A Grand Letterboxing Adventure

For those of you who don't know, letterboxing is a hide-and-seek type game played in Great Britain, the US and much the rest of the world. In short, containers holding a logbook and a rubber stamp are hidden, waiting to be found by a seeker who has his or her own logbook and rubber stamp. The logbooks are cross-stamped as proof that the hidden box has been found and the box rehidden for the next finder.

I've been letterboxing since February, 2004 and have had a few adventures, but our hunt on January 1st this year tops them all. Navigator and I were on the road visiting his mother in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A couple of days earlier we had missed the opportunity to grab a couple of boxes in Lake Charles, Louisiana due to a loooong visit with friends and heavy rain. After another loooong visit with some other friends, I was determined not to miss the Vicksburg boxes. Navigator dutifully drove to the appointed location and we found the first box, determined that the second box was indeed missing and found the third one. By now it was 4:15 and the road that led to the last box would be closed at 5:00. This is where the adventure begins. First, Navigator (who grew up in V'burg) passed the location given in the very straightforward directions and went across Clay Street to where he had envisioned the box to be. As we were motoring along I spied the exact location but couldn't reach the brake pedal! As it was too late in the afternoon to go back through the one-way tour of this location, Navigator decided we could approach the venue from its outer perimeter. Stopping at the Jewish Cemetery which borders our target area, a sign read "this cemetery is closed at sundown and on Saturdays, please be respectful." Not wanting to be disrespectful and certainly not wanting to be locked into a cemetery until Sunday, we retreated to about a block and locked the truck at the end of Grove St. and headed off cross-country from there. After avoiding sinkholes where old basements had been the terrain became too steep so we retreated and reconsidered the Jewish Cemetery.. While contemplating this, throught the vegetation I spotted a gap in the fence just outside the cemetery gate. Passing through there we high-tailed it to our target, with me hoping I didn't pass out from overexertion. It's getting real close to 5:00 now, so we are expecting the staff to make a final drive-through and run people out. I position myself at the picnic table and lay out stamping supplies while Navigator locates the box. Stamping frantically and expecing every approaching vehicle to be "the enemy", we complete our business and scurry back out down the edge of the bushes to the trail to our truck. Whew! What a fine adventure!

But it gets better! The box itself was badly damaged and wet, but the interior of the baggie was dry with the stamp, logbook and felt "wallet" being immaculate. After I flew home Saturday Navigator brought a replacement box and baggie and traded them out. What a champ!

Sorry for being so long-winded, but it was FUN!