12/10/04
Letterboxing

Another vague dream I did not take notes on. I take note of it now only because it was supposed to feature Mackinac Island.

Apparently, I was on the island, as I was walking through the woods and such with somebody else--I don't know who, or even if they were male or female--I think they were female but I'm not sure. My age. I remember walking through some kind of scruffy woods and maybe near the edge of an opening; it was sunny and maybe the ground was kind of damp. (When I say "scruffy" I mean not well groomed; a little rough, but not really wild or desolate or anything.) I don't know what season it was though the trees seemed to be green. I think at first there wasn't even the realization that I was on Mackinac Island--it certainly didn't LOOK like anywhere I know on the island--until I remembered I was seeking out some sort of landmark--Devil's Kitchen?--and then I thought of looking for the "letterbox" there--and then I remembered that I'd forgotten my letterbox directions!!

Explanation. "Letterboxing" is some sort of "sport" that involves leaving a little waterproof box in a hidden location somewhere; the box contains a stamp and a notepad. Letterboxers pick up "clues" from the Letterboxing website (www.letterboxing.org), seek out the hidden letterboxes, and add their own stamp to the notebook, and then use the stamp in the box to stamp their OWN notebook--it's like exchanging signatures, and you're even supposed to carve your own stamp for the occasion. A little while back I was surprised to find that Mackinac Island has several letterboxes listed--in fact, that was how I found the Letterboxing website, through a search for Mackinac Island which brought it up. There is one near Robinson's Folly, near Arch Rock, near Devil's Kitchen, and a couple of others, I believe--I think the Grand Hotel and Anne's Tablet might also have one each. I'd never even heard of letterboxing before this--but the thought of looking around and digging up a little box that somebody else left on the island sometime in the past was a very intriguing one! Unfortunately I did not learn of this until after my last visit there, but I'm curious to see if maybe I can find one or more when I next go, even though I don't letterbox; I plan on going to Robinson's Folly and Anne's Tablet and maybe Arch Rock, so I could look for those ones. I'm thinking of maybe making a stamp and taking a notepad just in case I find them, even though I don't really intend to take up letterboxing--the Mackinac Island ones are like the only ones I'd ever have access to! Still, it would be cool if the leaver of the boxes were to open them up and find my stamp in there someday. I think these boxes were left recently--August 2004--but for all I know, they've been discovered and removed--that's what I don't get about letterboxing, it seems like park officials would get up in arms about this sort of thing. *shrug*

Anyway...in my dream, I had intended, as I do in real life, to print out the instructions for finding these letterboxes, and bring the directions with me while I looked for them. And here, once I was already ON the island, I finally remembered that I'd FORGOTTEN those directions at home!! :( "Nuts!" I said to myself in dismay. I stopped what I was doing and pondered what I should do. I was REALLY disappointed in myself--I'd wanted to see if those boxes were there! I must have been near the west shore, or else I thought it would be easiest to find, as I considered seeking out Devil's Kitchen and looking for its letterbox--it seemed like it would be the one that would involve the least amount of effort, because there isn't really much public terrain around that cave, so there are few places in which to hide a box. (I also kind of vaguely remembered the directions...something about a red marker or sign or something. I'm assuming this box is to the side of the cave, maybe back in the trees a little bit.) But then I reconsidered, thinking that I wanted to find the OTHER boxes too, and I might not be able to find them so easily without my printout.

The dream got weird here because then I simply headed back home to get my forgotten directions so I could take them back to the island with me. Yep--it was seemingly as easy as walking through a door into another room or something and then coming back. (That's an analogy--I didn't actually do that.) It did not involve the LONG walk back down into town, taking the ferry across the Straits, and then driving home for a half hour, and then all of that in reverse, that it would involve in real life. It was just, "I'm going to get my directions," bam, I'm at home finding them, and bam, I guess I was back on the island again.

But the dream kind of fades out around there, so I don't really recall what, if anything, became of my search for the hidden letterboxes. :/

Real-life associations: This dream might have been vaguely influenced by my acquisition of an old map of Mackinac Island the day before, which I'd won on eBay; I was very thrilled to get this antique map, as it lists many landmarks I have never heard of before, and which are probably no longer in existence.



2004 Dreams
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