It's a little early but . . . .

The poll for the Newboxers Patch Design Contest is up!

Please vote for your favorite. Click the headline above to be taken to the poll and the patch design page.

Voting will continue until noon EST on December 29 when the winner will be the design with the most votes. We've changed from the original ending time of midnight New Years Eve since we'll be away and without computer access!!

Updates & Patches

No - this isn't software talk!

We've had some time tonight to update our website after several months of backlogs due to our recent computer problems and our busy life in general.

Updated are the Mystery Box Planting page, Letterboxers' First Finds page and our own page for Boxes Placed and Adopted.


Wanna letterboxing patch? Well, we've created a page for letterboxing patches. If you would like to include your groups patch, please email us with a jpeg of the image and what info you would like displayed - whether it be a link to a website, show your mailing address or a link to an email form.

Finally - A First Finder!

Last June, while visiting the Hog in OR with Deanne & Dave, Sue & I left 8 boxes in the northern and central part of the state as a token of our appreciation to those great placers out there. After all of these months, our Crest of the Eagle finally had a first finder!

We heard over the weekend from John of 4DToes that his family found the box over the holiday weekend. Sue & I had the opportunity to finally meet the 4DToes after corresponding several times over the years. John also was one of the participants in the Pepe Pinecone stamp carving that the Hog organized in our honor several years ago.

Thanks to others as well, who emailed us over the weekend letting us know the status of our boxes. We also heard about our Cape box (Hyannis Hero,) the box on Stone Mountain in GA (A CT Dragon Fly,) our TX box (Mark by Mark,) our NY box (Sagamore Canoe) and several of our VT boxes.

We maintain a page with our boxes that has updated status for each box that we've placed. The status is based on reports we get from finders around the country. This is why we so appreciate your emailing us and other placers about our boxes.

It's wonderful to hear from each and every one of you and great to see that most of our boxes are weathering well all around the country!

Hope Y'all . . .

Sue & I will be heading to Vermont for the long holiday weekend.
But before we left, we wanted to wish you all a great Thanksgiving!
We're thankful, among other things, for all of our letterboxing buddies who frequent this blog! Here's a small token of our appreciation!

See you next week!

Patches????

We've recently seen some posts on the local and national talk lists by newcomers to letterboxing and vets as well looking for locations where they might find out about letterboxing patches.

Sue & I have decided to host such a page here on our blog but we ask that those in charge of their area patches please email us giving us permission to use your patch. We will not post any info about your patch unless we receive your email.

We envision a page with pictures of the individual patches with an email link of the contact person. So please, send us a jpeg image of your patch and your email address.

In floating the idea, we've received permission from Wolfy who sells the LbNE patches for the Northeast region. The winner of our on-going patch design contest for the Newboxers list will also be featured on the new Patch Page as well.

Can we feature your area's patch? Let us know!

Our Mega Boxing Weekend Continues . . .

Sunday brought us to Simsbury and Talcott Mountain State Park,
home of the Heublein Tower pictured above

For months and months, Sue & I had a letterboxing date with Bill & Margo. After Tony & Veronica almost wore us out on Saturday, we doubted our ability to hike again today. But after a good night's sleep, we both woke up refreshed and relatively pain free! Maybe we aren't so old!


Posing in front of the Pinchot Sycamore - CT's largest tree

We set off for Talcott State Park in Simsbury, CT. After arriving at the park and sweating through the steep incline on the trail to Heublein Tower, things leveled off and we were greated with beautiful panoramic views of the Simsbury valley below. The spot where these pictures were taken is a popular area for hang gliders to take off and fly to the picturesque valley and fields below. The warmer than usual weather brought out many hikers and families to enjoy one of the few nice weekends that could be left in this year.

Northstar hosted a gathering here last so Talcott Mountain is home to many great boxes and the 1.5 mile hike to the summit was well worth it. We found some wonderful stamps, enjoyed many beautiful vistas and stopped for lunch in the picnic pavillion near the tower that offers more great views of the valley. We ran out of time for the Halloween Series planted there but vowed to come back in the spring.

What a great weekend of wonderful boxes and fun times spent with friends. And while the work week begins anew tomorrow, the promise of a short week, a favorite holiday and the coming long weekend to be spent in Vermont awaits! Let the week begin!

A Special Day in Westwoods

For months, Sue & I have had plans with Tony & Veronica to letterbox in Westwoods Trails in Guilford, CT. Finally, today was the day! And what a day it was!

The natural beauty of Westwoods Trails

While it was cool and cloudy at times, the four of us enjoyed a great day searching for Tupperware on the trails. Westwoods Trails has 39 trails on over 1200 acres of land that features waterfalls, wonderful rock formations and views of ponds and Long Island Sound.

Tony & Sue check the clues!

Arriving at 11am, we agreed it was a great day spent in a very nice location. One that we'll have to visit again soon, since we ran out of daylight to finish the boxes there and with the varying terrain changes, roots and rocks in the trails, we never would attempt to nightbox in this place. Lingering over a bag lunch in one of the highest parts of the trail system, we wondered if there was a prettier spot.

After burning of tons of calories (we hope after the approx. 6+ miles we hiked) we stopped at a great Mexican restaurant that Veronica had been to countless times call Jalapeno. This restaurant offers authentic Mexican food and we ended the day satisfied with a delicious meal. The food here was delicious and reminiscent to that wonderful cantina that we took a marvelous meal to go when Deanne, Dave, Sue & I visited with Hog in central Oregon.

My favorite hiker!

Now, Sue & I can have that extra piece of pumpkin pie on Thursday without feeling guilty! Hope you all enjoyed the day as much as we did in the warmth of mid November.

One Moor Time!

The pinecone pair are beginning preparations for our return to Dartmoor. The trip will occur this September 2007 from September 15 through the 23rd. There are 16 of us preparing to hike the moor in search of pill pots and ammo containers with stamps and who knows what suprises I'll have cooked up for the group!

As we gear up, we'll be choosing a name (Baker's Dozen doesn't work with 16!) and designing and carving our team stamp. We'll decide on our new team name by December. About 3/4 of the group are returning Baker's Dozen members who will be striving for their Dartmoor 300 stamp while the new travelers will be working on their 100.

This trip we'll be staying at the southern end of the moor near Ivybridge - occupying some beautifully converted barns that are now upscale apartments. This new location is located on the moor on a small farm and offers 3 meals a day, including a bag lunch that we can take with us on our days out. Breakfast and dinner are cooked in our kitchen by the owner! Our own private chef! It doesn't get any better than that!

This will be our last trip to Dartmoor for at least 5 or 6 years. Sue & I want to discover some other ports of call but we'll be going back for sure after that hiatus. Our next trip to Dartmoor will be all new people - those that haven't traveled to Dartmoor before. We'll keep you informed when that happens!

Prefer a Particular Patch???

We are amazed at the amount of talent on the Newboxers list! The patch designs keep rolling in and any one of those submitted so far would be a great representative of the newbie list.

We are so glad we're leaving it up to the readers of this blog to decide the winning design and not us! It's going to be a very difficult decision. Sue & I have our favorite but we're not telling!

Check out the latest entries! Again, thanks to all of the designers for a great effort. Designs may be submitted until December 1, 2006 after which the voting will begin with the winner being the patch that has the most votes by midnight on December 31, 2006. Keep those entries coming!

Mark By Mark

Earlier this year, we received a request from Team King of TX to send in a letterbox for their Great Book Adventure gathering - which was held on October 21, 2006.

We decided to carve one of our favorite authors, Mark Twain, and call the box "Mark by Mark." This past weekend we received the clues from Team King after planting the box in its permanent home near Houston in Tomball, TX.

We've updated our logbook on both Letterboxing.org and Atlas Quest. Click here to see the clues. This box makes the 11th state in which we have at least one letterbox; besides 4 countries and our floating box located on a cruise ship!

Special thanks to Team King for not only planting the box but offering to watch over it and perform the necessary maintenance!

The Contest is On!

It seems to be the fashion as of late and we decided that the Newboxers list should be included!

What the heck do we mean? Well - the proliferation of patches for most of the letterboxing talk lists and regional groups. And now - the Newboxers will have one of their own.

Several weeks ago, prior to our computer problems, we floated the idea on the newbies list and the response was pretty overwhelming and positive as well. So, we decided to conduct a search - much like the one that we hosted when the LbNE list developed their logo - with a contest.

Whether you are a member of the Newboxers talk list or not, we welcome you to submit your design(s) to us via email. All designs must be in a jpeg format. We'll assemble all of those submitted and post them to a new webpage located on this blog. Then we'll open up a special poll to allow our readership to choose the design that they most like.

What's in it for the winner? Well - satisfaction! And the recognition of designing this patch as well as a free patch - along with the undying admiration of every Newboxer member and at last look - there were almost 1400 members on that talk list.

S0 - get out there and design a patch! Here's the page we've created for the entries. Check back often to see the latest! Designs may be submitted until December 1, 2006. Then a poll will be open on the same page with voting ending December 31, 2006. The design with the greatest number of votes at midnight on December 31, 2006 will be declared the winner.

The Schmoopies Say "50 is Nifty!!!"

The Schmoopies at Scargo Tower

No - we're not referring to our ages! We're talking about those 50+ boxes we found last weekend at the Cape as The Schmoopies boxed for a long weekend that featured friendship, fabulous weather and 5o+ finds!

Friday found us at Rabbit Tracks' Fairyopolis series. This is an enchanting, artfully-carved series that captured our imagination. It was a great way to begin the weekend! From here we traveled to another Rabbit Tracks series - the whimsical Hanna Barbera Series that brought us all back to our youth and those wonderful Saturday mornings spent around the TV! The clues are very unique and we really enjoyed finding the boxes even though we started in the wrong direction and missed a box! But doubling back brought us to our missing character.


Another Schmoopie Shot by the sea

Next we headed out to Sandi's Diner in Chatham where we refreshed ourselves with a cold drink and Chunna's great box located there! From there, the group headed to Chatham Light where the group would hunt for LoneMassWolf's box there, which Sue & I had found years previous. After searching for a while, we came up boxless but the warmth of the spot and the scenic view was not lost on The Schmoopies. We used this wonderful location for a bite of lunch and a Schmoopie Kodak moment!

With stomaches full, our logbooks were next! Next stop - Candy Land - CapeCodLetterboxer's series for kids of all ages! Sue squealed with joy as we moved across the "playing board" as we made our way from character to character - some we remembered; others we didn't; but all wonderfully carved.

As daylight began to wane, we quickly got to one of the locations of Chunna's musical series, Strike Up the Band. Box 1 was found in the setting sunlight. Box 2 was found by flashlight and Box 3 wasn't found at all in pitch darkness and a flashlight and lantern. The next day, in the daylight, we discovered why. The box was left out in the open, strewn on the ground, about 4 to 5 feet away from it's resting place. Needless to say, The Schmoopies left that box much better than we found it! We're getting ahead of ourselves but we finished this series over the weekend and even managed to find that pesky, evil band leader! Nice job, Chunna! This is a series of note - get it???

Earlier in the week, Cape Cod Lightnin' Bug posted that their night Haunted Halloween series would be pulled on Halloween. Well, that morning I sent a hastily put together email asking Mary for a favor. She quickly agreed to leave the series up throughout the weekend and it seems several of you made your way to their front yard in those post Halloween nights.


Pumpkins carved by Archimedes' Screw


A Gorey closeup of our favorite

To say this series of 13 boxes was fun is an understatement. CCLB and Archimedes' Screw came out to meet the rest of The Schmoops and said we were working pretty quickly at finding the boxes but with a group of 6 the task seemed easy! And we discovered that Screw cannot only carve beautiful stamps but beautiful pumpkins as well. CCLB told us that Screw discovered she could carve detail into the pumpkins using her stamp carving tools. As you can see - the detail is terrific as were all of the 13 stamps hidden there! Mary told us that the previous week a camper trailer pulled up in front of their yard with California license plates. The couple was headed home after an extended vacation and just had to stop in and get the boxes! If this is offered next year, you must try to make this event. We oohed and aahed at each and every stamp. With all 13 boxes haunting our logbooks, we then headed to Captain Parkers Restaurant, as suggested by Screw; still amazed at the 35 boxes we had found that day and the quality of all of the carvings. Over the best clam chowda we've ever had and a clam strip dinner and a drink, the Schmoopies ended a perfect Cape day (and night!)

Saturday found us still talking about the artistry of the boxes. First stop of the day was a series that I still can't believe was hand carved. Alice in Orleans, by Archimedes' Screw is one of our most favorite series ever! We can't stress enough the quality and the detail of each and every stamp! You must get this series! I venture to say that Screw is probably one of the top 3 carvers in the country. Her talents are simply not to be believed. After Alice, we visited the balance of Chunna's Band. We then returned to our home-away-from-home for a leisurely evening with The Schmoops.


View from Scargo Tower

Sunday was time to say goodbye to the rock but not before we found Chunna's band leader. We also stopped at the newly replaced Scargo Tower box that originally belonged to Headless Horseman and was recarved and replanted with permission by CapeCodLetterboxer. We climbed the tower and took a few pictures. Our last Cape box was Headless Horseman's Ghost Train. As we drove off of the Cape, we stopped for lunch canal-side to take a few more pictures before heading home.


An uninvited luncheon guest


We bid farewell to the Cape - but certainly not for long!
Thanks Capers!

The Schmoopies Hit The Road - Again!

The Schmoopies at the Keene, NH Pumpkin Fest

We ready to hit the road again - The Schmoopies, that is! The picture above shows us at the Keene Pumpkin Fest a few weeks ago. Now - we're ready to hit the Cape for a long weekend and we're geared up and ready to box on the rock!

Look for a Cape report next week - along with some pictures and maybe a little something we might leave behind for those Capers to find! Have a great weekend and thanks for sticking with us during our recent few weeks of computer problems!

Computer Update!

Our computer has been fixed and we'll be getting it back tomorrow night - just in time for us to leave for a long weekend at the Cape with The Schmoopies! We'll be back on line and posting Sunday night or Monday. We have a lot of ground to make up: clues to write, stories to tell, and pictures to share!

Have a good weekend and we'll be back early next week!

Oh - and watch out Capers - we're comin' for ya!