When we began letterboxing we were unsure if it was something that we would enjoy or not. After finding our first box though we were hooked and decided to make a few purchases so we could continue on. We stopped at Michael's and each of us purchased a rubber stamp. The boys both choose dragon stamps and Tobey picked a stamp with footprints on it. Me, it was so hard to choose but I finally settled on a dragonfly stamp. We picked up an ink pad, journals and a compass at Wal-Mart and were excited for our next outing.

Armed with our clues we went to the marina and began our search for the Little Toot letterbox. Buttercup did the honors and pulled the box from its hidden location. As she unwrapped the contents it was clear something was different from the first box we had found last weekend. This box contained a hitchhiker!

The idea of letterboxing is simple. The box will always contain a journal and a stamp. The stamps are usually home made and pertain to the area where the box is hidden. You stamp the box's journal with your personal stamp and you use the stamp in the box to stamp your journal. You can add a note or date to the box's journal if you like as well.

In this box though was the hitchhiker and I was excited we had found one on our second outing. A hitchhiker is a stamp and journal with no box. They are added to other people's letterboxes with the intention of the next finder must take the hitcher and put it in the next letterbox they find. Which we did as we found two boxes Saturday night. With a hitchhiker you are supposed to stamp the hitcher's journal with the stamp from the letterbox it was found in which we forgot to do but we did stamp it with my stamp before we placed it in the next letter box.

It was neat to look at the hitchhikers journal and later checking it out on the Letterboxing website to see it's owner and origins. This particular hitchhiker originated in Michigan and has made its way all the way down to Clearwater Beach!

Tobey and I think it is so interesting to find these boxes that no one knows about. We thought about how many times have we passed by this area or that area and never knew those little treasures were there. We also have enjoyed watching how much fun the kids have in interpreting the directions and using the compass to find the boxes.

It does seem that store bought stamps are frowned upon in the letterboxing world and I am sure that in time we will end up carving our own personal stamps. We are already discussing placing our own letterboxes for others to find in the Dunedin area as there is only 1 box listed in the database.