About three months ago--well before the weather turned hot--Library Lady made a modest proposal. She handed me a pamphlet that said: "2012 Greenwood County Fair Scavenger Hunt. Explore and experience the excitement of Greenwood County! Enter for your chance at one of three cash prizes! Grand Prize is $100.00."
"Would you be interested in doing this with me?" she asked, as I scanned over the contest details.
Clues to fourteen different landmarks of sorts were listed. Participants would need to take pictures, make rubbings, and acquire other designated types of evidence, then put it all together in some sort of scrapbook.
"Sure!" I answered enthusiastically. Wheels were turning over in my mindless brain as to how we would accomplish the tasks at hand. My old yearbook staff sidekick, Toto, figured into the plan.
"You do realize that it'll probably take more than $100.00 in gas to do this, before all is said and done," I added. Greenwood County is the second largest county in the state, in area. And the landmarks, most of which we recognized from the pamphlet clues, would take us across and up and down a lot of miles. But it would be fun, we rationalized, so we made a deal to partner up and be scavengers together. A time was set to attack Landmark #1. The adventure was about to begin.
"This family came to Greenwood County as part of an African-American settlement....a stone with the name of the family overlooks the area where this family settled." This one would be easy. We'd drive out to Reece, eight miles west of town, then meander onto the back roads and into the hills until we came to the
Lowery marker. We've both seen it before, on a hill overlooking the little town. Off we went in her trusty blue Honda to begin our scavenger hunt.
But first.....let's drive on up to the county line and get a picture of Toto arriving in Greenwood County. That would be cool.
"Out of the car, Toto. Up! Up on the sign! Good boy! Hold it! Great! That's a good shot. Let's get another one. One more. OK, down, boy. Watch for traffic! Into the car. Good dog."
On back to Reece.
"Oh, look! There's a box turtle crossing the road!" Library Lady pointed out. Time for another picture!
"Out, Toto, out! Come meet the Kansas State Reptile! Don't worry, it won't hurt you. Just don't go sniffing it too closely. Smile! Good dog."
Back to the task at hand, we get to Reece, then Library Lady decides we should make one more side trip before going in search of the Lowery post--the Reece country cemetery to look for the Lowery grave marker. No, it's not on the scavenger list, but maybe we could get extra credit points for including it. A few wrong turns later, we made it.
"Watch where you're walking, Toto! We must be respectful." We eventually find the gravestone, get our picture, load Toto back into the car, make a few more wrong turns, backtrack, and finally get to the Lowery marker southeast of Reece.
"Picture time!" Toto is agreeable to several different poses, a real trooper. He is even game for meeting some cattle and sniffing at authentic Kansas wildflowers.
Well, long story a little bit shorter, we never made it back out into the wilds to verify scavenger clues #2-14. Busy schedules and oppressive heat got in the way. Bummer. Toto was so looking forward to balancing on stone arch bridges, fishing at Fall River Lake, and watching the grass blow around up at Teeter Rock. I'm sorry that we ended up disappointing him, especially since we had such an outstanding time on our one and only afternoon of scavenging.
There's no place like Greenwood County.
"You do realize that it'll probably take more than $100.00 in gas to do this, before all is said and done," I added. Greenwood County is the second largest county in the state, in area. And the landmarks, most of which we recognized from the pamphlet clues, would take us across and up and down a lot of miles. But it would be fun, we rationalized, so we made a deal to partner up and be scavengers together. A time was set to attack Landmark #1. The adventure was about to begin."This family came to Greenwood County as part of an African-American settlement....a stone with the name of the family overlooks the area where this family settled." This one would be easy. We'd drive out to Reece, eight miles west of town, then meander onto the back roads and into the hills until we came to the
Lowery marker. We've both seen it before, on a hill overlooking the little town. Off we went in her trusty blue Honda to begin our scavenger hunt.
But first.....let's drive on up to the county line and get a picture of Toto arriving in Greenwood County. That would be cool.
"Out of the car, Toto. Up! Up on the sign! Good boy! Hold it! Great! That's a good shot. Let's get another one. One more. OK, down, boy. Watch for traffic! Into the car. Good dog."
On back to Reece.
"Oh, look! There's a box turtle crossing the road!" Library Lady pointed out. Time for another picture!
"Out, Toto, out! Come meet the Kansas State Reptile! Don't worry, it won't hurt you. Just don't go sniffing it too closely. Smile! Good dog."
Back to the task at hand, we get to Reece, then Library Lady decides we should make one more side trip before going in search of the Lowery post--the Reece country cemetery to look for the Lowery grave marker. No, it's not on the scavenger list, but maybe we could get extra credit points for including it. A few wrong turns later, we made it.
"Picture time!" Toto is agreeable to several different poses, a real trooper. He is even game for meeting some cattle and sniffing at authentic Kansas wildflowers.
Well, long story a little bit shorter, we never made it back out into the wilds to verify scavenger clues #2-14. Busy schedules and oppressive heat got in the way. Bummer. Toto was so looking forward to balancing on stone arch bridges, fishing at Fall River Lake, and watching the grass blow around up at Teeter Rock. I'm sorry that we ended up disappointing him, especially since we had such an outstanding time on our one and only afternoon of scavenging.There's no place like Greenwood County.
1 comment:
Great! I think this is a good idea of the Fair committee to see and learn about GW county. Maybe they'll repeat it next year and Toto can be in the running.
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