A Celebration Lunch

Today I had lunch with Astro D, rubberpeace, Wronghat, semicolon and ArnoldZiffel at Harry's Roadhouse. We got together to celebrate Astro D's 10 year letterboxing anniversary. She found her first box on July 30, 2005 and that box was Santa Fe Trails by silvereagle. A few weeks ago Astro D emailed me and asked is I was available for lunch on Friday, July 31 and she said that she was inviting a few of the other boxers in the area to celebrate. I emailed her back with a 'yes'. Not long after this exchange I got an email from ArnoldZiffel and she had an idea to make a box for the occasion. She discussed this with Wronghat as well. After a little back and forth we came up with an idea. And this is what happened . . . me, ArnoldZiffel and Wronghat were going to carve a stamp based on images from a box or boxes of Astro D's that we liked. ArnoldZiffel then cut a circle from Speedy Carve (the pink stuff) and then she divided it into thirds. She mailed one of the thirds to Wronghat and one of the thirds to me.

Semicolon, ArnoldZiffel, Wronghat, lionsmane, Astro D & rubberpeace

We then designed our own image and carved the stamps. We decided that after the lunch we would plant this box somewhere in Santa Fe. ArnoldZiffel also made the logbook for the box and I made Astro D a little memento book. I included some pictures of Astro D with other boxers throughout her ten years of boxing and I even threw in some statistics . . . after 10 years she has found 1665 boxes, planted 94 boxes, has had 13 blue diamonds and 2 boxes of the week. With these statistics I included some scanned images of some of her boxes - highlighting some of my favorites of her carves. I put some blank pages in the book so that we could stamp in and wrtie her a note. We had a great time visiting and reminiscing about boxes we found and places we have been. Astro D and I are going to get together and plant the box on Tuesday of next week. Once that is done I will log the box in and it will be available for others to find.

Congrats Astro D and here is to 10 more years and lots of boxes!

Boise Boxing - Day 3

Well I still had a few clues for boxes in Boise so I decided that I would spend the morning letterboxing while Thomas was at his conference. I left the hotel around 9:00am and headed toward the first box. I walked about four blocks and arrived at the Boise Weekly offices. Here I was looking for The Big Kahuna by Ravenclaw. I walked in and asked for the box by name and the woman that I talked with seemed to be confused about the box. So I explained what I was talking about and then she started to remember. Then she said she wasn't sure what happened to it but she said she would go and ask around and look for it. Ten minutes later she came back without the box - she said she wasn't sure what happened to it. So I thanked her and continued on. I walked another four blocks to look for Date Night and the second box in the series Hit and Run Now Showing all by Blackvelvetrav near The Flicks. Following the clues I quickly found Date Night and I took it to a nearby bench to stamp in. But before stamping in I decided to see if I could find Godzilla of Snacks (Box #2 in the Hit and Run series). Thankfully the box was only about 20 feet from the bench I was sitting on - so I quickly grabbed it and used the bench to stamp in to both boxes. After getting these back in to place I walked another two blocks to lookk for Box #3 in the Hit and Run series. I followed the clues and found what I thought was the billboard mentioned and then found the electrical boxes but unfortunately I didn't find the box. Not sure if I was in the right place or not but didn't see any other billboards so I assumed the box was gone and decided to move on. I walked another eight blocks to look for Box #1 in the Hit and Run series. I found the hotel I needed and looked around for the hiding spot. I felt very conspicuous and uncomfortable but I quickly checked for the box but didn't see it. I decided it wasn't worth it since I was in plain view of some windows and I couldn't tell if anyone was behind them watching me. So I moved on to the next box. Another five blocks later I arrived at Ben & Jerry's and followed the clues to Box #4 in the Hit and Run series. This time I easily found the box and found a spot to sit and stamp in. Once this box was back in place I only had clues for one more box in the downtown area. Five blocks later I was at The Chocolat Bar to find Chocolate Covered Lover by Blackvelvetrav. I went in and asked for the box at the counter. They actually knew what I was talking about. So I took the box to a table and stamped. When I was done I returned the box and then bought some delicious pieces of chocolate. I walked another four blocks and arrived back at the hotel. I found four boxes out of seven - I guess that is okay.

Back at the hotel I decided to take a break and get out of the heat. Well it wasn't that hot (about 85 degrees) but with the humidity I was pretty wet and felt uncomfortable. The room was nice and cool so I drank a bunch of water and had a little lunch. I relaxed for about 50 minutes and then decided to go and look for one more letterbox.

For this I decided to drive - it was about three and a half miles from the hotel and I didn't think I could handle the heat and humidity for that distance. I drove to 13th and Shoreline and parked near the Greenbelt. With my letterboxing stuff and the clues I followed the trail looking for Ravenclaw's ID Boxing Event (a series of three boxes). A short 2/10ths of a mile later I arrived at the location for the first box but unfortunately there were two people  sitting on the bench right near where the box was suppose to be. I decided to continue on to the second box and come back to this one later. So I backtracked about 100 feet or so and crossed a foot bridge over the Boise River to Ann Morrison Park. I followed the clues to the second box and found the landmarks but unfortunately I didn't find the box. I am pretty sure I was in the right place but I checked again and still didn't find the box. Time to head to the third box. Not too far down the trail I found the bridge over the drainage  and located the other landmarks. But again I was foiled - no box. I searched all over the area and around the rocks but came up empty handed. So I headed back to the first box but I wasn't optimistic about finding it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to look for it because the same people were still there. I decided to call it a day and count my losses. Once in the car I thought about maybe going to look for a box I couldn't find the other day but decided I was too hot and tired so I just returned to the hotel.

Thinking about my time letterboxing in Boise I felt a little disappointed about my experience. I was able to go to a couple of nice parks and saw a couple of interesting things but unfortunately it doesn't seem to me that the boxes in the area have very good luck. I looked for 25 boxes but only found 10 of those. Maybe it was just me and I missed the boxes and they are there but I feel I followed the clues pretty well. The other thing was that I had written on the Idaho board and was hoping to meet up with some of the boxers in the area but no one responded. And when I logged in finds and sent notes no one replied back. It would have been nice to talk with boxers in the area to find out more about the area and boxes. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy my time letterboxing here and I did find some really nice boxes. Maybe next time I can meet up with some locals.

Boise Boxing - Day 2

My plan for this morning was to have some breakfast and then do some letterboxing. Then I would meet Thomas for lunch and then we would decide what we wanted to do for the afternoon since he was free from his conference.

So I started slow again today having coffee in the room and watching the news (Is Donald Trump completely bat crap crazy???). Then I walked some eight blocks to get some breakfast at Bacon - a place I read about in some travel brochure. It was just a simple place where you order at the counter. I ended up with a Scramble Burrito made with cheesy steamed eggs, salsa fresca, roasted potatoes and berryhill bacon (bacon with a chile-sugar dry rub) in a flour tortilla - very tasty.

After eating I walked back to the hotel and got into the rental car and headed out to do some letterboxing. I first headed to a portion of the Boise Greenbelt in town and took a short walk to find Let's Ride Bikes! by NeverEatSoggyWheat. This was a quick and easy find and I had the trail all to myself to stamp in. Once the back was back in place I continued on with my search for boxes. I wasn't so lucky at the next few stops - I didn't find any more boxes this morning. I searched for the following boxes and came up empty handed . . .

Skeleton is Co-Pilot by Blackvelvetrav at Morris Hill Cemetery

Best Friend in a Backpack by poison ivee at Riverside Park

Attack of the Gators! by FrogiNater at MK Nature Center

Art in the Park - What Zoo Boise Needs by the dragon_wi at Julia Davis Park

Now I am not sure if they are missing or if I was just off my game and missed finding them. But the morning was a bust when it came to finding boxes. But I did enjoy the places I went to. By this time it was getting pretty warm and it was close to noon and time for me to meet up with Thomas. I am going to try for a few more boxes tomorrow so wish me luck.

Boise Boxing - Day 1

Yesterday Thomas and I drove from Boise to Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve to visit that park (You can read about that trip at Visiting the Moon). On the way there and in the area we looked for three letterboxes - we had absolutely no luck in finding a box. So I was hoping beyond hope that today I could at least find a few boxes in Boise.

I headed out from the hotel about 9:00am and made my way to the foothills of Boise to the Lower Hull's Gulch Trail. I took the quarter mile walk to look for Ribit by Blackvelvetrav and followed the clues. I easily found the box but was disappointed when I opened it to only find the logbook - there was no stamp in site. So I replaced the box and returned to the car. Not a good way to start the day. But I continued on and made my way to the next box - another Blackvelvetrav box - Easter Bunny Pei. This was pretty much a drive-by and an easy find. I took the box back to the car and was happy that the stamp and logbook were both present. After stamping in and replacing the box I was off again to the next box. I made my way to Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve to look for TaiChi and ChaiTea's To ID From CO. This was another easy find but for the second time there was no stamp, only a logbook. So I put the box back and returned to the car. I was beginning to think that someone in Boise doesn't like letterboxes - well actually the stamps in letterboxes and they were taking them. It was weird because it didn't seem that either box had been geotrashed - there were no trinkets in the box and the box was hidden back in place and really well. Not sure what was going on but I was hoping that the next box would be okay. So I crossed my fingers and headed out to find Birds on a Wire's National Treasure letterbox. This box is a series of four boxes and it is a mystery/puzzle box. You have to figure out the starting location for the first box and then that stamp leads you to the next box and so on. I really loved searching for this box. The clues, the stamps and the story were really well done. I was able to find all four boxes and I was extremely happy that no stamps were missing. And it was a good way to end my letterboxing for the day.

This afternoon I had other plans so more letterboxing will have to wait until tomorrow. Lets hope that the letterbox stamp stealers haven't taken any more stamps.