Every year, my Fraternity holds an event called Ditch. No, it’s not a time for digging trenches; rather, for Ditch, “big brothers” try to outsmart their respective “little brothers.” Normally, the big brothers start at WalMart south of Terre Haute and try to make it back to the Pike House while completing a scavenger hunt without being caught by their [new] little brothers. The catch is that the big brothers are on foot while the little brothers are in cars.

My freshman year, I failed to catch my big brother. Last year, I was caught by my first little brother after only half an hour.

Based on those experiences, Ditch is my one of my three favorite Pike activities.

This year, the rules changed slightly. Instead of starting at WalMart, the big brothers started at ISU. Instead of a normal scavenger hunt, we went on a “take photos of stuff” scavenger hunt. So, camera in hand, I started out from ISU with three of my brothers. The group decided that we should make our first stop with the Zeta Tau Alphas. After a snapshot, we continued on. It was dark out. Temperature was about 20 F, but winds were calm. We decided to progress towards the house along an old railroad bed that had been converted into a bike path. We were having a jovial time, prank calling various little brothers, running away from suspicious cars.

After getting to Rose, I called one of the little brothers, whom I suspected was with my second little brother. My hunch was correct. I asked where they were. The response shocked me: Olive Garden! Now, I love Olive Garden, but that’s not the point. There I was, having just walked five miles in the cold through a rough part of Terre Haute, all in an attempt to elude detection by my little brother. But he wasn’t even looking for me! Understandably, I was a bit disappointed.

However, like so many things in life, there’s more to the story. (Note that the following is mostly conjecture and is based on about five seconds of conversation) For some reason, two other brothers set something up where they completely abandoned the rules of ditch and set up their own game. The game was of the “follow hints to find a destination” genre. The destination turned out to be Olive Garden.