Pinecone Boxing

I received this email from Pink Panther last week and hope that you all can help her out:

"Posting this here and hoping that my Dad continues not to read the posts of AQ (Sorry Ryan). 

Pop The Sailor Man, the other half of RV Greyhound Travelers turns 80 in June. We are have a B-day bash near their new hometown in Bedford, PA.

Anyone who would be kind enough to send a stamp to me for this auspicious occasion could do so before May 25th. I know many of this community have met them on their adventures when they were full-time RVers and travelled the US. 

AQ mail me for details or questions. I will probably present the stamps on his birthday.  I am sure they will have a great time planting them in their favorite park in the area. 

They are currently in FL, and yes they have been letterboxing down there! 

Thanks in advance, 

Pink Panther"

Well, it's been a while since we've posted and we thought we might bring you up to date:

*Bed & Boxing at the Cape was a huge success. We had a ball hunting the tons of boxes there. Special thanks to Chunna and Rabbit Tracks who planted several series especially for this Pinecone Adventure! Everyone had their own opinion as to where next year's event should take place. We're working on it and will announce it shortly after the first of the year. Hope you all can make it - these weekend events are so much fun and everyone is different in its own unique way.

* Sue & I and 10 other letterboxers joined a tour of Italy for 12 days. It was an amazing journey - much more about that later.

* While in Italy, we met up with old pal, Phyto of Maine, who is in school in Naples, Italy. She is the boxer who carved our sig stamp many years ago. You'll find the story about that sig stamp in the "About Us" section of our blog.

Phyto gifted us with a new sig stamp - one that we love and hopefully we can exchange it with you in the very near future. We'll be posting it at the top of our blog shortly to replace the older version which we will retire.

* While in Italy, we planted a 2 box series called "The Pinecone Pair" which was artfully carved by Maude of the mid West. While she insisted that the images didn't represent anyone in particular, we thought they could represent Sue & I. The first box is planted in Rome which was our first tour stop and the second in Bellagio, Lake Como which is our last stop on the tour. Clues to be posted soon. We hope you all get to find them someday as Italy is an amazing place - somewhere everyone should visit at least once!

* At least once? No way! Plans will be worked on for a return to Italy in 2016 for a southern Italy Pinecone Adventure that will feature Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and Sicily. Our tour guide who led us on our last trip does freelancing and on the second day of our tour, I asked if he would work with me on a return trip to southern Italy. Without hesitation, he agreed and our return to Italy began to take shape. Let me know if you might be interested in traveling with us. This will be a Pinecone Adventure designed by me so you can be assured of great destinations, wonderful hotels and all the bells and whistles you find on one of our trips. Ciao!

When I bought my used iPad in the spring, I also bought a Bluetooth keyboard for it. My intention - to blog while Sue & I and 10 other letterboxers are in Italy later this month for 13 days. As long as the internet is available in our hotels, we will be blogging about our trip at the end of every day.

Normally, we keep a journal and then place it all on our blog when we return home. But, life always gets in the way and I never finish it or just rush through it to complete it in a timely manner. With blogging every day, we'll keep a running commentary, hopefully projecting the excitement we feel in our posts.

Stay tuned for more about our upcoming Viva Italia Letterboxing Tour! 

Well, today's a special day here in Pineconeville, USA. Sue & I are celebrating 2 very important milestones.

The first is Sue's landmark birthday. While it's not proper to divulge a woman's age, suffice it to say that AARP has been knocking at our door! I'm 6 months older, so I recognize the knock! Best wishes to the most important person in my life. Happy birthday, Sue!

The second milestone, which is connected with Sue's birthday, is  our 10th anniversary in letterboxing! On another milestone birthday 10 years ago I surprised Sue with a weekend at a B & B. That's the weekend we started boxing - and haven't quit yet. It's been a great ride and we hope to never stop! Funny, we just started our 18th logbook last weekend! What a fast and terrific 10 years. We've made so many great friends all across the country and the world while pursuing Tupperware!

So, lucky us, we have 2 very important milestones to celebrate today. Pardon us while we toast ourselves!!! 

CHEERS!
 

This past weekend, we headed to VT to revive our batteries a bit. While it rained most of Saturday, we had a chance to go by our Where Are We? letterbox; which is a mystery letterbox.

Much to our amazement, the edifice in the picture clue was moved from where it was several years ago!!! It was moved up a hill, about 100 feet away from the original location where we planted the box.

"Look!" said Sue. "They moved it! Our box must be lost!"

"I think I just received an email report that someone found it last week," I replied as I turned into the area to check it out. Running between raindrops, you can imagine my surprise when I actually found the box exactly where it should have been! 

Whoever moved this landmark, also moved our box as well! That was a bright and sunny surprise for us on such a dismal, rainy day. West Dover and Wilmington, VT officials have been wonderful in working with us when we had our Back to Our Roots gathering several years ago. They understand the importance of letterboxing and how it brings people from out of the area to hunt boxes we've planted there. Do a quick search on 10 mile from West Dover, VT and I think you'll be surprised at the 80+ boxes in the area.  We thank whomever it was who decided to move our box with the landmark.

Wonder if it was that "Official Letterb0x" printed in the logbook?  :-)

 

 That's right - mamma mia!

Our Viva Italia Letterboxing Tour!!! has reached 13 members. And with the minimum of 20 people, there are only 3 spaces left to make that minimum (maximum for this trip is 38 people.) No - my math is correct because the tour has 4 people not from our group set to travel on that date that have reserved space but have not yet made a deposit. 

Check out our AQ Event Page here and our blog's entry with all the particulars of the trip located here. This is one heck of a bargain at a leisurely pace with time on our own to sightsee, hunt for existing boxes and plant our own new ones. It is almost a fully inclusive price except for airfare and a few other minor items like tour guide gratuities and transfers from Rome's airport to our hotel.

The trip starts in eternal Rome and wends it's way north, hopscotching along the scenic Italian countryside to our final departure point of Milan.  We will see all of the main sights in Rome, Assisi, Florence, Venice, Lake Como and much more. Pricing includes 9 dinners, all breakfasts and 1 lunch as well as all entries to museums, sights, etc. and bus and train accommodations, baggage handling. 

This trip also includes a free night in Rome and breakfast the next morning so we'll have a full day to enjoy the city before the "real" tour begins. There will be a full time professional guide who will be with us the entire trip as well as local experts that we will pick up along the way like at the Vatican; experts who will not only make this trip special, but a learning experience. Learn how one of Italy's leading winemakers goes about their craft (and enjoy lunch and wine while there,) take a gondola ride in Venice, see the balcony reported to belong to Juliet from Romeo & Juliet, view the Colosseum in Rome in a more, up close manner than ever before, see how much that Leaning Tower leans and view all of those wonderful paintings, statuary, architecture and history that you've only viewed in books! Be there to soak up all of these amazing sights in person!

Please come and join us. We're proud to say that everyone except 1 of the 13 travelers in our group came with us on the Alaskan cruise last June (and several have traveled with us on other Pinecone Adventures as well!) And that 13th person held a mini meet for us in Anchorange!! This is a real fun, great group of people; it's amazing how close we became after spending time together in Alaska. Now we get to do that all over again - but in Italy!

We hope that you can join us and add to this Pinecone family! Email me with any questions you might have. Time is running out . . . . . .

Sue & I mourn the passing of letterboxer Northstar, who died a few weeks ago at a very young age. Those of you new to boxing might not recognize the name as he wasn't very active in recent years. He leaves his wife Gina and a daughter.

Our best memories of Northstar, a CT boxer, was a certain clue that he left on our website! Don't want to spoil anything but suffice it to say, I was amazed when I spotted the clue, did some research and found that the answer brought us to a well known area cemetery where the boxing began. This series brought Sue & I many hours of consternation and fun!

It was a unique way in which to clue a box and we will be forever grateful to Rob for the joy that he gave us. He told me once that he received so many visitors at this series that he was going to have me hide more of his clues on our blog. Northstar's carving was excellent and he managed to stay below the radar - just doing his thing. We appreciate his talent and wish the best to those loved ones that he left behind. There is some talk of a special box to be planted in his honor but that is still in the planning stages. We'll let you know when that happens.

That's right - we're taking a group to Italy this year - probably October. I'm having a conversation with several tour companies and want to get an idea of how many of you are seriously interested in a 10 to 12 day tour of Italy with Sue & I. 

While itineraries are still be discussed, the following items are a given and should help you determine if you are seriously interested:

1) Group airfare from JFK to Italy

2) 10 to 12 days fully escorted with the services of a guide who will remain with us the entire trip. Once we get to the Vatican, there will be an additional, well-versed guide for that particular venue (and for other venues on the trip.)

3) Price includes all breakfasts, most dinners and possibly a lunch.

4) We will hit the main sights in Rome, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Milan, Lake Como. Modern air-conditioned buses and high speed trains where possible - all included in the pricing. All entrances to museums, venues included.

5) There will be a free afternoon on the second day of each city to allow for personal exploration - and letterboxing!!!

Cost? It will be firmed up later once we have an idea of how many people are seriously interested but for budgeting purposes, plan on approximately $2000 to $2300 per person PLUS airfare. Airfare with 1 carrier quoted $1200 per person but I found it for $800 per person which we can discuss. Based on double occupancy the price per person would be about $3000 to 3200 including airfare for 10 to 12 days with most meals included.

Please email me if you are interested this week sometime so we can lock in the best price. I would like to give a preliminary count to the tours who are in the process of pricing this trip for us. 

Also, email me if you have any questions about the trip. If you traveled with us before either domestically, or on a cruise or to England, you know that we always to our best to offer you the best possible value for your money. 

So come; join us on Pinecone Adventure's Viva Italia Letterboxing Trip. 

Ever notice how things keep repeating? Like when you learn a new word, you tend to see it many times after you learn it. Or you notice a model of car that you like and have never seen - then you find the same model wherever you turn. 

Well, over the past few weeks the number 60,000 has come up several times. LBNA recently had its 60,000th letterbox posted on the website. And a week or so later, Atlas Quest had its 60,000th member join.

And yesterday, I celebrated a milestone birthday that was a combination of those numbers! Thanks for all of the great birthday wishes on Facebook. It helped ease the pain of my new age!  :-)

Event Stamp and Patch Design - by Bungalow Boxer

What a weekend! 

This was our largest attended Bed & Boxing in the 4 years we've been doing it. Counting day trippers, we ended up with 83 attendees. About 55 people stayed at the Woodbound Inn with us in a combination of accommodations ranging from rustic lakeside cabins to king size deluxe suites in the main inn.

Sue & I drove up to VT on Wednesday night after work with some boxing friends. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed out with our sights set for Rindge, NH and the Woodbound Inn - our temporary home for the weekend. Sue & I had visited the property twice over the summer to plant 2 new series for the event - Hiking Essentials and Alaska Memories, which was carved by some of our attendees from our July Letterboxing Cruise to Alaska.

After unpacking and getting settled in our cabin, a bunch of us headed out to do some fairly easy boxes due to the threat of rain. Setting the AQ search function on 10 miles from Rindge, we came up with about 133 boxes plus a handful from LBNA. What to choose . . .

After greeting Tiptoe & Tonto from the Chicago area and Sewsewbizzy from Va, we all headed to dinner at a local pub style restaurant with a nice menu. Returning back to the property, we ended up in our cabin for great conversation, a box of wine and a blazing fire! A nice way to end that Thursday pre-gathering day.

Friday, after breakfast, we headed out to do a few series located on the rails to trails system in Rindge. There, we met Rubaduc & Gizz who had just finished. Then the rains came and we decided to head back to the inn. There we checked out the Play Barn - our community center for the weekend and met with everyone for a 7pm meeting to talk a bit about the weekend. It was great to see all of the attendees as they arrived - all excited about the coming weekend. The weather seemed to clear a bit before the sun set and that made us very happy. As usual, exchanges, conversation and hotdogs roasted over the fireplace made for a nice first official gathering evening.

Saturday morning came and a group of us headed out to get some of Jay Drew's/DrewFamily's Grand Monadnock boxes. This historic, 10 box series is a result of many years spent vacationing in the area with a box or two planted each time. The Tuesday before we left for Bed & Boxing, I noticed a box alongside our front door. Among the contents were clues to a new, Grand Monadnock #11 box entitled "A Bed & Boxing Bonus Box" that Jay had placed for our event. This was the main focus of our trip to Monadnock and a successful find made it all the better.

Almost at the summit - photo taken by Jei

Monadnock was a difficult hike, in our opinion. The rain from Thursday and Friday made for slick and very wet spots in the trails, combined with wet rocks. The elevation gain was 25 to 30% over rocks at times (according to an internet source I found.) After the first 3 hours or so, I questioned whether I would see the summit. Jei, Tsuki Ames, Tiptoe and Tonto, Martini Man & Wisconsin Hiker and of course, Sue,  all were very encouraging. I have a fear of heights but I'm usually fine on a trail with trees surrounding me but this was a bald mountain. Plus the scrambling and climbing on rocks was not what I expected. Once we got to the summit, which is just under 3200 feet with no surrounding mountains, we could see forever. The fall colors just made it all the more picturesque and worth every ounce of effort expended to get there. Thanks, guys, for the encouragement!

Back at the inn, and late for dinner, the festivities had already started. We arrived close to 7pm with a 6:30 starting time on a great buffet we had arranged. When Sue & I arrived, we were greated to cheers - but not in tribute, I don't think - it was more like "finally you got here!" After dinner, with the help of the V's, Lundy & Vickster and Jess and Scott, our night series, Ghosts from Gatherings Past, was planted and made ready for our guests. At 9pm, the hardiest of the group joined us down by the lake for a bonfire and 3 great stories told by TaleSpinner from MA and some letterboxing conversations after that. 

After breakfast on Sunday, we packed and said our goodbyes for another year. Everyone wants to return next year to this same location. I had already told the inn we'd be returning after seeing the grounds, the 10 miles of their hiking trails, the lake and everything they had to offer - even 9 hole golf! It's always a downer to see something we've spent 8 months planning end. But we weren't down for long . . . we've already started to plan B & B5 plus our Italy trip as well all next year!

We'd like to thank the following people for their great contributions: Bungalow Boxer for a terrific event stamp and design, which we used for the event patch as well; our hiking buddies to Monadnock, all of the carvers for the Alaska Memories series, TaleSpinner for weaving some great stories, Robins Nest for that great Pinecone Adventures quilted pillow, the Ghost hiders, Jay Drew for dedicating that new Monadnock box to Sue & me, Deanne and Dave for letting us borrow the skewers that we used to roast hotdogs and marshmallows, BookWorm for making the ghosts and for all the little things she did, all the attendees who brought grab bag gifts and food to share for the weekend. It was the best ever Bed & Boxing - according to the inbox full of emails that we've been receiving. And like anything in life - nothing good is accomplished by one person - it's always a joint effort.

The best thing about this event is the precious time spent with a great group of people. See you all next year!

Monadnock and Pinecones - photo taken by the V's

Those of you that follow this blog know that if there's anything we love as much as letterboxing - it's Vermont. As you probably know, the Wilmington area of southern Vermont was one of the hardest hit from Hurricane Irene several weeks ago, according to FEMA during their recent visit there to access damages. We've all seen the hurricane videos of Vermont on the national news outlets.

After being kept away for several weeks due to the clean up effort of the National Guard and others opening/repaving roads, etc. Sue & I had the opportunity to finally get up there this past weekend. We were not prepared for the damage that we witnessed despite having seen YouTube videos and photos sent to us from one of the permanent residents of the community where our place is located. The devastation is unimaginable - cars washed into enlarged river beds, tarps and clothing hanging from trees tops, aluminum siding and building eaves along the roadside. Sue could just about contain herself as we drove through downtown Wilmington village and the stores there that we've frequented so many times - all closed trying to get their investments up and running again after water damage, blown out windows and empty first floors left after the innocent-looking Deerfield River that meanders through town rose to a raging flood of water leaving destruction in its wake.

Sue & I had the opportunity to hear some of the stories at a Natural History Fair at Hogback Mountain on Saturday. A young foreign exchange student who perished while trapped in her car as the flood waters overcame her vehicle, cows and horses being swept away to their death by the raging waters, whole house being swallowed by a river when the bordering land gave way to erosion. So many heart-breaking stories that touched us deeply - after tears and hugs between us and the locals. We came away with a sense of loss and the need to do something. In the past, we've privately emailed some of you to raise money for a letterboxer that might need some financial help for one reason or another. But this time it's different.

This time, though, given the gravity of the situation, we are appealing to all of you boxers and readers of this blog. If Sue & I have touched your life in some way - whether it be through our friendship, or a conversation at a gathering, or an email where you asked us for help or advice,  or attendance at one of our gatherings or even if you've hunted one of our boxes - please consider a donation to this effort. No amount is too small. Many of these people lost everything - homes, jobs, clothes, food, etc.

100% of what you donate goes to the people in need - no administrative costs like other charities. Here's the link for the website that explains how to donate and where your money will go. We've had an ongoing love affair with the Deerfield Valley for many years and hope you will help restore it and its people to the beauty that it was.

Checks can be made out to "Deerfield River Valley Human Web" can be sent to the fund at 14 Castle Hill Road, Wilmington, VT 05363. Please write "Letterboxing Group" in the memo portion of your check. I want them to see that we, as a group, are donating to the area that has held several of our gatherings and has over 70 of our boxes. 

When do you get a chance to make such an impact? We know you won't disappoint us - you never do. We both thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generosity - however much it is.

Thanks.

As we write this, our power has returned and our lives are getting somewhat back to normal. Our entire family is fine but not so for many in Irene's path - especially those in our adopted home of Vermont. If you've watched the network national news (if you have power,)  you've witnessed the complete devastation to so many areas in the beautiful state of VT. What normally was a rambling stream became a raging dynamo due to the onslaught of torrential rains (reports of 10" and more) in such a short period of time.

I watched a heart-breaking video that showed an historic covered bridge as it was swallowed by a churning river. A Vermont icon gone in a matter of seconds. And this scene repeated itself several times around the state as other covered bridges suffered the same fate. You could hear the suffering in the voice of the person filming the video as her voice cracked with emotion as she exclaimed "Oh no!"

Our weekend home was spared what others were not. Wilmington, Vermont's downtown district of quaint homes turned into shops and restaurants all took on water as the peaceful Deerfield River that meanders through town rose and brought havoc and 6 feet of water and mud into many of those establishments. Dot's Diner was almost totally engulfed with water since it had enjoyed the heretofore enviable real estate of being located right at the river's edge.

With roads being blocked and rivers out on main roadways, supplies aren't arriving to the stores thus food and water are at a premium. Wilmington center has reopened as of yesterday and our hope is that vital items can begin to arrive. The National Guard has a presence there as well to help in the restoration process.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the residents of Vermont (and other locales) that have had to endure the hardships that only a natural disaster like this can bring. Going without electricity, phones and cable for 2 days pales in comparison to what these residents witness and will continue to do so in the coming weeks and months. Vermonters are a hearty bunch and there's no doubt that they will recover from this storm. The Deerfield Valley and the state as a whole will eventually be returned to its former self.

For more information and pictures of the storm's effect on southern Vermont, visit the Deerfield Valley News website located here. After reading the front page, click on the "Breaking News" heading on the left to see pictures and more reports. And please keep a good thought for those who are dealing with Irene's leftovers.