2006 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt

Damn, Kitch

Nice clues David. Awesome hunt

I was trying to find a cool pirate avatar to switch to, the other day.....I just now realized that during this whole hunt my avatar has had the word "Captain" in it....

damn....

to quote seinfeld "but I don't wanna be a pirate!"

Is this place acting weird to anyone else?

"Tis me a fire aglow in me bunghole!!!"

Damn nachos.

that'll learn ye.

Great tag Jake :sillygrin: :sillygrin: :sillygrin: :sillygrin: :sillygrin: :sillygrin:

Fun night tonight. Great company. I haven't cried like that in some time. Jesse is one funny dude. :grin:

Didn't know Jesse was funny, and I feel like I know him pretty well. I was proven wrong tonight, I can tell you that! Anyways, I'm off to bed, thanks for coming out CM. It was a blast.

I hope you find it tonight CM! Off to bed (by myself, so I WON'T find it) Later!

Whether I find it or not. I'll be thinking about you buddy. :ooh: :eek:

Pix here.

Clue Master, "Cooler Crew Pictures" #3390, 22 Feb 2006 12:31 am

I had a couple times I couldn't get on last night.

I couldn't get on last night so I'm only now able to post the clue explanations...

Clue #1

Thar's stories told thar's pirate's gold

Stolen from ye olde martyr's stock

To make yer haul, go search St. Paul

You'll find the key is in the lock

The key to figuring out this clue is to find “the lock” which refers to the keyhole shaped window on the building at North Dale. “ye olde martyr” is a reference to St. Alban, the first British martyr, and St. Albans is one of the streets bordering North Dale. And of course this clue also tells you to look in St. Paul.

Clue #2

The Chinook wind blows, and the gray sky snows

As weary pirates seek shelter from the storm

Just how much treasure will make yer pleasure?

TharÂ’s a lot nearby but it shanÂ’t make ye warm

The Chinook wind is generally associated with a northwesterly direction and North Dale is a park in the northwestern quadrant of the city. The shelter the pirates seek is a reference to the gazebo near the hiding spot. The lot that is nearby refers to the parking lot, but that would be going away from the treasure and hence will make you colder instead of warmer.

Clue #3

A pirate must spy the stars with an eye

And whilst navigating stay ever alert

Misery'd prevail, if ye try to set sail

In a ship aimed towards the rich Shepard's dirt.

The “stars with an eye” really means “stars” plus an “i” which gives you “stairs”. You can see (spy) the stairs from the hiding spot. The “rich Shepard” is Sam Shepard, the playwright and actor, who lives in Stillwater. His dirt would be the “play ground”. There is a playground at North Dale, but if you head that direction, you’d be going away from the treasure and “misery’d prevail”.

Clue #4

“Grub at six bells,” the pirate yells,

Zounds matey, tis nearly time for dinner.

But ye must wit which spot to sit,

Ones nearby might help make ye a winner.

In general this clue is talking about a picnic type area. There are some picnic tables as well as a gazebo behind the building at North Dale, near the treasure site. The gazebo, which has six sides, is closer, and is also suggested by the first letter of each line “GZBO”. The bells are a reference to the Church bells of Maternity of Mary across the street which can be heard in the park as the clue is released at 6pm.

Clue #5

A fire all aglow in me bungalow

Tempts a pirate to spend me time in port

But IÂ’d best set sail and catch a strong gale

To avoid me fateful, dire day in court.

Bungalow is another name for “Cottage” as Cottage runs along the south side of the park. “Court” refers to the tennis courts which are at the park, but you’d want to avoid them as the treasure is not there.

Clue #6

When pirates sail by the sweet lorelei

Aye, a careful prayer they must be keepinÂ’

For her tempting call could well end it all

And with the dead soldiers theyÂ’d be sleepinÂ’.

“Lorelei” is another name for a siren which refers to the air raid siren at North Dale. “Prayer” is a reference once again to the church across the street, but overall you don’t want to be near the siren. The place where the dead soldiers sleep is a reference to Arlington National Cemetery as Arlington runs along the north side of the park.

Clue #7

“The way that be best to open ye chest

Is to use a key”, the old pirate yawned.

Disappoint it may, would you perhaps say,

To be findinÂ’ out the key had been pawned?

If the key has been pawned, then it is in hock. A hocked key suggests hockey as there is a hockey rink in the general area of the treasure. Also, in the third line, the words “may, would” hint at the street “Maywood” which runs right into the park.

Clue #8

Tis a chain methinks fraught with many links

ThatÂ’s meaninÂ’ yer close enough to smellÂ’er

YeÂ’d be no dummy hunting this mummy

Aye, lest ye panic and go run yeller.

The chain with many links is a chain link fence, of which there are many in the park. But since the treasure was hidden underneath one, you’d be very close to the treasure if you were by the right fence. Also many of the fences have a yellow cushion on the top of them, hence the reference to “yeller” (yellow). Finally, “hunting this mummy” is a reference to the treasure itself which is wrapped in bandages (band-aids).

Clue #9

Skeletons sit silently, having not died violently,

TheyÂ’re simply sleeping through the winter days.

Listen closely my dear, they say “Treasure is near,

Buts if ye shall claims it, ye can not stays.”

The skeletons in this clue refer to the soccer goals, the frames of which sit next to the treasure spot, but they have no nets on them in the winter. Also, to claim the treasure, if ye can not stays, then you must “leaves”. The treasure is hidden amongst the leaves under a fence.

Clue #10

Tis a park ye pursue, tÂ’would be easy to view

IfÂ’n ye knew the street whereby cars buzz

But youÂ’ll do just fine if ye get in line

With the interstate that never was.

One last street name in the first line, if you pick out “park” and “view” to make “Parkview”

Now I've been wanting to say this for quite a while. How many hundreds or even thousands of martyrs are there who have become saints? And just by typing is a bizarre phrase like "ye olde martyr's stock" and out of all those saints the exact right one comes out top of the list?!! That was not planned! I swear I thought this was going to be a 3 clue hunt. Still, congratulations to Terry for being I believe only the second person to ever pick up on the park from the first clue (I believe Rush Harley also did at Linwood). The keyhole was meant to provide a sort of "Big W" moment, but I really kind of thought there would be at least 6 or 7 clues out before anyone got there and thus there would be a lot more to line up and fall in place.

I'm surprised no one seemed to pick up on the GZBO thing. I'm not too surprised the rich Shepard's dirt was such a stumper, although I didn't intend it to be. I was trying to explain it to someone in my singles club who wasn't really hunting, and even with my help it took her forever to get it. But I'm sure from a devious cluewriter standpoint, you can see the advantage of trying to work in the word "Shepard".

As far as I know anyway, Kitch really was the first one to figure out Hockey and Becksie was the first to realize stars with an eye was stairs. I know Me2 caught the "may, would" = Maywood.

So even though the clues may seem hard at times, I know most things were indeed figured out by someone at some point. And that's how I try to make my hunts. The more things you can figure out, the bigger advantage you'll have in knowing where to look.

I just noticed the clue explanations got cut off:

Clue #10

Tis a park ye pursue, tÂ’would be easy to view

IfÂ’n ye knew the street whereby cars buzz

But youÂ’ll do just fine if ye get in line

With the interstate that never was.

One last street name in the first line, if you pick out “park” and “view” to make “Parkview”, another street that runs into North Dale. The “interstate that never was” refers to I-335, a project to link 35W to 94 on the north side of downtown Minneapolis that was scrapped in the 70’s. But it wasn’t the location of the actual freeway you had to line up with. Rather it was the “335” distance marker in left field of the baseball field. The treasure was hidden on a straight line from that under the fence behind the first base line.

Clue 11

Shiver me timbers and clean out the limbers,

Or in an arctic glen yeÂ’ll be submersed

Get that thar booty, is ye main duty

Take off from ye home and get ye there first.

“Glen” is basically another name for “dale” and an arctic one would be “North Dale” where the treasure is. The treasure lies under the fence between home plate and first base on the baseball field, where you might have to do some akin to cleaning out the limbers by searching through the leaves under the fence.

Clue #12

Ye had best set sail headed for North Dale

And gather yer crew thar in the middle.

Look under the fence, where leaves are most dense

Golden bandages be yer last riddle.

The treasure is at North Dale in the middle of the park amongst some leaves under a fence. “Golden bandages” refers to the gold (coin) in bandages.

As for a post party, I can propose two things. On Saturday night, my singles club is going to the MN Music Cafe to see Soul Tight Committee. Could have all of you join us there (so far it seems only a few from my group are going). The other option is to do it on Sunday again.

Good job everyone and congratulations to the finders!

goodmorning-

good friends - good conversations -

some of you know its been a tuff week - this was a nice way for me to go out....a sincere thank you

wheres that picture of Jake crying?

Jesse's funny?

tc's and my personal preference would be sunday, since we've got something else going on saturday night.

understatement lastnight

Gabes was one of the funnest nights out Ive had in a very long time- great spirit lifter

If that's the band I think it is...if we stay south this weekend...we would do this even if it isn't the post party.

Otherwise, Sunday works good for us too.

They play soul and pop music from the 70's. I think their website is something like www.soultight.com

Congrats to the finder, and good job to AW.

We won't be able to make either probably. We're going skiing in Wisconsin.

this was a nice way for me to go out

huh? say you don't mean what i think you're saying here...

you too, eh? :smile:

I believe she means for a little while. If nothing else, she needs to stay indoors for a while and get over that bronchitis!

Great clues AW. They were a pretty good set. Thanks for putting it on once again.

note to self to not assume that fellow hunters just HAD to find the thing after searching in a small park for that long.

I thought I already learned that from me2's hunt. I never learn. I did see the memory of Winnie Bill last night though. :sheepish:

Grats on the Big 'W' find Terry. Very impressive.

Congrats to Triple J once again too!

Up with small parks!

and who says a small park hunt can't last more than a week :smile:

hey gopher... maybe if you took off your eyepatch you would have seen the coin

ducks and runs :smile:

There ya go

well I'm glad I'm not a complete idiot as when the 10th clue came out, all I could find was I-335, I just didn't know there was a sign in the park with 335 on it.

I got fooled by the Shepard and the "set sail" I thought it literally meant sail so it was on the river somewhere. I knew it was possible that that wasn't the case, but I went with that.

Also, I think people saying NorthDale so early might have actually made it go longer because I figured the people that got there early would have picked it over since it is so small.

Good hunt AW, thanks.

:: removes eyepatch. tosses it in treasure chest ::

all the better to see you with when you duck and run :smile:

Congrats to the finders, hopefully I'll be well enough to look next time :smile:

Alex

It just goes to show you that even when it's handed to you right off the bat to never assume anything.

Thanks for the serving it up TV.

I hope so too, Alex.

I think part of the reason this went so long is that there is a fair amount of fencing to check and that seemed the most logical place for it to be hid.

But it was small, the color of the leaves, and had been moved. That means someone had been on it at least once. And it was out just far enough to not be in the way of a check at the fence line.

And, because I was stuck dealing with a heat issue all day Sunday and couldn't get out that day like I had planned. Seemed most of my hunting there was in tiny spurts of checking on thing or another.

You're just too sweet, CM.

That means someone had been on it at least once.

probably me2, on her first trip down the fence.

There had been more than one person along that fence. Kitch, Mucky, me, Inks - though we were on the wrong side.

was it on the ball field side or the outside of it?

When Terry posted her North Dale theory and that picture, I thought that was the end of the hunt. Jake went over there and called me wanting to know what clue 4 was. As I read "Grub at six bells" the bells of the church were ringing. I really didn't think he or anyone would even consider other parks after that. It's amazing though, that even with a few solid bits of information pointing to the right park, what confusion and misdirection can be wrought by the endless possibilities of one or two unsolved clues.

When I hid the thing, it was right under the fence. I didn't even get to hide it that well because there were a couple of cops parked on the street talking to each other. I wasn't sure if they were watching me, but I didn't want to look like I was hiding something so I just dropped it in the leaves and kicked it a bit. But I did think it would be a bit hard to spot amongst the leaves and I'm not too surprised it got passed over at least once. I think the park staff slowed things down a bit too because people were hesitant to get too close to the building after a while. In the end, according to what Me2 told me, it sounded like it was outside the baseball field when it was found.