This Week in Boxing

This past week has been very productive, and very interesting for me. It was a quiet week compared to most, but a few impressive things, and great moments did occur. JBBK came out for a 5 day visit, and of course we spent several days letterboxing. We searched out some boxes that had been planted since her last trip, and some boxes that had been on my to do list for awhile.

And of course we had to take Jack of Hearts and King of Hearts to the pumpkin farm. So in the rain, we set out for Iron Kettle Farms and picked out pumpkins, got some of their great home made fudge, and King of Hearts even won a bag full of goodies playing pumpkin golf. After we finished taking pictures, it was time to brave the rain and do some letterboxing.

We picked up 7 letterboxes, all of which could be considered drive bys. But by the end of the day, JBBK was soaked to the bone, and I was not much better off. The stamps we paid tribute to those that fell in the line of duty, helped those less fortunate, reached amazing letterboxing goals, and just really neat places to visit and stories that needed to be told.

JBBK headed back to Indiana on Sunday and I picked up 2 boxes based on childrens classic stories. Monday, a nice fall day, I was able to clear 4 boxes from my to do list, plus get one box that was just planted by a local Girl Scout Cadette group. I headed out Tuesday to a local library to grab a box, and when I logged my find, I was amazed to see that my F-count was 475. But something was happening outside.

It was snowing. Not alot, but enough to let you know that winter is coming. So I headed to the doctors on Wednesday with a stack of clues for boxes in that area. Just a week ago, I was brushing leaves off of boxes to find them, now I was brushing off 2 inches of snow to get to the leaves. 3 boxes and 1 hitch hiker later I was off to the eye doctor. I went back to get 3 more boxes before heading home to log my finds. Once I logged them I realized that I had hit another milestone. I had found 101 in October, and there are still 2 days left in the month and I plan on boxing them both.

Who knows maybe I will get lucky and hit 500 before I hit 7 months?

How My F-Count Is So High

Since my first find on April 4th, I was hooking on letterboxing. Spending time everyday on Atlas Quest searching for boxes, planning trips, trying to optimize my outings and figure out exactly which boxes I wanted to get and when. The answer was simple - I want them all, now! But of course, that was not possable. But unlike most I do have the ability to letterbox almost whenever I want.

Back in 1992, while I was in the Navy, I was in a nasty car accident. My right knee hit the steering column and my knee cap ended up around the back of my knee. Since then I have had 8 surgeries to correct the verious problems this obviously caused, but I still I have problems with it. I left the Navy in '95, and began my civilian life. But by 2005 my knee began causing other problems for me. Lower back, my other knee, ankles, etc. So the Veterans Administration decided to rate me at 100% disabled, and retire me at the age of 33. This was a joint decision with my current employer who felt I was missing to much work because of my knee.

I walk with a limp that I have learned to mask over the years, but wear bilateral knee braces. The VA wants me in a wheel chair, but I refuse. I hate using my cane, which I should use most of the time. Over the last few years, I have lost some wieght, which has helped my knee, but I still suffer from the chronic pain. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done for that. I was introduced to letterboxing by Red Barn Photos and it has been great.

The walking is great exercise, and great daily physical therapy for my knee. It is so much better than just walking around in circles at a mall. I still hunt in the fall, but I have modified the way I do that. For long hunts, I use my 4-wheeler to get deep into the woods. Because I know my knee can't handle the strain. And I can no long drag anything out that far.

But letterboxing has gotten me back into the woods on an almost daily basis. I check AQ several times a day for new boxes and pounce on them when they are planted. I take my boys letterboxing with me on the weekends when I have them. During the week, I usually go out several times to grab new boxes, or ones that I have been putting off. Even when I go visit friends or family out of town, I try to make sure I grab some boxes either along the way, or while I'm there.

So there it is. In 5 1/2 months (167 days) I have 372 finds. And once I finish this, I am going to venture out into Indianapolis and try to find a few more. My secret is simple - I was retired at the age of 33, and I am a single dad with alot of free time on my hands. My boys love it on the trail, and jump at the chance to go out on a mission to find more boxes. My fiance is a boxer who I met on Atlas Quest, and one of best friends calls me at all hours to let me know when new boxes are planted so we can go grab them.

So if you want to raise your F-Count, give me a call and we can hit the trail. I still have to make it lots of places around NY. And of course I had a blast in Ohio, even though we got locked in GreenLawn Cemetery and lost The OhMazing Race. I am still getting used to Indiana, it is REALLY flat. And I really need to visit CT to see family and get all the boxes Kreepy Kelli was telling me about. Plus she was a blast to hang out with. And those are just the adjacent states.

When Nature Attacks

On August 23 my boys and I attended an event that was actually thrown because we were going to be visiting the Hudson Valley - Not Playing With a Full Deck. We started out the morning meeting with The Farmer of 3 Blind Mice, SuzieToots, Lady Liberty Tee, Welcome Crew, Justice League Friend, and Travelin Shorts to hunt some of boxes that 3 Blind Mice hace in a local Preserve.

After 9 boxes it was time to break for lunch, some PTs', exchanges and odd looks ffrom the wait staff. After lunch, SuzieToots and gang decided to tour some of the historic homes while the rest of us went on to grab the newly planted Creepy Crawly boxes. After a brief ride we arrived at a beautiful spot perfect for letterboxing.

We started up the trail and found the first box. Just as we started to pass the stamp and logbook around, I heard my oldest, King of Hearts screaming from the edge of the trail. I rushed over to discover that he had kicked some leaves just off the trail and kicked up a yellow jacket nest. They were swarming around him and had started to sting him and were also after the daughter of Welcome Crew.

I grabbed him and moved him away from the nest and was swatting the bees away from him as quickly as I could. As I pulled his shirt off, Welcome Crew started apllying mud to ease the pain as I was still getting the last of the yellow jackets away and moving him further down the trail. Just then I noticed The Farmer running back up the trail crushing something in his hands. It was plantain, I found out later. It takes the stinging out of bee stings and the like. He started to apply it to the 16 bee stings that were on King of Hearts.

My camera had been in my pocket from taking pictures of us on the trail, so I decided to take a quick picture of the first aid that was going on. Event pictures always show smiling faces, inky fingers and full pages of stamps. This was something you never see, the dangers of the trail. There is only so much real estate on my son and there were 3 sets of hands on him at the moment. After I snapped the picture I looked at my left hand and realized that I had 5 yellow jackets sticking out of my hand and arm and one stinger.

I learned first hand that plantain really works for bee stings. King of Hearts came through the ordeal fine. With the quick actions of those around and the trail knowledge of The Farmer, there was not a mark on him. He decided he didn't want to continue on the trail, actually the only youngster that continued was Jack of Hearts. But the kids did have a great time at the Event later that evening. Ice Cream can cure whatever the trail can dish out, I guess.

That night I found two more stingers in my left calf. So for the day we had 24 stings, 20 traditionals, 12 travellers, 2 cooties, 16 event stamps, 1 LTC, 5 others, many exchanges and I was gifted and amazing stamp that will be a new PT. King of Hearts was back out on the trail the next day proving to himself that it was just a fluke.

And we learned that you can never take nature for granted. King of Hearts and Jack of Hearts have learned that you always stay on the trail and you never kick around in the leaves, because you might stir up more than you ever wanted too.

Lions and Penguins and Cops - Oh My

Last week my oldest - King of Hearts went to the zoo with his summer day camp. I decided that I would take Jack of Hearts to the zoo as well and we would pick up the letterboxes that were there, see the animals then grab the King after camp and do some boxing around Syracuse since we would be right there. Simple plan, what could go wrong.

The night before I printed clues, mapquested directions to make sure I wasn't going to backtrack or get lost and I packed lots of snacks and extra goodies for the day. Friday morning rolls around and we were off. The camp counsellors knew of our plan and thought it was great and said that they would see us up at the zoo. We made a quick pit stop and were off to the zoo. But I got a little turned around and took a back way there and even though we left 30 minutes before the campers did, we arrived just 3 minutes before the bus did. But Jack of Hearts and I said hello to the King of Hearts and set out to see the animals and search for our boxes, while the King of Hearts spent the day with his friends at camp.

We found our Lion and Penguin without a problem, but alas, the Flying Pig was no longer in captivity. We kept seeing campers that said hello to us and the counsellors smiled and waved and counted down till lunch time in case we wanted to join them. We did have lunch with the campers, then tossed our LB gear in the Jeep to enjoy the Zoo without the extra weight. Some how I became an extra chaperone for the group with King of Hearts in the afternoon. I didn't mind, except my water and popcorn disappeared at an alarming rate.

We soon finished at the Zoo, said goocbye to the campers and headed off to more letterboxes. Our first box was hadnd picked by the boys. It was Pokebox. Being a huge pokemon fan, I didn't complain. We found the park without any problems, and aside from some overgrown weeds, we got the box, and we on our way to the next stop - Armory Square. Then my luck hit.

Construction everywhere. No matter what road Mapquest had us on, there was construction, and when we finally got to our destination, there was no where to park, and the traffic was nuts, so we decided to jump ahead to Oakwood Cemetery. One quick U-turn later we were on our way. I followed my directions perfectly. A left here, a right there, straight for a few blocks, then a Right hand turn. I made the turn and followed the road for a few blocks, but something seemed off.

As I reached the end of the street about to make my next turn on the directions, a left, a Police car on my right turned on it's lights and pointed at me. So I pulled out and pulled to the curb. I wasn't sure what I had done, but the boys were sure we were going to jail. It turned out that I was pulling out of a One Way street - going the Wrong Way! Thank you Mapquest. I explained to the officer what had happened, and I got one of those Yeah Right looks, and then I showed him the directions I had printed out. He looked at them in disbelief.

He double checked them and since he couldn't remember if there was a One Way sign at that intersection, he let me go with a warning. The boys were happy that they were not going to go to jail, but upset that they didn't get to play with the handcuffs. We went on our way to Oakwood Cemetery, but got derailed by more construction, when I noticed a road from our next set of directions to our next box, so I decided to skip ahead again.

If you are ever in Syracuse, I highly recommend you search for the box No Such Letterbox. I just don't recommend you do it with Jack of Hearts. He decided that he did not want to cross the stream on the rocks. So I had to give him a piggy back ride while balancing on stones in the middle of the stream. This would have been fine, if I hadn't been walking at the Zoo all day, and if I had two good knees, a good back, and a decent sense of balance. We made it across, but not before I twisted my knee and tore part of the sole of my sneaker 3/4 of the way off. The whole time King of Hearts is standing on the far shore cheering us on.

We ended the night with Happy meals, a bath, and curling up together watching Star Wars. We were all tired from our adventures, but very happy. My knee has recovered, and we have found more boxes, and are planning more trips. But maybe next time we will skip Mapquest, and I will get a good GPS for my birthday.

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.

My First Event

Susquehanna Sojourn was the first event I had the pleasure of attending and I know it will not be my last. But like alot of my letterboxing journeys the road was not smooth and simple. The night before was like Christmas Eve, and it was impossable to sleep. I finally dozed off about 2 hours before my alarm went off.



I quickly got up and started gathering everything we needed to take with us for the day. My boys, the King of Hearts, 5, and Jack of Hearts, 3, were going to be daddys little hitch hikers for the event and they couldn't wait either. I had to grab my dish to pass out of the oven as well. I decided to make baked beans, Enough, it would turn out, to feed the people at the event, my ex in laws, and half of my neighborhood. My phone then rang. It was Red Barn Photos calling to let me know that she was running a little bit late.



The boys soon began with the "Is she here yet" every 3 seconds. We doubled checked the gear and loaded up the Jeep and waited. Then waited, and waited just a little bit more for our trip to begin. Once she arrived, coffee in hand, it was time to set out. We were off and the boys could hardly contain themselves. They were talking about all the boxes they were going to find, the stamps they would get and the people they would meet.

But like all my journeys, there were a few navigation issues. I had the directions, but since I was driving I couldn't be expected to read them, and Red Barn Photos didn't realize that the navigator actually had to navigate. After a quick detour when we missed our exit, we were finally at the event.

I was amazed at all the letterboxers in one place. I saw names on name tags that I had just seen in logbooks or on Atlas Quest and I couldn't wait to jump right in. But where to start? Since it was already hot, and supposed to get even hotter - it was suggested that we get the boxes on the trails first, then come inside for exchanges and event stamps. We quickly agreed and off we went.

As we left the lodge Red Barn Photos commented that she was not really wearing appropriate foot wear for letterboxing, sandals. We set off down the trail and found the first box, then the second. And as we were returning to the trail, foot wear came into play, for our beloved - yet accident prone - Red Barn Photos. Coming down a small incline she slipped and her foot slid under a tree root ripping half the nail off her big toe. She decided it was best for her to head back to the lodge, and the boys, being brave, accompanied her and left me to melt in the heat to retrieve the rest of the boxes on the first trail.

I soon returned to the lodge about 5 pounds lighter to find the boys running around searching for stamps hidden around the room and everyone just amazed at how well they were doing. The next few hours were a blur of exchanges, personal traveller clues, event stamps, and the occasional scavenger hunt for little hearts. By the end of the day I had filled a bunch of pages in my logbook and met alot of people. I even got my first few cooties.

The boys were upset when it was time to go, because they wanted to find more boxes, even though they were clearly tired. On the way home I realized that I missed exchanges with about 1/4 of the attendees, and missed a few personal travellers that I really wanted. I guess there is always the next event.

We got home, found that the boys had cooties too, and ordered a pizza. After dinner it was bath time. Jack of Hearts almost fell asleep in the bathtub, even though he swore he wasn't tired. Once he layed down and was asleep, I decided to quick check Atlas Quest. King of Hearts asked if we could play a game because he "was not the least bit tired." I told him, "5 minutes and I am all yours". 3 minutes later there was the soft sound of snoring coming from behind me on the bed.

I logged my finds, looked at my logbook and marvelled at the stamps that I had found and hoped that one day I can carve as well as some of the people that I met. I tried to sleep, but the King was diaginal across the bed and I was still too excited. I guess the next event can't come soon enough.

Memorial Day Weekend Letterboxing- Remembered

Memorial Day Weekend 2008 will be one that I remember for a long time to come. It was actually my first long weekend letterboxing, and it was also special for so many other reasons. We will have to start out Saturday morning.

Saturday was International Plant a Letterbox Day, so I had to make sure that I planted my "Luck of the Irish" letterbox exactly where I wanted it. When I got to the building where I wanted to place it, there was no real good place to hide it. But with a little cunning, and a bit of searching I soon found the perfect hiding spot for a great little box. This was only the first of my big events for the day. I soon had to drive to Syracuse to pick up a visiting letterboxer from a few states away.

About a month prior a small thread erupted on the Singles Anonymous Board here on Atlas Quest, and I began talking to a fellow boxer named JBBK from Indiana. We started sending e-mails, then chatting, IM's, texting, then phone calls. Well one day she asked me out of the blue what I was doing over the long weekend. She had never been to New York and though it would be interesting to take a vacation here and do some letterboxing. Personally I think she just wanted to try out some of my cooking. So she got a plane ticket and was off.

I picked her up at the airport and we were off to try and find her her first New York letterbox. We had our clue and saddled up to the bar for a drink and slowly started to realize that something was amiss. We asked one of the waitresses a question and she called over the host of the upstairs dining room. He knew what we were up to immediately. The clues to the box were bases on the decore of the bar, but the bar had been redecorated 4 months before. But we were not going to give up.

We muddled through the clues we could, and guessed at the ones we thought we knew, and got the answers for the ones that were still there. Pretty soon JBBK have enough to make an educated guess at the location of the letterbox. I deftly searched for the box and I found....... a guest check that read "Your Letterbox". The box had gone missing about 2 months prior, and when the host noticed it was missing back then, he had placed the note there for anyone that came looking for it. After a slow and partially disappointing start we headed down the road toward some dinner and sleep to start out early the next morning for a lot of boxes.

Sunday morning came, but before we set out I called a frequent boxing partner Red Barn Photos. She had to head to her parents, but said she was game for some boxes. We started out with the box I had planted the day before. After that we were off to Ithaca. We found the next 3 boxes without difficulty, but the 4th elluded us - as did the 5th. But we did get a chance to show JBBK some great waterfalls. But we were far from done. We set out for another series of boxes, Gaia the Great Turtle. As you can tell, JBBK really took a liking to our resident turtle. Then it was off to another box that was planted the day before for IPLD. After a few more finds we decided we better do our exchanges and call it a night. We finished our exchanges as the sun was setting and dropped Red Barn Photos off at her car. JBBK stopped off for some Pistacho ice cream just before the ice cream shop closed at 10.

As I loaded Atlas Quest to log my finds I noticed that 5 more boxes had been planted within 15 miles of my house. I decided I had to call Red Barn Photos and rub it in that she would not get to be First Finder on these since she was going to visit her parents in the morning about the time JBBK and I would be logging into the boxes. Then JBBK uttered some great words "We can go night boxing". And within 45 minutes Red Barn Photos was back and armed with the clues and flash lights we were back on the road. Dressed in an array of shorts, sleep pants, and t-shirts we were wandering through the woods next to a graveyard with our flashlights wondering if we had made the right call. As soon as we found the first two boxes we knew we had. The third proved a bit more challenging, and we walked right past the 4rd in the dark. But we found number 5 without a problem. We logged into the last box at 136 am. A great time to be letterboxing in the woods.

We sent Red Barn Photos home for some sleep and JBBK and I stayed up for about 2 more hours talking about the day and planning her last full day in New York. After breakfast on Monday we went back for the box we had missed. The woods were a lot less daunting in the daylight, and we had walked right by our lone missing box. We then explored the cemetary next door, and went out for a few other letterboxes in the area. I started a giant pot of Venison Stew, in between our letterboxing outings. After we got done eating dinner the phone rang. It was Red Barn Photos telling us about a new box that was just planted. So off we went. It was only about 9:30 pm and it was in a well lit area, but it was still fun.

After getting a few more boxes, JBBK and I retired our boxing bags for the night and took up a Scrabble board. I should have stuck to letterboxing! Tuesday morning it was time to say goodbye. This was something that niether of us really wanted to do. We both figured if we kept going all weekend that the time wouldn't come for her to have to leave.

But on the way to the airport we grabbed another letterbox, and talked about the trip. And also started planning my trip out west. The scene at the airport was one of joy and sorrow. We had one of the greatest weekends, but it was over and we were going to be seperated by 600+ miles again. We text constantly, call several times a day, and e-mail even more. Trips are planned in both directions. We found a lot more than letterboxes that weekend, we found each other.