The Treasure Is Still Out There: Thoughts on Adventure and Scott Dinsmore

A few days ago I went to San Francisco to attend a memorial service for Scott Luckey Dinsmore, who recently died in a tragic accident on Mount Kilimanjaro.

The speakers were all family members and close friends who shared stories of Scott’s life.

My favorite story was about a treasure hunt. Before Scott and his wife Chelsea left on the year-long Round-the-World trip that led them to Kilimanjaro, Scott and one of his friends had planned to go on a treasure hunt. Apparently, it was rumored that somewhere in the United States, some sort of treasure was still buried and just waiting to be found.

Scott said that his biggest regret in going on the year-long trip was that he’d miss the treasure hunt. Everyone laughed when the speaker mentioned this. If your biggest regret in traveling the world for a year is that you’ll miss a treasure hunt back home, you’re doing pretty well. But that was Scott: according to the other stories we heard, he always said yes to every invitation, and he was always pursuing another crazy adventure.

The story continued with Scott’s friend going on the treasure hunt and sending updates by text and phone calls. After an 18-hour drive he finally made it to the location and searched … but unfortunately, there was no buried treasure.

The friend called Scott with a sad report: “Scott, I’ve got some bad news. The treasure wasn’t where we thought it would be.”

But Scott didn’t miss a beat. “That’s great news!” he said. “It means the treasure is still out there somewhere.”

I don’t know anyone other than Scott who would a) get excited about searching for buried treasure that probably doesn’t exist, and b) still be excited when it wasn’t in the expected location, just because it might still be out there somewhere.

As outlandish as it is, maybe it’s also a great way to live your life.

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Image: Ignacio