Chesapeake Region
CC52 Rally: The Butterfly Crossing Steve Graham
Ron Farb designed an interesting and scenic tour route in the Libertytown—Unionville region of Fredrick County. I’m certain Ron would be happy to share the 40-mile route with others who did not have the opportunity to participate in the rally, or for those who would like to revisit the route before I had the opportunity to mess with it. The rally, which had to be designed in very short order, took the form of a 16-question sign hunt with participants searching the route for signs, local architecture, and various yard art. The route was broken into 3 legs, with the instructions for the second leg issued at Libertytown Elementary School, and instructions for the third leg issued at Libertytown Park. Scoring was based on correctly answering the questions, with ties being broken by mileage accuracy (used to decide 5 th and 6th place, and for 8th through 12th place) and a poker hand. Playing cards for the poker hand were distributed at start, finish, and each of 2 check points. The first and third legs of the rally were quite straightforward. Some commented that there were missing instructions on leg 1, but they had failed to pick up on the “Right at T” general instruction written at the top of the page. To add some interest and confusion to the second leg, odd number car traversed the route in a clockwise direction and even number cars in a counterclockwise direction. The first handful of instructions used different turns and side streets in the village to even out the mileage between the odd and even routes. All of the same roads were used, and the questions were visible regardless of the direction of travel. It is duly noted that the rally participants could find “the broad side of a barn” and count to 10! This was the easiest question on the rally and in Leg 1 with 95% answering it correctly even though the only clue was the circled section of the barn. The location was on Artie Kemp Rd. The most difficult question on the rally was also on Leg 1. While most participants knew the saying, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, only 20% found the butterfly crossing sign at 8619 Woodville Rd. Incidentally, a bee crossing sign is on the other side of the post. Other tough questions on Leg 1 pertained to the EV8AUTO sign (25%)
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