Well, it wasn't exactly a "photo finish", but I'm glad to finally report that both the Hare and
the Tortoise hitchhikers which were apparently racing from somewhere out in the midwest
to get to the "Inn of the End" hitchhiker hostel in RI have both now arrived and taken off
again! I just hobbled out to the hostel yesterday on a sprained ankle, after zero letterbox
finds for almost a week now, so I was feeling a little like a tortoise myself, but it was nice
to see that the the Racing Tortoise had actually gotten there several weeks ago, while the
Hare had visited last October and then hopped off toTexas!

Anyway, I hope they both had a good run, and that folks won't mind if I mention that I
reached one of my own personal "finishing lines" goals recently, too! After several months
last winter of becoming rather disenchanted with the direction letterboxing seemed to be
taking towards stamp collecting, I finally jumped back on the "Aws" wagon in the spring,
and started doing a few more of those mega letterbox hiking months that are now
possible in quite a few parts of the country, even without needing a gathering to collect
"Swoa"! (for explanation please see my plant #204, "15,000 Finds and Still Standing Tall"
aka "Requiem for an Old Growth Tree" at alum.wpi.edu/~p_miner/NewYork.html#Box_204
.)

So, after several trips to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, I reached F 14,000 at "Panda" towards the end of a big
boxing day in Tyler Park, PA in May, then went on to revisit most of those states plus a
few more to reach F 15,000 at "Sail Away" in the Adirondacks on July 31! Sorry that I
haven't been able to keep up with e-mail, trip reports and such, but we still don't have
computer access at home, and I'm usually too busy off hiking (when I'm being a "hare") or
too slow and tired (like now when I'm in "tortoise mode") to go to the library and try to get
caught up on things, so please just understand that we still do things the old fashioned
way around here, and please don't feel slighted if we don't manage to acknowledge all
your messages or log-ins. We really do appreciate all the wonderful boxes people have
planted for us all to find!
As Mr. Pujeh might say, "Thanks a meellion"!

Wanda from RI
P222 F15144 X1544