Miss some....FIND one....

A day in the life of a letterboxer!

First, you wander a bit. You know you're close...THINK you're close anyway....but can't QUITE seem to find the box. We missed two boxes near this location even though Zoe is clearly leading the way with enthusiasm and confidence. LOL I later found out that one box was missing, and the other we were literally on top of and should have seen it. Oh well, that's the inspiration that will keep me going back to try that one again!

Then, you find a geocache instead of a box. Zoe hadn't found one before so we pulled it out to see. Caching is different from boxing, involving GPS coordinates

and the box is filled with little treasures. You sign the log by telling what you're removed from the box, and what little surprise of your own that you leave. We found a small rubber stamp obviously left by a boxer who had found the location, and Zoe left a new Sharpie marker in it's place. The cache included a camera to snap a photo of yourself which we had fun with.

Suddenly you're rewarded with a view like this one of the spring daffodils. The afternoon sun, slanting just right through the trees above picked out the flowers in just such a way..... they glowed with a joy of living and the promise of spring coming soon. Five minutes later, the view was gone and the magic faded just a little and they were normal flowers again.

But then, the clues you're following straighten themselves out and you're rewarded with a beautiful, memorial visit to a beautiful place like this. You pause in your chaotic, busy life to be thankful for this walk a total stranger has led you on. You will probably never meet that person, this letterboxer who has given you a gift and a memory unique to that day and that place and that time. And you are thankful to that person and feel a connection to someone who shares the love of a hobby that by it's very definition is forever a hidden secret.

Even though we missed two, and found one, I'll have the day forever.