Letterboxing

Sunday dawned bright and early. My mom and I had decided to try letterboxing that afternoon, so after church and before the fam came over for fast Sunday dinner, we looked up a couple of letterboxes close by that we could visit.

For those of you who don't know, letterboxing is an activity similar to geochaching. (You can Google it, if you'd like. I found it very informative.) Basically, you find a rubber stamp that you like, a journal, an ink pad, and a pen, and you set off. You look up online different letterboxes to hunt for, and you are given clues to their different locations. It has to be in an area accessible to the public, but should also be able to be hidden in a tucked away sort of place. Once you find the letter box, it should, at the least, contain a stamp and a journal. You stamp your stamp in the journal provided, and sign your letterboxing name and the date as well. You then take the stamp in the letterbox and stamp your journal and record the date and any other information you would like to. It's as simple as that!

We went to the first letterbox we had looked up, which was very close to where we live. The directions and clues provided on the website were very precise, and we had no trouble locating the letterbox. (I would tell you where it was, but that is supposed to be kept a secret. :) ) We pulled it out, opened it up, and lo and behold, there was a hitchhiker in our very first letterbox! A hitchhiker is a traveling letterbox, with no real "home" of it's own. When you find a hitchhiker, you have the option of leaving it there, or you can take it with you and place it in another letterbox. Letterboxing etiquette says you have about a week to find the hitchhiker a new home, then you send a message to the letterboxers who placed the hitchhiker as to where you found it and where you placed it, so that they can track their letterbox. It's kind of fun, once you get into it! Anyhow, according to the info found inside the hitchhiker letterbox, we were the first ones to find it. Even better! This was turning out to be a fun, new hobby! We exchanged the stamps, took some pictures, and replaced the original letterbox just as some people happened upon us. (You aren't really supposed to let other "non-letterboxers" see you doing any of this.) We had cut it pretty close, but we were successful in keeping the integrity of this particular letterbox intact.

As we got back to our car, we debated on whether or not to attempt the second letterbox we had looked up. It, too, was very close to our home, but it was getting close to dinner time, so we decided to try that letterbox on a different day. Still, quite the fun new activity, though!

The following Thursday, my mom and I were tending my sister's children, along with the children she watches for a living, because she was having a medical procedure done and we were the best candidate to fill in for her. We decided it would be fun to take the kids to find the second letterbox and place the hitchhiker in that box, so we stopped off at the location described in the clues. We followed the directions to the best of our ability, but, alas, we could not discover the location of the second letterbox. The location was pretty public, so our guess is that it was moved or taken.

My poor hitchhiker still needs a home. Guess I'll have to find another place for it to go. I recommend letterboxing to anyone interested. It's like a little treasure hunt, but instead of a prize, you get a journal filled with all of your fun adventures! Thanks for the suggestion, Aunt Pam! Definitely a keeper.