More Firsts for Team Aahz

Zairabear and I had an amazing letterboxing day on Sunday!

First up was a new Mystery box.  Ironically, Z and I had just been to this location about a month ago, so we both figured out the spot within the first few sentences.  The clues were great though and the location is wonderful.  Z checked for the box first, but couldn't find it, so I put her on lookout duty and found it right away.  Turns out she was thinking too sneaky and missed the well hidden but obvious when you know what you're looking for spot.  We were the first finders and Z got a nice FF prize as well.  We were also the FFs of the Emma HH which is wandering out in the wild since its feline namesake isn't allowed out of the house.

Next up was Princess Lea's 2 box The Egypt Game series.  These were some of the first clues that I had checked out, but my printer couldn't handle the color hieroglyphics so we weren't able to go after them.  We translated most of the hieroglyphics online the night before, but weren't able to get one word.  The first box required the finding of a pyramid, and as soon as we walked onto the Rosicrucian Museum's ground, Zaira found one.  I was looking at a map and she kept saying, "the pyramid's right there", but I couldn't see it until she pulled my away from the map to show me that it was right behind the map I'd been studying!  In fact, if I'd just raised my vision an inch from the top of the map I would have seen it myself.  A good lesson in focusing too hard on the wrong spot :-)  We quickly found Box #1 - Walk Like An Egyptian and while Z was logging in I retrieved Box #2 - Horus from the it's spot.  Reading through the logbooks it seems more people were able to find Box 2 than Box 1 because they never found the pyramids.  Kinda funny that Z found 'em straightaway.  Both logbooks were full, so we replaced them.

There's a new lb crew in San Jose calling themselves Dem XX Men and they sure are prolific.  They planted a half dozen boxes in just their first week and found even more!  Our next stop was their Bear Am I? box.  The clues start at "San Jose's only bear".  Of course, San Jose has many bears, but I was pretty sure i knew which one this was based on the rest of the clues, so we headed that way.  As we drove by looking for parking we were able to locate where the box was placed, so once we parked it was only a matter of moments to retrieve the box.  A couple and their son were eating lunch about 10 yards from the hiding spot, but Z managed to get it without being seen.  She was rewarded with a FF certificate which now proudly hangs on her wall!  The stamp in this box is absolutely adorable, so I hope others manage to locate it as well.

Our final hunt of the day wouldn't count as a find for me.  After all, I had placed Burgers earlier in the week, but Z was excited about it.  We managed to find a parking spot right in front of Burgers and I loitered while Z followed the clues to the box and retrieved it no problem.  While were were waiting for our food Z stamped into Burgers and I stamped in to Emma, the HH we'd found ealier in the day.  This couple came in and the following dialog occured between them:

Her (looking at our table):  They've got it.

Him (looking at menu): Huh?

Her: Right there. They have it.

Him: What?

Her: It's not missing, they've got it!

Him: What are you talking...  ooh!

Me (holding up box): You mean this?

Ya know, when I planted the box I kinda fantasized about people hunting the box going to Burgers even though they couldn't find it and stumbling across other boxers stamping in.  I never even considered I would be involved in such a scene!  So this is how Zairabear and I met Liz Neely and lx (or ix, we're not sure).  We had a great chat while we ate, they logged into the box and we all eXchanged personal stamps as well.  This was the first trail eXchange for either Z or I so the day was simply full of firsts!  They had considered going after Bear Am I? but didn't know which bear to start at.  Since we'd just come from there I confirmed the start point for them and we gave them our clue sheet.  In return, Liz passed us our first WOM clue!  It's in SLO, but we intend to make another trip down there this summer, so we'll check it out then.

After a long lunch and plenty of great conversation we headed back down to Gilroy.  We had two more stops to make before we could return home and log our finds.  Princess Lea had asked us to replace the logbook in her Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Ice Cream Scoop which was a quick and easy job followed by some leisurely ice cream scoops of our own across the street.  Last stop of the day was You Got Memories where we planted the Gilroy Hitchhiker Hostel, along with the four hitchhikers we had made, and Emma.

Tags: first finder, mystery, hitchhiker, eXchange