I Almost Cried....

“Sad to report……we could not find a trace of any of these boxes in any of the defined locations…..they were all completely missing :(“
When I got this message… I thought I was going to cry.
So far I have planted 13 traditional letterboxes. We planted the ♣ Patrick O’Darby’s Map ♣ series at Darby Creek park. This was a 5 box series and our first. We put a lot of work and thoughts into creating this series. You have to find 4 boxes, each of which were a corner to Patrick O’Darby’s map. When you put the 4 pieces together it created, well, a map. You had to actually follow the map in order to the last stamp of wist was O’Darby’s pot of gold. About a month later, after planting these boxes, I stumbled apon the park rules on geocashing. All geocashing rules apply to letterboxing as well. I learned we needed a permit to plant our boxes. Great. Before I learned this we had planted another series in the same park. I thought “Another boxers has boxes hidden there and haven’t been found by the rangers for over a year so our boxes will be fine.” So days went by and I was approached by a good friend that I shouldn’t place boxes in the mettro parks. I finally decided that we’ll go pull the boxes from the park. Between the plant and the pulling of the boxes, two letterboxers found our box. After a couple of weeks of hard thinking and procrastinating, I decided to retire ♣ Patrick O’Darby’s Map ♣ Only out there for a mont and it’s already retired! We were thinking about relocating the map parts and then getting a permit for the last one but we just didn’t do it. Now these stamps have been recycled and await a new home.
When we did go out and pull our boxes from the park all was well… until we came to the last box of our second series. With all the crazy storms that hit Ohio and surrounding areas, it had knocked over a ton of trees. The tree of which the last box was hidden got split and knocked over. We searched the entire tree and came to the conclusion that the rangers probably took the box. This series we can relocate but now we have to recarve the last box. Along with that box was also our K-9 Hitch Hiker that I carved. Two stamps gone in one box. Well, I’ve recareved the stamp (it’s not as good as the original) and this series awaits its relocation.
Then there’s the Franklin County Fair box which is only available during the fair.
So out of 13 boxes we have 5 retired, 3 unavailable, along with the limited time unavailable box. That leaves us with 4 active boxes.
One box is hidden at Packrat Comics and I know that’s not going anywhere so that leaves the three hidden at Greenlawn Cemetery. The Sailor and His Lover series are our most found boxes. When I got the message that they were gone I was on the verge of tears. That would have left us with only 1 active box. So a few days later we were off to Greenlawn to check up on the boxes.
As soon as we parked near the first box we notices two women walking around and they were putting back our second pot! “They’re letterboxers! They are finding OUR boxes!” I screamed. Tyrus opened his door and I nearly pushed him out of the car. We ran over to the two boxers with wide grins on our faces.
“Are you guys looking for these boxes too?” One of the ladies asked.
“No, we are actually the planters!” Tyrus replied.
“So Cat-chow? Is that how you say it?” The same women asked.
“Yep! Cat-chow. We came to check up on our boxes because someone said our boxes were gone.”
“Nope, They’re all here. We found the first two and are on to the third.” The other women said.
we were so relieved to know our boxes were still there. We traded personal travelers and had a quick chat before going our separate ways. We ran into letterboxers only one other time and that was also at Greenlawn. But these were the first two with personal travelers. The two we met were ohiosportsfans and kleppert. They were very nice people.
So after all of that We showed my grandpa P. our boxes and then went on the hunt for a couple of other boxes. We found two of them but the the third box was complicated and we left. My grandpa took us to Tommy’s Diner. They have great food and service and aren’t that far from Greenlawn.
Well after all of that, and while writing this, I realized that the message about my boxes missing was about the 3 boxes I have to relocate, not the boxes at Greenlawn Cemetery. Well… I guess the moral is to check which boxes the letterboxer is talking about before you freak out.
This was interesting.
~Catchow

http://catchowlbna.tumblr.com/