Fun Friday…Quest

I can’t believe it’s Fun Friday again! I’ve already shared some of the tough times we’ve survived (cancer, etc.)…you’ve read all about the creatures that go bump in the night (only in my daughters room)…so as you know we’ve overcome many obstacles (the not so good kind) and it’s time to share a story about beating the odds that is much more fun!

A few years ago our local newspaper ran a contest, ‘The Quest’, in which they posted ‘clues’ daily that would lead you to find a small glass orb hidden somewhere in Clark County. My husband is a lifelong resident and got caught up in narrowing the boundaries and soon got me hooked on the thrill of the hunt.

I had a ‘hunch’ after a few weeks that the orb was hidden in the downtown area (possibly on the waterfront) and somehow involved a statue. Our children were young and we didn’t want to drag them all over town so I Googled myself crazy looking for statues that fit the clues and were found in the areas we were targeting.

One afternoon I was freaking out and thought I knew the location of the orb. I told my hubby and he checked the chat boards to discover someone had the same idea and had posted she’d just returned home from searching with no results. I was so discouraged…especially since she mentioned which statue it was and where it was which meant a ton of people would end up checking it out to ensure she hadn’t ‘overlooked’ anything.

The next day I still felt I was on the right track. After listening to me for a few hours my hubby finally said we had to go look ourselves or we’d always wonder. We loaded the kids up about 4:30 and headed towards the park where Captain George Washington resides. Once we parked, unloaded the kiddos and crossed the street, we noticed some markers in the road that matched a clue…’paved with gold doubloons’…now I felt even more certain we were on the ‘correct path’ so we quickened our pace!

When we arrived we told the kids to start hunting and began searching ourselves. People would periodically walk by and we were convinced they knew what we were up to…so we played it cool while anyone was around. When we were alone and had been searching for a while we became discouraged we hadn’t found any sign of the glass orb anywhere.

I kept wondering how so many ‘questers’ before us had searched this exact area and come up empty handed…what could we ALL be missing? At that moment my husband had a revelation and reached up under the foot of good old George that was not quite flat on the ground. Boy do I wish I had a pic of his face when he pulled out the key that was attached underneath.

He glanced my way as it became clear we’d found what we came for (we hoped) and rapidly headed back toward the car (we were sure someone would accost us any second-lol). Once safe inside we went over the clues and concluded that the key must be for a safe deposit box. We called the bank in question and they were closing which meant a long and sleepless night of wondering and waiting to see if we’d won the prize.

In the morning we were at the bank first thing and wondered what to say to the teller. We told her we’d found a key under the foot of George Washington and thought it might open a box containing a glass orb of some sort. Thankfully she didn’t make us suffer long (or call a psychiatrist) before she brought the manager over to take us into the vault. Guess what…the key opened box #333 and sure enough there was the orb!

We were ecstatic at this huge blessing and soon the paper was there to take pictures and congratulate us…great ending to our treasure hunt story…but wait there’s more…check in next week for Fun Friday…’Quest’ Part II…

Tagged as: Blessings, Clues, Contest, Hunt, Orb, Quest, Treasure