Letterboxing According To Lara

Lara's Version of the Letterboxing Story...

Well, I doubt that my version of this story will be as funny as Beth's, but I felt I should give everyone my perspective since letterboxing is on the Year of the Birthday list.

I was excited when Beth invited me to go letterboxing the first time. The whole concept of getting lost in the woods and looking for something to rubber stamp made me giddy. I flunked orienteering on the sixth grade "wilderness" field trip, but I remembered how to use a compass thanks to my experience with the girl scouts. Other than learning to use a compass, I don't want to talk about it.

On our first outing, we found all five of the boxes we were looking for. It was very satisfying. So satisfying, in fact, that I told the guys at work about it. They still make fun of me. Something about tripping over a log and having to send out the helicopter search and rescue team to find me. Apparently they have no faith in my hippie goddess compass skillz.

This brings me to Item #1 on the Year of the Birthday List. Plant a Letterbox. It was my job to find a location for our box. I took Kate with me on a reconnaissance mission to Susquehanna State Park in December. I remember that it was cold. It was also damp... and muddy. (If you do plan to look for our letterbox, don't go in December.) We finally found a location that may or may not have been as imaginative as I had been anticipating. Still...

On January first, armed with tupperware, Beth and I ventured into the cold, damp, and muddy wilds of Susquehanna. We took a lot of pictures. We took pictures of the contents of the letterbox, the letter box itself, the river, our shadows pointing due east, the places where the water has eroded the bank, the compass, the rocks, the mud, ourselves, ourselves with scarves tied around our heads, ourselves with snot frozen to the scarves tied around our heads. I think Beth even has some video documentation.

The hiding of the box was more difficult than I had suspected. The rocks I had chosen were harder to get to than they should have been. Something about wet leaves and mud. In the end, we managed to appropriately hide our letterbox and scurry back to the car to defrost. Beth watched and photographed while I logged onto the letterboxing website to write our clue. As much fun as we had planting the box, we worry that no one will search for it. It would be sad to find an empty journal when we collect our tupperware in December. Of course, I did tell the guys at work about it. I should be equally worried that they have set traps. At the moment, I'm taking comfort in the fact that they're lazy.

Also, for any curious people out there, my mom finally named her cat. It only took a week and several hundred suggestions. The cat will, henceforth, be known as Stretch.