Upon reflection, I wanted to share a story of what happened to RayvenDad and I in the search for the "Leschi Gallows Letterbox" at Ft. Steilacoom park in Lakewood, WA.
Some of you may have read this over at the LbPNW list, but I felt that some outside of the PNW might like to hear what happened during our find.... I only hope that everyone has some kind of neat experience like ours that endears them to the hobby we love called Letterboxing.......
Final note: I encourage anyone that might be interested to visit this link: http://www.historylink.org/output.CFM?file_ID=2657 This will give you the history behind Nisqually Chief Leschi and is very interesting...
Thank you for listening...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After setting off on the paths in the clues, RayvenDad and I were enjoying a nice quiet walk sans children, whom we sent off on a hike around Lake Waughop with Rayvenpuppy Sorcha... The day was absolutely beautiful... You know the type... Not cold, not hot, not rainy... just perfect... We sauntered up the hill along the 'cottonwood' lane when we got to the top and realized we had gone too far... We had to laugh at this point because we were on autopilot apparently since the original "Gallows" box had us going up to the top originally.... So, back down the hill we went, looking for the Madrone tree that we had seemingly ignored before... Yippie, Yay and Hallelujah! We found the box!
"How is that an exciting story?" you may ask?? Well, as we chose a shaded area to sit in and begin our stamping, I heard the sounds of soft music playing on the wind... At first I thought it might just be my imagination as I wasn't even sure I was hearing it... But as I sat there, I continued to listen, and when I was sure that it was music I was hearing, I stopped RayvenDad from his rambling (he does that from time to time, *grins*) and said quietly "Shhh.... Listen..."
We both sat motionless for a moment, as the music carried on the slight wind to us became more clear... It was like time stopped completely... RayvenDad and I looked at each other at the same time as we wordlessly realized that what we were hearing was an Indian flute playing...
(Did you just shiver???)
Yes, we were hearing an Indian flute playing an Indian song of some type as we sat there, stamping into the "Chief Leschi Gallows" letterbox... It was a hauntingly beautiful song and the direction it was coming from, was an area that was quite inaccessible by anyone to easily get to... Were we hearing the song that might have been played as Chief Leschi was hung? (Yeah..... we felt the same way....)
I'd have to honestly say that I have now found a letterbox that has truly touched my soul... I will never forget this moment...
Thank you dvn2rckr...
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]