X marks the spot. The big winner of the Gear Junkie Roanoke Treasure Hunt was the Roanoke Region, itself.  The event attracted more than 300 entrants from 15 states who navigated through Explore Park in search of flags.  The more flags, the more points. The more points, the more prizes

The July 11 event was the first-ever treasure hunt for the Gear Junkie - also known as Stephen Regenold - a nationally syndicated columnist. Pete Eshelman, director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, contacted Regenold after learning about a recently completed Pennsylvania event. His timing was just right, because the Gear Junkie was planning his next event. "Our goal was to use his voiceto spread the word about how great our outdoors is," explained Pete, "and to get on the radar screen of outdoor manufacturers."

Participants came from as far away as Hawaii, Maine and Minnesota - just for the event! Less than half the participants were local, which means the treasure hunt resulted in more "treasure" for hotels, restaurants, merchants and retailers thanks to out-of-town visitors. The winner of the $6,500 grand prize (a Sylvan GO camper trailer) came here from the Tidewater region, and brought his entire family.

The treasure hunt was an open wilderness race course (either beginner or advanced) where participants were given a map and sent looking for flags within a two-hour limit. Find a flag, score a point. At the end of the race, they "cashed in" the points for the more than $40,000 in outdoor gear, including: backpacks, tents, jackets, GPS units, knives, water bottles, shoes, watches, stoves, sunglasses, hammocks, sleeping bags and bike racks.

Both the Partnership and RoanokeOutside.com sponsored the event, along with the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County Departments of Parks and Recreation. Odyssey Adventure Racing managed the race, plotted the course, printed the maps and handled registration.

Activity is up significantly at the Roanoke Regional Partnership for the first half of 2010. Up 28 percent, in fact! And if it continues at this pace for the rest of the year, Beth Doughty, executive director, predicts "we will be back above 2008 levels."

We're currently working with 22 active prospect files. Several large, available buildings in the region are continuing to attract attention. Activity from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) has more than doubled compared to 2009, and reflects our outreach and education efforts.

The region continues to attract activity from a variety of sectors. Some highlights:

Here's something to think about on your - probably short - commute home: you're saving time just by living and working in the Roanoke Region.

According to estimates from the 2006-08 American Community Survey, the average commute in the region is below the national mean with a one-way travel time of 21.5 minutes (though many of us enjoy drives far shorter than that). That compares to 24.4 minutes among U.S. metropolitan statistical areas.
 

Let's say you could save 10 minutes a day each way in the Roanoke Region for five days, 50 weeks a year. That's 83 hours - or two weeks of work-day hours spent commuting. It's like having an extra vacation every year.

We call it Roanoke Standard Time. Recent transplants call it heaven.

Just ask Sean Kosmann with Gridpoint, an energy-management company with a significant operation in Roanoke. His average commute in northern Virginia was 40 minutes. Now it's down to 15. What does he do with the savings?

"My extra time is spent working out and spending more time with friends," he says. "I love the atmosphere here and the fact that you can have the city appeal in terms of accessibility and stores, but not have the city traffic."

It was Sean's brother, entrepreneur Jason Kosmann, who liked Roanoke so much he encouraged Sean to move here. Jason set up shop in Roanoke, leaving Atlanta's traffic behind. "The commute was long and very frustrating," he says. "My commute used to be about 45 minutes to an hour to get to my job and over an hour and a half to get into town. Now I can get anywhere in 15 minutes. It's great!"

And what is he doing with his spare time? "Getting out in Roanoke to see the events and festivals and working on my new house and yard."

And when you consider our gas prices - average of $2.50 per gallon, compared to $2.74 nationally, according to AAA Weekend Gas Watch on July 25 - your drive home can't get any sweeter.