How long does it take to pick up 18,000 Easter eggs in Cleveland?
Seconds.
Young egg hunters cleaned up the Easter Bunny’s goodies at Truett McConnell College Saturday faster than they ever picked up their toys.
The 10 a.m. hunt was over in less than a minute, leaving plenty of time on the clock for hunters to check out their treasures and get situated for the noon parade at Cleveland’s Magical Easter Eggstravaganza.
Within seconds after the egg hunt’s start, children were done hunting and already popping open plastic eggs in search of the inner treasures.
Eight-year-old Kaylie Truelove of Gainesville discovered she had racked up on plenty of jewelry. Truelove sat in the middle of the college lawn, adorning herself with an assortment of rope bracelets and plastic rings. Her mother, Amy Truelove, said the annual egg hunt, in its 12th year in Cleveland, is a family tradition.
“She’s so fashionable,” Amy Truelove said of her daughter, who was dripping in plastic fineries.
Sisters Kaitlyn Barrow, 6, and Kile Barrow, 3, from Reynolds, gathered what loot they could in the egg hunt, most of which turned out to be chewy candy.
The girls, who traveled nearly four hours to the Magical Easter Eggstravaganza, were content enough with their modest find. They had already come across the biggest treasure of the weekend at Babyland General Hospital the day before, mother Candi Barrow said.
“They both got Cabbage Patch babies,” Candi Barrow said.
Others were less content with their finds. Some children ended the short-lived hunt with shallow and sometimes empty baskets. Eleven-year-old Katelyn Talmer had only enough time to pick up four eggs before they were all gone, but seeing the empty baskets of the children around her, she gave them all away, she said.
Talmer seemed satisfied with an empty bag. Besides, there was to be another egg hunt at her home in the evening and still plenty of fun to be had at the afternoon parade.
Still, others who showed up one minute late because of the long line of traffic leading to the event missed the joys of the Easter Bunny’s gift.
“Is it over?” a woman pushing a stroller draped with an Easter basket asked an onlooker at 10:02 a.m.
The woman groaned at the answer, and turned to leave.
“We just drove two hours.”