The East Coast has certainly been swept by a gust of great fall
gatherings lately - 3 weekends in a row, each hosting its own very
distinctive and remarkable event! ( and the tripod is still standing
in NJ, too!;-)

First, of course, we were all blown away by Chuck's gang's mind-
boggling Monster Mash in northeastern CT, with its whirlwind of
monsters, activities, hotdogs and many other types of dogs, including
those "monster dogs" unleashed down on Dog Lane!

Next, the following weekend, we were gently scattered to the four
winds on those old AT paths, "narrow for chosen company", at Koyote
and the Dawnlanders' well-crafted, Native American-themed "Four
Directions" gathering in northwestern CT, where we were most impresed
to see Rush Gatherer turning fry bread in hot oil with small sticks,
and to find a fine feathered "friend" from Cactus Licker of Texas!

Finally, just this past weekend, we caught a sweet breeze down to
Palmyra Bridge for the 2nd annual NJ Gathering, where we were treated
not only to letterboxingbee's nicely carved turkey sandwiches, but to
many fine examples of her stamp carving as well, including a lovely
pair of "Palmyra Palms" that she graciously gifted us with to replace
our little old store-bought "signature stamps"!

Actually, last weekend letterboxingbee's husband Rob and I were both
suffering from having just recently had root canals with infection
complications, so it was probably good to get our minds off that onto
other activities. However, my mind must have wandered off just a
little too far, because I suffered some additional panic worrying
that I'd somehow managed to lose both my old and new sigs at one fell
swoop! Fortunately they turned up shortly, lying on the grass at
Hickory Dickory Dock, so now I'm happy to report that those new sig
stamps of ours can already be seen at some 40 letterboxes around NJ,
as well as in 4 hitchers, 20 logbooks, and even a couple of postal
boxes that showed up for the occasion! We're still hoping that
carvers from ME, WA and CT will come through for us with new sig
stamps, too, but meanwhile you can expect to see those "Palmyra
Palms" carved for us by letterboxingbee Bev wherever we go!( and that
second "colorful set" will probably end up getting planted near the
place where Pete and I first met! ;-)

Thanks, Bev, for a fantastic job on everything, and thanks again to
the many other folks all around the country who have so warmly and
generously given of their time, talents, energy and resources to make
these wonderful events happen! Now it seems we have a little "break
in the wind", so to speak, but you can be sure we'll be looking
forward to many more welcoming gathering breezes in the months and
years to come - as long as they don't fall on the same day or
conflict with other things!

Many thanks for all the great gatherings!!!

Wanda and Pete
P102 F5740 X736