Adventures. And bulk beans.

So last night I continued my search for the Winter Carnival Medallion. It was the coldest night of the year so far, with wind chills reaching -25 to -35, but I bundled up in lots of long underwear, snow pants, scarves, gloves (multiple pairs), and hats. I got to the park at about 11:30 pm. The area was pitch black, icy, and wooded, with rolling hills and a few cliff drop-offs.

I followed the clues the best I could, waddling in my bundles of clothes and waving my little flashlight. I kept my Blackberry tucked inside my hat so I could talk to Mike and hear the new clues, but I must have looked a bit crazy- like those people who wear their Bluetooth devices in the grocery store and holler (seemingly to themselves) about accounts in China and such. There were hundreds of people there, digging and searching.

By 1:00 am I thought I found the right spot- all the clues seemed to fit, but I didn't see the medallion. As I was peering into the cracked wood of an old telephone pole, my Blackberry fell out of my hat and down a slippery slope that dropped off about 50-60 feet down to a highway below. I heard it get caught in the brush and had to scoot on my rear down the drop-off to retrieve my precious device. Mike, of course, hearing my "NOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!", thought I had fallen off the cliff.

At this point we received word that the medallion had been found at around 12:30 am and I started my long trek back to the car. Unfortunately, being my father's daughter, I got really lost on the way back. Somehow every single hunter had already left the park, so I was left in this deserted area, in ridiculously cold weather, with only little footpaths to follow. Usually when someone says that they walked uphill "both ways" to someplace, they are lying or at least exaggerating. Well, I'm not. Because I was lost I ended up walking all over the place: uphill, downhill, through hollows, over trees, and eventually back to a street that was only 1/2 mile from where I started.

Luckily Mike was with me on the phone the whole time and could've probably had me located by GPS if I started freezing to death or anything. But I was surprisingly warm (read: sweaty as hell) from all the hiking. Today, though, I'm sore, exhausted, and have no $5,000 medallion to show for it. I was counting on that medallion to equal a new transmission for my car!!!

The hunt was really fun, though, and I'm completely won over. I'm a medallion hunter for life now.

Since this is a food blog, I'll leave you with a pic of the lentil soup I had for dinner tonight. I'm loving the new co-op prepack organic soup starters. It's just onion, carrot, and celery (the holy trinity, if you will) already chopped up. Normally I'd scoff at such shortcuts, but I welcomed it today.
I poured my bulk lentils from the beautiful new/old blue glass mason jars that Tori found in the recycling bins outside of the co-op. What a find! They look so beautiful with all the different beans inside. You know someone's a real friend when they share their dumpster diving bounty.