A Big Milestone and the Event Begins

This morning I took my time getting ready and I relaxed a little before heading out for the day. I didn't really have a lot planned but there was one thing I was hoping to accomplish before the event started this afternoon. So around 9:00am I left the hotel and headed out to do some letterboxing. My first stop was at Hickory House. Here I looked for two boxes - Hickory Bear and Hickory Mama both by The Woodshed. I found both boxes easily and found a great bench to sit on to stamp in. It was nice to look for the boxes in the morning, there was no one around and I was able to go undetected. After stamping in and replacing the boxes I was on to my next stop.

Not far down the road from Hickory House I arrived at JS Parker Cemetery. At this location I had clues for three boxes. I was really hoping that I would find all the boxes here in order to accomplish my goal for the day. So, I started following the clues for Adinkra Symbols - CO - By God's Grace All Will Be Well by LCAB. The clues seemed fine at first but then when I found the tree I needed the box seemed missing. So I started over and arrived at the same tree. It took me a while but I finally found the box, it was really hidden well and seemed to blend in with the tree extremely well. I stamped in and put the box back where I found it and then moved on to the second box. I found this box much quicker and brought it back to the car to stamp in. This box was Colorado Cougar also by LCAB. Once that box was back in its hiding spot I moved on to the third box. I followed the clues for Grave Markings: Winged Skull by Gypsy Fiddler and easily found the box. There was a bench near by that I used to stamp in. After replacing the box I returned to the car and figured out where I wanted to go to find my next box and hopefully meet the goal I had for the day.

I left the cemetery and made my way to Railbender Park. Once I parked I followed the clues for Donald to the Rescue! by The Woodshed. I followed the path and found the landmark bench. I put my stuff down and took a deep breath hoping that the box was still there. The last logged find was back in 2016 and if the box was there for me to find it would be a milestone find. So I went to the tree, found the cement piece, moved the pine needles and WOOHOO!!!, I found the box. This letterbox was my 5000th find! The bench was the perfect place to sit and stamp in and celebrate this milestone. After stamping in and spending some time reflecting on my 12 years of letterboxing and 5000 found boxes it was time to start the event.

The Disney Mania Colorado Style event was scheduled to begin at 1:00pm today and continue on until Sunday at 6:00pm. The main site for the event was at The Woodshed's house. But since I had helped to plant some of the boxes for the event I decided to start early in Castle Rock and get those boxes out of the way. So I met scouttrekkie in Castle Rock to find the boxes located there. We spent about three hours in Castle Rock and found the following series . . . Daughters of Tritan (7), Grab a Tissue (14), Princess Promenade (40), Fantasy Land (37) and Disney Dogs (5). We ended up stamping 103 images before packing up and heading to Parker.

At The Woodshed's house I picked up my clue booklet and a goodie bag (filled with a lanyard/name tag, candy, Disney trading pins and a pen). After visiting with a few people I got to work stamping the event stamp and then making a plan to start finding boxes. With a plan in hand I began finding boxes. I started in the living room and found two series . . . Iconic Disney (9) and It All Started With a Mouse (9). Then I moved on to the back bedroom and found . . . Disney Dress Up (13). Next, I headed down to the basement and found three series . . . Tomorrow Land (25), Hollywood Studios (16) and Disney Babies (20). By this time it was close to 6:00pm and it was time for dinner. As part of the event tonight we all chipped in and they ordered pizza. So we took a break from all the stamping and had something to eat. Then after eating I spent some time getting a few exchanges and personal travelers. Around 8:00pm we started night boxing and found two series . . . Disney After Dark (19) and Quotable Disney (25). It was around 9:15pm when we finished the night boxing and then we returned to the house and visited for a while. In between all the boxes I found I also found eight of the Hidden Mickeys series. So at The Woodshed's I found 136 boxes (not including the event stamp, exchanges or personal travelers) which made my total for the event for today 247 letterboxes.

It was an incredible day - tons of boxes, visiting with other letterboxers and reaching a big milestone. I was back at the hotel around 10:30pm and it is now midnight. I need some rest because the event continues tomorrow.