Windsurfing Pavilion
Anastasia State Park
300 Anastasia Park Road
St. Augustine, FL 32080
GPS: 29.872169, -81.275807
Background
I'm not sure when I first heard of Letterboxing but I joined Atlas Quest on 02 Mar 2014 and logged my first find on 22 Mar 2014. So my activity is less than a year old. My first experience was with Manned Space Programs of the U.S.A. from 1959 to 2011 (AQ233506) while searching for a geocache. I found a few more related to the space program and a few during our trip north in the spring. But that is the extent of my letterboxing experience.
I found this weekend's event (AQ3195 -- "Love Those Movies!") on Atlas Quest. Michelle and I decided it was time for a new adventure so we signed up.
Friday, 06 Feb 2015
Today we travelled the 85 miles from Titusville to St. Augustine. We travelled without the Cougar so I had reserved a hotel room for the weekend. I chose the Sleep Inn because of its proximity to the event site. The weather was great and the drive was easy. The last few miles were through the heart of St. Augustine. We have never been here before and we were quite taken with the downtown. Flagler College dominates the cityscape with impressive buildings of Spanish architecture. The centerpiece of the campus is the former Hotel Ponce de León, a grand resort built in 1888 by Henry Flagler. This structure is an intricate complex of four buildings representing a mélange of historical styles.
Flagler College
We arrived mid–afternoon, settled into the hotel, and got our stuff together for the Pre Dinner (AQ3245) event tonight. Keep in mind we have never been to one of these before and had no idea what to expect. I had read an article on event preparation but that was all I had to go on.
The dinner was held at the Kingfish Grill – a nice restaurant and bar on the waterfront in St Augustine.
We were a large group so we had preselected menu choices and they had us on the outdoor deck. Later when I went inside to the restroom, I got a look at their Sushi Bar. Awesome – I'll have to get back there sometime. Eating out on the patio of a nice restaurant on a Florida evening sounds neat. And it probably is. But tonight was downright cold. We all were in heavy jackets, some in gloves, and it was a race to eat your meal before the food got cold.
The main activity, of course, was "stamping in". That is where people exchange stamp images. Your signature stamp is the stamp you use whenever you stamp someone else's logbook. By the end of the weekend, I had collected many signature stamps. A lot of them are quite creative. The ones that have your handle built into the stamp save a lot of writing. Here are a few including mine.
My Signature Stamp is my Avatar
Colorful Caterpillars Signature Stamp
DM Scuba Brat Signature Stamp
Janila Signature Stamp
musicpals Signature Stamps
tiggerlilly Signature Stamp
tiggermama Signature Stamp
For many, the big part of this hobby is carving rubber stamps. So there were a lot of carved stamp collections and people were busy stamping as fast as they could to get as many stamps as possible. It was pretty overwhelming for us but everyone made us feel welcome and we quickly joined in the stamping frenzy. I'm sure our newness was apparent to all. We showed up with one stamp mounted on a wooden block and a cheap stamp pad, purchased from an office supply store, that was way too small for most of the stamps. Both of which are NoNo's. Stamps are not mounted. Stamp pads are always from an art supply store. The ink is of much higher quality and the pads are configured so that you can ink a large stamp. Always something new to learn.
Based on my geocaching experience, I expected letterboxing to involve a 'box'. Not so far. More likely it will be a sandwich size ziplock bag or possibly a film canister or pill bottle covered with camo duct tape.
Typical letterbox containers
The theme for the whole of this three day event is "Love those Movies", so all the stamp trails have a movie twist. Our dinner event had one trail/series titled Love those Movies: Dinner Theater (13) (AQ Box#250444). There were thirteen stamps, all having to do with food and drink, hidden (not really) along a short path around the restaurant. Each stamp counts as a separate find. We found twelve.
Love those Movies: Dinner Theater (13) (Box#250444)
By 8PM we were tired, cold, and confused. Not hungry though; we had a good meal. It was time to head back to the hotel for some warmth and sleep. Tomorrow is another day.
Saturday, 07 Feb 2015
This morning we left our hotel (after our free breakfast) heading for the Windsurfing Pavilion in Anastasia State Park. It was less than half a mile – quick and easy.
Entrance to Anastasia State Park
Anastasia State Park includes 1,600 acres of rich ecosystems and wildlife, four miles of pristine beach, an estuarine tidal marsh, a self-guided nature trail which takes you through the maritime hammock and onto ancient sand dunes, a campground with hookups, several group picnic areas, and an amphitheater. You can also visit the Coquina Quarry, an archaeological site. At Anastasia, there are many recreational activities to enjoy including hiking, swimming, beachcombing, bird watching. There is a beach snack bar and a rental facility for catamarans and kayaks.
Windsurfing Pavilion in Anastasia State Park
A few folks had arrived early and were busy trading stamps. Two tables were designated as food tables for the pot luck lunch and were already loaded with goodies. After dropping our contribution to the pile of food, we joined the crowd.
The Pavilion soon filled up
At an event, these are called "Tabletop Boxes". Here is the Atlas Quest definition:
Boxes, usually event stamps, left at an event or gathering for people to discover and stamp into. Many times, the stamps are left on the top of a picnic table for anyone to pick up, but it refers to any type of stamp that's sitting around at a gathering available for the taking whether it's on a table, on the ground, in an ice chest, or anywhere else they may be cleverly hidden or disguised.
I'm having a hard time with the use of the term "boxes". There were no boxes. Mostly just naked unidentified stamps – occasionally a zip lock baggie. Anyway, there were stamps everywhere, so we joined the game and "stamped in" everything we could.
Our hostess eeyoremama had laid out a trail of twelve boxes (there I go again) based on the characters from Despicable Me. These were small stamps in camo baggies hung from the branches of bushes along a trail in the sand dunes of the park. Someone named this the Minion Trail. I could not find this listing anywhere but the name seems appropriate so I'll use it too. We had a pleasant walk along the trail through the dunes along with several other folks and found all twelve.
Boxers on the Minion Trail
As we walked the trail, we encountered people who wanted to exchange signature stamps. So we did. And here is where my lack of logbook organizing skills got me. I intended to have two facing logbook pages devoted to this collection of twelve stamps of minions. Exchanging sig stamps blew that idea. So my page display is twelve minions interspersed with four sig stamps. I'll get it together some day. Someone we spoke with told us "Don't even try".
Box#250456 – Despicable Me II (12)
Can you pick out the six sig stamps on these two pages?
Back to the pavilion for our pot–luck lunch. I have never been to a pot–luck meal that ran out of food. This was no exception. We all had plenty to overeat and left overs to take home for two more meals. It was all good.
Then a raffle. That's when it hit me how much our hostesses had put into the event. There were a ton of prizes and none of them were cheap. These were not gag gifts or trinkets but significant items with substantial price tags. So here I'll pause to give Lynda and Cindyellen a special thanks.
When Michelle's ticket was called, we were fortunate enough to get a prize we could use immediately. We put aside our Office Depot stamp pad and started using our newly won Memento Dew Drops Dye Inkpad-12PK
Memento Dew Drops Dye Inkpad-12PK
Now we can ink with the pros
Back to the hunt. Lynda had laid out two more series close to the pavilion and easy to find. This was an easter egg hunt. Six yellow eggs contained Box #250455 Lights, Camera, Action and ten blue eggs contained Box #250454 Love Those Movies: Olafs. We found five of the six yellow eggs and all ten of the blue eggs.
An Early Easter Egg Hunt
That was enough for today.
For dinner we went to the Conch House on St. Augustine Inlet. The Conch House is a marina resort offering casual dining, sport fishing, a lounge, and a motel.
We picked the place on the word of the desk clerk at the hotel, and because it was close, and because we had coupons for free beer. It was a good choice. The food was good and the caribbean nautical ambiance was pleasant.
There we ran into Rachluabster, Colorful Caterpillars, and scouttrekkie having dinner. We traded a few stories about the day, then they headed out for the night boxing adventure. We had dinner: Michelle fried oysters and I fried shrimp.
Rachluabster, Colorful Caterpillars, scouttrekkie enjoy dinner at the Conch House
Sorry for the bad picture.
Back at the hotel, I tried to log the day's activity at the AQ website. I succeeded somewhat and learned a lot about navigating the website and even more about organizing and controlling my logbook. I probably could have done more had I been able to stay awake. Busy day plus full tummy equals sleepy old man. Nite all.
Sunday, 08 Feb 2015
After our free breakfast at the hotel and fortified by coffee and donuts at the pavilion, we were ready to tackle more letterboxing challenges. The crowd was much smaller this morning. Some slept in, others were gone. We sat around for awhile; talking and stamping. We finally got rolling with an easy find. Good old Shrek was on the beach near the pavilion, so we scooped him up.
Box #250416 Love Those Movies: Shrek
Here are a few of the many stamp series we collected this weekend
tigerlilly offered this nice set of three stamps of the logos from The Hunger Games
Box#250480 Join the Revolution by tigerlilly
Someone started collecting pictures of the art work on the sides of U-Haul vehicles. That became a collection of 38 (so far) letterboxing stamps. DS brought this to the event. We captured five representing states in which we have history. I wonder how many pages would be required to stamp all 38?
Box#211803 U-Haul Graphics (38) by DS
One of the many contributions of our hostess eeyoremama was this box of five stamps of Totem Pole art. If you found this box, you would have to answer the question "Name the town in the Pacific Northwest that has a Anthropology Museum featuring totem poles." Since this was an event and she was very busy, we didn't have to do that. Sorry I stamped the whale upside down.
Box#239689 Ode to Art: Pacific Northwest (5) by eeyoremamma
We had time to do one more trail. We chose to do Box#250435 Love Those Movies: Cartoons (12). This collection was located on a trail along the perimeter of the park and began in the campground. Since we wanted to check out the campground for future use, this seemed to be a good idea. This box had stamps from the films Jungle Book by RiverKat and Madagascar by eeyoremama. We found all twelve.
Box#250435 Love Those Movies: Cartoons (12)
Several people have told us that St. Augustine has beautiful Christmas light displays. Neighbors of ours come to see the displays and camp in their RV here in Anastasia State Park. That sounds like fun so we wanted to checkout the campground for future use. The campground has 139 campsites all located within the beautiful maritime hammock just a short walk or bike ride from the beach.
Campground, Anastasia State Park
St. Augustine, FL
Our Personal Traveler (AQ244271 followthecougar)
Our box was with us for the whole weekend. Only three people stamped in. I suspect people did not recognize it as a letterbox because it is a real box. I made it to be waterproof and withstand the elements. My geocaching experience told me that most containers leak or fall apart after a short time. I guess I overkilled it. I do that frequently. You can see our clue here.
Box#244271 followthecougar
People We Met and Didn't
There were a lot of people coming and going all weekend. Since we were the newbies, we really didn't know anyone. We met and exchanged stamps with many but I know it was less than half of the population. Here are the folks we met.
| airstream dreams | Janila | scouttrekkie |
| Angel Kisses | Ladymouse | Seastar255 |
| Blue Delft | LCAB | Shoafsters |
| Colorful Caterpillars | Malachite Dragon | Suddoku Crazy |
| DM Scuba Brat | Mosaic Butterfly | Three Flamigo's |
| DS | Mouse Nanny | tigerlilly |
| EarlyRizr | MrsBoots | tiggermama |
| eeoremama | musicpals | twanda70 |
| Fish's Card Room | PALMTREES | Woodswoman |
| flyfishercacher | Papa Bear | zoemomma |
| idlemoon | Rachluabster | |
Meet Our Hostesses
Cindyellen (tiggermama) and Lynda (eeyoremama)
By the time the event ended, I was super impressed with the size of the job Lynda and Cindyellen had pulled off. The amount of work was obvious to anyone who has arranged and executed an event of any kind. They had no sponsors so I could see there were big bucks out of their pocket. I appreciate it and I hope others recognized and appreciate both the time and treasure that went into the weekend.
Cindyellen and her husband have recently become full time RVers and WorKampers. That is the world I live in. We are in our fourth year and love it. Next summer they head to Vermont for their first job working in a campground. The mountains of Vermont are beautiful. I hope they have a great experience. I'll share some blog posts of our experiences with them. We are doing a 7,000 mile big circle that includes New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, and Delaware. I'm getting "Hitch Itch" thinking about it.
I welcome comments to this blog post – especially pointing out errors. I'll fix errors and include omissions if I can.
Titusville Space View Park -- Gemini Section
GPS: 28.614506, -80.804373
The scene of the party
Just to close the loop, here is the link to the original posting that appeared in geocaching.com and AtlasQuest.com.
Thanks to all who attended. You made it a great day. I estimate the total to be close to fifty people. While I had most on my RSVP list, there were a few who showed up looking for Titan's Passenger (GC4QRCW) not knowing there was an event going on. They seemed happy to stop and visit for a spell. There were more Geocachers than Letterboxers but the Letterboxers won over several Geocachers. Maybe the other way too. So now there are a few more "double threat" people.
These are the attendees. If you know of someone who snuck in under the radar, let me know in the comments section below this post, and I will add them to the list. I don't want to miss anyone.
| All Hat | KissimmeeCarolyn | Teejaylm |
| Bootscootin70 | Malachite Dragon | tiggermama |
| CyberLizard | MrsBoots | ttocshsoj |
| DM Scuba Brat | RonC | volkssporter41 |
| flyfishercacher | rperry401 | wd4kaq |
| Genghis_Green | Seastar255 | WeCacheAlot |
| Jerann | SHBOOM | |
| Kingsnu | Svsummerwind | |
My wife Michelle had to be out of town attending to some family business. She regrets not being here and looks forward to the big letterboxing event in St Augustine next weekend. This will be our first event of this kind. If you are curious or interested check out AQ3195 and AQ3245 on the Atlas Quest website.
Our letterbox followthecougar, Atlas Quest Box AQ244271, was here today and got it's first stamp. All Hat gets "First to Find" honors.
followthecougar is a "Traditional Personal Traveler" letterbox. Don't try to look that up. You won't find it. We invented that box type for ourselves. You can read that story at Our Letterbox Clue. While you're there, look up the answers to our clue questions so you can get our stamp next weekend in St Augustine.
Speaking of clue answers! tiggermama was the only person to approach me with answers to the questions before she stamped in. followthecougar was sitting out on the table and most others just stamped in. Congratulations to tiggermama and shame on the rest of you. That won't happen in St Augustine. Regardless, I am happy to finally get some stamps in the logbook.
followthecougar -- our "Traditional Personal Traveller" letterbox
How about Trackables? I brought four. I have been picking them up for several days from GC4652A The Camo Bug Inn a travel bug motel near my home. I use it a lot. It is my favorite place to launch travel bugs. Kingsnu brought a bunch too. Thanks for that. (I also love your dog).
For Letterboxers, the travel bug equivalent is the Hitchhiker. I picked one up from AQ233458 Remembering The Challenger. That letterbox is at the Space Shuttle Inspiration outside the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The Hitchhiker, #136608 Hungry Travelling Apple, has been on the road since 28 Dec 2008. I think it has been at its last location for over a year. Anyway I brought it to today's event. It was on the table all day and Malachite Dragon was the only person to stamp in. It will get a new home next weekend in St Augustine. Maybe I will also learn the differences between Hitchhiker, Cootie, and Flea.
Hitchhiker 133608 Hungry Travelling Apple
I left the event with two travel bugs. TB645YY Dio's Signal Tag is trying to get to Germany. I can't help with that so he goes to The Camo Bug Inn. TB29Z46 Meyers Manx is trying to go to Denver. My grandson lives in Denver so this guy will go in the mail to Denver to be deposited in a geocache somewhere near his home.
TB29Z46 Meyers Manx will go to Denver
While preparing for this event and looking at the RSVP list, I thought there could be a few geocachers who would like to try letterboxing but would be unprepared. So I made up three Letterboxing Starter Kits. The kit consists of a brief instruction sheet, an inexpensive stamp pad, a decent quality logbook, and an inexpensive stamp. Two folks were interested. I still have the third.
Letterboxing Starter Kit
One of attractions to letterboxing is the art form of carving rubber stamps. Today I met DM Scuba Brat and saw her collection of hand carved rubber stamps. This is the first time I have seen such a collection and I am impressed – WOW!. Maybe I can get her to carve a Meet and Greet stamp for me.
Late in the day we had a situation involving Titan's Passenger (GC4QRCW). Our event site is very close to this geocache (on purpose) and folks had been logging it all day long. Suddenly two groups turned up two containers simultaneously. One container was the one I knew to be the proper one; the second was a tupperware lock'n'lock container with a logbook but no identification. Several of our folks had logged into this container thinking it was Titan's Passenger (GC4QRCW). We sorted through the contents of both containers, put the two logbooks into the one official container and took the second one out of service. I will post a "Needs Maintenance" log for the owner to consolidate the logbooks.
I saved the best for last. I want to give a special shout out to Debbie. Debbie is an experienced Geocacher. She started in Sep 2006 and has found 2,165 caches and logged 648 trackables. She geocaches under the handle Bootscootin70. She letterboxes under the handle MrsBoots. Her first letterboxing adventure was today and she picked up seven finds.
That's Debbie in the center
She is the only one to post pictures to the event log.
Finding a Geocache
A 2fer Geocache and Munzee
Letterbox Log pages
Debbie gets my vote (the only one that counts) as the person who had the most fun today. Here is the quote from her log entry for today's event:
"I had a great day. Loved learning about Letterboxing. Thank you for having kits available to buy. What a wonderful day to be outside. I started my day going to a Triple Event. Letterboxing - Geocaching - Munzeeing. I started letterboxing today and met some people who letterbox. The gave me all kinds of information and tips. Then I was kidnapped by Seastar255 and WeCacheAlot to go do some Geocaching and have a treat at Twisty Treat. I went back to the event and talked with the host Bob for awhile and he told me where to go and what to do. So off I go to letterbox. I talked to a fisherman for awhile. Gave him some water and let him use my phone. Then at my first letterbox there was two men and I said hello as I was looking. I asked them if I could ask them a question. I said are you homeless? They said we are in transition. We talked for at almost an hour. I found out their situations and they told me how I could help. Very interesting. I continued on to finish Letterboxing, Munzeeing, and Geocaching. I had a great day!"
Before today I had resolved to take many pictures. I took NONE. I am ashamed. Debbie saved the day. If you took any pictures, you can post them with your log entry and I will put them into this blog.
When I talk to Geocachers who say "I don't do letterboxing", or Letterboxers who don't do Munzee, or Munzee Seekers who do neither, I ask why? Why not do all? I want to see new places, solve puzzles, read maps, find treasures. I geocache with my grandkids. They are motivated by trinket treasures not realizing they are learning geography, GPS, history, and navigation. Waymarking should be a way to find interesting places but the website is a disaster. Come on Groundspeak. Letterboxing leads to interesting places through clever puzzles while enjoying neat art work. Munzees occasionally take us to interesting places but are mostly a waste because it is just plastering up light poles in shopping mall parking lots. I play it for fun while Michelle does shopping. Get a quick synopsis of each of these games here.
Here in Titusville Space View Park are two geocaches, three letterboxes, half a dozen Munzees – all within a few minutes walk and findable easily within half an hour. Appreciating what the park means is worth two or three hours and the nearby museum is worth another two. By just grabbing finds, you usually miss the real meaning of the place. Geocaching, Waymarking, Letterboxing, and even Munzee can take you to neat places but it is still up to you to take time to smell the roses. Titusville Space View Park is a tribute to the greatest human adventure of the 20th century and the people who made it happen. I love this little place and the story it tells. I hope our event today enriched your life a little and made you a bit prouder to be an American.
Letterboxing, like any other game or sport, can be played at any level of intensity you choose. From the ho–hum occasional player to the full–out–full–time competitor, there is pleasure to be gained by playing this game. Whatever level you choose or evolve too, here is what you need to play.
1. USER NAME / HANDLE I consider these features important (you may not).
-- Descriptive of you.
-- Not too long, not too short.
-- Easy to remember by you and others. "Catchy" is good.
-- Consider the fact that you will be signing it and typing it many times.
-- If you engage in other games, e.g., Geocaching, Waymarking, Munzee, think about making your handle the same for all.
I chose the handle "flyfishercacher" to reflect my interest in flyfishing and geocaching. I use the same handle in all games; I created my avatar to illustrate this name, and I use it everywhere.
My Avatar is my signature stamp
2. ACCOUNT / MEMBERSHIP in Atlas Quest (AQ) and / or Letterboxing North America (LbNA) website. AQ is by far the better site but LbNA is enough of a presence that you should not ignore it. I have joined both and use the same handle on both.
Both of these websites involve the common membership game. A basic membership is free and gets you some features. A premium membership gets you all the features and costs some nominal amount of money. I suggest starting with the free basic then evolving as your interest dictates. As a minimum, start with a basic membership to Atlas Quest.
Atlas Quest (AQ)
Letterboxing North America (LbNA)
3. SIGNATURE STAMP This is the centerpiece of the Letterboxing game. Very serious players are into the art form of hand carving rubber stamps. Letterboxing provides a display forum for their art work and your searching will turn up some impressive stamps. Those of us who are less intense, can have a stamp made for a reasonable price by RubberStamps.com. You provide the art work in the form of a picture (jpg, png, gif) and they will create a rubber stamp from your art work. I think it is a good idea to include your handle in the stamp.
I have included an inexpensive stamp in this kit just to get you started. If you develop any interest in this game, you will quickly want to move on to a better stamp.
4. STAMP PAD Letterboxes are supposed to contain a stamp and a logbook. Most do not contain a stamp pad. So to play the game you should bring along your own stamp pad. There is a cheap one in this kit. Like the stamp, you will want to move on to better ink and stamp pad. Buy from craft stores; not office supply stores.
5. LOGBOOK This is where my education has been long and expensive and may not be over yet. Soon after I started geocaching, I bought a cheap spiral pad to keep a brief record of my finds. Then I encountered a geocache with a stamp in it. Then I learned about letterboxing. Then I found a letterbox with a stamp too big for my little spiral pad. Then I realized that the ink was bleeding through the paper and obliterating the writing on the other side. Then I got smart(er).
The logbook should be a quality product worthy of containing and displaying a collection of stamp images and notes that may grow for many years. You will not be able to return and recapture these images sometime in the future. Your logbook should be something you are proud to show off.
So here is my advice:
-- Spiral binding so that the logbook can be laid open flat
-- Heavy weight acid free paper (90lb is good). Reduces possibility of bleed through and preserves stamp images just about forever.
-- Large enough to hold bigger stamps. Small enough to carry around. I don't have a magic answer here but a small notepad sure isn't it.
This kit contains a quality logbook. I did not go cheap here. The pages are 5.5" by 8.5" and are 98lb paper.
Hopefully these notes and this kit will give your letterboxing adventure a starting boost.
EVENT:- Date: Saturday, 31 January 2015
- Time: 10AM to 3PM
- Location:
Space View Park – Gemini section (28.614506, -080.804373)
Orange St & Indian River Ave
Titusville, FL 32780
Brevard County
Directions: Enter the Gemini section from Indian River Ave and proceed to the picnic table near the monument.
Event and Parking locations
Note: The Mercury and Gemini sections are separated by a small body of water. You have to get it right at the street – you can’t cross over.
Amenities:- Parking: Ample free parking nearby at Veterans Park
- Restrooms: Nearby in Mercury section
- Handicap accessible: Yes
- Kid Friendly: OK, not great, educational for older kids
- Pet Friendly: Yes
- Fees / Charges: None
This is a combined Geocaching, Letterboxing, and Munzee “Meet and Greet” to get you out to shake the post–holiday blues. There are seven geocaches, four letterboxes, and tons of Munzees within one mile of this location.
Host “flyfishercacher” will be there to meet you, greet you, and hear about your Geocaching, Letterboxing, and Munzee adventures. Arrive and leave as you please anytime between 10AM and 3PM. Stay as long as you like – there is no formal program. We will have some SWAG and Trackables for the Geocachers, including the new QR Code tag and three unusual trackables you can’t grab.
For the Letterboxers, “followthecougar” (AQ244271) will be there with a stamp and stamp book. Flyfishercacher has a stamp for your log book if you answer the questions in our clue.
Many Munzees in the area and we have deployed two new Virtual Munzees for you to find.
We will have an Event Log for you to sign, also an event stamp. We’ll take lots of pictures to post.
ENJOY A DAY OUT WITH YOUR GPS OR SMARTPHONEBRING A FRIEND OR SIGNIFICANT OTHERSTOP HERE DURING YOUR ADVENTURE
Park Entrance
Gemini Monument
Event location
Picnic table near Gemini Monument
(28.614506, -080.804373)
Restrooms nearby in Mercury section
RSVP in comments would be nice. Thanks.
