GET OUT THE MAP

It was raining hard when I woke up this morning... I looked at the weather radar and saw a large green rain blob heading to the area...so like any red blooded American letterboxer... I grabbed my keys, 25 clues, my and got out the map... I threw in the Indigo Girls CD and was off to another adventure in letterboxing history... heading for Delaware.

I could not get that childhood rhyme out of my head...

If Mississippi gave Missouri her New Jersey, what would Delaware? Idaho, Alaska. ...

I was on my way and soon out of the rain... wishing for a familiar voice to say "Good mornin' sunshine.."

I had the inside scoop on the location of some wonderful WOM boxes in the area and the anticipation of great boxes, in great places, with great clues was very exciting... my heart was fluttering with anticipation and I once again had a smile on my face... I bet those oncoming cars, and people who did manage to pass me by and look over, had NO IDEA what could cause the plain old Maine Country girl to have such a big smile on her face...

I visited many places and saw many signature stamps from my boxing friends, I laughed at myself to see I had already been on one trail with Granny Butterfly earlier this year, the day before the OHMAZING RACE, but we had missed a coupla stamps and I really wanted to find "The Little Red Truck"... seems everyone had this one but me... It was simply beautiful in the woods... I hiked over the river, or stream, and through the woods, up the hill and back down again... not remembering what boxes we HAD found and what were missing... I knew it was at least one... the elusive "Little Red Truck"... now the clues were great, but the signs in the area had been vandalized. This trail, as beautiful as it was, had been somewhat abandoned in the past, but wait what is that? A tree had fallen over the old path, the clue sign was laying on the ground and the rangers had wrapped orange ribbons around all the trees to guide me to the last boxes... long story short... I made it to the "LITTLE RED TRUCK"... forgot my red ink, so it is a black truck for now... maybe I can photoshop it red... when I got to the MOUSETRAP box there was a big old log inviting me for a visit and I smiled as I sat there thinking about my past year of letterboxing...

I am a Maine Country girl who has been transplanted in Ohio... I love Maine, but I have finally taken root in Ohio and it is all because of my dear letterboxing friends. I know it may be hard to imagine how such a talkitive girl could have been so lonely... I am the President of the County genealogy chapter here, I am on the Cemetery Board in my township, speaking up for the dead. I am their voice now... I teach people how to care for headstones, and bone yards, and help them with restoration of such places too... But I came up short with TRUE Friends... you know, the ones who will take my FREE HUGS ...

And then I found letterboxing... I got a phone call... it was from JENNY, Jenny was a friend of mine... kinda like my kid... anyway Jenny knows me and my interests and says she is in a cemetery in Cincinnati and she has found a letterbox... she thinks I might like this little hobby and tells me to investigate it... so she tells me website to check out letterboxing...

I have made REAL FRIENDS, people who care, people who call me up to say hi, people who end their conversations with love ya...
and know you know the rest of the story, or should I say the beginnings of my addiction...

But it is a good addiction. I am getting in better shape everyday... I am becoming FOREVER YOUNG... and as I sat there pondering my life, and what the future might hold, I counted my blessings, and decided to follow the advice of Lee Ann Womak... The minutes flew by and the day was ending... I still had a couple of places I wanted to go...

As my day ended, I headed towards Radner, I wanted to get there before dark, I stuck in the Indigo Girls CD, to sing along with the chorus'...
And what song should start up? GET OUT YOUR MAP!

For your boxing adventures... I suggest a little INDIGO GIRLS music... you can change up the lyrics to suit yourself... here are the words I heard as I drove off into the sunset...

The saddest sight my eyes can see...
is that big ball of orange sinking slyly down the trees.
Sitting in a broken circle while you rest upon my knee...
this perfect moment will soon be leaving me
Suzanne calls from Boston, the coffee's hot, the corn is high,
And that same sun that warms your heart,
will suck the good earth dry...
With everything it's opposite,
enough to keep you crying,
or keep this old world spinning with a twinkle in its eye...

Get out the map,
get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down...
We'll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town.
Don't drink the water,
there seems to be something ailing everyone.
I'm gonna clear my head...
I'm gonna drink that sun...
I'm gonna love you good and strong
while our love is good and young.

Joni left for South Africa a few years ago...
and then Beth took a job all the way over on the West Coast.
And me I'm still trying to live half a life on the road...
I'm heavier by the year and heavier by the load...
Why do we hurtle ourselves through every inch of time and space?
I must say around some corner,
I can sense a resting place.
With every lesson learned...
a line upon your beautiful face.
We'll amuse ourselves one day
with these memories we'll trace.