Captain's quarters

Avast! Hear now of my great adventure in the Eastern lands...

Black Mariah

I am Captain Black Mariah...

the message delivered

A cryptic message brought to me by Antonio, crewman to the notorious Spidere...what lies within?

In the bottle

Could it be...a treasure map?

the map unfurled

A map to pirate booty! We peruse it by firelight, and make plans to set sail.

map details

"Belt o' Green" and "Ye College Park" lead us to discern that we must traverse beyond known lands into uncharted suburban waters. Luckily, my first mate has some familiarity with this foreign country.

map overview

Here be Dragons

Well, we won't go there, then.

Here be Warmice

The lair of the Spidere?

X marks it

"The Eastern Pole Marks the Spot", a baseball diamond, and the legend "play here"...

adrift in strange waters

land, ho!

A testament to my first mate's excellent navigational skills - he'd not been beyond the borders of Washington DC, and we used no maps but the one provided in these photos.

tributaries

The three asphalt rivers we must traverse - Calvert, Bowdoin, and Erskine.

Calvert

Bowdoin and Erskine

We drop anchor here and disembark.

diamond ahoy!

two poles

The map shows two poles next to each other, with the treasure at the base of the easternmost. Could this be where we dig?

no X here...

This sandy spot looked likely...BUT...these poles orient north-south, so this cannot be the easternmost! We forge ahead.

in the distance...

Two green metal poles jut from the landscape, oriented east-west. We scout for interlopers...the coast is clear.

No trace of digging...

so I probe the soil around the pole with my trowel. Until...*clunk clunk!*

the treasure uncovered

and some unhappy worms

unearthed!

a chest is revealed

anticipation

doubloons!

tasty chocolate doubloons, that is.

Arrr! New finery!

A new patch, as well! How thoughtful! Note my filthy muddy hands.

the booty entire

A chest full of chocolate coins, eyepatch, lanyard, rubber stamp, and a Jolly Roger (which I put on a stick from the park and waved from our ship at everyone we passed for the rest of our entire journey, to the amusement of my first mate).

My tale is told

My gratitude, Spidere, for this treasure hunt! May your sails and coffers stay full.

And now..."the making of". :)

When zer0gee asked me to collaborate with her on this, the first thing I thought of was buried treasure--thus, a pirate chest with plenty of piratical loot contained within.

Filled with doubloons!

The most important thing would be to fill with shiny, tasty pirate loot.

Piratical

I felt like I should be in character to bury the treasure.

Buried.

For the record, I am still self-conscious enough to feel a little strange walking around dressed like a pirate, with a shovel and a treasure chest. It didn't stop me, of course. I'm also quite glad that I buried it well enough that no one could tell it was buried, except via the map. That's important in burying treasure.

The map

Trying to maintain a balance between effective guidance and awesome.

Bottled

Tied with a bow, ready to be cast to the fates...

Pinot Evil

It seemed like an appropriate cork for the task...

a mysterious golden box

what could it contain?

box

box

Spidere digs this time!

I buried a box for Spidere at the finish line of Journey to the End of the Night: Chicago, as a thank you for his efforts.

excavating

more treasure is found!

pirate at night

amusingly, he is wearing the same pirate outfit that he wore when he buried my treasure in DC.

unwrapping the box

plunder!

Since he was head chaser, I made him a special chaser medal to put inside the fancy box.

My Beautiful Medal!

I am so honored and pleased to have this. :)