we just couldn't resist tempting you with this tidbit.
Heard from Letterboxingbee that that she is hosting the 3rd Annual Boxtober Fest gathering in New Jersey October 15, 2005. The twist is that every attendee is asked to bring non-perishable food items to be donated to a local food bank. With the coming holidays, this is a perfect way to get some letterboxes and help make a holiday meal a little more special for someone less fortunate than ourselves.
Thanks to all of our contributors for helping to get us out of the late summer, non-news doldrums!
Well, I never thought I'd say it - but it's too quiet! The talk lists have been so quiet - it's amazing. After the very active and aggressive spring and early summer - things have come to a grinding halt!
Is this a popular vacation week? Could it be the fact that the kids are getting ready for school and letterboxing moms are too busy to post? Don't know for sure.
Where's all the juicy gossip? Even my Inbox has been quiet and I'm always hearing from friends and readers. How am I gonna keep this website up if I can't get some good stuff going? If you have a tidbit or something out-of-the ordinary - show me the love and dash off a quick email. Please, I'm begging you! You don't want me to start making up stuff, do you? :-)
When Funhog was here in June, I was shown a very cool series and a recent post reminded me of the conversation the Hog & I had together. Jay's Tool Box is our Box of the Week. Located in Fairview, OR, it is truly a box in progress. You, as the finder, are encouraged to add a tool to the box. It's amazing the number of different tools a letterbox can hold. When we visit OR in June, we hope to add another tool to the toolbox!
Our Poll of the Week deals with your favorite aspect of letterboxing. Is it all about the stamps, the location, getting out there or something else? Vote now to be sure that your thoughts are counted in the total.
Our green letterboxing wrist bands are on the road again. After a trip to the GA gathering in July, they are now headed to next weekend's 3rd Annual Western New York gather. Thanks to Sprite & Highlander for offering to sell them. We're getting down in quantity and are not sure whether we should place a reorder or not. Do we sell them at the Flamingo Caper gathering? We'll see - if you have feelings one way or the other, drop us an email.
While Sue was at work this morning, I had a chance to finally get to some much-needed updated info on our site. Our Finds are now complete, as well as our Exchanges, that include all those great MI letterboxers we met in June. New England Area Gatherings have a new entry, the Frightnight at the Fort in Kittery, Maine on October 22.
We've also had a flurry of emails from boxers reporting the first letterbox they ever found. After a month, our Letterboxers First Finds page is current. We now have a new entry for Canada! Come on you guys and gals - there are some states not represented here. Why don't you fix that?
Tis the season where boxers of letters gather together to carve, hunt and stamp the images in rubber while partaking in frivolity and enjoying a repast that is assembled by sheer luck from each boxers' pot.
OK - I'll can the dramatic - it's letterboxing gathering time so here's a list of gatherings for the rest of August and September. Just click on the gathering name and you'll be taken to Atlas Quest's site for that individual event. Don't forget to sign up! For those of you new to gatherings, check out 2 great articles written by Sprite of NY and Lock Wench of NY that are located just under the picture on our New England Gatherings page.
If you haven't attended a gathering, please do so once! You'll be hooked for life. It's a great way to meet others and to put a face with a stamp! If you like this gathering listing, let me know.
I hope it's clear this time. I just got off the phone while at work with a frantic CT letterboxer in tears. She's stuck up at a ridgeline by herself and appears to be lost and is in a spot that she's afraid to move for fear of falling! Calls me at work asking for the placer's phone number - a mutual friend. I don't know the placer's phone number but know they are out of town.
I empathize and feel totally helpless but I'm at work and cannot do too much, besides being 45 minutes away from the location of this WOM clue.I advised she call 911 so that professionals could aid her. I explained that she had to let them know her exact route and where she is located and to remain calm. In re-telling me of her plight, it seems she knows the route she took and about where she is. I tried my best to calm her down and reinforce the fact that she should be with someone. Appears she traveled off trail to save some steps and is now in a precarious situation! Again, I tried to calm her and I asked that she let me know when she was safe again.
Is it me?
UPDATE:After calling 911, our letterboxer is now safe.
Signups for the Great Urban Plastic Pink Flamingo gathering in Leominster, MA on the 1st of October are progressing past our expectations! We now have 60 signed up. The great part of it is that about half are new people that we've never met!
If you are interested, we ask that you pre-register on Atlas Quest so that your personalized clue file is awaiting you when you join us that morning. There will be a series of about 14 locations around Leominster, many with interactive components, and we will be equally dividing clues so that the group is spread among the 14 boxes and not all at finding the first box!
We now have 2 new boxes to look for the next time we visit Mackinac Island, MI. Radio, who has most of the boxes that are planted on the island, has just planted 2 new island gems: Round Island Lighthouse and St. Ann's Cemetery - which Sue and I walked through, remarking about the history there.
I read a post last week where someone referred to the upcoming Moose Hill Mach 3 gathering. Moose Hill - upcoming gathering? Where was that posted? I subscribe to almost every talk list there is in order to keep abreast with things from around the country, bring highlights and nuances of this game to our readers and I missed a New England gathering?What is going on?! Deanne asked me about it this past weekend and I didn't know the answer! Am I loosing my hold on this game?
There is a circle of letterboxers that I keep in touch with around the country. These are people who, for whatever reason, are considered friends, though I haven't met many, and of like mind when it comes to letterboxing. I received emails from 3 of them today, asking what was going on; how was I and that I had been quiet as of late. Quiet - me? It's a great feeling to know my presence is missed but -where have I been?
So I've boiled all of these ingredients and occurences down to one word -
It seems as of late, that LIFE has gotten in the way of my hobby; my obsession to be more exact. I'm not smoozing via email or bringing news to letterboxingdom via this website. I'm not planning or composing interviews or planting boxes - other than the 2 we just planted on vacation. Life has me in it's grips!
Let go - I wanna play!
It's life and all it involves that has me preoccupied. Thankfully nothing bad - just life in general. I'm still here but maybe just! I'll be back eventually - and when I am - it's nice to know that readers like you will be here to read my observations or drivel or whatever!
Life is in my way now - and I guess it's better than the alternative!
Sue & I spent the weekend in VT with the Lazy Letterboxer & Letterboxing Ham. We plotted and planned for the upcoming October 1 gathering, as well as made logbooks to place in some special boxes.
We have decided to begin the gathering at 9am in order to allow boxers the maximum amount of time in which to visit all of the locations in Leominster; searching for Percival. There will be a total of 14 stops and Deanne has timed it to about 4 hours. Maps of the area will be in your clue files so be sure to pre-register for the event!
The schedule is as follows: 9am registration and clue pick up in the parking lot of the Plastics Center and Museum, 2pm to 4pm will be the times for the pot luck with raffle at 3pm back at the Plastics Museum. We must leave the facility at 4pm sharp - since this is closing time. For a map, directions and more details, visit our New England Gatherings page.
The newest letterboxer to take advantage of our offer to host webpages for the letterboxing community is our partner in crime for the Great Urban Plastic Pink Flamingo Caper, Deanne, The Lazy Letterboxer. For those of you attending the event, you will want to bookmark this page, since most of her letterboxes are in the vicinity of Leominster, MA, which is the location of the Caper.
Click the couch above to see her webpage and to find more about the gathering or to reserve your spot - please click here.
This weekend is the only time you can get A Day at the Lebanon Fair boxes. This series of 6 hand-carved boxes, new again this year, is available from tonight, Friday, through Sunday. Hours and instructions are located in the clues. Thanks to Queen B for once again getting boxers to the fair and rewarding them with these little prizes!
Bindle Babe of MI just planted the Haunted Shipwreck - a mystery box planted somewhere in Wisconsin that requires diving equipment to find the box! Thanks to Wisconsin Hiker for the email that notified us of this unique hide. Guess we don't have to worry about Muggles finding this one!!!
Several weeks ago, as you may remember, we were proud to participate in a little letterboxing love for our favorite porcine boxer, Funhog of OR. Spearheaded by Don & Gwen from CA, letterboxers from around the country carved their favorite pig stamps to be hidden as a surprise for the Hog as a small token of this community's thanks. Since the pig is out of the poke by now, reports are starting to surface of visitors to Hog Heaven Theme Park in Red Bluff, CA.
Funhog lives some 450 miles away from the Theme Park, so these boxes have still not been added into the piggy's logbook. Can't wait for the reaction! For those of you that don't mind a spoiler or may never get to CA, the images were compiled on a page we affectionately call The Hog Pound.
On the first day of our cruise, Sue leaned over to me while we were walking through one of the decks and said, "I just spotted someone who I recognize but can't seem to place." I told her to nudge me the next time she saw this woman. We didn't wait long to make our celebrity discovery!
The next morning I was headed somewhere by myself and there in front of me was Conchata Ferrell. I walked up to her and excused myself and said, "I just want to tell you how much I enjoy your work."
My one line led to an extended conversation about cruising, her husband being a former Navy man and her present job as Berta on the TV series Two and a Half Men. While I was initially unsure whether this was that cantankerous maid that bosses around her charges on that sitcom, once she opened her mouth and started to speak I knew she was who I thought. That distinctive southern drawl and robust voice was unmistakable.
Several others from our party also encountered Conchata over the course of the week and she was just as nice to them. She told my mother-in-law that she was a blue collar actress! And, she also letterboxes! No - just kidding! :-)
Our Poll of the Week asks for your favorite time of the year to letterbox. Ours is not in this heat and humidity - that's for sure! Place your vote now~
Details for this upcoming October 1 gathering are starting to take shape. Deanne & Dave and Sue & I have a brain-storming session this coming weekend. Read about this gathering on our New England Area Gatherings Page. Mark your calendars now - this is one you won't want to miss. Because of the nature of this gathering, we must require you to pre-register via email to ensure that your "official clue file" is awaiting you upon your arrival. Details to come as they occur.
You can respond that you are coming to the event on Atlas Quest right here~
A picture I took of the fabulous Horseshoe Bay in Bermuda
We spent Saturday resting at Harriman Reservoir in Wilmington, VT. After enjoying a picture perfect day with the Davidows, we did a little box maintenance on our Alternate Energy box. On Sunday, we completed some maintenance on our Symbols of Freedom Series and Mountain View boxes. All are in great shape and ready for the late summer and fall traffic that this region enjoyes this time of year. Thanks to all who emailed us status reports for these and all of our letterboxes.
Finally got to post clues to our 2 newest boxes but, we fear, not for the average letterboxer! You have to be in Bermuday or on the Norwegian Crown to find either one of them. The Bermuda box, Horseshoe Bay Seahorse, is, we believe, the first letterbox in Bermuda, while the Travel Letterbox, may be the first letterbox planted on board a major line cruise ship. Good luck on finding either of these!!!
A new series has made its debut this week in Kennebunk, ME. Placed by Cooties, this 7 box series will yield 14 stamps since each box hold 2 different wildflower images. These wildflowers are seeded on a 3 mile plus straight walk. The Cooties advise that you bring bug spray - you know how those insects love the flowers! Click the image above to check out the clues!
Well - we're back! Don't want to be but that's how it goes. Our week was idyllic. Time to spend with family, making memories. The only problem that we had with Hurricane Frederick was some rough seas on Monday night - besides that - we garnered the benefits of Fred by enjoying the abnormally high surf of 8 to 9 foot waves! Three days at the beach tuckered us all out.
We left NYC at 4pm on Sunday, July 24th. A ship that was docked right next to us, left 3 hours later for Bermuda but because of the storm, had to reroute their trip to Canada! Imagine being packed and ready for Bermuda and ending up in Canada? No offense to our Canadian friends but it's a world of difference. One of the workers at the docks in NYC told me that passengers on that ship, once told of their new destination, started throwing pool furniture into the ocean!
I picked up a sinus infection towards the end of the trip and that's the reason why there hasn't been much new added since our return late Sunday afternoon. I should be back to normal in a day or two but had to add something here so you wouldn't think Sue & I were at the bottom of the ocean floor!!
Soon you can look for some pictures and clues to 2 new boxes - one planted in Bermuda that, I think, qualifies for the first one on the island and the second one - planted on the ship! That's right - somewhere on the ship is a Pinecone Production! We don't expect there to be a lot of traffic since visitors are not allowed on board - only passengers. But, if you happen to travel on the Norwegian Crown, we left a little something for ya.
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.
Time is almost up for the 
bravenet.com
