Tampa Bay Scrapbooking Treasure Hunt 2012

This year, I was finally able to participate in The Tampa Bay Scrapbooking Treasure Hunt. All of my sane somewhat normal friends would never agree to accompany me in the past.  But this year, a new friend I'd met on Scrapbook.com (that lived somewhat local) asked me if I was doing the Hunt...YES an accomplice a partner! I was so excited!!
Nine stores participate and you have 11 days to complete the Treasure Hunt.  When you spend $5 at a store, they stamp your passport.  If you get your passport stamped by each store then you can enter a drawing to win a $100 gift certificate to each store, that's $900 in scrapcash to spend!!! Second place was $50 to each store and third place was $25 to each store.

A week before the Treasure Hunt, I found a trip planner online that would provide the quickest route between 10 stops for free. (This is important for later in the story.) Our plan was, I would drive to her house (over an hour away) and we'd start in her town first.  Then, we'd follow the route the computer decided for us and cram in visit all 9 stores in one day!

I should have known how my day was going to go when I was trying to locate her house. My directions were not reliable and had me turning on the same road 3 times in 3 different directions! Somehow I managed to find her house! I was a little nervous but feeling adventurous.  Soon after I arrived, her mom stopped by and exclaimed, "Hi, I just wanted to see how the Hatfields and the McCoys are getting along!" It's true, I forgot to mention, I am a Hatfield and she is a McCoy...hilarious, I know!

We arrived 40 minutes late to our first stop. I kept telling myself it'll be ok!  I noticed early in the day that she was a pretty safe driver: interpretation - she drives slow the speed limit. (Again, important for later in the story.)  We didn't pay too much attention to time but did end up making an extra stop at a bead store along the way.  At some point we both started to question if we'd make all nine stores in one day, but we still felt confident that we could do it.  The final 3 stops were Lakeland, Ruskin and St. Pete.  After Ruskin we only had 45 minutes to make it to our last stop.  Another Treasure Hunter said it would be close but if we weren't far she thought the store owner would stay open for us; she told us that the same store owner had stayed open 10 minutes for her the previous year.

The beautiful sky as we drove 90 down I75.

Everything got crazy after we left Ruskin, we should have went south on the interstate as per our trusty computer generated directions (remember I mentioned them earlier) and yet she went north.  When I pointed out that we'd gone the wrong way she felt sure that we could just as easily make it going north.  When I assured her that would take more time she mentioned turning around...but we kept going north, across the bridge and then had to head south again. As we were driving north, we finally broke out the GPS and I quickly informed her that we had to make up at least 9 minutes.  This is where the Hatfields and the McCoys meet the Dukes of Hazzard because I had to politely ask her to SPEED like her life depended on it! It took a lot of convincing to finally get her to just maintain with the car in front of us...all the time telling me she was going too fast and all the time me applauding her efforts and cheering her on!  I had her make the first call to the store owner to which she was told basically no and I hope you make it here in time.  We waited about 10 more minutes and I tried to call back.  I pleaded that I lived so far away and I was trying to complete the Hunt in this one day and she was my last stop...can you just stay open 7 more minutes??? (Really it was more like 12 but I wanted to make it sound better!)  To which she replied, no - she couldn't stay that long but we were welcome to try anyway! Grrr

After my failed attempt to persuade the owner to stay open I did the only thing I could think of, I demanded urged McCoy to go even faster!  Once we finally reached our exit, only a few blocks stood between us and success; I dialed the phone and threw a Hail Mary....when a different person answered I knew there was hope.  I begged, exclaiming that we were so close and could they please, PLEASE just wait on us.  To my surprise, this employee was AWESOME! She said, "Of course, just come on!"  Yahoo! Victory was within reach...although parking in front of the store rallied a cleaver interception, we still managed to be victorious.  I was shocked at where she ended up having to park, since she dropped me at the door.  We had a little hike to make it back to the car, but at least my adrenaline was still pumping and we had accomplished the Treasure Hunt in one day! Yay!

My amazing scrappy booty!

Freebies we got throughout the day!

Each store gave us a cute tag to attach to our bead necklace!

After the Treasure Hunt I decided to enter the "Cover Contest."  Design a cover for the 6x6 album that was included in our goody bags at the beginning and all the store owners would select a winner.  I painstakingly agonized over my design, which I always do.  After I submitted my entry I found out their email was down so I had to re-submit and wait an extra week! The wait is what was killing me; then, I finally saw the email in my inbox, titled, "Easter Sale, Treasure Hunt Winners, and more!" My heart sank, this was it! I couldn't open and scroll fast enough....drum roll please....um, nope, I lost! Boo I was so bummed, I don't normally have as much confidence in my creations as the people around me do but darn it I really thought I had a good chance this time! As if to rub salt in the wound they even announced that it was so close they had to pick 2 winners...and still... mine wasn't one of them! Oh well, I did have a ton of fun on the Hunt and wouldn't trade it for anything. I spent way too much but got an awesome haul and lots of freebies too!

My Cover Contest Entry!

Until next time, hope you get to...

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