Just back from VA and want to add my "thank-you" to everyone who came
to "gather by the river" on Saturday, and made that event such a huge
success! So many creative people and great cooks ,too! (Friendly
folks, fabulous food, fantastic flowers and fun finds - how's that
for an "F count"? :-) I actually got 35 exchanges, 5 personal
travellers, 5 hitchers, 3 event stamps,and a whole bunch of boxes,
including "Universal Language" on Sunday as my #2500! (very
appropriate since I had studied about a dozen languages many years
ago, but if I tried to speak any of them now, it would probably come
out sounding pretty much like the clues to that letterbox - 2 words
from one language, 3 from another, etc.! :-)

Special thanks for everything go to the "Doubtful Guests". Our little
New England contingent (Sarah, Russ and myself) was extremely
fortunate to have them take us under their wing for an incredible
dinner Saturday evening, followed by letterboxing practically in
their backyard! (Scarab even wrote up some clues for me to find a
certain remarkable "hobbit hole" where I got to crawl in and spend
the night - pure magic!) The predicted rains didn't come until I was
on my way home yesterday, so we got in plenty of nice boxing Sunday
afternoon and Monday, mostly in the Leesburg, Herndon, and Vienna
areas, with a lovely trip up to Hemlock Overlook that evening so that
Scarab could get his 100th find! (and I even ran into an old "thru-
hiker" friend of mine up there at the same time - talk about
synchronicity!) Did some boxing in the rain on my way home
(VA8,MD3,PA5), and overall had a really great time! Thanks so much,
muchas gracias, vielen Dank, hvala lepo, etc.etc.etc.!

Wanda from RI
P52 F2541 X335