“The Corn Maze” sounds like the title to a mystery novel or to a horror story. Luckily, this particular maze was nothing but fun, friendship, and just a little bit of frustration. It was also the telling story of how sometimes one just wants to get a little lost for a while, knowing there is help if one needs it.
So believe it or not, this counts as a new adventure for me – as I have never done a maze that I can’t see out of in my life. It’s been on my bucket list for a while – not in the ‘omigod-I-have-to-do-this-before-I-die’ bucket, but more in the bucket of the ‘I-kind-of-hope-I-get-to-do-this-someday.’ Luckily my friend Kari proposed this for a sunny Sunday; otherwise who knows when I would have gotten to it. Anyway, off we went to Summer’s Farm in Frederick, MD. (Fun place, for young kids especially).
We studied the map on the entrance, we took our clue sheet with us, and promptly found the center raised platform in the heart of the maze, where we studied the maze as best we could at that angle. Then we went down back into the maze, and got totally lost. Also, we realized that the clues really, really throw you off once you get lost. Each one refers to a sign at an random intersection here or there – and it’s supposed to tell you whether to go left or right. But, uhm, that depends on from which direction you approach the sign, and that wasn’t at all clear. But we were in no rush, really. Kari and I wandered for an hour, we chatted, we kept winding up in the wrong place, and we had a good time getting nowhere.
However, we finally ran out of water and patience and, both of us scientists, we did the thing we needed to do to get out and survive — we pulled up the internet and the map, and just walked the path we needed to walk out. In the process of that, I learned a bit more about how corn mazes work, so maybe next time, I won’t be so lost.
Though it was nice being lost for an afternoon.
Adventures Across the Years 