The Manteca Bulletin pumpkin hunt rewarded two Doctors Hospital nurses when they stopped for coffee at the I-Hop Restaurant on Yosemite Avenue at 4 a.m. Saturday after they had finished their shifts.

Chris Ake and Russell Hoagland noticed the Weekend Edition of the Bulletin being placed into the news rack outside the front door of the eatery. Looking at each other, they had the same idea about searching out the $100 gourd. It didn’t take them long to figure out that the reference to Frank was Frank Guinta at the Chez Shari restaurant at the Manteca Golf Course. 

Ake said, “It was right there in plain sight.”

The reference to garbage related to the one-time use of the course property as the city dump much of which is beneath the clubhouse.  It wasn’t until after they found the pumpkin by the Chez Shari sign near Union Road that they connected the “love” clue to the nearby tennis courts.

It all fit together, they said.

Three clues for the next $100 pumpkin will appear in this Saturday’s edition of the Manteca Bulletin.