Trip to Jamestown: The Hunt Begins

Tuesday, June 12 2007 We received our text message at 5:00am, climbed over sleeping babies and their sleeping beauty of a baby-sitter (our oldest, Amy, had graciously agreed to watch Joy, Anna, Nathanael, and Glory while we found out what we were supposed to do for the day, and they could join us when it was a good time. It turned out that they stayed at the campground the rest of the day. It was the most intense day of the week.) We greeted the Kelly family at the shower house. They had REALLY persevered!!, having come home from the registration to find their tents totally saturated from an intense rain and hail storm that had hit while we had all been at the Marriot.

The excitement was palpable as we drove the 20 minutes to reach our first destination: "...Arrive at the Williamsburg Marriot Amphitheater at 6:45a.m. Doors close at 7:10a.m.". We ate our hard-boiled eggs, granola bars, fruit and yogurt (which was to be our "Hunt" breakfast) as we tried to guess what the week would hold. It was even more fun and exciting than anything we could have imagined.

As we waited in the COLD auditorium for the Moderator to appear, I was struck by the fact that their were about 500 or more people (and many very small children) sitting in total SILENCE for about 15 minutes. That was one VERY intimidating guy down front (he had seemed so friendly and affable the day before !?). The anticipation in the room was intense. One of the things I found most amazing about the entire "Hunt" experience, was that while everyone was very focused and intent and competative, the whole spirit of the competitors was one of encouragement and affirmation and blessing-- and all this without being able to "talk" to each other. What a fantastic example of the spirit of Christ in the participating family. It was an extreme honor to be a part of a group of that caliber.

Once we got our clues, we headed for the College of William and Mary Swem Library. It was fun watching families filter in a few at a time all morning. The Library was rather full when our cell phone beeped that we had a text message. Eccleston was alive!! and wanted us to meet him. I can't even describe how funny it was to watch more than a dozen families scattered around various tables and seating areas, hunched intently over piles of books , suddenly all simultaneously look at their cell phones, pack up their stuff, and evacuate the library en masse, without saying a word to one another. It really was surreal, and so terribly fun!

As we approach DOG street, our appointed meeting place with Mr. Peabody (whom we'd never seen), we were in a quandry what to do, for the message was cut short with "and give him...", so we just ambled down the street. We saw a kindly looking older gentleman with a Williamsburg
name tag on the other side of the street. He looked like a possibility, but what were we suppposed to give him? We continued on our way, when John said "What about that guy?" referring to a bearded man in a black coat reading a newspaper on a bench under a shade tree. "That absolutely has to be him" said Joel, "He looks like someone from a movie." I wasn't convinced and we still didn't know what to give him, so we split up. Adam, Joel and I went to the Bruton Parrish Church to check for clues, while Keith, Josiah, and John continued looking for Eccleston Peabody. We were busy reading gravestones, hoping that one of these worthy souls had recorded on their epitath that they had "kneeled before the LORD when they were twenty-eight" when the cell phone beeped with the rest of the message we were to carry to Mr. Peabody. We reconvened with the others and headed back to our conspicous friend. Our suspicions were confirmed when we saw multiple families loitering in the area, trying to surrepticiously approach the quiet reader on the bench. What a fantastic memory our family will have of this!

We finished typing in the 46 characters that we thought best fit the clues and the spaces about 5:00p.m. and went back to our campsite wondering what the next day would bring.














One of the most frustrating clues was "MURRAY'S ALWAYS THE SAME". We spent much discussion on this one, first determining that Murray was John Murray the Earl of Dunmore and last British Governor of Virginia (and not the Murray who was appointed envoy to France along with Patrick Henry in 1799. For awhile, we thought maybe there was a Patrick Henry theme going.) In the end, we put DUNMORE, because it fit in the blanks we had left to make the 46 characters of the correct answer. Not a very enlightened answer.

Later that evening, after submitting our clue answers, we found that "MURRAY'S ALWAYS THE SAME" as an anagram (which we thought it might be because it seemed not to mean anything else) could be "WHAT MURRAY SEAL SAYS EM".

The conversation went something like this: "That wasn't it because what does the EM mean?" "Maybe it is like the M.A. after 'I am an heir none the less.' M.A." "Hey, maybe it meant we were supposed to put the ET MOIN from the big seal on the back of the Governor's Palace." "No, that seal is the King's Seal. It is all over Williamsburg." "I don't think this was an anagram. It just didn't really work" "Me neither."

Imagine our disappointment when on arriving back in Missouri we found that John had taken the picture on the bottom during our Monday tour of the Governor's Palace (before the contest began). It is of a Seal with the Latin phrase "Semper Eadum" which means "Always the Same." Whether the clue was an anagram or not, we'll probably never know, but we have learned from the Indomitable Willis Family to question everything!