Love and Letterboxing

You can find all sorts of interesting things while letterboxing - great stamps, new locations, interesting history, new friends and even a soulmate. That is not what I was thinking of when I first started letterboxing at the start of April this year. I was thinking that this was an interesting hobby that would get me out of the house with my boys, get me some extra exercise, and tap into that always present, but often under utilitized creative side that I seem to have.

But things took an odd turn one day when I noticed a post on the recent thread list about online dating sites. I never realized Atlas Quest had a Singles board before this, and was not really even looking for it. But I figured that I would toss in my two cents about the world of online dating. One post turned into several, and soon someone asked for a role call, then the roller coaster ride seemed to begin.

After just a few other posts it seemed like there was an odd sort of bidding war over who was going to race to New York first to come and meet me. But I only recieved one off board message about talking and that came from JBBK. Not one to pass up a new friend, I responded and we began e-mailing and chatting online. We then moved on to actually talking on the phone and texting constantly. And of course there were our nightly online scrabble games were I was beat 9 out of 10 times.

Then one night she asked what I was going to be doing Memorial Day weekend. Since I wasn't going to have the boys, I was free and told her so. She asked if I wanted company, and if I would take her boxing around my area since she had never been to New York. Without a thought I agreed and she started scanning the listings for the boxes that she wanted to look for on her trip.

She arrived on International Plant a Letterbox Day, and the adventures of that trip can be found elsewhere. But when she left, it hurt more than I thought anything could. We kept talking and tried to figure out the next trip. Before I had a chance to visit her, she had the trip planned.

She came to visit for 11 days, but this time she was not alone. She brought BB and K of JBBK with her. And she got to meet Jack of Hearts and King of Hearts and spend most of her visit with them. We got to do a lot of letterboxing, a trip around the lake, a BBQ, and even had a mini-meet with a lot of the local boxers. When the 11 days were over it was even harder to say goodbye. But I was going to be visiting soon.

I made a mad dash to Indiana a few days later. I made the trip is just under 12 hours, fueled on 120 ounces of Mt. Dew, 2 packs of cigarettes, bologna and cheese sandwiches, and beef jerky. And when I arrived at 5:30 in the morning she was waiting for me on the porch swing. I will recount that trip soon, but the highlights were a lot of boxing, The OhMazing Race (our second event together) and the fact that I decided to surprise her, and the other racers by proposing to her after the trophies were handed out.

Of course the ring box held only a clue to the location of the letterbox that contained her ring. It is a temporary ring, because in my rush to leave New York to see her I forgot hers here. Right now there are more than 600 miles seperating us, but we are already planning our trips, and of course the plants along the way.

We met and fell in love all because of this hobby. As K would say "Hunting tupperware in the woods". We are thinking a letterbox wedding next Halloween, but nothing is final yet. We will just keep raising our P-F-X count, and working on the plans. And of course there is the matter of me moving out west that has to happen soon.

You never know when you hit the trail if the box you are looking for will be there, or what you will find inside. I found an amazing woman that I plan on spending the rest of my life with. Not bad for hunting tupperware in the woods! It beats watching reruns any day of the week.