Ever Been to Hanapepe???

As you may know, we routinely troll the new letterbox lists on both LBNA and Atlas Quest in search of new boxes that might prove interesting. Performing that check this morning, I was amazed with a new box we found placed in HI!

Longtime friend, Tempus Fugit, just planed a box near the town of Hanapepe called HanaPepe. You can imagine our surprise when we read the clues!

Thanks, Donna, for starting our mundane work week with a nice little surprise!

Easter Greetings!

Sue & I would like to wish
you and yours
a very Blessed
and
Happy Easter!

Long Arm of the Law . . . and Letterboxing!!!

Now here's a story for you . . .

I just got a call from our older son, Matt, who works as a police dispatcher in town. Matt is the son that still, after almost 6 years of letterboxing, doesn't quite understand why Sue & I hunt Tupperware in the woods. He's really freaked out by what we do and thinks it's quite foolish!!!

So - in our phone conversation of a few minutes ago, he tells me that he's at work and a woman just came into the police station with a paper. "Can you help me," she asked.

"Do you know where this is?" she asked. "We're with a group of letterboxers and are looking for this location." And she proceeded to hand Matt the paper with the fireplace picture.

"Did Mark Pepe plant this box," Matt asked as I'm sure he rolled his eyes!

"No, not this one, but we've done alot of theirs!"

Unfortunately, Matt wasn't able to determine the location but he had to call! He assumed that if the box was in Berlin, I was somehow involved. He even admitted that he was my son! Surprising!

I told him "Face it, Matt. Letterboxing is everywhere so you'd better get used to it! There's no escaping it!"

And this small world keeps spinning around . . .

Mystery Book Ends???

It seems good friends, Tony & Veronica, are at it again! As you may or may not know, all of their letterboxes are mystery boxes. Not a single non-mystery in their collection. While this might put some pressure on the finder, Tony has told me in the past that it does create some angst from their side as well. Mystery boxes are sometimes more difficult to clue than straight-forward boxes.

Their newest box is called Book Ends Mystery Box. While we're not the brightest bulb in the letterboxing light department, I easily solved this one at 2 in the morning after a very hectic 3 weeks at work so I'm sure you'll all do just fine. Try it!

Have fun with this box and to Tony & Veronica - Cheers for another great box in your very mysterious tradition!

You Need Adventure in Your Life!

For the past year, we've read with a passion a new magazine by National Geographic called simply Adventure. This magazine is for those of you that are active and love to travel to those offbeat places - or those of you who want to travel someday. The articles, like the parent publication, offer insight into out-of-the way destinations, the newest in hiking/biking gear and tours with guides that can take you to any of the four corners of the world! Their motto is "Dream it. Plan it. Do it"

In the most recent edition, there was an article by a doctor who put together a portable ER - a makeshift first aid kit for those readers that hike, bike or generally find themselves many miles away from the nearest emergency room. With the upcoming September letterboxing gathering in Oregon and the influx of boxers from around the country that will be hiking in areas unknown to them, we thought it might serve the letterboxing community to itemize those items you might want to consider stuffing into your backpack before you head out to do the Columbia River Gorge series - a must for all boxers heading to OR - or any number of those great hikes that this state has to offer! The notes in parenthesis after the item are suggested uses as detailed in the article.

1) Ziploc bags (dry storage, wound irrigation)
2) Moleskin (chafe prevention, blister protection)
3) Gauze (padding, absorption)
4) Sunscreen
5) Non-antibacterial soap (dish, body and teeth cleanser)
6) Butterfly Bandaids
7) Water purification tablets
8) Imodium A-D (antidiarrheal)
9) Ibuprofen (pain relief, anti-inflammatory)
10) Duct tape (splinting, casting, fastening)
11) Iodine (antiseptic)
12) Multitool (ideally with pliers, wire cutters, a serrated Blade, flat & Phillips head screwdrivers and scissors)
13) Tweezers (splinter, tick and wood debris removal)
14) Safety pins (fasteners)
15) ACE bandage (limb stabelization, elevation, support)
16) Krazy glue (gear repair, wound closure)
17) Latex gloves (CPR barrier mask, sterilization)

So - just get out there and box - and be prepared!

A Duc and Seven Fishes~

I'm sure you've figured out by now that we keep a close eye on new letterboxes that are posted on the 2 major clue repositories - LBNA (letterboxing.org) and Atlas Quest.

Reading the new boxes this evening, one caught my Italian eye! It was called Feast of the Seven Fishes. Longtime readers of this blog know that every Christmas Eve our home is the location for the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes - a joyous evening that our nieces and nephews tell Sue & I is their most favorite night of the year; filled with family, fun and traditional fare!

A letterbox, I thought? Imagine our surprise! So, I clicked. And there it was - a Rubaduc production! And many months early as well. Find the clue here. And the Duc has asked that those boxers under the age of 12 to submit names for each of the 7 fish.

All I can say is "Atsa nice, Duc!"

CT's Own Letterboxing Cookie Monster!

You might know her as Krusty Krab - a favorite of ours - but Gillian Horan has made news on the CT Public Broadcasting Network for her efforts in joining other Girl Scouts around the country as they sell their yearly fundraising, delectable cookies.

Below is an excerpt from that article.

You might have spotted someone nibbling a Girl Scout cookie recently. While the size of the cookie is small, the scale of the sales is enormous.

"Would you like a bag with that."

"Sure I would love a bag."

Brownie Troop 327's table of treats sits in front of the produce section of an East Hartford Stop & Shop. Gillian Horan is eight years old. Each time she sells a box, she thanks the customer and then a couple seconds later, she exclaims "Awesome." She wears a brown sash over her gray sweatshirt and sits behind the snacks.

"Well, we have natural Tagalongs, All Abouts, Chocolate Chip (sugar free), Do-Si-Dos, Thin Mints, Truffles, Trefoils, Lemon Chalet Cremes and Samoas."

In front of this cookie line up is a little cardboard sign that reads $4 a box.

And for Horan those dollars add up. For each box she sells, her troop gets 75 cents that can be used towards troop activities, like camping. She’s already sold 80 boxes, and she tries to calculate what that means for sales.

"So 80 times 4 is probably around $325."

Horan is one of Connecticut's 32,000 Girl Scouts trying to meet the statewide sales goal of $12 million. And if you wanted to translate those millions in terms of boxes, you’d go to the Girl Scout of Connecticut's enormous cookie jar.

Great job, KK! Seems as if you are as voracious a cookie-seller as you are a letterboxer! See you in May at your aunt's (MayEve) and father's (Wild Rover) Spring Into Boxing gathering!

Alaska or Bust!

Several weeks ago, Donutz wrote to me, telling me about a HH she wanted to launch while she and her husband were in Florida. Her idea was to have the HH, which she would launch in FL, make its way to Alaska, where her brother would finally retrieve it once the Alaskan boxer emailed Donutz telling her that they had found the much-traveled HH.

This week I received another email from Donutz on vaca in FL letting me know that the HH was in the wild - somewhere in the Sunshine State and would hopefully begin its journey forthwith.

Here's the background and the explanation in her own words taken from that initial email that she first sent me:

" . . . Several years ago when visiting Alaska, my husband and I spent a few days in Seward and came across a Memorial for Benny Benson. John Ben "Benny" Benson is responsible for creating the flag for the Territory of Alaska in 1927.Up to that time, Alaskans had flown only the U.S. flag since the territory was purchased from Russia in 1867. Benson's design was chosen over roughly 700 other submissions from school children statewide in grades 7–12. He was 13 years old at the time and an orphan. He looked to the sky, choosing the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and the North Star for his symbols. He described his choices: "The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaska Flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly of the union. The dipper is for the Great Bear symbolizing strength."

His sentiments are echoed in the state song. The whole story behind the creation of the Alaska Flag inspired me, so now I would like to try something. I don’t know if it will work, but I think it would be fun to launch a stamp in Florida of the Alaska Flag as a hitchhiker, “I want to Go Home HH,”and see if it could travel to Alaska. The logbook would ask that the finder move it in a Northwesterly direction. Perhaps people on LBNA and AQ could post that they’ve found it. Would you be willing to post something on your Blog? My brother lives in Anchorage and would be happy to retrieve it if and when it arrives."

So there you have it - the story behind the "I Want to Go Home HH." If you find this wayward HH, please email Donutz and do your best to plant it in another host box in a northwesterly fashion.

We wish good luck to Donutz and the journey of her ambitious, new HH which is now Alaska bound!

Spring Into Boxing Gathering Set!

In springtime, a young boxer's fancy turns to . . . . . .
gatherings and the essential gathering of the spring is the Spring Into Boxing 2008 Gathering!

This year's location will be at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 2833 Main Street, Glastonbury, CT on May 10 from 1 to 5pm

Event hosts are MayEve, RTRW, Music Woman and Wild Rover.

The following is the official text submitted by Wild Rover:

A gathering will be held on May 10, 2008 in Glastonbury, Connecticut to celebrate the arrival of Spring, and with it more temperate New England weather that encourages more Letterboxing. The event will be sponsored by MayEve, RTRW, Music Woman and Wild Rover.

The original Spring gathering in 2005 was a drive that originated in Glastonbury, continued to Bushnell Park, and concluded at RTRW’s house in West Hartford. The Spring 2006 gathering christened the newly opened Glastonbury Cultural Center on the Connecticut River, followed by feasting at Luna’s Pizza. Despite the wonderful success of both events, a Spring gathering was not undertaken in 2007, but returns with vim and vigor for 2008.

The gathering will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 2833 Main Street in Glastonbury, which is best accessed from Welles Road. Parking is ample in the lot behind St. Paul’s Church, which is adjacent to the K of C Hall. There is no fee and no requested donation for this gathering. There will be a raffle, but no raffle tickets will be sold. Astrii’s method of collecting stamp images from attendees for the raffle will be emulated at this gathering. Any donated raffle prizes will be greatly appreciated, but please do not feel at all obligated. Please bring a snack to share, as with most gatherings.

Several new letterboxes will be planted in the area, with clues available the night before or the morning of the gathering to encourage boxing in the area before the gathering. Tabletop boxes are welcome, and in the past several wonderful boxes debuted at the events because of the kindness of Donutz, Bandaid, Warrior Woman and many others. I am excited to report that Scarab has accepted Bookworm’s invitation for the Phineas Boch Traveling Circus to attend Spring 2008. And RTRW will once again be carving the event stamp, which is sure to be fantastic!

The gathering will begin at 1:00 P.M. and conclude at 5:00 P.M. A post-gathering feast is being planned at a nearby location, with more definite information to follow as the gathering date nears. The only downside of this gathering is that the size of the K of C hall restricts attendance to about 65 people, and if a larger venue is not booked soon there will be an RSVP list limited to about 65 people posted in the near future.

Hope to see you at the Sprint Into Boxing 2008 Gathering!!!

Thank You. --Wild Rover

Hi Ho, Hi Ho - It's Off to OR We Go!!!

We've been busy since we've last posted - busy arranging our OR vacation for this September! The main focus of our time there will be the 10th anniversary celebration of letterboxing in the US called We Live and Breathe Letterboxing! This event takes place the weekend of September 12 through the 14th and we'll be there and can't wait!

Along with that, our thought was to dovetail a week's vacation after the event since the airfare was paid for anyway. When last the Pinecone Pair hit OR we so wanted to visit the OR coast but there just wasn't time for the trip. This time - Sue & I have made the time!

After the first announcement of the Live and Breathe event back in October, we signed up for several choices with our timeshare for a condo in 3 different locations along the beautiful OR coast. Since nothing has yet surfaced, we've been chomping at the bit. If you haven't guessed by now, Sue & I are planners and without a place to stay, we didn't want to book airfare or rental car with the uncertainty of where or even if a condo would open up during that time frame.

Then, Marmalade set us straight! Why not make reservations and for a place that you know you'll get in she wrote - so we did! A week or so ago, we booked a nice place on the beach in Lincoln City and that will be our fall back location. So - airfare and car rental are now booked and ready and a sigh of relief was taken! If a condo comes through, we'll take that but if not, we're fine with this great little hotel located on the beach in Lincoln City!

So - you may be asking yourself, what's up with the 7 Dwarfs lead in and picture???

The tie in is a wonderful new series somewhere in OR by Maiden. She's the originator of Jay's Tool Box. And Maiden has really done it this time with a very cool clue that ties in Google Earth and all this program has to offer along with You Tube to create a very unique and innovative letterbox clue. The mystery series is called 7 Hats for 7 Dwarfs. You can see the clue here and don't forget to click the "video of the tour" link there. That's were the fun really begins!

Great job, Maiden!