Letterboxing

A couple weeks ago when we were out looking for a geocache at Boner Bridge, we came across a letterbox by mistake.  I had read some about letterboxing so I knew what it was when we found it.  Every since then, I thought letterboxing would be a little bit more fun for Gavin...and for me :)

 

What is letterboxing?  It is (taken from the Wikipedia website)...Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art, and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly accessible places (like parks)^[1] and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a notebook and a rubber stamp.^[2] Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp, either on their personal notebook or on a postcard, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's "visitors' book" or "logbook" — as proof of having found the box and letting other letterboxers know who has visited. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count".

 

I knew as soon as I decided to do this, I wanted a camera stamp and I wanted to get Gavin a stamp.  Yesterday after work I had plans to go get Gavin and mom for the weekend.  We got off work early so I zoomed out to a couple craft stores to find some stamps so that we could do some letterboxing this weekend.  My first stop was JoAnn Fabrics.  It was a bust for the stamps, but I did get some great new supplies for scrapbooking :)  Next stop was Hobby Lobby.  I got me a camera stamp with a pink ink pad and Gavin a dinosaur stamp with a lime green ink pad.

 

 

 

After I picked Gavin and mom up, we stopped at Boner Bridge on our way back home.  Getting the letterbox unbundled from its bag and getting all of my supplies out was definitely more time consuming than geocaching.  With experience, I'll definitely get a system.

 

As you can see in the picture below, I stamped out stamps in the letterbox book, and then stamped the letterbox stamp in my book.

 

 

 

There was also a surprise in this letterbox.  It's called a hitchhiker.  A hitchhiker is a letterbox without a home. A hitchhiker is hidden with another letterbox, and the person that finds it is expected to take the hitchhiker to another letterbox.

 

 

 

I bought the book below at a yard sale quite a few years ago.  I thought it was really cute and it was cheap at the sale.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I got it and it's just been sitting on a shelf at home all these years.  I was cleaning the night before last and saw it an thought "that's going to be my letterboxing book!"  It's perfect!

 

 

 

I stamped our stamps at the beginning of the book.

 

 

And here is our first official letterbox stamp!