Lore Trial #10: Prettiest Cowboy

Eleanor McClintock Williams was a good friend of mine, and she was by far the prettiest cowboy ever. She was the daughter of some wealthy artists from back east. Even though she ended up making a bit of a name for herself in the visual arts and through the written word, her biggest accomplishments were on a horse. Over her lifetime, she had 24 different horses - she named them after the letters of the alphabet. Her last horse - the 24th - was named "X" which was the one I got to ride. He wasn't nearly as tough as his name would make him out to be! So, Eleanor never got to "Y" or "Z" which she figured were't such important letters of the alphabet anyways.

Back in the old old days, female riders had to wear skirts! Ellie was too interested in doing tricks and such to be preoccipied by "decency" though. She wore pants! During her life, Eleanor was a champion trick rider, a performer (at Wild Wild West shows and in the circus!), a mother, a rach proprieter and forewoman, a wife, and a politician. Whew! Talk about "Super Mom." She really ran around the clock!

Eleanor was pretty much par for the course out here in the West, though. Western women are a hearty stock! Especially transplants from back east - those gals are hearty and rebelllious! They bid "adios" to Radcliff and "howdy" to rodeo! Old "El" and her crew were true 12 o'clock women! Below is an example of their schedule. Following it and then unscrambling it might lead you to a place where you could go to find out more information about Cowgirls like them.

4 am - Wake up. Feed the animals.
6 am - Eat breakfast.
7 am - Morning ride.
8 am - Wake up the kids.
1 pm - Training.
3 pm - Dress.
3 pm - Eat dinner.
6 pm - Ride to the rodeo.
6 pm - Groom horse.
8 pm - Perform.

Well, with all of the 24 mentions and the times, this is pretty obviously a clock puzzle. Once you see that "El" is a 12 o'clock woman, you can see that each time is going to map to a letter.

4 am - 4 - d
6 am - 6 - f
7 am - 7 - g
8 am - 8 - h
1 pm - 13 - m
3 pm - 15 - o
3 pm - 15 - o
6 pm - 18 - r
6 pm - 18 - r
8 pm - 20 - t

Yeah, doesn't look like much, does it. Even with the 'unscrambling' you don't get good words out of it. Aunt Anna gives us a hint that we're looking for a website instead of an actual location. That might have been helpful the first time out. Still, I couldn't get this on my own. I had to enlist help from chat. This is my conversation:

[21:20] <Rowan> so a hint?
[21:20] <Rogi> It's a "dot" org address.
[21:20] <Rowan> fraking hell
[21:21] * Rogi waits for the bad part to sink in with Rowan.
[21:21] <Rowan> there arent any moer freaking vowels!
[21:21] <Rogi> nope.

That's right boys and girls. Not only does my spelling suck in IRC, but we need to figure out what order the letters 'F H M R' are in our mystery website. Have you figured it out yet? It's frhm.org. The good news is, this is supposedly the last of the bad puzzles from those that have finished them all. Yay!

  Location Trial #10: Branding Cattle

Cattle branding may seems a little harsh, but it's the only way to be sure that your cows remain your cows. These days, rustling is a less common "trade," but it's still important to label your livestock with your ranch's brand.

The brand above is from a family ranch in San Lorenzo, NM. I first saw their brand - and many others - in Las Cruces, NM. Something about this particular brand moves me - it looks like an eye and the beach and the sunset and a crown all at the same time. I'd have liked to see the brand on a cow.

These family ranches with their family brands that they stamp on cows' hide - well, they're not unlike our own families! Instead of crests, they have brands! Their brands - like our crests - are a source of family heritage and pride to be proudly displayed. There are so many proud families in the world!

Find out the name of the family that this brand belongs to and you'll prove loyalty to your own family - and our extended extended human familiy.

BONUS ACTIVITIES:
- earn 5 TOUGH points if you "brand" your family's crest on your hand with a ballpoint pen.br> - earn 5 SMARTS points if you design a suitable cowbrand for your family.

  Challenge Piece: Where-When #10

Location: http://lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/WhereWhen/10/ww_10.jpg
Username: souza
Password: kavanagh

  Legend Trial #10: Christopher Freemont

This is the only photo ever taken of Christopher Freemont. Chris was the first Freemont in our extended family. He and my darling niece Isabela Garcia (Doris' child) were married when he was still a little young and she was just starting to become a little old.

The Freemonts (or is it Fremont? there are conflicting historical records) were so Anglo! Do you know that there are all kinds of 2-brothers-of-one-family marrying 2-sisters-of-another-family and a-cousin-of-a-3rd-whose-other-cousin-married-her-sister-in-law's-nephew business thanks to the friendship between the Fremonts and the Williams that predates either one's encounter with the Garcias and the Ravelos (Souzas I think are the only ones without a speck of Anglo even by marriage - of course, Maddie might change that!).

So...back to little Christopher and his snapshot. The Fremonts were pretty important in the Wild West, as has already been discussed in some of the previous trials. Through maternal lineage, they had very strong ties in New Orleans as well - French creoles. (I guess they're not THAT Anglo! har har). After Christopher was born, the daughter of a a high voodoo priestess served as his nanny and his mother's general helper. Now, HER mama came by to see the child for herself, she'd heard such tales from her daughter.

When this priestess saw him, she swore by the light of day and the dark of night that he was a blessed and cursed child. His photo should never be taken again! Lest the secrets that his aura and birthmarks contain reveal themselves to a humanity not yet ready. Also, he should never engage in two specific activities. She never explained why, but one of them was knitting. The other called Christopher too loudly for him to refrain, and it is how he died.

His widow Isabela became obsessed and with his memory - understandably tormented since she had no photos with which to remember their life together. She took up knitting and constantly thought about and read stories about and drew portraits of the activity that mysteriously killed her lively, blessed, cursed husband.

Here's a small part of a knitting pattern that Isabela has been working on in preparation for her visit to her husband's grave this winter. It will reveal to you the activity that killed Christopher, as prophesied by a mistress of voodoo.

k(3) in color 1, k(6) in color 2, k(1) in color 1, k(1) in color 2, k(1) in color 1
TURN
p(1) in color 1, p(10) in color 2, p(1) in color 1,
TURN
k(3) in color 1, k(1) in color 2, k(3) in color 1, k(2) in color 2, k(1) in color 1, k(1) in color 2, k(1) in color 1
TURN
p(1) in color 1, p(1) in color 2, p(1) in color 1, p(2) in color 2, p(1) in color 1, p(1) in color 2, p(1) in color 1, p(1) in color 2, p(1) in color 1, p(2) in color 2,
TURN
k(3) in color 1, k(1) in color 2, k(4) in color 1, k(1) in color 2, k(1) in color 1, k(1) in color 2, k(1) in color 1
CAST OFF

But you know need to know how to knit for this! You just need to how to place the information in a grid. The grid is 12 blocks across and 5 blocks down. When you're knitting (k) you go left to right. When you're perling (p) you go right to left (saves from having to flip the image around). If you do it right, you get:

which is sail with a really funky a.

  Challenge Piece: Burden-to-Bring #10

Location: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Souza/10/10.jpg
Username: souza
Password: heen75

Garcias: unknown

Ravelos: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Ravelo/10/10.jpg
Password: pred32

Williams/Freemonts: unknown

  Lore Trial #11: Party Girls at the Driskill

I once spent a year teaching at St. John's College in New Mexico. One of my students and her girlfriend went to Austin during spring break. They went out partying on Sixth Street and came back to their hotel - The Driskill - at 2 in the morning feeling a little tipsy. They accidentally took the elevator up to the wrong floor - and stumbled out to find the area under renovations and covered in plastic.

At first the girls had fun with their mixup. They'd heard legends that the place was haunted and so they ran around draping themselves with the plastics and trying to spook each other. They giggled all the way back to the elevator which they called up. While they waited, they felt more and more uneasy. My student, Cynthia, tried to lighten things up with a loud "BOO!" and a jerky head motion just as the elevator arrived, but then she got really startled when she stepped in and nearly bumped heads with another woman on her way out of the elevator.

The woman was elegant and spoke with a thick, aristocratic Houston drawl when they asked her if she was really staying on this floor and wasn't the construction a nuisance, "No. It's not bothering me." Her arms were filled with bags and packages from the most expensive stores and she disappeared into Room 29. Curious, the girls crept down the hall and listened at her door. THey heard her dialing a phone, as if she were dialing a number and then changing her mind. Or sending a message. Then, they heard the woman draw a bath. Which seemed like a good idea to the students. They quickly returned to the elevator and their room.

The next morning, one of the clerks at the front desk was flirting with the girls, teasing them about coming back drunk and had they had a good time in Austin? Feeling comfortable with him, they told him about their strange encounter after their evening out. Quietly and soberly, he assured them that there was nobody staying on that floor. He even brought them up to Room 29 and showed them the empty bathroom into which not even a toilet or a bathtub had been installed. And there, standing in Room 29, the clerk told the girls about the "Houston Bride."

If you're curious, you all can read more about it here: www.houstonbride.com and here: http://www.ghostsoftexas.com/content/view/14/101/.

So this one can be a bit tricky if you don't have good ears, or you decide that you aren't hearing things right based upon the first two letters you come up with.

So, if you click on the second link, it takes you to an mp3 of the Houston Bride dialing a number. If you don't recognize that the long tones are word breaks, you'll be utterly confused as to what letters you are going to be getting out of this, like I was - and I knew the answer when I tried this! The first word is two letters long, so it's either a really short word, or an abbreviation. And after listening to the tones and deciding that the grouping is a 9, which would map to X, it has to be an abbreviation (or else you just give up because you think it's another mistake).

The numbers being dialed are: 8 99 # 7777 8 2 8 33 # 222 2 7 444 7 222 555

And that spells TX State Capitol.

  Location Trial #11: Remember the Alamo

When I think of Texas these days, I usually just think of oil, the Bush family, Haliburton, and Enron. How could I forget the Alamo?! Well, when I visited a certain place in Texas, I certainly couldn't forget it. Or what it symbolizes.

Border conflicts have been fierce since the beginning. We often lose even when we're on the "winning" side. America is indebted to more folks than just Americans. Sometimes fighting for fighting's sake is worth it.

Walking through those thick marble walls at the end of Congress St., I felt completely isolated from Americans or our violent legacy. Yet I was mere feet from rooms where our President sharpened his political chops. And statues, murals, plaques all over the place implored me to remember Texas' legacy. Remember it origins, its many sovereignties, it many Governors, and its general resiliance. Where I should have felt most moved by history, I felt most alienated by it. But I did remember it. I suppose that's the least one could expect.

The building instructed me: "Remember the Alamo!" And I was speechless. What should I have replied?

  Challenge Piece: Where-When #11

Location: http://lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/WhereWhen/11/ww_11.jpg
Username: souza
Password: oneandindivisible

  Legend Trial #11: Oliver Souza

Before Oliver took over Major's Diner in Pine Valley for his dad, he led a a very different lifestyle. His days were filled with athletics and his nights with rock n' roll.

Olie went to UC Berkeley (like a lot of us!) and then moved to Florida for awhile to play guitar for Disney World. His big break came after he left Florida, though, and he started a band with some college friends. They had a hit song back in the early 1990's (which I shamefully can't even remember now). Then they hit the road for a month-long U.S. tour. Oliver never got into the smoking and not too much into the drinking, though, because he woke up at 7am every morning during tour to train.

Throughout high school and college, Oliver was a nationally ranked squash player. About 5 years after college (less than a year after the band's tour), he was a finalist at nationals, competing to represent the United States at the Olympics! He made a series of impressive hits, but ended up destroying his knee so badly that he's been benched ever since. Those awesome, ill fated hits:

- Directly on the 6' line.
- Between the 4' and 6' lines.
- Directly on the 8' line'
- Directly on the 6' line.
- Between the 8' and 10' lines.
- Between the 8' and 10' lines.
- Directly on the 10' line.


These days, Oliver's group still plays gigs from time to time, but he mostly focuses on running his dad's business and enjoying his town. He's got a great soul, that Oliver! He does have one pet peeve, though....can you guess it? His pop would approve.

Oh yeah, one more terribly endearing thing about Oliver - he's 40 years old now (a Halloween baby!), but he still keeps his lucky squash balls displayed in the diner. For good luck for the diner (and protection from his pet peeve, I'm sure!).

You need to place where Olie's hits fell on the squash court. Once you do that, you map the dots to the letters of the notes on the Treble clef. If you're not musically inclined, you can check out this picture. The notes spell bad beef.

  Challenge Piece: Burden-to-Bring #11

Location: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Souza/11/11.jpg
Username: souza
Password: it's supposed to be yeen33 but it doesn't work :(

Garcias: unknown

Ravelos: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Ravelo/11/11.jpg
Password: wred70

Williams/Freemonts: unknown

  Lore Trial #12: La Llorona

Perhaps you've already heard about La Llorona, so far-reaching is her story. The Llorona that I heard tale of as a little girl was a woman who drowned her illegitimate baby to appease a boyfriend. After the boyfriend forsook her, she killed herself as well. The wailing that we used to hear at nights near the river by my parents' friends' home in Texas was La Llorona mourning her misdeeds. As progressive as my mother was in some respects - she didn't think much of Quinceañeras, for example, and we didn't have them - she was the very source of "Old Wives' Tales" in other respects. More mystical than old fashioned, my mother had bizarre explanations for every tragedy that touched her life personally. During one of our visits to Texas, mama pulled all of us children aside and spoke to us in a very serious tone. While she couldn't be certain about la llorona's actual name, she was certain that it was cursed and responsible for the death of some of the local children. None of us were to name our daughters Clara, Hermione, Adela, Pilar, Paz, Elena, Luz, or Lidia. We were not to name our sons Hector, Ignacio, Luiz, or Lorenzo as these were the names that might have been given to the dead baby before his mama took his life. We didn't. Not so much because we agreed with our mother's superstition as because it didn't hurt to honor her request. I was never put to the test, but I did feel a certain uneasiness whenever someone was pregnant and there were conversations about what to name the child. I suppose that each of us shared mama's fears a little bit. One of my former students has been fascinated by the legend for much of her life, looking for lessons in the legend and also trying to understand its role in American Latino culture. Perhaps most instructive is the tale's pervasiveness. La Llorona has been sighted in at least half of the bodies of water in Texas alone: from the Medina River, the Angelina River, and the Sabine River to the Oak Creek Lake, Nueces River, International Falcon Lake, and the Colorado River, La Llorona has been observed or heard sobbing tirelessly. Townsfolk in Conroe, El Paso, Missouri City, Eden, Texarkana, Alpine, Rowena, and Yoakum have felt La Llorona's icy presence in their nurseries. I imagine that the girl is just looking and means no harm.

Acrostics galore! 'Tis so easy. Just take the first letter of each of the list of names.

Clara, Hermione, Adela, Pilar, Paz, Elena, Luz, or Lidia: Chappell
Hector, Ignacio, Luiz, or Lorenzo: Hill
Medina River, the Angelina River, and the Sabine River to the Oak Creek Lake, Nueces River, International Falcon Lake, and the Colorado River: Masonic
Conroe, El Paso, Missouri City, Eden, Texarkana, Alpine, Rowena, and Yoakum: Cemetery

  Location Trial #12: Visit the Departed

Mrs. Holmes was my 3rd grade teacher and a true inspiration. She is buried in Texas. I went to visit her grave about 20 years ago. It brought me such a sense of peace about the afterlife. Not only did her grave have the best view in the whole cemetary, but it was adorned with flowers from loved ones and the epitaph was inspirational.

Go there. Visit her grave. Understand my family - its message is about to be true for all of you.

Love,
Aunt Anna

  Challenge Piece: Where-When #12

Location: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/WhereWhen/12/ww_12.jpg
Username: souza
Password: thytrialsendedthyrestiswon

refer to family legends to obtain birth and death years
3.85 cycles through 26 symbols
Anna could be 1 14, 92, 53 or 27, 66, 40, 79 or...
Taylor could be 46, 27, 51, 90, 15, 70

Now to figure out what all this means...

  Legend Trial #12: Anne Ravelo

Anne was named after me! I had been wondering for so long when someone would consider this poor old spinster hag without a child (that's me!) and help her carry on her tradition...thank heavens for little Annie's birth in 1987 (and her parent's choice of name!).

Ever since Anne went away to spend her junior year in Belize, I haven't heard much from her. I hope that her nightmares have quieted down. Did all of you know about Anne's nightmares?

I probably shouldn't reveal too much since she's at that age where they still get embarrassed about everything, but this girl has the most sensitive soul. Every little disquietude that she encounters during the day comes back to haunt her during the night, while she's most vulnerable.

Once, when she was a little girl and staying with me for the weekend, she had the most horrible dream! When she woke up, she was crying and hollering. But she refused to confess the subject of her nightmare. And so, taking a hint, I decided instead to distract her from her scary thoughts: we played with alphabet blocks. I took this photo of her silly creation:

Then, as I was settling her back into bed, I promised to sleep there beside her all night long. We agreed on 3 silly rules about what to do should a BEE, a cup of TEA, or an EX dream pop up in her mind when she closed her eyes:

(1) BEE --> change adjacent items directly above it, below it, to its left, and to its right: back by one. Leave the bee as it is.
(2) TEA -->change adjacent items directly above it, below it, to its left, and to its right: forward by three. Leave the tea as it is.
(3) EX --> change adjacent items directly above it, below it, to its left, and to its right: back by two. Leave the ex as it is.

And they could only be done in that precise order and never used retroactively. For instance, if by executing a "treatment" on a TEA turned it into a BEE, she wouldn't then go back and perform the BEE treatment on the new BEE. Similarly, if the treatment on the TEA turned it into a TEA, she wouldn't get stuck in the feedback loop and then execute the TEA treatment once again on the new TEA. Oh I know that these rules seem silly, but they made a ton of sense to us at 4.30 in the morning after some bad dreams and a bleary eyed play session with blocks. And they helped coax little Annie back to sleep.

The next morning,we played checkers for hours - zig zaging back and forth and leapfrogging over each others pieces in oh-so-meaningful ways to our creative approach to the game. I still wonder what that dream was about...

  Challenge Piece: Burden-to-Bring #12

Location: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Souza/12/12.jpg
Username: souza
Password: mleen95

Garcias: unknown

Ravelos: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Ravelo/12/12.jpg
Password: zled48

Williams/Freemonts: unknown

  Lore Trial #13: Jean LaFitte

Have you ever heard of the original American pirate, Jean LaFitte? He was the "real deal," as they say. Johnny Depp owes the recent success of his acting career to the adventurous and eccentric life led by Mr. Jean LaFitte.

Jean LaFitte helped his adversary, Andrew Jackson, defeat the British during the war of 1812. The photo above is of the modern-day alley where the two made their deal. More than anything, LaFitte loved the people in New Orleans. Back in those days, New Orleans was more than a seedy place where naughty Frenchmen (and women) went to escape their European reputations. It was more than drinking and sinning - it was a place of tolerance and acceptance. Whether it be the free people of color, or the Jewish "privateer," Jean LaFitte - most folks could find a niche in New Orleans.

LaFitte was sort of a robin hood. He didn't steal from individuals - just corporations. And he made goods available to the middle class and poor at more reasonable rates. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if he stole artwork from time to time to decorate his cabin.

Ah, those were the days! A person's signature could be just the first letter of his name - his Utterly Radiantly Louisianan name. Put all those "signatures" together and you'd have yourself something special!

Remember Gladys? She and her husband were married in old Pirate's Alley. I'm not sure who started the tradition of getting married there, but they'd liked the idea of being near a church and on the site of lots of historic naughtiness at the same time. It's probably just a coincidence, but they had a fabulous marriage. Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
Picture 13

So, my frist thought was that we were going to have to identify each person in the photo and take the first letter of their name to spell what we are looking for. However, you get to the picture of the girl and the wedding dress, and you quickly come to the conclusion that we're not gonna find the name of this model very easily. But if you notice, none of the pictures are hosted by Aunt Anna. They are all at other websites. And its the first letter of the websites name that we need! So, doing that, we get New Orleans DBA.

  Location Trial #13: Have a Drink

Right after I died, before retiring completely to the Afterlife, I went to the city of ghosts and good times - New Orleans. I had a drink! Gosh it tasted so smooth and refreshing. You haven't been drunk until you've been drunk dead.

While I was at the bar, I listened to the wonderful band and chatted with the adorable bartender. I even tacked a photo of mine up on the wall for "posterity." Go see for yourself! You'll see something extra special on that photo!

  Challenge Piece: Where-When #13

Location: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/WhereWhen/13/ww_13.jpg
Username: souza
Password: littletaylor

  Legend Trial #13: Victor Garcia

Victor! Taylor's babiest baby brother. The only Garcia born in the 1980's (though barely - in 1980). He is an enigma. He is so esoteric. He does not like to be represented by his image - but rather by things that make him think.

He sent me this photo once with a 6000 word treatise about a certain gulf finch (or was it a gull?) that is attracted to these houses. But the essay was not so much about a birdhouse or the ocean or even nature - it was about Victor himself.

He is a scientist, but he has the heart of an artist, writer, or philosopher. One of his more hilarious experiments in the chemistry lab was inspired by his favorite author. And it was comprised of his favorite elements: Argon, Tellurium, and Strontium.

Are you familiar with that author as well?

First, we need to find the symbols for each element. Argon = Ar / Tellurium = Te / Strontium = Sr
Second, we need to anagram the letters to find an author. Perhaps not the easiest unless you're really into French authors and philosophers. The answer is Sartre, as in Jean-Paul Satre.

  Challenge Piece: Burden-to-Bring #13

Location: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Souza/13/
Username: souza
Password: breen29

Daniel Ravelo had the right idea (except for the LSD). Follow his lead and locate to my will. You'll know which one to pick by looking for my jewels.

The will will direct you further to our heirloom, the process by which you can escort and amuse the ghosts, and the real real truth about all of this.

Also -- keep an eye on my flickr account. We'll post images there during the event, and we'll want y'alls help looking for orbs, ribbons, and other signs of paranormal activity!

Love,
Aunt Anna

Garcias: unknown

Ravelos: http://www.lawngamesforlife.com/Challenge_Pieces/Bring/Ravelo/13/13.jpg
Password: phred77

Williams/Freemonts: unknown