Are You Too Shy????

Click above for Norasta's new Clothing Optional Letterbox!

So . . . .

AAARRRGGG!

Ahoy Mates! If yer want to scour for some letterboxing gold, point your daggers to the prize box above! And keep this a secret, ya hear? Or we'll have ta make yer walk the plank!

D'oh!

With a keen interest always on new VT boxes, we noticed that there was a new box in town called National Springfield Series - Homer, that was planted in Springfield, VT. The placers name was Parrothead; which we viewed with some suspicion. Seems a favorite placer of ours spends some time frequently in that section of VT and we emailed them - asking if the were Parrothead.

Well, the response came back that they were not and it had us puzzled. Now today we notice a new box, in this same series, that was placed over the weekend in VA: National Springfield Series - Lisa.

The clues state: "According to Wikipedia, you can find a "Springfield" in 34 of the 50 states. This series is being created to honor all of the "Springfields" in the U.S. with some of their most famous (?) residents.... the Simpsons, of course!"

Looks like there will be plenty more Simpson boxes to come from Parrothead - hopefully in a Springfield near you!

New Poll of the Week

Please vote in this week's new Poll; which asks for your box container of choice. Ours is those Lock-n-Lock containers pictured above. I buy them anytime I see them at a good price. Sue thinks I'm obsessed - can you believe that?

Number . . .

A Walk in the Woods

Silent Doug recently came across an essay by Henry David Thoreau entitled "Walking" from 1862 that really seems to capture the essence of appreciating the natural world around us. As letterboxers who spend lots of time in the woods, it's always good to remember that it's not only about the destination, but about the journey as well. The essay is fairly long, but it's well worth a read!

Desperately Seeking a Gathering?

If your answer is "YES!" and you live in the New York area; have we got a gathering for you! Visit our New England Area Gatherings Page and check out LockWench's Desperately Seeking Sun gather this coming weekend. Looks like Mother Nature has cooperated with a nice snow cover - all we need now is you to make this a successful venture!

New Poll of the Week

Please vote on your favorite carving medium as detailed in our Poll of the Week. Thanks to LockWench for submitting the question. You can also have your idea for a poll posted if you email us! Thanks.

Time for Letterboxing Love~

especially to my favorite letterboxer . . .

Sue

It's Still Down

We're sure by now all of Letterboxingdom realizes that the LBNA website is down and has been for a few days. This began late last week and continued on throughout the weekend. The webmasters are doing their best to get the site back up as quickly as possible.

It's times like this that we appreciate all the webmasters do to maintain this website. The site runs seamlessly 98 percent of the time and we just take for granted that once we log onto the site, it will be up and running. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, we'd like to suggest that you show the webmasters a little letterboxing love for all of their volunteer efforts!


Update: As of early evening Monday, the website is back up! Thanks to Choi and the rest of the webmasters.

Dartmoor Redux!

With only 19 months to go, we have thoughts of our September 2007 trip swimming in our head!!! Over the past several weeks, we've been contacting the orignal Baker's Dozen to see how many of them want to travel on this trip. Looks like many, if not all, of that original 13 group of new inductees into the Dartmoor 100 Club will return. There are only 2 original trip participants that have yet to respond and if they reply positively, that will make the original 13. We are adding a few more slots for the 2007 trip but we're sure they will fill up quickly via our waiting list of those interested in coming.

The second trip will not have a London component this time so we will be spending the entire week on the moor. We're investigating some cottages on the most southern end of Dartmoor so we will be close to the coast, the town of Plymouth (where we might attend the monthly Dartmoor 100 Club meeting) and some great sightseeing locales. Once we have determined all of our participants, we will be forming a new Yahoo talk list to enable ease of communication and exchange of ideas.

No Boxing - There's a . . .

BLIZZARD!

Doesn't it crack you up about the huge deal some people make about the snow? Every winter we get snow - that happens without fail. And along with the snow comes the media hype on the news shows - crawls at the bottom of every show, cut-ins with the latest snow fall amounts, warnings to be sure you have at least 2 days of food in the house! Tell the truth - how many of you stocked up on milk and eggs and bread?

Where are we living - the middle ages? Don't we have efficient snow removal systems in the Northeast? Don't the snow plows run around the clock to ensure the roads will be in the best shape in a matter of hours? What's a little (or a lot) of snow if you just stay inside and wait it out?

Steve (our youngest son) and I went out about 12:30 today to snowblow what was on the ground at that point - which was about 21." We cleaned that up and will go out again at 8pm to give the driveway one more run. So the wind was blowing a little and the snow was falling quickly - we do live in New England, right? And this is winter, no?

Now hopefully, back to our ordinary lives and we can cancel all the hype and hysteria and snow counts and delays and . . .

A Unique Way to Play!

We've discussed the National Park Services inflexibility to allow letterboxes in their parks ad nauseum on all of the talk lists. We've discussed how we can, possibly as a group, lobby them and show them other successful boxing projects, like CT's State Forest program, that is expanding this year. It looks like Azroadie of AZ has done something quite unique all on his own by finding a novel way to beat the system.

Azroadie has developed what he calls a "webbox." The clues take you to a location within a National Park where you hike and hunt for the box, following the clues like a traditional letterbox except when you get to the location of the box - it's not really there! You take down the information, go home, enter the info as part of a predetermined URL with the "key" at the end of the URL and - voila - you get a digital image that you can print out and paste into your logbook!

So you get the enjoyment of the hike and experience the National Park but don't have to worry about the NPS gendarmes! Not too shabby! Azroadie currently has 3 webboxes - Grand Canyon and Saguaro Park - both in his homestate of AZ and Zion Park in UT. This may be the boxing wave of the future!

Update: It seems that some letterboxers are using this technique for boxes that go missing as well. Norasta, from Ontario, Canada, sent us an email that their box in HI that was located in Volcano National Park. When it disappeared, they send the image of the stamp via email for those that find the location. Latest recipient of this emailed image - CT's own Butterfly!

Second Update: We just heard from Silver Eagle from TX. It seems back 3 years ago, this TX native used this same technique when one of his AK box, Devils Den, was confiscated. The creativity used in letterboxing never ceases to amaze us! Thanks, Silver Eagle, for the email and for allowing us to set the record straight!

Mmmmmm . . . . Ice Cream!

Click the Homer-cone to see the box!

Looks like letterboxers living in and visiting VT are in for a treat - a whole collection of boxes based on The Simpsons - The National Springfield Series hidden by a new boxer, Parrothead.

Can't wait to begin this series. Our favorite, Homer, is the first! D'oh!

Blogger.com Worries

Since Friday, Blogger has had mucho problemos as I'm sure some of you have noticed. I've seen posts on AQ that our story links were missing as well as a few posts on the LBNe talk list that our website wasn't accessible. Don't panic!

There have been some hardware issue at blogger.com, according to an email I received on Sunday evening. There will be one more outage at 7pm PST on Monday, which they feel should repair the problem once and for all. Please hang in there as they make their adjustments. They promise that thinks will be much quicker and better when they finish! Now about that Brooklyn Bridge . . .

New Poll of the Week

Our new Poll of the Week inquires about which website is the one you go to most of the time for letterboxing clues. Is it the LBNA or Atlas Quest??? Vote your choice below!

Four????

Could we have been wrong all of these years??? Der Mad Stampers Mudder has just planted a few new boxes in Kansas. If you haven't heard about her, you have to read her clues! Her latest box is called Four Little Pigs. Also new is Little Jack Horner's New Gravesite.

I'm not sure I would read them to your children, but they sure are a scream. Is this really Der Mad Stamper's mother behind these boxes???

During our interview with Der Mad Stamper, Mitch and I emailed each other frequently. At one point he told me that his mother had gotten started in letterboxing. I wrote back asking "Der Mad Stamper's Mudder?" He responded in the affirmative. Looks like she's the real deal. Enjoy!

A Great Gathering

Group Photo from the Manchester Gathering

Sue and I had a great time today in Manchester, CT at the Winter Gathering. Thanks to Nature & Caipora for their hard work and for making this a wonderful event. I was telling Sue on our way there today that this is the closest gathering we've ever attended - 22 miles away from our house! Can't beat that!

Plus you couldn't beat the food at the potluck luncheon as well as the sense of fellowship. With the gather located inside at the Super 8 motel, everyone was more inclined to sit around and talk to people! It was great. Not sure how many exchanges we got but it was well over 20. So many new people and we learned alot about them as well as spending time with those we know so well.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the gathering. So many clandestine containers of all shapes and size on the potluck table and scattered around the room. It was great fun and a thrill to win a telescoping walking stick in the raffle (thanks Pinetree for bringing it!)

Just Want to Say . . .

The current Poll of the Week looks like our readers would like to see our format changed from Box of the Week to Box of the Month - and so it shall be! We've updated everything to now show the monthly frequency of this feature. Thanks for all who voted and influenced this decision.

Manchester Gather this Saturday!

Don't forget this Saturday's gathering in Manchester, CT from noon to 4pm. Click the image above to read about it and respond on Atlas Quest.

Our Newest Box

Can it be really be time for tea???