Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat nor Gloom of Night . . .

The full quote goes as follows and there is an explanation as well . . .

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
This is commonly misidentified as the creed of our mail carriers, but actually it is just the inscription found on the General Post Office in New York City at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street. Here's how the official Web site of the U.S. Postal Service describes the origin of the inscription. This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done. Professor George H. Palmer of Harvard University supplied the translation, which he considered the most poetical of about seven translations from the Greek.

I thought of this saying this morning as I was planning to go out letterboxing. The morning started out cold and rainy with just a touch of snow flurries thrown in. But it wasn't too bad - so I got all my letterboxing gear and some clues together. I had two errands to run first then I was off to find some boxes. Now some may say that the weather wasn't really that great for letterboxing, but let's be honest - I think all of us have letterboxed in at least one of the conditions listed above (maybe even more than one). So I took care of my errands and then headed for Cerrillos, NM. There were two boxes planted in the area - one at Garden of the Gods and one at Cerrillos Hills Historic Park. As I drove down the Turquoise Trail I wondered if this was a mistake - the sky looked as though it was about to let loose quite a bit of rain. But I decided to press on and made a stop and the Garden of the Gods pullout. Most of this is on private property but you can still appreciate the rock formations. I parked and walked the short distance to a gate that was the landmark for the clues. Once there I read the rest of the clue and easily found the box. I sat up on some of the rocks to stamp in and had a great view of Hwy14 and the surrounding mountains and it didn't even drizzle on me. Once I finished stamping in and got the box back in place I headed back to the car and that's when the rain started. Very light but still rain. So I continued my drive to Cerrillos and made my way to the park. I parked near the entrance to the Escalante Trail and gathered my stuff. It was still drizzling so I zipped up my jacket and pulled the hood over my head. I headed up the trail and the rain eased until it had stopped altogether. I made it to the intersection mentioned in the clues and followed the rest of the directions until I had the box in my hands. I found a bench and stamped in - while stamping in it started to drizzle again so I used my jacket to cover the logbooks so they wouldn't get wet. I rehid the box and got all my things back together, zipped up my jacket and put the hood back over my head. It rained a little harder as I made my way down the muddy trail. I took my time because I didn't want to take another slide on my butt like I did in Oregon. By the time I reached the car I was pretty wet and cold. First things first I put the heater and then headed out. No sooner had I started to drive the rain stopped. So I went to the petting zoo area in Cerrillos and watched the animals for a minute and looked at the views of the changing leaves. It was really pretty and even though it rained I still enjoyed my trip but it was time to head home and take care of some things there. I am hoping to get a little letterboxing in tomorrow - I am going to Albuquerque to pick up a friend who is coming to visit.