Greetings, all!

Whew! It's been one hectic week here in Axtown, so I'm only now getting
around to adding my voice to the chorus of appreciation to Trish and everyone
else who made last Saturday's gathering in RI such a fun event. Even the
cold, rainy weather was no match for the warmth generated by everyone who
attended. Much of my time was spent chatting with veteran and newbie
letterboxers alike and exchanging stamps, though during a break in the
weather I did manage - along with Chris (a/k/a CSCM) - to venture over to the
University of Rhode Island, where we each earned three Degrees in
Letterboxing via the "Fast Track to Your Degree" series. I even found myself
with a "Post Doc", my very first hitchhiker (woohoo!), compliments of those
rascals from RIBNAG.

I upped my "X" count in a big way (approximately 30) and added four event
stamps as well. But more importantly, the very best part of the gathering was
visiting with all these nice people, eating lots of wonderful food, swapping
letterboxing stories, and generally having a good ol' time! This was my
second letterboxing gathering, and it was every bit as enjoyable as the
first. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

In an unrelated matter, Pat Koss wrote on 10/9/01:

< letterboxes on Sunday. I found the South box with no problem. I was the 1st
one in it. But when I looked for the North box, I found nothing under the
rock. Looked like someone had been there before because the grass was
trampled down.>>

Pat, on Monday morning I too was unsuccessful in finding the North letterbox
at its anticpated resting place. That evening, I e-mailed Bill Haalck (the
planter of the box) about its apparent disappearance, and he later confirmed
that the box was indeed missing. He has subsequently advised me that he has
hidden a new box in the same location and will be re-posting the clues to the
Letterboxing list shortly (if he hasn't already done so).

Regards,
Alan from Axtown
Another Home-Cooked Message