Letterboxing with Pumpkin Girl

Back in 2019 my grandkids and daughter-in-law introduced me to letterboxing. Letterboxing is a sort of treasure hunt, and if you want to understand it better, you can check out that 2019 post here. 

I got serious about letterboxing and came up with my own trail name (Bear Claw 67), carved my own rubber stamp, and found my first box in the little village of Zabcikville. I was definitely a rookie, so when, in 2020, a long-time letterboxer (trail name Pumpkin Girl) contacted me to see if I'd like to meet up one day and search for a box or two, I agreed. 

I enjoyed meeting Pumpkin Girl that day. We had a great time together, but I wasn't really sure that letterboxing was for me. 

So ... time passed, and in 2022 we began worshipping with the Northside Church of Christ. A few months after that a lady named Pam placed membership as well. It took us both a while, but we eventually realized that we had spent a day together almost three years earlier ... Pam was Pumpkin Girl!

My letterboxing paraphernalia has stayed in a tote bag in a spare closet all this time. But today Pam came by the house and took me out to search for boxes. We found five of them, which was a great addition to my log book.

I'm still not sure that I'm cut out for letterboxing. It's a little "fiddly" for me - pulling out weeds, wiping the mud off of boxes, stamping the notebooks, writing the data in them, all the while trying to keep the wind from blowing everything away. Actually, I was much more interested in taking pictures of the places we went. Yes ... sorry, Pam. I think I'll stick to photography.

On our first location, Pam had to pull out her garden gloves and clippers to clear away the weeds that had taken over the base of the tree, where the letterbox was hidden

And here are some of the things that were in the box. 

Next we found two letterboxes near this historic log cabin near Baylor Scott & White Hospital. The cabin was used from the 1920s to the 1940s by Dr. Scott, co-founder of the hospital, as a private study and retreat. It was moved here in 1972.

We ended our hunt at a small, private cemetery near Pam's residence, where we located two letterboxes. 

This small stone was at the base of the large monument shown above. We got a chuckle out of it.

I'm thinking of giving up on letterboxing, but not on spending time with Pumpkin Girl! Maybe I could convince her to become a photo-buddy!