recent letterboxing adventures

We recently planted (and replanted) a few new boxes in the Waco area. New ones include the "A is for Arboretum" series and "The Snake We Never Saw" (and of which Gryzzled Gryphon is deathly afraid!) :-) We've got a few more that will be going online shortly.


We just returned from a trip to Santa Fe, in which we got to visit with our good friends and letterboxers Astro D and Lionsmane. Unfortunately great hiking opportunities and many boxes out in the national forests were unavailable (NF closures due to the fires and fire danger), but we did manage to hunt down a few urban boxes (when we weren't busy at the many wonderful eateries!)

On our way to and from Santa Fe, we picked up a few boxes in what could be called the Way-Out-in-the-Middle-of-Nowhere Letterbox Tour.  :-)  We founad BootsTex's "The Sherriff Wore Petticoats" (very interesting story, btw!), the brand new and first box by CresoteRain:  "Spade Ranch South Camp"  which required nerves of steel (or at least not being afraid of critters!), "C.W. Post", and "Circle Tour 2009-Panhandle, TX." On our speedy trip back, we visited BT's "The Swinging Bridge" (which wins the award for coolest location AND the most-way-out-in-the-sticks LB!  Sadly, we were unable to find this box, but as BT said (and he's right), it's worth the trip to see this historical bridge even without a box. We also picked up Joe's Boot Shop LB (and while it's urban, Clovis NM counts as way out in the middle of nowhere!) We also visited Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM- a fascinating little swimming hole in which the water really is blue (and 60 degrees year round), going 80 feet into the earth. It seems odd that there could be any scuba diving in new mexico, but you can do it here!

In Santa Fe, we started and ended our time with some great LB series by artTrekker. we were excited to find two more of the 3 part series "Artful Southwest" by artTrekker. We found the first one (Santa Fe Style) four years ago, right after we began letterboxing and found  Cathedral Moon and Little Pot on this trip. Thanks to one of these, we bumped into a delightful and delicious place for lunch (but I can't tell you which or it might spoil the hunt!)  We ended our SF trip with aT's "Clay Menagerie" series, beautifully highlighting motifs from native pottery.

Speaking of great places to eat, we also found "Just One Slice" (near one of our two favorite pizza places in SF).  We enjoyed the clever and thought provoking "Read or Be Read" by Postal, as well as another thought provoking box: "Art is Everywhere" by Front Range Hiker in a beautiful park that was both nestled in a neighborhood and buried deep in a secluded wood. Then we found a great pair of boxes in a cute little city park (Amelia White Park) - "Dessert in the Desert" by rubberpeace (whom we missed on this trip  but had the wonderful pleasure of meeting on our last visit) and "Amelia's Rose" by Hi Desert (also another box by HD on Museum Hill). One of the things we really like about our visits to SF is getting lots of great LB ideas to share with our LB friends way back over in this corner of the world.

We found a number of boxes by  Astro D and Lionsmane with some wonderful moments in the beautiful landscapes of Santa Fe and surrounding areas. During our trip we encountered many amazing carves, clever and artful boxes and enjoyable adventures. That's what we really love about LBing- we get to see so many great things and places that otherwise we'd never encounter or be too busy to stop and take in. Letterboxing is great, isn't it?

New letterboxes planted in Woodway

This evening we planted two new letterboxes "A Is for Arboretum" (three boxes in the series) and "The Snake We Never Saw" at the Carleen Bright Aboretum. We checked on the last of the three original boxes we'd planted there a few years ago, but sadly, it was not to be found. Hopefully these new boxes will stick around for a while!