Sauerkraut Days

 This week, my beloved hometown of Providence celebrates Sauerkraut Days. Early German settlers were the first to introduce fermented cabbage to the region, and it has been a long standing tradition for the town to hold a sauerkraut dinner. (My family never went, though we could always smell it for a few days.)

A few years ago, a scavenger hunt was introduced to our city's Sauerkraut Days. A clue is given on social media, and a #10 can or 10-gallon bucket is hidden somewhere in town. It's usually at a historical monument, park, or local business.

The person who finds the can first gets a certificate which they turn into the city office for a large gift basket. For those who come later, there are still small prizes available in the can such as chapstick, ping pong balls, mini frisbees, and other small toys. There's also a notebook where you can sign your name and the time you got there.

 Each year, the competition to be first becomes more and more cutthroat. Most of the time, you have to be there within two minutes of the clue dropping. So people wait in central Providence or divide up their families to lurk in various locations around town. It is a friendly town, but there is no mercy when you are both looking for the bucket.

Last year, I tried the can drop for the first time. One time, we misinterpreted a clue and headed to a local business. The joke was, they actually did have a can waiting there! The employees assumed we had won and told us to take the can home and then deliver it to the city office the next morning. When the owners found out, however, they let us know it was their can they had set out for decoration and we needed to give it back.

The next day, the clue was at the library. My son was the first to rush in. Unfortunately, he was so quick that they hadn't set out the can yet, so I second-guessed myself and had him leave while we looked other places. When we came back, the clue had been found.

After the heartache of those losses, I wasn't sure if we were going to do it this year. But the thrill of winning before our move to Montreal was so tantalizing that I decided that we could make it work. Besides, this year there would be two clues a day, making 10 in total. Surely we could win at least once!

Day 1: I forgot. (I was busy printing off a homeschool affidavit for while we are gone.) The funny thing is, I guess people couldn't figure it out for 20 minutes. When I saw the clue later, I immediately recognized it as a local author (we even went to his author events last year). I had also forgotten that there was an evening clue, so we missed that too.

Day 2: We were probably third or fourth to Next Meters in the morning. In the afternoon, we parked at Zollinger Park at the same time as another family, but they found the bucket first. So we signed the notebook second.

Day 3: When I pulled up to Baer Welding after spending a minute trying to cross 100 North at Main Street, another woman was just walking up to the flower bed. So I signed the notebook second.

In the evening, we parked on the wrong side of the street, so as we were crossing we saw our friends pull out the bucket by the school bell. Signed the notebook second again.

Day 4: I misinterpreted a clue about Chewie to refer to the orthodontist (which admittedly was where we were waiting because they were a sponsor of Sauerkraut Days). So we hunted around a sign there for a bit before realizing the can was across the roundabout at Master Mechanic. By the time we rebuckled all the toddlers and got there, another family had found the clue. Second again.

In the evening, the clue was at Chick Fil A, and we definitely weren't first there. However, since they forgot to put out the can for more than 10 minutes, that poor restaurant got to be inundated with people walking around weirdly inside and outside. I even saw some teenage boys tugging on a portrait at the front to see if the can was hiding behind it. I was okay with the consolation prize there of gift cards for free entrees.

Day 5: This one was really hard and required extensive knowledge of Providence history. We first drove to the post office, then the old post office. After lots of hunting, we just couldn't find it. When I learned that the clue still hadn't been found an hour later, I headed out again to a few locations in the older part of town. In my frantic research that morning, I learned the oldest post office was now a private residence. I started walking up the driveway to search, but then I froze. This was someone's house! If it wasn't where the clue was, then I would be a total weirdo walking through their yard. So I left to check the library one more time.

And then I went back an hour later when I found out it was there. Once again, I signed the notebook second.

In the evening, I had decided I had put myself and my family through enough stress, so we wouldn't look for the last can. However, Kevin thought it was worth trying one more time since we were headed out to a work dinner anyway. We waited at the orthodontist office again, read the clue, and knew it was at a car wash nearby. So we drove over and lot and behold . . .

Someone else had found it. They had been waiting at the car wash hoping the can would be dropped there.

So once again, while they took the certificate out, I signed the notebook second again.

Our luck might have been as rotten as the cabbage in sauerkraut, but it was still a lot of fun.

Fun for me, that is. My son just said this morning, "Yay, no can drop!!!"