Cancelled Plans? GREAT!!!

Artemis and I were supposed to be in Ohio for a family reunion this weekend. Well she had a lot going on at work and simply could not take the time off. So suddenly, I had free time. hmm... whatever should I do? Obviously, I made a last minute decision to go to Stone Mountain Park since as luck would have it, Saturday happened to be the 2nd LBSE gathering. I had never been to an event before so really had no idea what I was getting myself into but spoke with Mark the night before to see what his plans were. He told me that he was planning to meet drgdlg at 6am at the Carillon. My goodness, doesn't this sound so cloak and dagger? LOL

Let me back up slightly and fill in some information. At this point I have found 128 boxes so while I am starting to recognize some stamps that I have seen in boxes, I have only met two other boxers. There are 92 other people signed up for this event. However, I do "know" a lot of the locals because prior to this event I actually spent months lurking on the LBSE Yahoo Board and had actually read all 4600+ messages before I ever posted there for the first time in March myself. I knew what some looked like from pictures that had been posted as well, so it would not be a complete group of strangers at least.

Anyway, I arrived early and hung out in the designated area for 15 minutes and never saw anyone so I decided to just start hunting rather than wait and assume if any of them showed they would simply catch up. The first box of the day was a fairly new HH Hostel and apparently hitting it early was on the list for a lot of people since three other groups of boxers arrived during the stamp juggling. After that I nabbed a couple of other close by boxes then headed over to the event.

There is not a lot to say that can convey what happens at the event. Lots of people, lots of tables, lots of stamping. I just worked my way from table to table, trying to put faces with the names I knew as well as meeting some folks I knew nothing about. I met people from Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, all who came to Georgia for this event, which amazed (and inspired) me because I knew I liked letterboxing but that seemed so "hard core" to actually travel that far for a hobby. There were boxes on the table, boxes in coffee cups (including one I was SPECIFICALLY told about and still somehow missed...), temporary boxes hidden nearby and lots of socializing.

After spending the bulk of the day hanging out around the gathering area, I struck out onto the trails with drgdlg and StarSAELS to go a little boxing. Actually, I had asked drgdlg to help me with a box of theirs that I had not found despite a valiant attempt a couple months earlier; yet they assured me it was there. Well, of course, it WAS there, just extremely well hidden. The funny thing is, I actually put my backpack right on top of it when I started looking around the area and eventually it was "suggested" that I might want to move it...

Shortly after that, drgdlg left to go to the post-gathering dinner while StarSAELS and I continued hunting. Before we even got to the next box, it was raining. Not that it stopped us, of course, we actually worked out a nice umbrella holding/stamping system that protected our books and continued on. However, it soon was getting darker and wetter so I decided to call it a day. I did a couple of driveby boxes on the way out of the park and once I got home and counted things up, I had 62 exchanges as well as 5 HH (all at the hostel) my first cootie and 4 event stamps and set a new personal one day record of 18 finds.

All in all, not bad for an unexpected last minute chance to attend my first event.