Only if you count Lake Michigan as the East Coast. I'm in northeastern IL.
Boxes like mine, which are only on my own website (and there's a link on
Silent Doug's site) can go without even a first finder for ages -- there's
one I placed last summer that hasn't had a first finder yet, tho I haven't
gotten around to doing Spring Cleaning on it yet, so I may be surprised when
I get there. First Finder Certificate and gift just might be gone. :-)
But a lot of my boxes, while not necessarily total mystery boxes, do have
some figuring out to do ahead of time, especially to find the starting
locations.

The boxes around here that are on LbNA and atlasquest and that are
straightforward in their clues seem to get plenty of visitors tho, often a
large flurry at the beginning, then it seems to slow down. By the time I
get around to finding any of 'em a couple of months down the road, there are
usually a lot of stamps in the logbook already.

I think there are a lot more newbie letterboxers around this area than
veteran boxers, and the more straightforward clues seem to be preferred, by
what I see in the logbooks. I think possibly we have more boxers in this
area who box with young children so they don't want to take the time to
navigate difficult clues.

For example, the box that the lady whose car was broken into was looking
for -- those clues wouldn't be bad for me at all. Yes, it appears there may
be various ways to read the clues. I see those clues, not as vague, but as
ambiguous. I'll just try every combination I can think of until I find the
right one. :-) Someone with young children might not figure they have that
option since children will have neither the attention span nor the patience
for that. Elmer, my big ol' boy hounddawg, on the other hand, has endless
patience when we're boxing. Altho his patience is even more endless if I
remember the baggie of cut-up fried chicken.

But I think that's one reason why people in this area might stamp into
logbooks with straightforward clues a lot more -- because there might be
more people boxing with children. Not to say that there aren't plenty of
adults who seem to prefer totally straightforward clues too tho.

~~ Mosey ~~
http://freewebs.com/moseyingalong

-----Original Message-----
From: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of melanie
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 10:58 AM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] Box Visitations WAS: BEWARE - northern Illinois


my guess would be that you live on the East Coast. Out here on the West
Coast, there are many, many boxes that go months without being visited. I
think it must be the pioneer spirit that brought many of us West way back
when. We're willing to wait :) I personally have half a dozen boxes that
have NEVER been found. Yes, two of they are extremely difficult mystery
boxes, but I'm willing to wait. Someday, someone will solve it and will go
and find it. I'd say on average, that my 200 active boxes get about one
visit a month each. A few get significantly more, and a few a lot less.

Maiden in Portland, Oregon