Yup, I finished my "monster countdown" just last night, after five
fantastic days of monster hunting, mashing, knoshing and partying! It
was phenomenal - got nearly a hundred new exchanges (not counting the
extra people for those who use one stamp as couples or families!),
and over 130 new monsters!!! Over half a dozen Frankensteins alone,
with similar numbers of vampires, werewolves and various others, and
many unique "beauties" as well!

Anyway, I was getting down to my last few monster hunting locations
yesterday when I realized that I could quite possibly "finish them
all off" and not have to make another "commute" up from RI! Monday
Pete had been a bit concerned about me hiking alone late in the day
(and being late with dinner!:-) because he knows that I don't see
well, especially at night. That evening I'd had some trouble spotting
Grendel's chair, even though it's huge and I knew where it was from
having had my picture taken there many years ago! I ended up spending
a lot of time going back and forth bewildered in the dark, so he made
me promise not to go 'boxing alone after dusk again.

Well, yesterday (since I still always take the time to stamp in and
write something personal in every logbook) I found myself finishing
up my last MMM series - Phynstar's "Dr. Who" - just around dusk, and
had only one single monster left to hunt down: the "Wendigo". This
was actually the first monster I was going to look for on Friday,
after we got back from New Mexico, but it seemed like there had been
a lot of rain in the area, swelling the local streams, so I thought
I'd hold off on that one till the end. Now, here it was - dark - but
I wanted just that one more monster, so what was I to do? I went to
ask Carolyn, Leader of the Pack and initial creator of the "Mansfield
letterboxing mecca", who lives down the street, if she would join me
in tracking down that last monster!

So, after chatting, eating, and sending homeschooling kids off with
their parents, off we headed into the chill night air - only to find
police cars with search lights on patrolling the area we wanted to go
into! Hmmm...we didn't want them to get suspicious and think we were
doing a "Shady Deal in Sunny Acres" (no, just looking for a wendigo,
really!), so we pretended we were walking laps around the park.
Around and around we went until finally the police cars turned around
to focus on the house across the street. Then off we went into the
woods!

Minutes later, we reached the still somewhat swollen stream with a
small rock in the middle balanced on another that was submerged. I
tried to step carefully onto a stable spot, but the rock wiggled, and
down I tumbled into the water! Somehow I didn't get hurt, though -
only got one leg soaked, so we squished on up to the "Wendigo", and
had our own little stamp-in celebration. What a great finale for my
monster hunting expeditions!

Thanks again to everyone who helped make the Monster Mash such a huge
roaring success, and especially to Chuck who did the lion's share of
the planning and planting to make it all come together! He did a
terrific job of showing off many of Mansfield's bountiful trails, and
the weather complied beautifully, too! Hope the great fall weather
continues for all those who plan to keep searching for these
magnificent monsters in the weeks to come!

Happy Hunting!
Wanda from RI
P102 F5639 X709