You MUST play the Mission Impossible theme in your head while I tell you my letterbox planting adventure. I shall pause while that gets rolling....

You remember the freakishly coincidental fires of the ghost beach cottages that occured exactly while was carving the ghost beach stamp...the trespassing ticket of the guys walking down the beach that called 911 to report the fires...my verification with the Parks Department that I could walk down the beach...the new "no trespassing" signs installed two days ago when I went to plant the boxes...

Armed with a printout of the CT law that allows public access below the high tide line, I returned to Stratford today to try once again. This time, there is a News Channel 8 van and team just a bit down the beach. And I thought I could quietly slip down the beach.

First, I needed to hide my First-To-Find bonus box near the parking lot so I could retrieve it later. It's a tough place to hide and the news team seems to be eyeing me. Tried one spot, no, that won't work, and so on...nothing seems to work and the news team is coming back owards the parking lot. They're waiting by their van for some reason - for me, it turns out. I finally find a hiding spot and write up the clue card, then head back towards where they are. They desperately want to talk.

"How do you feel about the no trespassing signs" they say, off camera. I pull out my copy of the state law that allows me to walk down the beach below the high tide line and show it to them. They are totally surprised - never heard of it. "There's a police officer down the beach", they say, "we just got done talking to him. " "Well, I may run into him", I say.

They love this. "Can we get a few words on camera?" they beg. Oh no, I don't think so! I decline. They beg, very nicely. Finally I relent and am interviewed next to the no trespassing signs, saying I intend to go down the beach. I do not add that the reason I am so obsessive about walking down this beach is because I intend to finally plant the letterboxes that are in my backpack. ;-)

The cop is on his way back. I'm on my way out. The news team camera is rolling for the showdown at the OK Corral. The beach is beautiful. Starfish are everywhere.

I'm wearing my Conservation Commission hat. It doesn't say WHICH Conservation Commission, and people generally assume it's their own Commission. It's not. But the cop doesn't know this. He's very nice, I'm very nice, "I'm OK if I stay below the high tide line, right?" "Sure," he says, and then adds, "but don't tell the reporters that" (wink, wink) as if I'm a City of Stratford insider. Umm, too late.

We pass. I continue walking down the beach, he returns to the parking lot where the reporters have their camera rolling. I am free! I can plant the boxes!! Ha!! It's 55 degrees and sunny, and the beach is totally completely empty because no one else knows they can walk on it. I walk a mile and a half down the beach and plant all the boxes in the Bridgeport end of the peninsula where Stratford can't touch me. I pick up a bag of garbage and dragged it all the way back.

Anyway, after all THAT I hope some letterboxers go out there and find them! :-)

After reading all that it makes me want to drive to CT to get them! Maybe someday...

Oh MAN, Tessie, how come you are planting these on the day before I get on a plane to fly to Texas for a week. So, that means at least two weekends out for taking a shot at those boxes during low tide! I SO woulda been on that tomorrow just to ... test the waters, and without that hat!

Great story!!! :o)
Hope we can find these someday!

The Merry Pranksters

What a great story! Perhaps in your clue page for these boxes, you should include a link to the page where you got the "printout of the CT law that allows public access below the high tide line." Just in case...

~rozebud (once again wishing she was back on the east coast)

Now that's an exciting afternoon of letterboxing, Tess!!!!! A great story - I'll have to watch CH 8's 11 o'clock news tonite....and maybe even get out there to Stratford tomorrow...

So this story got even weirder. I saw the clip on the news tonight. Apparently the reporters were really hoping to see me get a ticket for walking down the beach. This didn't happen, so instead, the showed a very brief clip of me talking with the officer and then turning away. But over the top of it the reporter is saying something like, "Police have handed out several tickets for trespassers on the beach over the past few days." So they made it look like the officer had just chased me off the beach for trespassing, when in fact I was offering to take the litter he was carrying.

They made no mention of the public access below high tide in the TV version, but it's on the web version at http://www.wtnh.com/ - ("Trespassers banned from crossing line in the sand"). Hey, what a bad title - if you haven't crossed the line, then you're not a trespasser!

I caught a little bit of the news last night--were you carrying a red backpack?

:-)
Kit Kat

Yeah, that was me with the letterboxes. They made it look like I was trespassing and the cop was giving me a ticket. "People have been trespassing" and then a shot of me not trespassing. This is why I don't watch the news and just read newspapers.