Happy New Year and Letterboxing

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Yesterday Bart and I headed to the Outerbanks to spend New Year's Eve and the following weekend with friends.  It has been four years since Bart and I first traveled to Nags Head together for the New Year.   This story may embarrass him  a bit but. . . oh well.  

Bart and I had just started dating, but you could say were fairly smitten with each other early on.  The sponsored athlete and his wife SJG were gracious enough to invite us down for the holiday.  As we traveled out Route 168, we spied another friend of ours, slightly ahead of us in traffic.  And that's when my bike geekiness started.  Bart exclaimed. . . "no worries, we are in the peleton.  We will capture the breakaway car."

"What?"  I exclaimed?  At this point, I hadn't ridden a bike other than a beach cruiser since college and my bike racing vocabulary was non-existent.

Bart went on to exclaim the philosophy of the peleton and the break away as he continued to chase our friend down the road.

Needless to say, four years later, our cars license plates aptly are named "Brkway" and "Pelton" short hand of course for peleton and break away.  And I, am not only smitten with Bart, but am absolutely smitten by the sport of cycling.

As is normal for trips to the beach with the sponsored athlete and friends, they are fun filled with adventure.  Yesterday, after the rain clouds dispersed, we toured the sound side of the Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk with a 30 mile bike ride.    After a little relaxation, and cocktails, it was on to  card games, champagne for the New Year and of course, some fierce competitions on the Wii.

Today's adventure, however, was a great start to the New Year.  As usual, my friends KB and SS were up to their usual mischief which is only heightened by adventures into the woods.  Today, they lured SG, TG 40 and I off to embark on a leisurely run.  After we got in the car, they revealed the true plan for the day. . . letterboxing.

It couldn't have been a better adventure for the first day of the 2010.  Our adventure took us to Nags Head Woods where there was a great 4 mile running/hiking trail.  As we jogged on the trails, KB read out running directions and clues to our first treasure. . . a Letter box - probably 3 miles into our trail run, hidden under a bark-less stump.   In letterboxing, someone leaves a rubbermaid box containing a log book, and a stamp.  On www.letterboxing.org they post directions and clues to its location.  When you find the box, you log the date, your name and, if you have your own stamp, your stamp.  Then, you return the box to its rightful place and move onto your next treasure hunt.

Our adventures today lead us on a fantastic trail run (sorry coach - I did run the whole thing), Starbucks (it was cold out), a treasure find at the welcome center and, a third letter box along the Virginia Dare Trail.  

My letter boxing adventure today pretty much summed up some of my "resolutions" for the New Year -- have more fun in sport, push myself to try new things and, on occasion push myself outside my comfort zone, spend time enjoying those around me - my family and friends, and be a little frugal (letterboxing is a ton of adventure and its FREE!)

So friends, here's to finding new treasures in your life in 2010!