The Great Hitchhiker Race

In second place...

2005-05-30T16:35:00.000-05:00

Lance Armstrong in the yellow jersey!

Thanks to Wisconsin Hiker and Martini Man for rescuing Lance from Fibonacci Treegonometree and bringing him to the finish line!!!

We have a winner!!!!!!!!!

2005-05-26T18:24:00.000-05:00

WWI Flying Ace was brought to the finish line by none other than Wanda and Pete!

His exact travels are as follows:
9/15/04 Packed up in a huge ziplock by Lightnin' Bug and Thomas
9/19/04 Handed off to Amanda from Seattle by those two and Irene from Hikers and Houndz
9/21/04 Stashed in Smitz Creek Letterbox, West Seattle by Amanda
10/2/04 Found by Teachers have Class
10/3/04 Stashed at Tank's Fist Campout in So Beach Park, Newport, OR
10/19/04 Found at Tank's by Starfish from Seattle
11/29/04 Left in the Few and the Proud, S. Kingston, RI by Starfish
12/28/04 Found there by Mary + Tom under 12" of snow
12/29/04 Stamped by Dorothy, Age 10
3/27/05 Placed in the Yellow Ribbon Letterbox
4/24/05 Found in Yellow Ribbon when Moonstone was retiring the box
sometime in between - traded to Wanda and Pete for a Mad Dawg
5/13/05 Placed in South Mountain HHH by Wanda and Pete

Congrats to Team SuddenTurkey for the win!

2005-04-24T15:43:00.000-05:00

My apologies to all for not updating this. Most of the HH drivers know I've been rather busy as of late. And our little racers didn't really move around a whole lot during winter time. But now..now there are a couple of the HHs within sight of the final destination! So here's what's going on:

On the Run from Massachusetts has made astounding progress since the last update. Green Tortuga rescued it from Seattle and brought it to the Coffee Break Letterbox in Tampa, FL!! Soon after it arrived in sunshine, it was picked up by Littlewaav and brought to our nation's capital. It was found in the Li-ii-iii-iiii-on Letterbox and brought to the Lost City LB in Hanover, PA, where it was found this week and moved on. Welcome to this racer, the second one to arrive in PA!

Lance Armstrong, the original forerunner, was found in Lancaster, PA by Daisy, Boo Bear, & Elminster. They brought it to Allentown, PA, where it was found by Lotus & Leafcutters. Where is he now? Still verrrry close, but not at the finish line just yet!

Another racer, By Leaps and Bounds, was found at the Territorial Insane Asylum box by Chrysotile and Julia Goolia. It was brought to California where it's waiting to make a move off of the west coast...

2004-12-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

Great news! On the Run from Massachusetts is finally on the move! There were some problems initially with it being held hostage by a moved/removed box, but it has been covered and Team Garlic has moved those little legs on.

2004-12-03T08:22:00.000-05:00

WWI Flying Ace is now in Rhode Island!! That makes 3 racers on the East Coast!

(The map will be updated later today to reflect this giant leap across the country.)

2004-11-28T13:49:00.000-05:00

Speed Racer was found on November 22 in Big Tree Inn #2 Letterbox in SeaTac, Washington during the Mysterious Visitors Gathering by Cherokee. Go Speed Racer, go!!

Amanda from Seattle checked on a couple of the HHs since we have not heard much about them. Apparently, Dale Earnhardt was picked up on Oct. 2nd by Crafty
Cara and Sunny Sue.

And it seems that On the Run from Mass. has been derailed slightly - it was in a letterbox that was in a retail store and that store has moved! Our intrepid placer, Amanda from Seattle, has been trying to contact the store owner to see about the box.

I'm also happy to report that Lance Armstrong has reached Pennsylvania, the first HH racer to do so. Thanks to Melissa!!

Three more racers on the move!!

2004-11-08T07:51:00.000-05:00

First, news on WWI Flying Ace, from Starfish from Seattle.

"We found Snoopy along the Oregon Coast in South Beach Park in Newport
Oregon, after being picked up at Schmitz Park and moved to Oregon at
the beginning of the month. We decided that placing him anywhere in the
Northwest would not further his progress towards Allentown so he'll be
camping out with us for a few more weeks until we head to Rhode Island
for Thanksgiving. Hopefully from there someone can get him moving towards
Allentown."

Fly on, little racer!

And Bon Jovi has also made significant progress, jumping from one concert on the West Coast to another show in North Carolina. Rock on, racer!

Finally, By Leaps & Boundswas found in the Turkey Dinner letterbox in SeaTac, WA on October 1 by dvn2r ckr. Last news on this furry guy was that he'd moved elswhere in WA. Hop on!

A much needed update

2004-10-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

I apologize for not updating sooner, folks. PhotoShop took a dive on me and I really wanted to update the map and the blog simultaneously. Oh well, for now one will have to do.

By Leaps and Bounds was picked up by The Teachers on October 2 and moved to Portland, OR!

Amanda from Seattle posted the locations of the racers last week in an effort to get them all moving. That will be the last time their location(s) are told, though. Unfortunately, we've only heard from two of them thus far. Which brings me to...

Lance Armstrong was found at the REI FLagship box by Melissa this past weekend. He is currently in the Midwest (can I be more specific?), although Melissa may bring him to PA this weekend! Guess we'll all wait and see.

Now to try to get PhotoShop working and update the map!

Two racers found!

2004-09-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

First Lance Armstrong was found by Keegan the Airedale Terrier on 9/20 at the Weatherwatch Park Letterbox. Danny, aka Keegan, let me know to which box he moved Lance, but I'll keep my mouth shut for now :)

Then, Turbo Slug was found by The Cootie Family on 9/25 and moved to central Washington.

Looks like the race has officially started!

And they're off!

2004-09-20T09:27:00.000-05:00

Amanda from Seattle received the HHs and brought them with her back to Seattle, where she so kindly planted all NINE. Here's what she had to say about planting them:

"First out of the gate was LANCE ARMSTRONG! at 8:32am
PST

Second was BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS at 9:38am PST

Third in the lineup TURBO SLUG at 10:05am PST

Fourth was CAPTAIN TERROR 10:29am PST

Fifth and following closely was SPEED RACER 10:32am PST

Sixth was DALE EARNHARDT 11:24am PST

Seventh, BON JOVI 11:57am PST

Eighth and breathing hard was ON THE RUN FROM MASSACHUSETTS 12:36pm
PST

and bringing up the rear in

Ninth place, WWI FLYING ACE at 1:11pm PST"

Thanks again, Amanda! Hopefully we'll hear about these racers soon!

The Handoff

2004-09-15T13:05:00.000-05:00

Lightnin' Bug and part of Hikers & Hounds will make the handoff to Amanda from Seattle this Saturday! Lightnin' Bug has received most of the entrants and is still waiting for the last few (including Lance Armstrong) to arrive at his house.

Once the HHs are planted in Seattle, we'll be able to visually see their progress on the map!

The Participants

2004-08-15T16:55:00.001-05:00

Trail Name & Participant

The Family from Mass. -- On the Run from Massachusetts
Fleur de Lis -- Lance Armstrong
Team SuddenTurkey -- WWI Flying Ace
Hikers & Hounds -- Speed Racer
Letterboxingbee -- Dale Earnhardt #3
Lightnin' Bug -- Turbo Slug
Carole T. -- Bon Jovi - The Greatest Band Ever
Mystery -- Captain Terror
SewSowBizzy -- By Leaps & Bounds

The Rules

2004-08-15T16:52:00.000-05:00

The rules for The Great Hitchhiker Race are still in the works, but here is what the participants have come up with thus far:

1) The finish line will be the South Mountain H³, in the South Mountain Nature Preserve in Allentown PA. To make it worthwhile, this will be the culmination of a 3 box series – Spring Peeper, Mountain Laurel and South Mountain H³. This will give final HH placers an incentive to come to the final resting place. Your HH notes/logs should indicate that this is the destination. Lightnin' Bug will check this box periodically to see if anything shows up. First one there wins, keeping it simple.

2) Amanda from Seattle is being kind enough to plant these HH’s in the Emerald City (Seattle) area. She and Lightnin' Bug will be meeting (tentatively) at the Philly Airport on September 18th. All HH participants must be mailed to Lightnin' Bug by September 11.

3) No Hitchhiking in PLB’s! HH’s should be carried, not flown about and PLB’s tend to disappear into ‘Black Holes’. We would not want our creations going missing.

4) Updates on progress will be figured out from emails we receive on the HHs progress, postings on the HH board on Yahoo.com, and this website. Please let Lightnin' Bug or Fleur de Lis know how your HH’s are doing. We’re all honest folks, so we are relying on an honor system.

5) The prize will be bragging rights and carte blanche to tell off an obnoxious elder of your choice.