The Hounds of Boxerville

Thomas and I were invited by Mark and Sue Pepe to join a group of letterboxers for a Pinecone Adventure to Dartmoor. This is the third Pinecone Adventure to the Moors and our first. We are so incredibly happy and honored to be traveling with this group to the birthplace of letterboxing. Our trip takes place from August 28 - September 11, 2014. This blog will chronicle the trip as well as activities before and after the trip.

Pinecone Adventures Returns to the Moor with The Hounds of Boxerville.

The road in front of us grew bleaker and wilder over huge russet and olive slopes, sprinkled with giant boulders. Now and then we passed a moorland cottage, walled and roofed with stone, with no creeper to break its harsh outline.
- from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Friday, February 28, 2014

Flights Confirmed and Some General Information


I have been working on our flights for the trip and it was a lot of work to make things come together. Daniel from Best Group Airfares had done the New York to London part but I needed him to make some adjustments since Thomas and I need connecting flights and we are coming back later than most of the group. It took three or four calls to Daniel to get everything arranged but it all worked out finally. Thomas and I will have to leave Albuquerque at 11:57pm on Wednesday, August 27th in order to get to New York and make the connecting flight to London with the rest of the group. We will get into JFK around 6:00am on August 28th and have to spend 12 hours waiting for the connection. But that worked out the best. The other flights really didn't give us enough time since we have to collect our bags from Albuquerque and go through security again. But at least we will be able to make the flight to London with the rest of the group. We will return from London on September 11th on an early morning flight which gets us into New York around noon giving us plenty of time to get through customs and make our connecting flight around 8:00pm. Both trips will be long but I think it will be worth it. I am glad that this part of the trip is handled. Here is our actual flight information . . .

JetBlue 66     27 AUG     ABQ - JFK     2357. 0559.
JetBlue 65     11 SEP      JFK - ABQ     2015. 2404.

VS 4     28 AUG     JFK - LHR     1830. 0650.
VS 3     11 SEP      LHR - JFK      0905. 1150.

When this trip was first announced Mark P. asked for suggestions for a group name and one of the suggestions was from Grumpy Grinch (who unfortunately had to back out of the trip) came up with a good one. And it seems that is the name we are going to use since I saw a post on Pinecone Boxing for the trip using that suggested name. It is The Hounds of Boxerville. This is a play of course on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles - which is set in Dartmoor. You can read Mark P.'s account of the trip by going to The Hounds of Boxerville Trip on his blog.

Deposits have been made for our airfare, rental vans and our accommodations in Dartmoor. Things are getting more real. We will have to make full payments sometime in July. Mark P. has also given us an idea of what the total cost will be for each person for everything including extra meals, gas for the vans, entry fees and souvenirs. I think it will be a very reasonable price for this incredible trip. We have been putting money aside ever since we were invited on this trip so I am ready to pay when the time comes.


 Earlier I had asked Mark P. if we would be going anywhere near Stonehenge but he said it was a little out of the way and when they had gone on a previous trip they were disappointed. Recently Mark did some research and mapped out a more rural driving route and we will be going right by Stonehenge. Also he read up on Stonehenge and they have revamped the whole experience and he has added a stop there on our way from London to Dartmoor. I am so excited, this has been something I have wanted to do for a long time.

This month I purchased a new point & shoot camera. I got the Panasonic Lumex DMC-TZ40. At first I was going to bring my DSLR but I decided that it is too big to carry and I am trying to keep things as compact as possible. I think this will work out great. We also needed to give Mark P. any dietary restrictions we might have so he can make arrangements at Blackadon. And we got information on how much we need for the kitty (£50) and we will also need $20 for Stonehenge. We also got a link with some information on British coins - hopefully it will all make sense when we get there.

Now I still have lots of things to get done since we are staying a few days longer than the rest of the group. I need to arrange a rental car and hotels for those extra days. It shouldn't be a problem, I just need to get it done. I am so excited about this trip and as things get done I get more excited because it makes it all the more real. I will post again when more plans are finalized.
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