Wonderful Weekend Cape-r!

One of the many special places we visited

It all started early Friday morning! We had Cape Cod in our sights for a long weekend. After a few months of planning with Deanne & Dave, it was finally the day for our 3 day weekend spent at the Cape of Cod!

After a quick drive-through breakfast and an easy 3 hour commute, we arrived at our motel shortly after 9:30am and we actually beat Deanne & Dave! To the motel that is - they had arrived at the Cape at 7:30!!! When we finally met each other in the motel parking lot, they had already had breakfast, placed a box and found a few! We quickly moved some boxing essentials from our car into theirs and headed off for the day!


The JFK Memorial, Hyannis, MA

Our first stop was the JFK Memorial and on to a mystery box. We then planted our new Hyannis Hero box as well. Then we visited MummaandBunnyBoy's Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo, based on the childrens' book. While I had never heard of this book, our son Steve, who spends vacations and summer working at a childcare facility, immediately recognized the title. Great stamps and a nice walk. We then hit What's My Sign and headed back to the motel to clean up and have a wonderful meal at Ardeo's. The wait was long but the company was the best!

Another early morning start on Saturday - April Fools Day - where we met Rae Record in the parking lot of the motel. We had previously contacted Rae and arranged for her to spend the entire day letterboxing with us. It was great having Rae with us. She was even nicer than she appeared to be in her interview from late last year. First up was Scarab's Calvin Nemeses (I know, Rae, it's plural for Nemesis!) which was a great little series of ups and downs. While the weatherman had predicted rain, we started out with a sunny, cool day - just right for letterboxing!


Deanne, Dave and Rae at one of the days many boxes

From there, we headed to Archimedes Screw's fantastic series, Star Wars. These are beautifully carved stamps, which are so indicative of the talent that these Capeside "girls" possess! All are such great carvers who seem to be more like a family than friends. The Star Wars series looks great in our logbook and we all ooohed and aahed at each stamp. Once we reached the final box in the series and came up empty-handed, it dawned on us that it was missing - but we didn't worry since we were meeting the "girls" for dinner, along with Rae, and hoped the "Screw" would bring the re-carved replacement stamp!


Baby lambs at Bray Farm

We also visited Chunna's Indian Grounds and, after serving as our Box of the Month for quite a few months, we found Year of the Dog by Archimedes Screw - which turned out to be one of our favorites. Rounded out the day with Le Pew, Shade Tail and 2 boxes at Bray Farm - which is a wonderful working farm that runs educational seminars for all ages. We took a break from our boxing to admire the cute little newborn sheep and lamb. Last on the agenda was Curses, Kabutogani and Bass Hole. Curses has a great twist that we know New Englanders would enjoy! We then had to rush back to the motel, freshen up, and get to the restaurant to meet the Capers for 6pm.

The meal at the Super Buffet was a great one and full of surprises - how else could you spend an April Fools evening? After some exchanges and personal travelers, we noticed some mischief (which we will keep secret!) and we all enjoyed those little extras that were on the table and other places - including CapeCodLetterboxer's hastily but artfully-carved event stamp! We were joined by Ginger Blue and Bob, with Ginger sporting a 50's style black satin jacket from a local diner that her mother had let her borrow. I don't want to gossip (right!) but Dave's eyes were sooooo green! Even had Deanne take his picture in this great jacket that he hesitantly returned to Ginger.


The birthday girls cut the cake - Screw, Chunna & CCL

We all enjoyed a nice dinner and dessert was a surprise birthday cake, since CapeCodLetterboxer, Chunna and Archimedes Screw all had celebrated recent birthdays. It was a nice evening with talk about the girls up-coming Cape gathering in the fall. Rae had re-planted the Phantom of the Boardwalk for us to hunt that night in the dark but fog, mist and the offer to have everyone take the celebration to our motel room altered the original plan to hunt for the box. After some gossip and ideas for the gathering and just general conversation, we all parted with kisses and hugs for letterboxers who were friends but now felt like family.

A special moment for Sue & I was a gift of an altered book from Deanne and Dave. It took us totally by surprise. The book was Dartmoor-oriented and contained a special stamp, beautifully carved by Deanne, along with photos and remembrances of the Baker's Dozen trip of September 2004. Dartmoor has a special place in our hearts, as do Deanne and Dave, and this book will be one of our most prized letterboxing possessions. We passed it around for the group to stamp onto one page to commemorate this special night. And don't believe Deanne - those weren't tears in my eyes! Seriously!


Bayside, at the Phantom of the Boardwalk location

Sunday found us waking up to a brilliant deep blue sky with the promise of more boxes but also with the realization that our nice adventure was coming to a rapid close. Sunday, we visited Chunna's Cultural Center, which is the location of that upcoming gathering, the Great Cape Escape, which is planned for September 30. We visited You Decide, CapeCodLetterboxer's box for which we had written the clues. While we had seen an image of the stamp to aid us in writing the story, it was great to find and actually stamp into this box.


Sunday's crew - Dave, Sue, Mumma & Deanne

One of the most unique concepts for a box that we have ever found in the 4 short years we've been boxing was CapeCodLetterboxer's Lock Under Key. It was a nice treat to have Mumma meet us before we got to the box and who did the You Decide Box with us as well. Lock Under Key should be on your short list of those boxes you must visit next time you are at the Cape. We don't want to give anything away but be prepared to be wowed~ we all were!


Sue and Dave check out Phantom of the Boardwalk clues

To round out the weekend just before we left the Cape, we went to Phantom of the Boardwalk, Rae Record's epic box that introduced letterboxing clues based around a story. Rae told us much of the history of the box when she boxed with us on Saturday. Originally, after hiding it, she took her husband Jerry to the location and had him try to find the box. After running through the clues with him, Jerry said, as we men do at times, no one would ever find it and he thought Rae should simplify the clues. It was too difficult. Then Rae showed Jerry where the box was hidden and looked at the logbook. Much to their surprise was an entry from an 8 year boy who had just found the box and who remarked that it took him only 30 minutes! Needless-to-say, Rae left the clues as is.


We found a geocache - but no Phantom!

So we get there, cross the great boardwalk and follow the clues and look some more and then change directions and look some more. One and a half hours later - no box! And an 8 year old boy found it in a half hour?? Who's son was this - Einstein's? As we were leaving, Archimedes Screw and Cape Cod Lightning Bug were arriving to find the box. We cried on their shoulders, told them of our plight and made them promise to email us if they found the box. When we never heard on Monday, I emailed the Screw. She told me after 2 hours of hunting, they came up empty as well, even after being joined by another couple hunting for the box!


Deanne is on the lookout for that pesky Phantom!

Then I get an email from CapeCodLetterboxer on Monday, who after hearing from Rae that we couldn't find the box (I called Rae evil many times in our email to Rae!) CCL headed out to look for the box to make sure it was still there. The dunes have changed from erosion and multiple storms, but CCL, who had found the box before the topographic changes, found the new box in 10 minutes! Guess we could never be real Capers! Oh, Rae, what can we say!

Sue and I would like to thank Rae Record, the girls from the Cape and Deanne & Dave for a special weekend that we will long remember. The Cape girls made us feel special and Rae was just a joy. You all better watch out, ladies - we just may want to do this again! This was one very special weekend and a precursor to our early June trip to Hogland, USA with Deanne & Dave. It was a very special weekend filled with special letterboxing memories!

Follow-up: At the recent Ice Scream Gathering, Archimedes Screw told me the she and Cape Cod Lightning Bug finally got back to the Phantom box and were successful in finding it. Seems we were almost standing on it! Guess where Sue & I are stopping before we hit the Cape gathering in September???