1st Irish/American Mini-Meet

What a surprise, just after I have started blogging again I was contacted by an American Atlas Quest letterboxer to say that she wanted to come and find some Irish letterboxes, and would it be possible to meet. As Ireland is sadly devoid of home grown Letterboxers I jumped at the chance and immediately decided it warrented a listing on Atlas Quest as a Mini-Meet. In fact it was the first one in Ireland, so there was no question as to what it would be called -  The 1st Irish Mini-Meet - it was obvious :-) If you want to read Fireball's version of events you can find it here. 

The excitement this week has remained high as I wanted to be sure the local boxes were in reasonable condition, and also plant at least one more letterbox as further inducement for our AQ friend. 

I needed to check that I had all my Personal Travellers collected together as I have more than one. I have my original PT which I have had since the mid 1980's, but it is now on it's second visitor's book. After reading about American Letterboxers who often require puzzles to be solved in order to gain access to their PT's I decided it would be fun to follow suite and so I made one like that too. I also read about very tiny letterboxes and so I had made one of those too. Atlas Quest has a lot to answer for !

 

Personal Travellers - and I have never smoked!

A tiny PT and it's contents, called Wee YT.

The day of the Mini_Meet dawned. Hurrah - it was sun-shining :-) I so wanted Skerries to look it's best for our American visitors, it had been a cold, gray, and rainy day yesterday so I was very relieved. Fireball packed his bag too and hoped they would enjoy meeting a Boxing Buddy.

 The Meet was to be held at the local windmill which had a cafe if it was wet, or picnic tables outside if it was mild. In the event we went indoors as there was still a nip in the air and our visitors were from warmer climates.

Fireball at the Mills

Can you see Fireball in the photograph? It is a bit like an easy Find Wally.

We all had a great time chatting away as we stamped. It is so interesting comparing notes on the differences between American and English/Irish letterboxing. The biggest difference is the name of the little letterboxes that travel from normal box to normal box. Here they are called Cuckoo's but in America they are called Hitch Hikers. We wondered how the name had become changed as it travelled across the pond. Maybe the 1st American that came across them couldn't quite remember their name and made one up that made sense to him.

Fireball was amazed at how many letterboxes there were on the table considering there were only four people present. He also got to meet Margery - the AQ Chick, but Margery fell backwards with the shock of meeting a dragon lol.

Fireball meets Margery, the AQ Chick.

When all the PT and Event stamping up was done we decided to  round off the event with a visit to a local letterbox together. It always seems there is a bigger/better range of inks and carving materials in America. Fireball was very interested in the beautiful collection of ink stamps and felt-tip pens the American visitor had brought with her, so neat in their own container, and watched closely as she stamped up in her logbook.

After this we gave them a quick tour of the local countryside and the seafront, as can be seen in the previous blog, then sadly it was time to go our separate ways. Such nice people -  new friends made, and I do so hope we meet again one day.