Harriet ~ The person who was talking the most about wanting to do a scavenger hunt next year was remembering when she was a young girl and her church youth group would go around to people's houses in town. As I said, the campground we go to is way out in the country and not only would it take a long time to drive around looking for things, I would not feel at all safe going up to any of the houses.
Someone else mentioned a recent scavenger hunt in her quilting group where the participants had a list of fabric stores to visit and take a photo of a particular item, with a small prize for those who visited every store. That would be a possible activity for the spring or summer day camps that we have at our regular meeting place in The Big City. However, it would still take away a lot of sewing time. I'm already missing a lot of sewing time doing chores, I'm not going to give up more for a game if I have any choice about it.
The game they ended up playing this weekend was a trading game with special dice. Each person brought 5 sewing items -- could be a fat quarter of fabric, a gadget, 1 person brought a couple bags of candy. To start the game, each person puts 2 items in the center of the table for the kitty. You roll the special dice and do what they say, either trade something with the person to your left or right or across the table, or take something from the center kitty. The game is over when the kitty is empty. I think everyone ended up with different items than they had brought. Everyone liked 1 particular piece of pretty fabric so it became the item that was traded most.
They didn't tell us about bringing 5 things until a few days before the event. I was doing well to get my project supplies packed in time, I didn't have time to look for things to give away or go shop for 5 things. I didn't participate, nor did 1 other person. People offered to give us things to be able to play, but we were both in the middle of sewing our projects so we just watched the game while we sewed.
In spite of getting to the campground later than I'd planned, I still had to help set up tables & chairs and help other people get situated. Every day there was at least 1 problem to be solved. Thursday we had no internet so I had to Call the Man. Friday 2 of the toilets wouldn't flush so I had to Call the Man. Saturday morning we woke up to no water so I had to, yes you guessed it, Call the Man. (Thank goodness I took my shower late Friday night, and also before bed I had filtered 2 pitchers of water to drink and make coffee in the morning.) The Man came immediately when called, I have no complaints about his work ethic -- it's just an old building that needs a lot of maintenance. The problem with no water Saturday morning was at their pump house on the property; apparently every now and then The Man has to go there and Kick Something.
The reason I was dealing with the problems instead of someone else was that of the 2 official organizers, 1 had never been there before and the other had only been there once. The previous organizer was out of state at a family wedding. The 2 group members who have always helped with problems because they belong to the church that owns the camping lodge, could not come to the event this time. This was my 5th time at the lodge so I sort of know where to find things. I was It by default.
By the time they played the game Saturday night, I was tired from not getting enough sleep in a strange bed, and getting frustrated at all the interruptions that kept me from playing with my fabric. Even if I'd brought the 5 items to trade, I wouldn't have stopped sewing to play. At least the game was keeping the others occupied and not finding more problems for me to solve.
I don't know if I'll go to the fall camp next year. Maybe I'll tell everyone I'm going, get all my projects ready to go, pack my suitcase -- and then hide at home to sew by myself!
