Mid-MO Fall Arts & Crafts LB Gathering

This is to follow up on a previous post. The date has been set for the Mid-MO Fall Arts & Crafts LB Gathering. This gathering has been requested for some time by the local LB community to explore and share all the arts and crafts that have gone into some wonderful LBs scattered about central MO.

The date will be November 4th from 10 AM – 4 PM with a potluck thrown in between. Each attendee is asked to bring a dish to share. As some of you may have read, or recall from being there, the Mid-MO LB community set the bar high by the fantastic fare they brought to the ’06 ‘There and Back Again’ gathering. Oh, how I love a good potluck!

If this is your first gathering, let me say, this is not a typical, meet-and-go-hunt gathering. This event will be more focused on workshops teaching skills folks have asked for. The workshops will be bookbinding (including Fox-Fyr’s famous piano-hinge), paper aging, codes and ciphers and stamp carving. There may be time for a few small impromptu classes if anyone has anything else they feel they need.

I hope to leave ample time for folks to get friendly and share tales of their adventures and have a bit of show and tell. So if you have some fabulous FF bonus, bring it along and let the others droll over your good fortune.

To receive the location (it will be held in Columbia) you must send me an RSVP. I ask that everyone do this so I can have a rough idea of how many to expect. If you’re not on a mailing list that just recently received an e-mailing similar to this posting, and you’d like t be added to THE list, simply contact me through LBNA and I’ll be glad to add you.

Looking forward to meeting all the new faces and seeing old friends.

Lnd-Crzr

Mid Missouri Letterboxers

I will be teaching a map and compass course at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park on Oct. 7 from 1-4 p.m. The course title is "Lost in the Woods."

During the course, I will provide instruction on how to read a map, how to use a compass, and tips for bushwacking off-trail with map and compass. Then the group will go on a (somewhat) guided 2-mile hike mostly OFF-TRAIL. Along the way we will search for items including several hand-carved STAMPS and inkpads I will have hidden along the way.

Due to the fact that previous advertising about letterboxing has resulted in negative responses (i.e. boxes going missing), I am NOT advertising this event as letterboxing and ask that any of you who sign up do not mention or discuss the concept of letterboxing as well (or keep it to a low key discussion if someone from the general public inquires about it).

The course is free but registration is required. Call 573-449-7402 to register. If you wish to participate I recommend you collect the stamps the same way everyone else does and then paste them into your own logbook later to avoid discussion of letterboxing.

Fox-fyr

Nancy and Noodles

Hi contestants- just wanted to add a note that I forgot to put in the clues for the "now you see it now you don't contest"- due to the nature of the placement of these boxes, these boxes are on a borrowed time- for those who have found them you know what I mean- though I am not sure the exact date, probably after October, I will be moving these boxes - though it will not affect the clues (tricky!!) but I will plan on retiring these boxes at the end of the semester oops- I mean the end of the contest!! Get 'em while you can.

mamaroots

The BIG 200 Contest

As most of you are aware, our region is fast approaching 200 listings. Of course this doesn’t mean 200 boxes as we all know there are a good many LBs with unpublished clues (wink, wink). I feel this is a milestone which should not pass without some form of acknowledgement; there fore I give you The Big 200 contest.

The Big 200 contest is simple. Whoever plants the 200th LB in Mid-MO wins a fabulous prize (as always don’t think new car fabulous). In the event the 200th LB is planted outside of Mid-MO, that is Boone or Callaway for this purpose, I will award the closest box posted after the 200th for the region. I’ll make the judgment by counting up from the bottom of the listings page sorted by placement date.

As if we need any more incentive other than the addiction. Ready…Set…Go!

Mid-MO LB E-Mail Test

Hello all. I hope everyone has had a chance to get out and enjoy the wonderful weather and all the fantastic new LBs in Mid-MO. Holy cow!

I keep a list of e-mails that I use to send out announcements to Mid-MO Gatherings and such. Most of you should receive a test e-mail today. If you do not receive this test e-mail and wish to be added to this list, please contact me through LBNA and I will add your name.

I keep this list confidential and will never use it to send SPAM and such. It is strictly for LB purposes.

Rock Bridge State Park Question

This is not a LB question but I know that some of our bloggers are in the know. Has anyone ever went on one of RBSP cave tours? I have wanted to for several years and we are thinking of taking a group of guys from our church. I have checked it out on the web, but just wondered if anyone had an experience that they could share.

Mid MO Bike-Friendly Letterboxes

Here's a revised list of the letterboxes in the Mid Missouri area that are accessible from the various bike trails.

PRIDE
DOG WALK
NARF
GREAT SPIRIT
FALLEN LEAF
ORACLE
PROMENADE
FIVE STAR DRINKS/BIG MUDDY
LESSONS FROM THE JUKEBOX # 18
WILD MUSHROOM SERIES #4: HEN OF THE WOODS

Changes for Two Old Boxes

If you are thinking of seeking either Three Creeks or Gone Fishin' letterboxes in the near future, you might want to print out the clues. These are the oldest boxes in mid Missouri and when I planted them, you could not post your boxes directly on the LBNA site. Instead you had to put them somewhere else and make a link. One of my sisters put all our clues on her letterbox page with her server. That is why the clues look different for those two boxes. Isn't it great what we can do at the LBNA site these days? Anyhow, she is changing to DSL and will no longer use that server, so those LB links won't work anymore. I'll start putting those clues into the new format in a few days or so.

You might want to wait a bit to hunt those boxes anyway, if you haven't already. I have both of the logbooks at home to scan the entries, so there are temporary logbooks out in the boxes till I get back to them. The Three Creeks logbook in particular has many entries going back to September 2002 - it's fun to look through.

So have fun 'boxing on these fine September days.

Since there are quite a few Hitchhikers tagging along in Mid-Missouri, I thought I'd take this opportunity to briefly remind people to remember to stamp and sign everything. I keep finding Hitchhikers that did not get stamped with the host letterbox stamp or which did not get stamped into the host letterbox. A good rule of thumb is to do everything twice. Consider the Hitchhiker as a logbook and stamp belonging to an invisible friend. Whatever you do, you should do for the HH also (i.e., stamp both the host LB stamp into both your logbook and the HH logbook, stamp both your signature stamp and the HH stamp into the host logbook, sign and date your name and leave a brief message in both the host logbook and the HH logbook). For more details, please see the HH article in the July 2006 archives.

Boxing With KATY

OK, I'll admit it. Letterboxing is not my only addiction. Way before letterboxing came on the scene, bicycling was my favorite outdoor activity, and when the KATY Trail opened, I began pedaling there frequently. Since becoming a letterboxer, I've often thought about how much fun it would be to pair up LBs and bikes. Finally last Friday, these two addictions came together. I loaded my bike onto the car, selected a few LB essentials, including the clue for Surlymama's Pride LB, and headed out for the KATY Trail.
Without giving anything away, I'll just tell you that finding this box by bike is great. If your bike has off-road tires, you can continue pedaling along after you leave the KATY. You need a little muscle and a few gears - and you can just dismount to walk now and then, as I did. However, once you've found the Pride box and logged in, you can hop back in the saddle and coast back to the KATY. After finding this LB, I continued my ride, musing about LBs and bicycles. I thought it might be interesting, as well as helpful to nonlocal LB/bicycling enthusiasts, to compile a list of our local bike-friendly letterboxes.
Here's what I came up with. Without revealing any details and in no particular order, here are local letterboxes that are accessible from the KATY Trail, the MKT Fitness Trail and the Columbia Spur. Let me know if I've missed any.

PRIDE
DOG WALK
NARF
GREAT SPIRIT
FALLEN LEAF
ORACLE
PROMENADE
FIVE STAR DRINKS/BIG MUDDY

One last thing - if, like me, you're thinking of hiding bike-accessible LBs, please be aware of where the trail/park property ends, so that you don't hide boxes on private property.