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Brer Rabbit Earns a Dollar-a-Minute LbNA #35359 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jul 7, 2007
Location:
City:Richmond
County:Chesterfield
State:Virginia
Boxes:0
Planted by:Botnizn
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Status:a
Last edited:Jul 7, 2007
Brer Rabbit Earns a Dollar-A-Minute at Robious Landing Park
retold by S. E. Schlosser
http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/ga7.html
adapted for Letterboxing Adventure by K. Orcutt, Naturalist, Chesterfield County Parks & Recreation.
http://www.chesterfield.gov/HumanServices/ParksandRecreation/parksites.asp
Driving Directions to the park:
From Richmond: Take Chippenham Parkway (150) east to the Route 60 West Midlothian Turnpike Exit. Proceed West on Midlothian Turnpike 4.3 miles to Robious Road and turn right on Robious Road. Proceed West on Robious Road 5.2 miles to James River Road and follow signs for Bettie Woodson Weaver Elementary School and James River High School. Then turn right on James River Road and proceed .5 miles, passing both school entrances. Shelter is located on the left towards the James River.

From the Huguenot Bridge: Take Huguenot Road 4.7 miles South to the intersection with Robious Road. Turn right on Robious Road and continue 3 miles to James River Road and signs for Bettie Woodson Weaver Elementary School and James River High School. Then turn right on James River Road and proceed .5 miles, passing both school entrances. Shelter is located on the left towards the James River.


Follow along to learn 3 trees and 3 animal tracks.

One fine morning, Brer Fox was sitting along the shore of the James River right here at the top of the canoe launch and he decided to plant him a patch of goober peas.

***He set to with a will upon the trail headed upriver on a 310 degree bearing away from the parking lot to find a good place.

Before you know it, he had raked and hoed out a beautiful patch of ground neath a patch of Paw Paw trees and he put in a fine planting of peas. It didn't take too long before those goober pea vines grew tall and long and the peas ripened up good and smart. He was real careful, though, not to confuse them goober vines with another kind of vine that grows ever-where round here that can make some folks mighty itchy. (leaves of three; leave them be!)

Now Brer Rabbit, he'd watched Brer Fox planting the peas and he told his children and Miz Rabbit where they could find the patch—right beneath the Paw Paw Sapling. Soon as those goobers were ripe, the little Rabbits and Brer Rabbit would sneak up the river trail and grab up them goober peas by the handfuls and eat ever’ one o’dem. It got so bad that when Brer Fox came to the goober pea patch, he could hardly find any peas to call his own. Well, Brer Fox, he stomped his feet cause he was plenty mad that he'd worked so hard on his only to have it eaten by someone else.

***You’ll find evidence of Brer Foxes tracks in LB #1 just before the first dock stairwell you come to on this path. Look on the left side of the trail, under the fallen log neath that there Paw Paw Sapling. (Clue: Paw Paw trees have thin trunks, don't grow real tall, and the big oval leaves are mighty odiferous! There's lots'o them round these here parts of the park.)

The story continues: Brer Fox suspected that Brer Rabbit was to blame for his peas disappearing, but the rascally rabbit had covered his tracks so well that Brer Fox couldn't catch him. So Brer Fox came up with a plan. Lets mosey up the trail a bit further to see what he does.

***Cross over the next two bridge at 350 degrees to stay on the trail along the river.

Brer Fox came upon a hollow tree where a cunning rabbit could sneak in, and there he set a trap for Brer Rabbit at that spot. He tied a rope to a nearby sapling and bent it nearly double. Then he took the other end of the rope and made a loop knot that he fastened with a trigger right around the hole in the Sycamore Tree. If anybody came through the hole to sneak into his garden, the knot would tighten around their body, the sapling would spring upright, and they would be left hanging from the tree for ever'body to see.

The next morning, Brer Rabbit came a-slipping into the hole in the Sycamore Tree. At once, the trigger sprung, the knot tightened on his forelegs, and the Sycamore Tree snapped upright, quick as you please. Brer Rabbit found himself swung aloft betwixt the heaven and the earth, swinging from the Sycamore Tree. He couldn't go up and he couldn't go down. He just went back and forth.

****You’ll find Brer Rabbits tracks on the left side of the trail, just before you come up to the mud & gravel boat ramp. Turn toward 250 degrees to find LB #2. Look inside the base of that there hollow Sycamore Tree and see for yerself. (Clue: Sycamore Tree bark looks like flaky camo print with lots of white bark showing)

Brer Rabbit was in a fix, no mistake. Lets keep going to find out how Brer Rabbit gets out of the trap.

***Travel up a few paces and at the next road junction, bear 230 degrees and travel that path away from the river.

Just then Brer Rabbit heard someone a-rumbling and a-bumbling down the road. It was Brer Bear, looking for a Sycamore Tree where the bees lived so he could get him some honey. As soon as Brer Rabbit saw Brer Bear, he came up with a plan to get himself free.

"Howdy, Brer Bear," he called cheerfully. Brer Bear squinted around here and there, wondering where the voice had come from. Then he looked up and saw Brer Rabbit swinging from the tree. "Howdy Brer Rabbit," he rumbled. "How are you this morning?" "Middling, Brer Bear," Rabbit replied. "Just middling." Brer Bear was wondering why Brer Rabbit was up in the tree, so he asked him about it. Brer Rabbit grinned and said that he was earning a dollar-a-minute from Brer Fox. "A dollar-a-minute!" Brer Bear exclaimed. "What for?"

***Turn 100 degrees at the next trail intersection to find out. (you should be on the white trail now)

"I'm keeping the crows away from his goober pea patch," Brer Rabbit explained, and went on to say that Brer Fox was paying a dollar-a-minute to whomever would act as a scarecrow for him.

Well, Brer Bear liked the sound of that. He had a big family to feed, and he could use the money. When Brer Rabbit asked him if he would like to have the job, Brer Bear agreed.

Brer Rabbit showed him how to bend the sapling down and remove the knot from his forepaws. When Brer Rabbit was free, Brer Bear climbed into the knot and soon he was hanging aloft betwixt heaven and earth, swing to and from the sapling and growling at the birds to keep them away from the goober pea patch.

Brer Rabbit laughed and laughed at the sight of Brer Bear up in the tree. He scampered down the road to Brer Fox's place and told him that his trap was sprung and the goober thief was hanging from the Sycamore Tree. Brer Fox grabbed his walking stick and ran down the road after Brer Rabbit.

When he saw Brer Bear hanging there, Brer Fox called him a goober pea thief. Brer Fox ranted and raved and threatened to hit Brer Bear with his walking stick. He yelled so loud that Brer Bear didn't have time to explain nary a thing!

Brer Rabbit knew that Brer Bear would be plenty mad at him when he found out he had been tricked, and so Rabbit ran down the road and hid in the mud beside the pond, so that only his eyeballs stuck out, making him look like a big old bullfrog. By and by, a very grumpy Brer Bear came lumbering down the road.

***Soon as you see the bridge….Stop your lumbering a few paces before you get to that bridge and there, just off of the right side of the trail, down the hill just a bit, right on the shore of that there dry creek bed, neath the roots of an Ironwood Tree, you’ll find evidence of the bear’s passing in LB #3. (Hint: Ironwood Tree is also know by a nickname: muscle wood. That's because the trunk is smooth and gray but furrowed so it resembles a thin, muscled arm. It also doesn't grow very tall, and has fairly thin trunks.)

"Howdy, Brer Bullfrog," Brer Bear said when he saw Brer Rabbit's eyes sticking out of the mud. "You seen Brer Rabbit anywhere?" "Brer Rabbit jest ran on down the road," he told the grumpy Brer Bear in a deep croaking voice that sounded just like the voice of a frog. Brer Bear thanked him and trotted down the road, growling fiercely.

***Continue up the road a few paces after crossing the bridge and when you git to the intersection, travel on at 120 degrees (stay on white trail).

When Brer Bear was out of sight, Brer Rabbit jumped out of the mud. He washed himself off in the pond and then scampered home, chuckling to himself at how he'd escaped from Brer Fox and Brer Bear, and already thinking up a new way to get into Brer Fox's goober patch to get him some goober peas to eat.

***At the next road crossing, bear off at 105 degrees toward our a fun destination…the playground!

Hope you’ve had some fun and have got some of your own goober peas to eat to see just what all the fuss is about!