Over a Week of Fun & More to Come!

Where do we begin?

On Saturday, September 16 we headed to Kreepy Kelli's Pirate Gathering at Bluff Point in Groton, CT. What a day that was! Pirates galore, old and new friends, a great buffet and too many boxes to hunt in a day. Had a chance to finally meet Irene & Dude from Hikers & Hounds, Scarab & Night Owl, Jan of Team Little Dog, and Dogs with Wings. Nice surprise to see Lock Wench, who traveled from NY State to be there. The prize for the longest distance travelers had to belong to Wisconsin Hiker & Martini Man, who we spotted across the expanse of tables but sadly, never got a chance to visit. Jay Drew showed up sporting a new set a crutches while he recoups from minor leg surgery that will have him on the trails and planting those gems before long! Thanks to all who had anything to do with that event - it was a blast!

From there, Sue & I drove home just before dark, packed the car, threw the canoe on the Corolla and headed north to VT, where we spent 8 great days. We canoed two beautiful lakes in southern VT on glorious fall days, hiked, took a chair lift ride to the top of Mount Snow to enjoy nature's changing palette and planted a series of 5 boxes from the Flamingo Gathering and a special one for the coming Mystery Planting Day of October 7. Clues will be posted next week. It was a very special time for Sue & I - as is most of our time spent in that getaway in the mountains. We enjoyed a special anniversary dinner (our 32nd,) while we reminisced about our anniversary two years previous in Dartmoor and looked forward to next year's anniversary back in the wonderful moor!

Now we're back to work but only for a short time. Ahead of us, like the proverbial light(house) at the end of the tunnel, is this Saturday's Great Cape Escape! Who knows what those Capers have in store for us. And I promised Rae Record that THIS time we're coming home with the Phantom of the Boardwalk's image in our logbook! Cape Cod Letterboxer suggested we go night boxing to find the Phantom. While I liked the idea, Rae taunted that we couldn't find it in broad daylight, how did we expect that we'd find it in the dark? Time spent with old and new friends on the Rock. Sue & I will be releasing our third HH - Cape Light HH sometime the day of the gathering. For more info and to register for this gathering, please click here - you'll be glad you did. For those of you that have emailed us regarding our boxing bands, we'll have some with us at the gathering as well!

One last thing - thanks to all of you who emailed us about the lack of posting to this website over the past 8 to 10 days. Your emails were most welcomed and touched us both. Our son, Steve, who read our email while we were gone in case of an emergency, couldn't believe the amount of people who took the time to send an email inquiring whether we were sick, upset or busy because we hadn't posted in a while. He still doesn't believe the caring community of which we are proud members. Thanks to you all - you know who you are!

See you all at the Cape Gathering - and Rae, we're comin' to get ya!

Krusty Krab & Family Send . . .

We received an email this afternoon from Wild Rover, who is Krusty Krab's father. Several weeks ago, Krusty Krab underwent surgery and her aunt, MayEve, sent a little email to a group of New England area letterboxers. MayEve asked that they sent a card or note to help cheer up the Krusty one as she continued to mend from the surgery.

"The family sends a shout out of thanks to all the letterboxers who have sent well-wishes to Gillian," Wild Rover said. "She proceeded to get cards and letters from so many boxers that I could not possibly name them all. . . Gilly (Krusty Krab) was pleased to get notes and gifts. All of the caring messages have been a happy diversion for Gilly, who went through a tough time."

Ah . . . the kindness of letterboxers! Thanks to all of you wonderful souls who have shown Krusty Krab a little letterboxing love. We're pleased to report that Krusty Krab and her family will be at this Saturday's Pirate Gathering. It's difficult to keep a good Krab down!

We Have A Winner!

Mystery Box Planting Day will be October 7!

Thanks to all who have voted during the initial poll and the recent runoff that ended at noon last Friday. So get your boxes ready and clue them as a mystery. Don't forget the tagline: "Part of the Mystery Box Planting Day."

The Green Tortuga has even put October 7 on the new Atlas Quest 2007 calendar so it looks like this might be an annual event!
Now get out there & plant!!!

Please Note: The current poll results may show a different result than October 7. In my haste to get to VT last weekend, I forgot to take down the poll and people have continued to vote since the noon Friday deadline. October 7 was the clear winner by some 12 votes at the pre-announced deadline.

Keep the Flame Burning

On this, the 5th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist strikes, we ask that you keep the flame of memory buring brightly for those who perished in that disaster.

Please take a moment out of your busy day to remember those almost 3000 people who have become heroes to all of us in this country.

We will never forget!

On Hiatus . . .

We'll be gone next week.

But before we go, we'd like to encourage you to attend this Saturday's Pirate from Every Port gathering put together by Kreepy Kelli. Hope to see you all there.

Step By Step!

Our newest website addition, thanks to Choi, one of the tireless webmaster of the Letterboxing.org, is Step-by-Step. Recently he posted this instructional reply to a newbie's question about letterboxing. With his permission, we've added it to our website in the form of a Step-by-Step page. Thanks, Choi, for your continued committment to this game - whether it be getting our clue repository up and running or helping one of the newbies on our Newboxers list. Click the graphic above to read these great instructions.

Run-off Vote for National Mystery Day!

Because of the closeness of the the top 2 dates in our National Mystery Letterbox Day, we've decided to hold a run-off vote which is up now and will run through next Friday at noon EST. You may now choose between 1 of the 2 top vote getters. Remember you may place your mystery box anytime but don't forget to put the tag line in your clues: "This box is part of the National Mystery Letterbox Day."

Hope you vote and plant! Thanks for your participation!