Monday, October 4, 2010

A Scavenger Hunt Snapshot

I spent four days with the staff and writers of the High Calling Blogs (HCB) at Laity Lodge near Kerrville, Texas. Laity Lodge is remote, and that’s by design. It is a retreat center that is devoted but not limited to the arts.

There were many things special about this meeting, not the least of which was, for most of us, we would be meeting face to face for the first time. People we had all known from blog posts, photographs, emails and comment boxes would translate from pixels to flesh and blood.

We arrived at various times on Wednesday, Sept. 29 in San Antonio. We were transported downtown for a scavenger hunt and dinner. Our scavenging team included an utterly fearless Claire Burge (HCB photography editor), a fast-tweeting Ann Kroeker (HCB family editor), an intrepid Jennifer Dukes-Lee (contributing editor on family), and me (with the map). We had to find a number of listed landmarks, photograph them, upload them to Twitter, encourage others to retweet them, and then wander around doing things like buying a stranger an ice cream and asking an employee what they liked about the boss.

In spite of technical glitches with uploading photos to Twitter, I’m proud to say that our team won.

Then we were off to dinner on the San Antonio Riverwalk, rushed to the airport to meet Bradley Moore (HCB work editor) who finally arrived after two cancelled flights, and then a 2+ hour drive to Laity Lodge.

And what happened there will take a few more posts.



HCB Editor Marcus Goodyear giving instructions for the scavenger hunt.
 
 
Claire Burge, Ann Kroeker and Jennifer Dukes-Lee in front of the Buckhorn Museum.
 

Claire Burge writes an inscription in a book left for any stranger who happens to walk by and see it (that was worth 15 points in the scavenger hunt)

10 comments:

Maureen said...

Thank you for writing about your experience(s), Glynn. I was hoping someone would. It's fun to put the faces to the names in the pictures.

Congratulations on that team win!

katdish said...

How fun! And you should have DMed me. I know San Antonio pretty well. But since you won, I guess you didn't need my help. I sincerely hope y'all ate some Tex-Mex while you were there.

Dan said...

It was fun and great to meet you in person.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a blast! So much fun.

Jennifer @ JenniferDukesLee.com said...

"Utterly fearless" is an apt description.

What a joy to take part in this with you, Glynn. Also, farmer Scott says hello.

Michelle DeRusha said...

That sounds like awesome fun. I've been reading lots of posts about this from the other HCB editors. I'm a little bit wicked jealous.

Monica Sharman said...

I was on a similar scavenger hunt 3 weeks ago! It involved, among other things, filling up someone else's gas tank (harder than it sounds---people tend to refuse a stranger's help), hugging a stranger, and taking a photo of "joy" and "loving the least of these."
Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

So you still think you won? I'm not sure that will ever be resolved, Glynn, but I'm happy that you had a good time with your team!

Laura said...

What a special few days. It was great to finally meet you face-to-face, Glynn. I'll look forward to your next posts on the retreat.

Anonymous said...

Still jealous that I missed out on the San Antonio fun! Oh well. I was so relieved once I arrived and saw all of your happy faces there to greet me. What a beautiful surprise.