This blog chronicles my letterboxing adventures. It includes posts that share my travels that are letterboxing related, the letterboxes I have found and planted as well as the people I have met along the way. There are also photos included to help give a complete picture of the fun I had.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Alphabetical New Mexico Series - Finally Complete

Quite a while back (sometime in early 2007) I got an idea for a series of letterboxes. The idea was to plant a series of 26 boxes related to people, places and things of New Mexico - thus was born the Alphabetical New Mexico Series. For those of you who don't know me let me explain something - I am very anal retentive. So before I could actually think of getting out and planting boxes I needed to do some research. I used Google, a page from some tourism guide called 'From Adobe to Zozobra, a book called "New Mexico: A New Guide to the Colorful State" and countless travel guides to cities and towns all over New Mexico. From this I compiled a list for each letter of people, places and things that would work for each letter - and for each letter I had multiple items. After compiling the list I then started looking for information and images. When I would find an image I liked and some very interesting information or place I would make a decision on that letter. Finally I had made some final decisions on about five letters so I started carving. Once the stamps were ready I worked on the logbooks and then decided which ones to plant first. I chose the closest place.

So on October 16, 2007 I travelled to Angel Fire and Eagle Nest and planted the 'V' and 'E' boxes. And so this started my journey to plant these 26 box. The rest of the boxes were planted on September 5, 2008; September 7, 2008; January 31, 2009; March 12, 2009; October 2, 2009; June 26, 2010; July 3, 2010; July 17, 2010; September 6, 2010; October 27, 2010; October 30, 2010; October 31, 2010; April 26, 2011; April 27, 2011; April 28, 2011 and March 20, 2012.
The total number of days between Thursday, October 18th, 2007 and Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 is 1,616 days.
This is equal to exactly 4 years, 5 months, and 3 days.
The total time span from Thursday, October 18th, 2007 to Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 is 38,784 hours.
This is equivalent to 2,327,040 minutes.
You can also convert 1,616 days to 139,622,400 seconds.
I told you I was anal. It took me this long to actually get all 26 boxes planted. There were some things that got in the way. Traveling for vacation and letterboxing, planting other boxes not related to the series, work, a detached retina and four surgeries and multiple other things besides the fact that I was being very picky about the items I choose for the letters and then finding the images I wanted to carve. So here are the boxes I planted in the series. If you click on the letter it will take you to the clues and if you click on the name it will take you to some information. I hope everyone has as much fun finding these boxes as I did planting them and I really hope you learn something new about New Mexico as you find these boxes.
A Atomic Bombs
B Billy the Kid
C Crow Canyon
D Dorsey Mansion
E Eagle Nest Lake
F Farmington
G Pat Garrett
H Ham the Space Chimp
I Inscription Rock
J Jemez State Monument
K 'Black Jack' Ketchum
L Aldo Leopold
M William C. McDonald
N National Solar Observatory
O Orchard Ranch
P Pancho Villa
Q Quarra
R Roadrunner
S Sandhill Crane
T Turquoise Trail
U UFO Museum
V Vietnam Veterans Memorial
W White Oaks
X X Prize
Y Yucca
Z Zuni Pueblo

4 comments :

Blue Butterfly said...

What a daunting endeaver! Wish I could stamp in those boxes. Maybe one day. Congratulations on finishing the series!
Blue Butterfly

Mark said...

Thanks Blue Butterfly, It was a daunting endeavor but I loved it and I learned a lot about New Mexico.

hal said...

Farmington and Turquoise Trail done, 24 to go.
Wronghat&Semicolon

Mark said...

OK Wronghat and Semicolon - get out there and find those boxes. It took me 4 years to get them planted so you should be able to find them all in that amount of time ;)

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