It's All Just A . . . .

OK - get ready for some venting! I apologize in advance if you are offended but the following are my views (and not the views of my wife!) But we feel that this must be said.

What's happening to the mystery boxes? As time has gone on, we've seen the quantity of new mystery boxes diminish and the finders of mysteries getting fewer as new letterboxers come into the game. Are they too challenging? Is this a result of the dumbing down of letterboxing? Why aren't mystery boxes being visited as frequently as a standard letterbox?

When we first started boxing, Sue & I stayed away from the the mysteries for our first year. That's understandable - getting your feet wet while learning the game - nothing wrong with that. We then became "infected" with the clues of a certain enigma from Maine and there was no holding us back! Once solved, mysteries present their own satisfaction - a satisfaction far greater, in our opinion, than that of a straightforward clue. Anyone can find a box by following directions - provided the box is still there, of course! But a mystery box requires savvy and smarts and Google!

On our recent trip to Oregon, we noticed that many of the Portland area boxes were mysteries - a much higher percentage than back East. We assume it's because of the work of Der Mad Stamper, who influenced several generations of boxers and set such a high standard of cluing a box. Never have Sue and I had to do so much decoding as on that trip!

We feel there is nothing more satisfying than working on a mystery clue for months and finally deciphering and finding the box! That's a feeling that can't be duplicated - to finally move away a stone and find that elusive box just where you thought it would be! Ah - mysteries.

And if you remove that stone and the box isn't there - go back and try again. One of our Mapsurfer finds took 4 tries until we were successful - and I warned Sue when we got to the location at noon that I wasn't leaving this time until I found the box. Luckily for her, it only took us 3 hours on that fourth try and we were able to yell "Eureka!" What a feeling that was - how quickly we forgot the 3 previously foiled attempts! They just didn't matter since we were now holding that Mapsurfer box in our hand and we were victorious! And this story is one that still remains with us years after we found the box. Mysteries create their own special memories.

So - we encourage you all to hunt for and plant a mystery box. Decode a clue, find the location of that picture, plant a box that might be difficult to find - it doesn't matter if it takes months to figure out and 2 or 3 attempts to find. Imagine how sweet that victory dance will be and the story that you can tell! Nothing beats that!