Letterboxing

Ever heard of letterboxing?

It is kind of like a treasure hunt.

From online sites such as http://www.letterboxing.org/ or http://www.atlasquest.com/, you find instructions taking you to the boxes.  Sometimes the clues are strait forward directions, sometimes riddles or poems, sometimes they involve compasses and pacing.  You choose what you are up for and how hard you want to work.

Hopefully you find a box (it is a treasure hunt, after all--sometimes you find them and sometimes you don't,) and inside there will be a small notebook, and a rubber stamp.  Most of the time these rubber stamps are hand cut, so they are usually rather unique, and can be quite artistic.  You bring an ink pad, your own rubber stamp--your "trail i.d."--and a notebook of your own to journal your finds.  You make an impression of your stamp in the box notebook, and an impression of the box stamp in your journal. In my journal, i always write the date and location of the find, along with names of anyone joining us on the hunt, and any other information that might be fun to have later ("this was XX's first letterbox," or "we found this one on XX'x birthday.")

There are tens of thousands of letterboxes in the world all around us.  You have passed right by them an never even known it, i bet!!  Popular places to place letterboxes are parks, historical sites, and cemeteries.  There are lots of  "series" boxes--several boxes in a theme, sometimes in a single area, like a state park.  Many times, especially with the historical sites, the clues sheet will offer a brief lesson on the person or place.  Wildlife and nature are popular themes for series boxes, and they usually offer good  information about the subject flora or fauna. 

Letterboxing is one of the ways i slip a little learnin' into our "unschool curriculum" without anyone being any the wiser.  I will admit to using letterboxing excursions as bribes and incentives, as well.  Hey, whatever works.  We have had a lot of fun with this, it has taken us to places we never would have thought to venture and we have found some real gems along the way.

Have found that it is a great way to break up a long trip, and you see things that you would have missed if you just drove straight through on the four lane, such as......

This was a 8' tall fiberglass chicken in some one's side yard in a small town somewhere north of here.  Not sure what it was for, but about a block up the road was a house with about a hundred pink flamingos in the front yard.  The whole neighborhood had been flocked!!  Makes ya wonder what happened at that last BBQ.

   I LOVE this one.  Was laughing so hard i had to pull over.  It was at the exit of a cemetery where we had just found a box. We were in convoy with another family at the time, and they thought i was loosing it, until they saw the sign.  We all got out and took pictures. Only in Texas!



 Now if you don't think this is the coolest fence you have  ever seen, you should just stay home!!  And yes, we all "got on" the bicycles and took pictures.  This was in a ...well it was barely a town, more like 6 houses, a church, and a gazebo, about 10 miles off of a two lane farm to market road.  The box was actually right across the street from this fence, in an overgrown bank vault.

Yes, a bank vault.  From a bank that had closed during the depression.  Nothing left but the vault, and you never would have seen it if you hadn't known it was there.  Hidden in plain sight.

Dunno.  Just thought this was funny.

Happy Hunting!!  See you on the Trail!

P.S.  Yes.  Still having trouble with pictures.  These, along with one other, were downloaded before most recent crash.  And now i seem to be having trouble with layout.  It is all making me nuts!!!!  But at least it is on  here, i guess.  Send help.  PLEASE!!!!!!!!