Follow the Rainbow

Ted opens the mailbox and finds a small package that has his name on it. He tears open the top and pulls out a little black notebook. Flipping it open, he recognizes the handwriting of the words already written on the first page.

Happy Birthday Teddy Boy,

I know the last few years have been rough and the passionate kid I used to know is missing a certain spark that used to keep him dreaming. So I wanted to give you something special this year - it’s the little black notebook you’re holding.

It’s been a long time since we’ve been on one of our adventures… don’t you think?

Love you bunches,

Grandpa Neal

Before Ted entered high school, Grandpa Neal would make up a story and the two would embark on a themed adventure around their town. No matter what the adventure was, they always made their little town appear huge to Ted.

At some point, Ted started bringing along a camera to document everything they saw, which eventually developed into a passion for photography. Those childhood adventures are the reason he now dreams of traveling the world as a photojournalist. They’re also reason he grows more unmotivated everyday at his desk job selling cameras and audio equipment over the phone. For the last few years, the weight of his student loans and the demand for out-of-the-box portfolios has kept him there unable to fulfill his dreams.

Ted flips to the next page as he walks up toward the house.

This story is about a leprechaun and his pot of gold…

When I was fifteen years old and still lived in Ireland with my family, we owned a farm that’d been in the family for generations. Life at the time over there wasn’t going so well. Our crops were dying, and no crops to sell meant we had no money.

One particularly grueling day, I was out in the field yanking up some dead stalks and I pulled out a leprechaun!

I’d only heard tales of leprechauns from my great-great grandmother so I was never convinced they were real. As those tales told it, the leprechaun offered to grant me one wish with the promise to let him go. I wished for healthy crops to bring in money and business for my family. The leprechaun proceeded to tell me it was going to rain the next day and a rainbow will lead me to his pot of gold.

When it rained the next day, I followed the rainbow just like he told me to… until I ran out of land. At the edge of a cliff, the rainbow continued to stretch out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Feeling like a fool, I turned around to go back home. On my way, I passed by the only farm nearby that gained any luck that season. I saw their golden fields glow and sway in the wind and rain, and it dawned on me. The pot of gold wasn’t actually a pot! It was a golden field beyond the Atlantic.

I hurried home and talked it over with my family. With some convincing, they eventually agreed our best chance was to move to the States. We scraped together what money we had, sold everything off to neighbors, and made the journey to find our pot of gold!

Long story short, the leprechaun’s rainbow led us to a field that ended up being exactly what we needed. So, the theme of your adventure today is Follow the Rainbow! One-by-one you need to figure out the place I’m describing, go there, and take photos that tell the story of that place.


Have fun, Teddy Boy!

Ted reaches the house and decides to embark on Grandpa Neal’s journey, since he has nothing planned for the rest of the day. He grabs his camera bag, gets in the car, and flips open the notebook to the next page where Grandpa Neal has written a small description of a location.

Number 1: Transcontinental Rainbow

A rainbow that goes all the way across land, similar to something else. Remember the place our favorite berry bushes grow? Or, how about where we’d lay down some Abe Lincoln’s to be stretched and flattened?

Ted stops reading and says, “the train tracks,” aloud to himself. He puts the car in drive and heads to the familiar spot he and his grandpa used to park and take a thin trail to watch trains.

It takes no time for Ted to walk the short distance to the railroad. The moment he breaks through the small woods that hide the tracks and they stretch out in front of him, he remembers all the exciting memories from this place. Waving at conductors, eating wild berries, and laying pennies along the tracks for the trains to flatten. Ted thinks about his collection of smooshed coins somewhere lost in storage.

He stands in the middle of the track and frames his shot with the railroad cutting straight through the middle. The trees on each side forming the perfect archway for the train to slip through and eventually dwindle to a tiny blip miles away.

Ted wanders over to the berries next, where he picks a few and pops them in his mouth. Sweet and bitter just like he remembers. He snaps a picture of the bush showing both ripe and unripe berries nestled in a tangle of green leaves and brown twigs.

For the last picture, Ted goes back on the track to get a close up of the silvery rails they used to put pennies on. Tilting the camera to get one of them going diagonally through the frame with grey pebbles along both sides and the wooden railroad tie on the bottom half of the photo.

Since no train is coming, Ted takes a seat on the track and pulls out the little black notebook to read about the next destination.

Number 2: Tower Over the Top

What used to be a fireman’s lookout is now a spot for locals and campers to get in a good stair workout. The treetops wave at you from below and if there was a rainbow, you’d definitely be able to see the end of it.

“The Ouabache fire tower!” Ted says, “oh geez” he adds with a tinge of dread.

Twenty minutes later, Ted is standing at the base of a hundred foot tower. When he was younger, he’d always take off up the stairs at full speed and every time he’d burn out half way up. Grandpa Neal stuck to the slow and steady method and usually caught up to an exhausted Ted before he reached the top.

He decides to take a note from Grandpa Neal’s book and casually climb the stairs. Along the way, he snaps a photo of the ascending stairs. When he finally steps up into the metal box that sits on top, he lets out a winded, “wow,” as he takes in the 360-view. For miles and miles in every direction, it looks like everything is visible from up there. Ted takes a moment to breathe in the fresh air, and acknowledges it’s much more peaceful when he’s not feeling burnt out. He pulls out his camera and frames up a photo of the thousands of green tree tops waving from below. Ted remembers when he and Grandpa Neal would pretend they could see specific things from miles away, constantly pointing off in the distance saying, “look over there!” Or, “did you see that!”

The box is covered in names, initials, and “so-and-so was here” etched into the metal railings and walls. Ted and Grandpa Neal have scratched their names into the metal many times, but after a minute of looking, Ted figured it would take hours to find their markings. Ted snaps a photo of the railing with the most names and initials, angling the camera so the treetops and horizon are in the background.

Ted pulls the little black book out of his bag and flips to the next page, which he discovers is the last page Grandpa Neal has written on.

Number 3: Pit of Gold

The end of your rainbow can be seen from where you are!You often find it glowing just like pot of gold. This pit has given off hundreds of glows in your lifetime. Glows around wood. Glows around old school papers in June. Glows under marshmallows.

“The fire pit!” Ted says aloud with a laugh. It’s true you can hypothetically see the fire pit in Grandpa Neals backyard from way up in the tower. His backyard was always something we point at from up here. Ted takes in one last breath of fresh air, then starts his decent of the tower.

Ted parks in the driveway and walks around the side of the house to the fire pit thats stacked ready to be lit. He wonders how much he’s burned in that pit. Twigs and branches from the forrest across the street, cheap bird houses from the dollar store, millions of old school papers, and all the cardboard he could find in the recycling bins.

As he gets closer, he notices a small piece of paper sticking out between two logs.

“Am I supposed to light it?” he asks himself, then steps closer and pulls out the paper. It’s a check for $20,000, made out to him!

“What’d you think I meant by pit of gold?” Grandpa Neal says from behind him.

He had been so engrossed in the amount of money on the check he hadn’t noticed Grandpa Neal walking toward him from the back patio.

“Grandpa, what’s this for?”

“Well, the leprechaun led me to my pot of gold,” Grandpa Neal paused, “and your leprechaun adventure led you to your pot of gold!”

“But,” Ted is speechless, “wow. This’ll put a huge dent in my student loans!”

“No, Teddy Boy,” Grandpa Neal pauses, “this money is for you to take that camera of yours, and get on a plane, and go somewhere!”

Grandpa Neal continues, "paying off a chunk of student loans will get you no closer to where you want to be. Telling stories of people you don’t know, taking pictures of things people have never seen, none of that magically happens when your student loans are gone.”

“That happens when I have the portfolio for someone to hire me,” Ted says.

“Exactly,” Grandpa Neal smiles, “and 20,000 dollars isn’t a fortune to live on the rest of your life, it’s your inheritance. I’d rather have the opportunity to see what you make of it than some lawyer give it to you when I’m dead.”

Ted spent the rest of his day mapping out a trip across Europe and Asia and making a list of everything he needs to do to make it happen. He decides he’ll leave in a week and start in Ireland to explore where his family is from, then head east from there.

When the check deposited into his account a few days later, he immediately began booking flights and train tickets, reserving rooms in hostels and hotels, and ordering some new camera equipment. All those years of adventures with Grandpa Neal, every photography class, and every dream of traveling the world and telling it’s stories has his mind spinning as he prepares for his ultimate adventure. Ted could feel the weight and hopelessness of the last few years lifting from his shoulders. After this, he could work for National Geographic, TIME, or anywhere!

Ted is down to the last item on his list and checks it off just as he presses send on an email to his boss informing her that he will never be returning to work.