Team Pink Floyd Ave is Curious

We're off on another Quest through Ravenchase Adventures. This weekend it's the Quest for the Curious. Our team has expanded as our upstairs neighbors and my older daughter will be donning the pink team shirts.

As you may recall, when you sign up you get your first clue. The clue must be worked so that you know where to meet and what time.





Like puzzles? Then try our first clue. A pdf version of the first clue is here. Let me know if you solve it.

Sketches of Gray

There was no way I could know that these attempts to practice sketching would be the last sketches of our cat Spaulding Gray. She and my honey were catnapping on the sofa on a Saturday afternoon.

Come Monday, we knew things weren't right with her and I promised to take her to the vet because my man was out of town for a few days for work-related training. Come Tuesday, Gray was gone.







It's been a week. I can't get that picture of her on the table at the vets office out of my head. Everytime I see it, I tear up. I hadn't realized how strong a bond I had formed with this cat that I have only known for almost two years.

In Gray's last moments, she gave me a wonderful gift in the way she said goodbye. Gray had been a stray cat and had had trust issues ever since she came to live inside. She lived for a year under the bed. Friends and neighbors doubted her existance because no one ever saw her. When my honey moved into our apartment, things were quieter. He began to coax Gray out from under the bed. She finally decided that this person wasn't so bad and so she adopted the sofa.

I met Gray almost two years ago when I started dating her sofa mate. Having been a stray, Gray didn't learn to play like other cats. She was afraid of feet and as soon as someone new entered the room, she would start watching their feet. She was still very skiddish.

Then a miracle happened. She grew accustomed to having another person in the house. She started interacting with me. Maybe it was because it was winter and she was cold, but she started sitting in my lap. She discovered that laps were nice and she began to sit in any lap that was positioned just right. She would get all comfortable and start to pur. When she was really happy, her purring sounded like "tribbling". Think back to the early Star Trek episodes that involved tribbles. That's what she sounded like.

Eventually, we were able to get her to start playing with some string and other cat toys. She really started realizing that people weren't so bad, although she remained guarded with strangers.

That morning, I went into the vet's office. I was trying to hold back tears and was being quite unsuccessful. I was asked if I wanted to visit with her for a while. Of course I did. She was brought in and placed on a towel on the examination table. She saw me and meowed. She had been very nervous when the vet brought her in, but now she was laying on the towel. I was petting and talking to her and she relaxed. She began to tribble and I new she was happy to see me. She felt the bond too and she was letting me know that.

In a few minutes, she was releived of her pain and suffering from the cancer that had taken hold of her.


Rest in peace, Spaulding Gray.

Of Quests and Flying Pigs and the Curious

We were looking for something different to do a few weekends ago and my cousin recommended Ravenchase Adventures. Ravenchase sets up some unusual scavenger-type hunts. You sign up for the event and you receive a clue via email which when you decipher it, you discover where the game begins and at what time. Of course Ravenchase wants to make sure that everyone starts in the right place, so once you’ve worked out the first clue, you email the answer back to them and they confirm whether you got the right answer. Our first race was the Quest for the Flying Pig. The picture above is a screen shot of what our first clue looked like. If you want to be able to read it, just right-click and select view image.

We decided to call our team, Pink Floyd Avenue since that's were we live. We took a picture of the antique lamppost and I turned it into line art, added a raven and the team name. Using iron-on tranfers and pink t-shirts, we created a team shirt:




We figured out the riddle and met on Libbie Hill at 10am. There, we filled out waiver forms and some basic information and were told the rules.

1. Don't go off the map

2. Sometimes they hire actors that are in locations to assist. If we are sent to a cemtery, the actors are NEVER mourners, so don't disturb the funeral. Actors are never police officers, so don't bug them either. This day, there were no actors so we didn't have to worry.

3. You can call in for help with clues if you get stuck, but each call added a 15-minute penalty to your final race time. If you called more than twice, you couldn't be in the top 3 places.

4. Respect public buildings and entities and laws.

5. Play fairly. Don't sabotage the game by rehiding the clues or taking more than one copy. Team members must all ride in one vehicle.

In order to stagger the teams departing the starting point, each team was given small round gold box. Inside the box was a riddle along with a jigsaw puzzle. According to the riddle, in order to get your map and clues, you had say the "magic words" to the event organizer. The magic words were written out on one side of the jigsaw puzzle, but they were in code. You had to work the jigsaw puzzle and then figure out the code. We looked on the back of the puzzle for and clues or assistance. The back of the puzzle once worked, contained two letters for the code. A=J, U=D. This was a simlple Ceasar Shift and so we spoke the magic words and received our map and three clues.

There were four places on the map. We had three clues which were written like Nostradamous prophecies. As we went to the three locations for which we had clues, we were to search those locations for a piece of the clue to the fourth location. In other words, the page containing the clue for the fourth location was cut into three pieces and one piece of that clue would be found as we visited the places.

We read each of the clues. You could visit the places in any order. The idea was to follow the clues until you discovered the location of the ending place. This time the clues lead us to The Richmond Public Library, Hollywood Cemetery and Maymont Park. The fourth location then would be the Christopher Newport monument (which is so new, it's not on any Richmond Map) located along the Canal Walk.

We were really lucky because we have spent a great deal of time in that cemetery, were familiar with Maymont and the Library. We decided to go to the Library first. We had to look up an author, find his book on pirates and the find a book within his book's shadow that discussed western exploration. We found the book, an old hollowed -out textbook and inside was a ziplock bag containg some scrolls. When you unrolled the scroll, you discovered that it was a strip (one-third) of the fourth clue.

We went to Hollywood Cemetery next and there had to decipher a specific headstone, walk so in a certain direction, find the "rabbit's hole" which was a rabbit on the headstone of a child's grave. There we found another scroll, a second strip of the 4th clue.

We went to Maymont where there is a small park near one of the entrances. I never go to Maymont that way, so this was new to me. At the top of this small park is a monument which actually acts as a sundial. We had to find where the shadow would be at Noon and walk 30 paces to find the next scroll. It took a while because we didn't read the clue right (none of the other teams did either) and were pacing in the wrong direction.

With all three pieces of the fourth location, we went flying back downtown to the floodwall next to the canal walk. We were instructed to walk so many paces in a certain direction and look for a "hidden path" containing a "porcus"... and something about "su suis." This area we knew really well because it is one of the river take outs for kayakers and other paddlers. The hidden path turned out to be the cat-walk along an old pipe under a railroad bridge that follows along and over the river. Paddlers know this as "pipeline" and have named the rapid next to it the Pipeline rapid.

On one of the bridge abutments, there was a graffiti pink pig that has been there for years. It clicked with us that this was the "porcus" the "su suis" (as in Soo-ee pig call). There were other teams close by and so we had to throw them off so they wouldn't follow us to see. My b/f ran down the pipe and jumped off next to the pink pig and started digging in the sand under it while I ran on down the pipe with the other teams following me. They had not seen him jump off. Yay!

He finds a ziplock back, pulls out another scroll and starts heading back to the parking lot. I'm following him having ditched the other teams. We get to the parking lot, read the clue. There is a template with cut out squares that goes along with the clue. We quickly realize that we must go back down the pipe because according to the clue, the template fits over some numbers that are on another abutment. Aaarrrgggh! We have to try to do this without the other teams seeing what we're doing.

We find the abutment, place the template over it and the numbers we need are revealed. We memorize the numbers and start running up the pipe toward the parking lot. The numbers are 497. Is it an address? No. What is it? Ding! It hits me. DIG! 4=D 9=I 7=G.
Arrrgggh! We have to go back down to the pipe again and try not to be seen, dig near where we found the numbers.

Success! No other team saw us. We found the next clue and another template. We quickly figure out that we must buy a newspaper (a Richmond Times-Dispatch) from a newspaper box and in it there will be another clue. But where? We're trying to see if the template fits over some of the pages, but it's not working. Then we take another look at the template and can see that there are what looks like bolt holes on both sides. Now we know that the template doesn't fit on the page, it fits on an outdoor plaque. But where? We realize that the Richmond Times-Dispatch building is not too far away and so we drive up there to see if the template fits on one of their buiding plaques. No luck! Back to the newspaper. The clue to where the template goes must be there! Obscurely in the classified seciton there is an ad which says, "A raven flies beneath the horse at 19th and E. Franklin St." My b/f shouts that he knows where the clue is talking about. He used to work in a building across the street from an old Civil War hospital on that block which has a commemorative plaque with a horse on it! The traffic lights never seemed so long as we made our way down there. My b/f stopped and I jumped out, he stayed behind the wheel so we could zoom off when whe finished decoding the plaque. I placed the template over the plaque lining up the bolt cut outs. The template, a tabloid sized piece of paper, had small rectangles cut out of it. As I laid the template over the plaque, certain letters lined up inside the cut out rectangles. The exposed letters spelled out "End at Legend" which is a micro-brewery here in town.

We sped off to Legend, again the traffic lights seeming to take forever. When we got there, my cousin's team rushed out to meet us. I figured we spent so much time at the pipe and trying to figure out the newspaper thing that we must be last. Our only goal for the day was to finish the race not in last place. I said to my cousin, "Are we last?" and she squealed, "No! You're in 2nd place!"

Whoohoo!

Inside the event organizer covered our first round of beer and appetizer. So the $20 per person entry fee was well worth this activity. We waited for the other teams to complete the quest. It was fun to listen to everyone's search stories. It was a great activity!

Without a doubt, we're signing up for this next Richmond one...the Quest for the Curious.

Also, if you live in the DC area, you should really consider signing up for the Quest for the Golden Jackass. You will have such a great time.

Time Waits for No Blog

I've been such a blog slakker. Let's see, we went on vacation to the Ocoee River in Tennessee. It's where the Tennesse, North Carolina and Georgia borders come together. How was it? Well it was Grumpy's~Snow white~Whirly Bird~Gonzo Shoals~Broken Nose~Second Helping~Fanny Rock~Moonshoot~Sweet Cheeks~Double Suck~Double Trouble~John and Sue Rock~Left, Right, Left (aka Three Stooges)~Flipper~Hollywood Hole (aka Hands and Feet)~Doldrums~Tablesaw~Sneaky Pete (aka Suprise Ledges)~Diamond Splitter~Witches Hole~Western Flyer~Slingshot~Cat's Pajamas~Hell Hole~Powerhouse. I would put up pics, but we used those disposable waterproof cameras and are waiting to get the pics back.
Vacation was great.

My b/f had a birthday while we were there and since I didn't have a card, I made him a birthday rock with my CRETACOLOR Sepia art set. I drew his kayak on an Ocoee River rock I picked up while resting in an eddy.. I also made him a "Salmon of Knowledge" rock. The Salmon of Knowledge comes from Irish/Celtic mythology. I was reading a book on the subject on the long drive to the Smoky Mountains. The story is that all of the knowledge of the world was contained in a Hazel tree. The hazel nuts fell into the river and a salmon ate them, thereby gaining all of the knowledge of the world.




The day after we got home, we decided to go the coming weekend to the Youghiogheny River in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. Since we would have Monday,Independence Day off, we took advantage of it.









As you can see, the paddling was great and the room we stayed in had a humming bird feeder next to it. The humming birds were about as much fun to watch as the river was to paddle. Another interesting part of that trip was that something about the size of a black lab crossed in front of us as we were driving away from Ohiopyle. It was followed by something huge and black. We quickly realized that it was no dog, it was a black bear cub and mamma bear! That was the first time I had seen black bears somewhere other than the zoo.

Here are some humming bird shots:
























When we got back, I received an email from a family historian with information about my dad's side of the family going back to when the first ancestor arrived in the American Colonies in the 1700s. Fascinating reading and worth it's own blog entry as soon as I work my way through it.

Reunion Report

I realized I've been so busy with work and attending the No HOW in Atlanta, that I hadn't written anything about the family reunion I attended. In short it was great to reconnect with my family. I discovered my dad had a ton of information on our family history. We have things traced back at least nine generations. The info goes back to the 1700s and the first guy that came here from Scotland. He landed in North Carolina, although we do not yet know why or exactly who his relatives were in the UK. So that will give us something for which to search.

My dad said he would mail me a copy of everything he has. There were mostly dates and places and names. Of course I am more interested in the stories which would help us understand what our ancestors were doing and thinking, what they were like and am I like any of them. There were a couple interesting stories that someone had recounted, but I won't post them until I get a copy of what my dad has. I did find out that my great, great, great grandfather at one time owned almost the whole county where I grew up. He gave it to his brother to manage, but his brother lost it in bad deals and gambling.

One of the highlights of the trip was going to see the "old home place" where my great grandfather raised my grandfather and his siblings. Then my grandfather raised my dad and his siblings there. It is still very remote. There are two ways to the farm. One is to park by the river at the bottom of the mountain, walk across the swinging bridge and almost straight uphill. The other way is to follow a narrow paved road until you get to a dirt road. After you travel a mile or so up the dirt road, you make a right, open a gate and drive a mile through a field. Trucks and SUVs are required!

With all the family history available, I realized that I didn't need to search for a new surname. My maiden name, Duty, is the right one. It may be unusual, buy my early relatives are folks of which I can be proud. It is my honor to carry this name. Get it? "Duty, Honor, Country" :o)


As you can see my little Mitsubishi wagon couldn't pass. You can catch a glimpse of my car in the upper right hand corner of the photo. This photo was taken from the back of my cousin's truck facing where we had been.


The farm is certainly located in a beautiful neck of the woods.


We reached the end of the rough, grassy trail and found the old house still standing.


his is the front of the house. I remember the porches on both the first and scond levels with porch swings and rocking chairs and a whole lot of laughter.


If you stand in the pasture that's in front of the house and look to your left, this is what you see. No wonder we mountain folk are teased for having one leg shorter than the other. :o)


Looking left-center in front of the house.


If you look to your right, this is your view.


According to genealogical information, our early ancestors came from Scotland. A thistle is a fitting reminder of our heritage.


I think this is the saddest image. A chair waiting for a soul to sit in it once more.


Leaving the farm

Downhome Reunion

Life has been hard up here in the mountains
Few people know the meaning of it
Young people died old of hardship and sorrow
And learned well the lesson, don’t give up or quit

Tonight we're taking my sweetheart's mother to a concert. We had this planned months in advance. I got word from my cousin last week that our annual family reunion had been moved up to this weekend too. Traditionally, the reunion was held the weekend after Independence Day. I have not been to a reunion in years but the story behind that is long and not too exciting. Anyway, one of my aunts is not doing well healthwise. I was always her favorite niece and so it is very important that I go to this reunion. My sweetheart is going with me and the trip should be quite interesting for him. I'm taking him into the mountains down in far southwestern Virginia. Although a number of cousins live in other cities, a big part of our family is still there, including my dad.


The town I grew up in had a population of one-hundred fifty people. It is a very small town that is in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. This is a picture of it taken in early March. Ok, the photo was taken in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corp, what has often been referred to as President Roosevelt's "Tree Army". Not much changed from the photo to when I was growing up there. A few more houses. We had a general store, two churches (Baptist & Methodist), a gas station, a tiny bank and the post office. The town was cut into two sides by a river. When I was growing up, all I had to do for adventure was to look up and pick a mountain to climb, or head to the riverbank. There were always waterfalls, plants, animals, rocks, fossils and arrowheads to discover. Although it seems an idyllic life, I know I am remembering it through the misty mirror of yesterday. What I remember of most of my life there is peace and quiet.

Of course I have tons of stories about growing up there. Stories that I need to write down for my daughters. My grandmother kept an old family bible with all of our ancestors names written it it. I'm going to take a look at it while I'm down there. I'm also going to visit the "old home place." The farm where my father and his father and his father before him grew up. There is still no paved road to this farm. You get to it by walking over the "swinging bridge" which is sometimes more scary than wading across the river. I can't wait to see it, because the earliest memories I have of my grandparents happened on this farm. I believe the house is no longer standing and the land is full of bramble and briar. Perhaps it's because I've been searching for a different surname, I just feel the need to get in touch with my roots, take photos and record things before they are lost. And I have my sweetheart to share it with with makes it all the lovlier.

Least Coin Story

I do this sometimes when I'm bored or waiting on something, like now...

Look at the least coin in your wallet, pocket or purse. Check the date that it was minted. Think of where you were and what you were doing that year. Do this often and relive forgotten parts of your life.

The least coin in my pocket now is a penny. It was minted in 1981. The first of June 1981, I had just graduated from high school, was looking forward to starting the new chapter of my life...college. Of course that would come after my step-sister and I took ourselves on an a vacation together with no parents. We also took our boyfriends...but my parents didn't know that (whoohoo!).

By the way, I'm still trying to decide on a name.

Still Searching

I'm still researching names...this week I've been toying with what I like to do. I love to kayak. I love water. Lovewater

English: Lovewater
Spanish: Amoragua
French: Aimerleau
Italian: Amarelacqua
German: LiebenSieWasser
Dutch: HoudVanWater