On the Hunt

Do you know where Nun No. 2 is?

Even people familiar with downtown Winston-Salem probably never bothered to look at the small brass plaque identifying the abstract, crescent moon-shaped steel sculpture that stands in one corner of Winston Square Park. If you are looking for a woman in a black and white habit, you won't see her.

Yesterday, Nun No. 2 was one stop on Winston-Salem's first downtown scavenger hunt. More than 100 people raced each other and the clock from Brookstown Avenue to Seventh Street.

Susan Morris, the hunt organizer, and her friends Sadie Caplin and Debra Sheets have been putting together the race since April. Morris has been in two urban scavenger hunts, including one in Atlanta.

Morris met Caplin and Sheets during a dinner. The three discovered a common love of the downtown area, and they figured they could do a similar scavenger hunt here.

Their group, Scene in Winston-Salem, hopes to do more downtown events, including another scavenger hunt for students at local colleges.

"It's part race, part game, part city tour," Morris said. "Just in the last four or five years we've really seen some revitalization, so that's what I'm hoping this will help."

Yesterday's race attracted couples, friends and families. They signed up in teams of two, and at 2:08 p.m., they sprinted across a chalk line drawn across bricks at the Winston-Salem Visitor Center, grabbing and scrambling for manila envelopes with 10 clues inside.

Carol Hunt and Billy King sat on a bench and tried to solve as many clues as they could before they started walking. A hush fell over the courtyard as other teams took out pens, pencils, laptops and even a GPS device. Those accessories were allowed but cars, scooters, bikes and the like were not, with the exception of wheelchairs for people with physical disabilities.

"Is there a place that has books and DVDs?" Hunt asked, reading Clue #7.

"Ahem, the library!" King said in a stage whisper. King is a librarian at the Central Library.

"You wanted me to get that, didn't you?" Hunt joked.

Hunt and King combined their last names to form their team name, The Hunt Kings. It also explained their costumes (purple T-shirts, jeweled crowns and red ermine capes) and maybe their competitive streak.

"We didn't think there would be this much competition," King said quietly before the race started. "I told her we need to whisper and not give out any information."

Like many of the hunt's contestants, the friends are also fans of The Amazing Race, a reality television show that takes teams of two all over the world as they solve puzzles and compete in challenges. The winning two-man team on The Amazing Race gets a million bucks.

The winners of Winston-Salem's race stood to win $100 -- not as much, but then, they only had to pay $20 each to take part in the contest. Proceeds from the hunt will go to the Meade Willis Fund, which gives loans to assist downtown businesses.

The race had some unexpected hazards. A wedding ceremony was in progress at Winston Square Park, which meant that contestants had to navigate around tulle, ferns and flower girls. Bridesmaids in strapless lavender dresses waited in the shade as scavenger-hunt teams made little versions of Nun no. 2 out of Play-Doh.

Then competitors posed for photos (each team had to get one taken at every stop), had paper passports stamped and ran off to find the next clue.

They tramped across town to Krankies coffee bar. They speed-walked up Spruce Street to the Sawtooth building.

But in the end, the couple that crossed the finish line first just wanted to get out of the heat and sun.

Sweaty and red, Tim and Katy Ringeman arrived first at Finnigan's Wake pub on Trade Street at 4:03 p.m. When the points were tailed, they won third prize -- $25.

The first-place winners were Sarah, Mary and Rebecca Barnhardt, three sisters. Morris said that Mary's partner didn't show up for the hunt, so she joined her sisters' team.

"I'm shocked," Katy Ringeman said. "We don't win anything, especially something exercise related."

■ Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or atlgiovanelli@wsjournal.com

Fiddle with this riddle

The answer is Nun No. 2, but what was the question? Competitors during yesterday's downtown scavenger hunt had to solve this riddle:

"Between the beautiful architecture and the many events that are held here, the city Marshall was excited about this location because it was going to Spruce up downtown.

You won't find a father, but a sister

Near the beautiful fountain that's there

This form is nun two familiar

In a Park filled with rocks in a Square"