Maine – A Night at L.L. Bean

Barbara loves Maine, L.L. Bean, and letterboxing, so several years ago when she heard of a letterboxing event at L.L. Bean’s flagship store in Freeport, Maine she signed up. The flagship store stays open 24 hours a day. A letterboxer who works at L.L. Bean got permission to host a letterboxing event in the store in the middle of the night in January. Letterboxes were hidden inside and outside the four store buildings. (One box was hidden under that boot statue!) Then late at night when the event began, people hunted for the boxes following clues hinting at the location of boxes. Each box contained a hand carved stamp and letterboxers stamp the images in their logbooks.

The event has taken place for several years. Here’s Barbara in Freeport in 2015 and 2016.

So this year we drove back from Florida in time for Barbara to attend the event again. She picked up some friends and headed to Maine looking for letterboxes along the way. Usually letterboxes are found on trails, but with the snow they sought indoor boxes – like one in a fun toy store in Portsmouth NH.

Here is the stamp image from another letterbox called “Life is Good in Maine,” found in the Life is Good shop in Portland ME.

They met other friends at a hotel in Freeport, went out to dinner, and then headed for L.L. Bean. At 8pm (which is pretty close to Barbara’s usual bedtime) they picked up the clue packet with clues arranged per store. For example one clue for the Home store said “a bushel of striped towels,” and there, in a basket of striped towels, was the box. Others were pretty tricky. One of the hardest ones said “15-2 for a skunk.” Fortunately one of Barbara’s friends figured that one out. Do you know what it means? [See answer at bottom.] Another hard one in the Hunt & Fishing store said “Bean’s Wooden Line Dryer.” Once we figured out that this antique for drying fishing line was on display, we found the box.

There were over 100 boxes with stamps in various categories. One was “Best of Maine,” with stamp images of many of the things Barbara loves, like: blueberries, lobster, Acadia National Park, Portland Head Lighthouse... Another was things that happened in 1912 (the year L.L. Bean was founded). Another was called “Produced of Maine.” Here are the stamps in that series.

 
Another was “Maine Lingo.” Here’s a stamp from that set. Can you figure out what these Mainers are saying? [See translation at bottom.]

Everyone stopped at midnight for the photo op. You might be able to spot Barbara way up on the left.

picture from Facebook

Barbara is not typically a night owl, but she and her group of friends stayed up until after 3:30am and found almost all the boxes.

They slept a couple hours in the hotel and then did some more letterboxing around the town of Freeport before heading for home.

*“15-2 for a skunk” is cribbage lingo, so the box was near cribbage games.

*Maine lingo: “Aya” is Air and “Ayuh” is their way of saying yes. :-)

*For more information on letterboxing, see Atlasquest.com or just ask Barbara about it.

Florida – Indian River Habitat for Humanity

We drove to Florida to see Barbara’s dad and participate in a Habitat for Humanity build as “Care-a-Vanners.” You can read about Care-a-Vanners in our post from last year.

We’ve volunteered with this Indian River Habitat affiliate before, but this time our trailer was located behind the ReStore.

We hadn’t been to the ReStore before, so were surprised when we arrived late at night to see the entrance blocked off.

That threw us off momentarily. Are we allowed to go in? Is the gate locked? Do we need to wake up the other RVers to let us in? Fortunately Bill figured out how to open the gate and we parked our trailer.

RV spots behind the ReStore – our trailer is on the right

Last year we both worked on the Fellsmere job site constructing homes; this year Bill worked on the same job site, while Barbara worked in the ReStore. The ReStore is a donation center.

People donate all sorts of stuff. Proceeds from the sale of the items go to building houses for people who need extra help beginning home ownership. Barbara primarily tried to transform heaps of linens into salable merchandise.

The items varied from junk to high end furniture, from 25¢ to $1,000+ items, and from very well used to brand new.  What do you think of this chair?

Barbara worked with some super hard-working and encouraging co-workers. Fellow Care-a-Vanners, Ina and Ty, transformed the hardware department.

In the meantime Bill worked at the construction site. It was cool to see last year’s homes now occupied by the families who helped build them.  

One of the owners stopped by the job site and when Bill congratulated her on her finished home, she beamed and gave him a hug.

pictures from last year when Sharon first worked on the job site

(Now she owns her own home!)

Bill worked on one of two new homes, building exterior walls, making shed trusses, and installing house trusses.

He also participated in a Wall Raising, a ceremony celebrating the start of the build.

the Wall Raising

(Bill on left in blue vest, Supervisor Ricardo in blue in the middle)

Last year, we really appreciated the Fellsmere build supervisor and this year was no different. Somehow he finds significant work for volunteers and home buyers of all abilities, manages the construction, and builds a high-quality home. Some of the volunteers were familiar and some were new but all were really nice people.

We enjoyed our time here, loved working with this group of people, and feel like we are making a difference by helping out. We also were glad to have the opportunity to see Barbara’s family, as well!