EchoBooming in Birmingham

I found the first ever Birmingham Treasure Hunt put on by the fine folks over at Our Place.

I’m not sure if I am supposed to reveal the actual treasure, so until I hear back from Mike and/or Mandy, I’ll just tell you a little bit about how I found it.

Here are the clues that were given starting on Monday:
Clue #1: The treasure can be found after you go under Highway 31. It is between St Vincent’s Hospital and I-59.
Clue #2: The color Green.
Clue #3: Beige rocks and beige bricks mark the spot.
Clue #4: 3 down from the big red door and 1 away from the wall. Look down and dig a little for it all. ( nice rhyme, huh? )
—You don’t really have to “dig”; just a bit of a metaphor—

So after work today, I figured I’d drive back and forth under the Red Mountain Expressway until I found a big red door. Well, at first it wasn’t looking good. I started on 5th Ave. S (since I got off at the 3rd & 4th Ave exit), then went to 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st (no wait, I don’t think I actually went to 1st).

Anyway, then it was back to 6th…

Aaaaha! A big red door (well, crap the door is actually up in those pictures but you get the idea).

So I started snooping around…

At first I was focused on the 3 down thing so I started counting the number of posts on the chain-link fence closest to the door…
That was a bust, so I tried to remember the clues.

Beige rocks and beige bricks, it must be in the flower beds (the beige rocks were in the flower-bed).
Ok, count 3 bushes down from the door, one out from the wall…..NOTHING…
Lets try the other side…. NOTHING…

(during all of my looking around w/ my LED flashlight, a guy wearing a SCS shirt on came out and asked me what I was looking for, like a dork I explained myself and he started helping me look).

Still no luck! I knew DrWife was waiting on me at home and at this point I really thought I had been beaten to the punch, so I gave up.

When I got home I checked the site again and reviewed the clues…. DrWife said that we needed a MiniDV tape for her aunt’s memorial tomorrow (her mom is in the hospital and can’t go to her own sister’s memorial ), so I used that as an excuse to go look again.

This time I was prepared. I put on some jeans and grabbed my flashlight. I was looking through the bushes, in the bushes, under
the bushes, etc (remember all this time I was thinking that I didn’t have to dig as the last clue said).

Again, I was about to give up, but I decided that I might as well start moving some of those beige rocks around…

BINGO!

In the flower bed to the left of the big red door, behind the third bush from the red door, and right up against the wall was the treasure!!!

I was literally giddy-like when you find the HUGE gold Easter egg that your grand-parents hid with the money in it-giddy.

I don’t think I even opened it until I got in the car and started heading towards K-Mart for the MiniDV tapes….

As awesome as the treasure is (It is a $20 bill!!!!), finding it was the real reward

I’m looking forward to the next treasure hunt!