August 07, 2006
A new appreciation this weekend

I solve a mystery clue (no town location given) for a letterbox in Cumberland County

We drive to the location and follow the rest of the clues to find the box

Search and search

And search some more

Knowingly walk through poison ivy because it is in area we think box is hidden based on clue directions

Tell L. not to follow me while I investigate

L. follows anyway

Her and I wash our legs and shoes in nearby bathroom to avoid rash

We find box in a different patch of trees nearby

We re-read the clue directions to the box

Family votes unanimously that letterboxers write clues that are not clever so much as simply poor directions (this was our experience with other boxes we have found as well)

Kids tell parents in the car that "geocaching is more fun" even though "the letterbox stamps are cool."

Parents agree

Later try to go to letterboxing.org to log our box find

Find the letterboxing website is not operational

I pull out my GPS unit and admire it lovingly

No one breaks out with poison ivy the next day

Posted by Wendy Almeida at 10:49 AM
Comments

So, is this it for your experiment, or will you keep beating that dead horse and leave the cool "toy" at home?

Oh, and by the way, since my "Where's Bunny" post had to be deleted, I did want to reiterate the information about the "One Local Summer" challenge and encourage everyone to EAT LOCALLY! Support Maine Farmers and agri-businesses by buying local produce, eggs, cheese and milk. There's nothing quite so tantalizing as REAL, FRESH butter or local fresh berries.

Try as they may, those Florida farmers can't quite match the appeal of blueberries picked here this morning with their picked last week and trucked in a refrigerator to Maine three days ago.

Some great local farmers in southern Maine: Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, the farm stand in Old Orchard Beach, and Flaherty's farm on Payne Road in Scarborough.

Happy Eating!

Posted by Wendy B
August 7, 2006 11:26 AM

We started letterboxing this weekend as we can't yet afford even a cheap GPS unit. We found our first five on Saturday, Sunday my 11 year old carved a new stamp and we placed our first letterbox. Maybe you should try placing some? Finding a place and making your own directions can be more fun than finding them. Also the letterboxing.org site is temporarily down while they try to find a larger host site. Try going to atlasquest.com and instead of clicking on clue (which all seem to be linked to the downed site) click on the view cache button on the left, you'll get an older cached view they took from the downed site. this should get you through until the other site is back.

Posted by Colleen
August 7, 2006 11:43 AM

If you're reading the above comment to find letterbox clues, enter your town info, click on a name and then when the info page comes up don't click on get clue go to the right side of the page (I mistakenly said left above) and it's the bottom button. Good Luck.

Posted by Colleen
August 7, 2006 11:47 AM

Thanks for the tip Colleen. We actually do have plans to hide a few of our own letterboxes in the Gorham area. We'll have them out tomorrow and I'll put the clues here on my blog.

Posted by Wendy Almeida
August 7, 2006 11:51 AM

Thanks for the farm tips Wendy B!

Posted by Wendy Almeida
August 7, 2006 11:52 AM

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