Dear Wanda and Pete,

Congratulations on 2000 boxes in two years and thank you for sharing your letterboxing story with us.   Odilio

 "wandaandpete <wandaandpete@yahoo.com>" <wandaandpete@yahoo.com> wrote:

Since so many people seem to be celebrating letterboxing
anniversaries or milestones lately, I figured we might as well join
the crowd.  Yesterday we celebrated our 2nd letterboxing
anniversary with over 2000 found boxes for Wanda and over
1500 for myself! (Not bad for two years of letterboxing, right?) To
be sure, Wanda and I had stumbled upon quests/letterboxes
earlier on separate hiking trips to VT and CT, but somehow back
then I just couldn't seem to get Wanda interested in looking for
tupperware containers on little local walks that she had already
done many times.  I finally managed to find out about a box in a
place she hadn't been to before, but wouldn't you know she got a
bad case of poison ivy there, and that set the interest level back
for another long interval.  It wasn't until I discovered the talklist in
January of 2001, found out about the Tolland Winter Gathering
that year on "Super Letterboxing Sunday", met the nice folks
there (Carolyn, Alan from Axtown, See Joy,etc), caught the buzz
about mysteries like "Summer Music" that we hadn't heard of
before, and added the challenge of trying to find the boxes under
lots of snow that we then became "hooked" on the hobby!

The rest is history.  Every available day after that we were off to
look for boxes.  Those first few months were really snowy, so we
got to ski up things we normally wouldn't have been able to (like
rocky Mt Misery), and then often couldn't find the boxes under the
snow when we got there, but still had a blast trying, and still
managed to find literally hundreds of boxes anyway in just a
couple of months (and that at a time before many of the quick
series and drive-ups currently available!)  By the time spring
rolled along, Wanda was off again for her "serious hiking" (AT
#5, etc.), but still managed to find time for some of the boxes
planted near her planned trail routes.  By the end of that first year
we had each worked hard to find nearly 800 boxes and thought
our interest in the hobby might go the route of last winter's snow,
but - no - legerdemaine and mapsurfer mysteries served to
spark our second winter's letterbox fascination and got us
through that next snowless winter.  By our second spring, boxes
were cropping up everywhere around us by the dozens it
seemed, so picking up a bunch at a time was no longer such a
novelty.  However, even if you call this past year's bounty "easy
pickin's" (which certainly not all of them were!), the sheer effort of
collecting over 1200 boxes in one year is still a remarkable feat,
so I wanted to plant a special box to commemorate Wanda's
achievement (2000 boxes in 2 years!), and also to honor our 2
sweet cats, Choolie and Ondra (Ciuleandra). I'll try to get the
clues for that and the Favorite Ornaments (including a new
surprise from Michigan!) added to our web page soon.  For now,
congratulations, Wanda, and I'd also like to think that letterboxing
may have helped to keep you happy closer to home these past 2
years than you might otherwise have been!

Pete (aka Mr Sunshine)




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Congratulations Wanda! I also enjoyed hearing of how you started. Hope to see you and Pete again soon. ....Chuck and Molly

 "wandaandpete <wandaandpete@yahoo.com>" <wandaandpete@yahoo.com> wrote:

Since so many people seem to be celebrating letterboxing
anniversaries or milestones lately, I figured we might as well join
the crowd.  Yesterday we celebrated our 2nd letterboxing
anniversary with over 2000 found boxes for Wanda and over
1500 for myself! (Not bad for two years of letterboxing, right?) To
be sure, Wanda and I had stumbled upon quests/letterboxes
earlier on separate hiking trips to VT and CT, but somehow back
then I just couldn't seem to get Wanda interested in looking for
tupperware containers on little local walks that she had already
done many times.  I finally managed to find out about a box in a
place she hadn't been to before, but wouldn't you know she got a
bad case of poison ivy there, and that set the interest level back
for another long interval.  It wasn't until I discovered the talklist in
January of 2001, found out about the Tolland Winter Gathering
that year on "Super Letterboxing Sunday", met the nice folks
there (Carolyn, Alan from Axtown, See Joy,etc), caught the buzz
about mysteries like "Summer Music" that we hadn't heard of
before, and added the challenge of trying to find the boxes under
lots of snow that we then became "hooked" on the hobby!

The rest is history.  Every available day after that we were off to
look for boxes.  Those first few months were really snowy, so we
got to ski up things we normally wouldn't have been able to (like
rocky Mt Misery), and then often couldn't find the boxes under the
snow when we got there, but still had a blast trying, and still
managed to find literally hundreds of boxes anyway in just a
couple of months (and that at a time before many of the quick
series and drive-ups currently available!)  By the time spring
rolled along, Wanda was off again for her "serious hiking" (AT
#5, etc.), but still managed to find time for some of the boxes
planted near her planned trail routes.  By the end of that first year
we had each worked hard to find nearly 800 boxes and thought
our interest in the hobby might go the route of last winter's snow,
but - no - legerdemaine and mapsurfer mysteries served to
spark our second winter's letterbox fascination and got us
through that next snowless winter.  By our second spring, boxes
were cropping up everywhere around us by the dozens it
seemed, so picking up a bunch at a time was no longer such a
novelty.  However, even if you call this past year's bounty "easy
pickin's" (which certainly not all of them were!), the sheer effort of
collecting over 1200 boxes in one year is still a remarkable feat,
so I wanted to plant a special box to commemorate Wanda's
achievement (2000 boxes in 2 years!), and also to honor our 2
sweet cats, Choolie and Ondra (Ciuleandra). I'll try to get the
clues for that and the Favorite Ornaments (including a new
surprise from Michigan!) added to our web page soon.  For now,
congratulations, Wanda, and I'd also like to think that letterboxing
may have helped to keep you happy closer to home these past 2
years than you might otherwise have been!

Pete (aka Mr Sunshine)




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.