Letterboxing~Meet & Box

Monday was a very fun day for Jackson & I. We woke up early and headed into Albuquerque to a Starbucks, to meet with some Letterboxing friends from Santa Fe: Lions Mane, Astro D, and Rubber Peace. But we were all there to meet some fellow letterboxers who were just passing through on a Letterboxing Road Trip.

While exchanging Signature and Personal Traveler stamp images along with a Cootie or two, we learned that both familes were also fellow homeschoolers who used Letterboxing, as we do, as an augmentation and tool for learning in our homeschool education. It was fun to talk about how letterboxing often adds interesting journeys and studies into history, social studies, geography, geology, math, science, and art...and so much more. Letterboxing proves Jackson's favorite homeschooling quote, "The World Is My Classroom" as so true.

Here's South Hill Hendersons, me in the center, and Triple T's, in Starbucks.
Just chatting together and enjoying our coffee and smoothies.
LionsMane, Astro D, and Rubber Peace. The Santa Fe Letterboxing Crew.
Jackson and his Letterboxing Idol, LionsMane. Jackson was so excited to finally meet the famous LionsMane. He's always seen LionsMane signature stamp image in log books we've logged into, so he was thrilled to finally meet him in person, and Astro D, too.

After we left Starbucks and the fun Meet and Greet, we decided to hunt for a couple Albuquerque letterboxes that we're recently placed.
The first one was hidden by friends and fellow homeschoolers, 6Jumping Beans, and was called Rattlesnake. We were so excited to visit this area since we've never been there, and probably never would have, it if weren't for Letterboxing.
The letterbox was hidden near one of two HUGE rattlesnake sculptures built out of stones and concrete. Quite impressive!
It's kind of unfortunate that the scupltures aren't placed in a public park, or somewhere where more people can enjoy them and kids can play and climb on them. As they are now, both snake sculptures are resting in a median strip in the far, far southeastern area of Albuquerque, south of the airport.

But we didn't let that stop us!
I thought this shot was kind of cool to include because of the airplane above Jackson's head as he climbs the snake. (click for larger view)
Climbing down from between the snake's eyes.
What a beautiful menace! I swear, if you let your imagination run free for a bit, you could just picture the snakes slithering away, rattles shaking as they moved, and their scales scuttling over the sand..
Jackson walking along the snake's back.

After we found that letterbox and stamped and logged in, we drove a little farther south to the second snake. Which happened to have a much broader and more impressive head and a curvier body. This was our favorite sculpture of the two, by far.

Jackson climbing on the snake's head. Behind snake, in the far distance, is the West Mesa and south Albuquerque.
Here you can see how the road 'snakes' northward and how far away from everything these beautiful and unique snakes are from everything.

And a little bit farther south still is the newly built Journal Center Entertainment Venue for everything like concerts, sports events, theater, etc. We were quite impressed with this simple and unique guitar sculpture. Jeremiah would have loved this!
And down the hill is the stage and venue buildings.

We were having such a grand time exploring that we drove a little farther south still. And we came upon the new and expanding Albuquerque Film Studios. Yep! Watch out Hollywood! Albuquerque is a popular place for the filming of movies, and now we have our own film studios!
I have no idea what this is. Water Tower? It's near the film studios and I just liked how someone painted these bright designs.Behind this tower you can see the Manzano(Apple) Mountains. We actually live on the other side of those mountains.

After leaving that area, we decided to look for one more letterbox on the way home: Los Altos Park. We discovered that, though, it is close to Los Altos Skate Park, and the stamp played homage to that, the box was even closer to the busy Interstate I-40, which travels from the East Coast to the West Coast.
This ended up being a very cool realization. After we found the letterbox, we walked up to the pedestrian/bike bridge that spans I-40, and waved to all the cars and trucks passing through Albuqerque.
I can't even put into words the exhilirating rush we got from standing up on that swaying narrow bridge as humongous 18 wheelers barreled just a few feet below. My heart was pounding! Jackson had a blast!
I was also very suprised at how many people in cars and trucks happily waved and honked at us as they drove under the bridge. I hope we made them smile as much as we did!