This letterbox is located in the area where Wandaski spent her childhood, and where she was living when she and Kirbert began dating in 1971.  Yes, it's a trip down memory lane.

We'll start at one of the most well-known tourist havens in the country: International Drive, just off I-4 near where it intersects the Florida Turnpike on the SE side of Orlando.  Home of Sea World, Universal Studios, Wet 'N' Wild, and dozens of other attractions and amusements.

From International Drive, travel north on Kirkman Road (435) about four miles.  You'll pass Valencia Community College on the left, which Wandaski attended in 1974 -- but she actually got to the campus from the back side by walking through orange groves rather than driving in from this entrance.

You are approaching the community of Orlo Vista.  Pay no attention to the fact that MapQuest insists that it's one word and won't find the location if you type it in properly as two words; that's MapQuest and their errors again.  We just have to deal with it.

After you pass Valencia, you'll come to the intersection of Old Winter Garden Road.  Wandaski and Kirbert were involved in a terrible automobile accident at this intersection in 1973, just a few days before high school graduation.  Wandaski still carries a steel plate in her left arm.  Kirbert's first car, a 1967 Sunbeam Alpine, was demolished.

Just ahead on Kirkman, there's Orlo Vista Elementary School on your left, where Wandaski went to school in the 1960's.  But we're not going that way today.

Turn left (westward) on Old Winter Garden Road.  After only a block or two, you'll pass the Villa Rosa restaurant on the right where Wandaski and Kirbert had their families together for dinner the night before their wedding -- except that it's no longer the Villa Rosa restaurant; today it's an unmarked pink and white building sorely in need of bulldozing.

After about a half mile, you'll come to a stoplight at Powers Drive.  If you continued westward another half mile, you'd come to a stoplight at Hiawassee Road.  Back in the early 1970's, this was an intersection of two rural two-lane roads, crossed many times in the dark of night in that Sunbeam Alpine.

If you were to turn left (southward) on Hiawassee Road, after about a block you'd pass a house on the left that was built in 1951 by Wandaski's dad with his own two hands -- and perhaps a bit of help from his wife.  The house is still there, although scarcely recognizable as it's had several additions.  It's now part of a nursing home of some sort.

Wandaski's parents only lived in that little house a year or two, though.  They purchased a nearby house from Wandaski's grandmother, a much nicer abode on Lake Cathy.

In the early 1970's, Hiawassee Road continued southward from here in a straight line for about a mile, then made a very sharp bend to the right to avoid plunging into Lake Cathy.  There were many accidents on that bend in those days!  Just after the bend, on the left you'd see the lovely home that Wandaski lived in when she met Kirbert.  Just past that you'd see the older house that was purchased from Wandaski's grandmother.  Wandaski lived in the older house when she was little, but after the newer house was built the older house was rented out.  Besides the two houses, the road, and Lake Cathy, all you'd see would be orange groves.  If you continued down the road, you'd eventually pass Turkey Lake Park and cross the turnpike.

That's Lake Cathy in the background in the picture at the top of this page.

Funny thing:  Hiawassee Road doesn't go that way any more.  Just a few blocks south of Old Winter Garden Road, it now bends to the left.  It eventually makes it past Turkey Lake Park and across the turnpike, but today it takes a completely different route to get there.  And there are no orange groves to be seen anywhere.  Lake Cathy is now a water hazard on the MetroWest golf course.

Today Wandaski's mom lives just a mile or so north of Old Winter Garden Road, just north of West Colonial Drive.  Wandaski's dad is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, which is just a couple of miles further west on Old Winter Garden Road.

Back to the letterbox directions:  We left you on Old Winter Garden Road at the stoplight at Powers Drive.  Turn right (north).  After only a couple of blocks, you'll see the Orlo Vista Park on your right.  Park hours are 8AM to 8PM.  Enter the park and park your car.  Find "J's JOGGING & EXERCISE TRAIL".  Find markers #4 and #5 along this trail.  On a direct line between these two markers is a cluster of three small oak trees.  The Wandaski & Kirbert letterbox is near the base of the tree farthest from the path.  There's a convenient bench to sit on while stamping in.  Red ink would be good.

Please rehide it better than you found it.  Thanks!

This is an early stamp of mine -- in fact, earlier than the placement date would indicate since I carried it around for many months before placing.  However, the lettering in the image isn't rough-looking because I was that lousy at carving at the time; I made it deliberately rough-looking, since I wanted it to look like something that would be carved into a tree with a penknife!

There's not really any space in this box for a hitchhiker.  Sorry.