Mark & Sue Pepe hail from Kensington, CT USA.

After finding our initial box in June 2002, we have since found letterboxes in 18 states and placed them in 13 states; 4 countries: Aruba, Bermuda, The Netherlands, Great Britain; and on a cruise ship! Thanks for stopping by our website and we appreciate your continued support.

"Have fun and just get out there & box!!!"

Email us: mjpepe1@comcast.net (Mark) or suepepe1@comcast.net (Sue)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Under Pressure

In advertising, they say one letter or email might represent the opinion of up to 100 people who just haven't taken the time to write but feel the exact same way. Well, we've heard from 5 people in the last week asking if everything is alright - are we sick, etc. Might that represent 500 of you???

I realize that I started the Dartmoor trip journal and quite a few weeks have passed without an update (although I have finished the first day now but need to put some pictures with the text.) I have been working mucho overtime at work and really don't feel like spending more time on a computer after 10 or so hours at work; and we've been in VT the past 4 weekends when I normally would have caught up on the blog and I'm a Red Sox fan and haven't missed a playoff game or will not miss a game of the pending World Series.

Phew! I guess those 3 things have kept us more than busy. It's funny - even when I'm busy I get this niggling feeling that I'm not doing what I should! "Update the blog," that little guy in my head says. "Your readers are waiting!"

Sure, at times, there really is nothing to write. Not now, though. Many of you have sent us updates on our boxes to be recorded and first letterboxing finds. Our Dartmoor journal should be updated since we ended after only our very first day! I have most of an interview with Daniel Servatius finished. While Daniel may not be a household boxing name, he has contributed much to this hobby working side-by-side with Erik Davis in those very early years.

So - give me some time to adjust. Something happened to me in Dartmoor this last trip. No, it wasn't Irene from Hikers & Hounds! Really - she was a pleaure! It was the realization that our lives are much too hectic - not just Sue & I - but we Americans as a whole. That sense of peace and the beauty of the moor hit home more than ever this trip. It was truly life-changing for me. My coworkers remarked how good I looked after our return to work after the Dartmoor trip and I have to admit that I felt different. More relaxed and almost like a changed person. I can never remember feeling so much at peace as after our immediate return from the moor.

Well, that didn't last once life's pressures took hold. But there is a rebellious spirit in me that says "I don't want to return to life as normal" And that, my friends, is what I've been struggling with over these past 4 weeks. Looking back, this blog was born in December of 2002 as a fun pastime; initially our way of recording our finds. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that anyone would actually read it! We've made so many great friends through this blog and some of those friends have accompanied us to Dartmoor and have made lasting impressions on our lives. Such was the case this trip as well.

In an email to Silent Doug tonight I expressed the option of taking a hiatus from this blog - maybe until after the holidays. I still may do that. But first I want to finish our Dartmoor trip journal and publish the interview with Daniel Servatius. If I didn't, that guy in my head wouldn't leave me alone!

After that - who knows where my head will take me. Rest assured that we appreciate the loyalty of our readers and those that take time to write. One of the coolest things ever was all of the emails Sue received after I published her new email addy. Many from friends but many from new people we haven't yet met. I think that's why I feel that little guy telling me to "write, write, write . . . "

So - if you were wondering where we've been, you know now. We're here - partially, and the rest is in Dartmoor among the ponies and the boxes and the wonderful boxers we met and the tors and the brilliant blue skies and the sheep and the gorse and the . . .


Dreaming of Dartmoor
Photo by Mark Pepe




posted by Mark and Sue at Tuesday, October 23, 2007