It was a beautiful Post-Summer/ Pre-Fall Day with clear Skies and an ambient temperature of 82 degrees? With a day this nice, there was no way the Pohick family could stay in at home. After a little research, they discovered an orienteering event in a park not too far from the castle.
Keeping with tradition, the Pohicks split into two teams for the competition. The teams this time were Molly and Yellow Hair vs Jake and StarrySpark. Jake decided that he really wanted to win this event. He told SS that instead of following the trails, they were going to shave off some time by going cross country. This is also referred to as taking a short cut. I'll bet you can see where this is going already. Molly and YH decided to go with a more conservative "Stick to the Trails" strategy. And the teams were off....
Jake and SS had no sooner entered the woods when they headed in the wrong direction. Jake is blaming a localized magnetic anomaly or worm hole or something.
Anyway, after reorienting themselves, they were starting to find their points and had just sighted their 4th point off in the distance. As they got closer, they noticed Molly and YH punching their score card and heading off for point 5. Noooooo.... Jake screamed. Come on StarrySpark! We've got to get moving. I'm not going to let them beat us. This was just about the moment that SS ran straight into an exceptionally large spider web between two trees. Apparently SS doesn't like spider webs very much as was apparent from the ensuing hysterics. For the record, the spider was not very keen about StarrySpark either.
Finally they sorted themselves out and were off again. At the next to last point, Jake once again caught sight of the competition off in the distance. Depression was starting to set in. There was virtually no way that Jake and SS could catch the other members of the Pohick clan..... But wait... As Molly and YH left the next to last point, they headed off in the wrong direction. Could it be true? Jake couldn't believe their luck. He began cajoling SS to hurry along. Soon they punched the last point and were headed for home plate and......Victory!!!!! Jake and SS had won.
Jake was a good sportsman when the other team finally arrived at the finish. Well,....as good a sportsman as Jake is capable of being at least. He only made a few snide comments about superior direction finding genetics.
Unfortunately, as Jake was basking in the glow of victory, some administrative glitch occurred. When the official scores were posted, Molly and Yellow Hair were listed as the winners. Jake grumbled and growled, but finally Molly instructed Jake that he needed to calm down or their would be no more orienteering. Jake of course recognized the tone of voice and decided that there was no more to be gained by throwing a tantrum. "Just wait until next time", he thought to himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment