Sign Up  /  Login

Slow and Steady LbNA #32724 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Katy
Plant date:Jul 7, 2007
Location:
City:Urbana
County:Champaign
State:Illinois
Boxes:1
Found by: Jaxom and Sharra
Last found:Feb 19, 2009
Status:aFFFFa
Last edited:Jul 7, 2007
After attending a reading of Aesop's fable at the Urbana Free Library, the hare was irate that people would honestly believe the "slow and steady wins the race." He challenged his friend tortoise to a race, to be held in downtown Urbana to prove that old saying wrong. The tortoise accepted the challenge, though he was a little confused by his volatile friend’s reaction to the story.

Race day dawned hot and humid. A large crowd was gathered to watch the racers, including the local media. The hare was so convinced that he could beat his slow poke friend that he had printed out the clues for a few letterboxes near the race route. This will be far too easy, he thought, already forgetting how his possible predecessor had lost that infamous race.

The starter’s pistol rang out and the racers headed out of Cherry Alley toward the rising sun. They turned north, then were supposed to head west on Main Street, but that hare had his eye on a few boxes nearby, so less than two blocks into the race, he was already detouring. The tortoise saw him head off course, muttering about insects in amber and smiled to himself.

Tortoise followed the path laid out by the city event planners carefully, turning south onto Coler, then east onto Green Street. He smiled as he noted the hare emerging from bushes or from behind trees just a few steps ahead of him, then racing off into the distance, again and again.

The hare, on the other hand, was having a time of it. Every box he visited he could see the tortoise’s signature stamp already there! Well, that tortoise may be faster at getting letterboxes than I am, he thought after noticing that tortoise was first finder on this one, too, but I am faster in every other way. Anyway, there’s that new box that was hidden just last night; he can’t have gotten that one, yet.

The hare was a few blocks yet from the finish line when he heard the cheering begin. He looked down the street and saw the tortoise slowly approaching the finish line with all the spectators hooting, whistling, and otherwise encouraging the good-natured guy. The hare was in such a state, he forgot entirely about the letterbox still in his hands. He rushed towards the finish line, missing the turn onto Cedar Street. He turned north into some bushes just east of Cedar and ran towards Cherry Alley and the finish line, dropping the box into the bushes in his haste. He beat the tortoise to the finish line by, if you’ll pardon the expression, just a hair.

After the interviews had ended and things were quieting down the tortoise congratulated his friend. The two headed off together to hunt for that newly planted box, at the tortoise’s suggestion. Tortoise even let the hare stamp in first, so he could at long last be a first finder. The two had so much fun, they decided to head out together anytime they noticed a new box in the area.

With all the commotion, it wasn’t until much later that the hare remembered that box that he’d thrown so thoughtlessly into the bushes. When he went back the next day to recover it and return it to its original hiding place, he decided that those bushes were actually a pretty good hiding spot and so he carved a stamp to commemorate his adventure and to remind him that it is always more fun to box with a friend.