From Cyndi Ball [and Amanda Stephens]:

I am writing my confession. I am most definitely guilty of fowl play during our NLHG Road Trip 2018. [Amanda: This is unbelievable. And yet not.]

Before we left Atlanta, Amanda gave Trina and I a list. She wanted specific pictures during our trip so she could use them for Instagram and Twitter. Among all our other duties for this trip, we were constantly on the lookout for the "list" pictures to send to Amanda. [She makes it sound so onerous.]

One specific request of her's kept eluding us - a 12' tall metal chicken. We looked EVERYWHERE for this chicken! We saw giant metal cows in a pasture that were at least 12' tall. We spotted a HUGE ram's head, complete with horns. (It got dark before Jennifer and I could each sit on a horn so Trina could take the picture.) We saw wooden life-sized black bears, a concrete eagle with a massive wingspan, and a larger-than-life metal pig! But no 12' metal chicken. [IT WAS A JOKE.]

We were in the adorable town of Sisters, waiting to meet up with Quincy from the LHG of Deschutes County, OR Chapter (we were early) and Trina and I decided to wander the streets a little. We came upon this cute little antique shop with metal chickens on the front lawn. They were about 2.5' tall. We were desperate, and I knew this would be our last chance before we reached the Mother Earth News Fair.

I succumbed to the pressure of that darn picture list. I told Trina, "If you get real low to the ground and shoot the chicken from below, it will make it look really big." I squatted down low, as low as I could get, and pointed the lens of my iPhone toward that tiny little beak ... and snapped the picture! We snickered like little school girls trying to pull a fast one over on the teacher.

And phew! - mission accomplished, and the stress of the list was now over. [And yet the chickens always come home to roost. *cackle* Oh, especially when there are pictures of you committing the fowl deed:]

We WERE going to tell her about it when we got home ... she was so excited, and I thought, "What harm can there be in letting her enjoy this pic of a 12' metal chicken for a little bit?" AND if Amanda had NOT posted that picture while we were IN THE AIR!! as she stated in her Instagram post, we could have said something right away on Amanda's post. But instead, I saw the pic of the 12' chicken as I absent-mindedly looked at a couple of posts on Instagram while taxiing to the runway on our final leg home from Dallas. I needed a little relaxation after Trina's emergency visit with the airport medics. (Don't worry - there's a blog coming for that bit of excitement too, and Trina is doing better!)

And there it was - the 12' chicken for all the world of Instagram to see and I was helpless to defend myself. And let me note here, we sent the picture to Amanda on FRIDAY morning of last week, and nothing had been done with it and, quite frankly, I'd forgotten about that chicken since we'd been engulfed in the throes of activity associated with our work at Mother Earth News Fair since Friday afternoon. [Cyndi knows better than to think I wasn't sitting on that picture, waiting.]

So here it is, my confession of fowl play. I will not be a chicken and fly away with my head hidden beneath my wing. I laid an egg when I decided to "alter" the chicken picture. May a thousand pecks of a beak upon my head be my punishment. And may this infraction not come home to roost in further dealings of snapping pictures for Amanda. [Talk is cheep, Cyndi. And we shall see.]

I am beseeching you all, if any of you have a picture of a REAL 12' metal chicken, would you please send it to Amanda for me?