FROM: Because I Stinkin' Love Disney World Published Thursdays

Tom Sawyer's Hidden Paint Brushes

Ashley Metz made a solemn vow: she would find one of the paint brushes Disney hides each day on Tom Sawyer Island. No matter what! Sounds easy? Not. It was hot, it had rained, Ashley hair was frizzled, herself frazzled. Where was the paint brush?

- by Ashley Metz, May 19, 2011

One of the most searched for topics on my blog, Disney Done Right, is some approximation of "how to find the hidden paint brushes on Tom Sawyer Island".

The search result is a link an article that I posted on January 9 entitled 'What Can Tom Do for You?'. In that article, I do not tell you where to find the hidden paint brushes - at least not exactly where.

Not long ago, I found one of those illustrious paint brushes, but I'm keeping my lips sealed so as not to spoil your fun. I had such a great time scavenging the island for Tom's cast-off paint brush. I up-turned rocks, brushed aside leaves, lit dark mining caves with the soft glow of my cell phone.

I noodled my way into every nook, creeped into every cranny.

And finally, I found one.

Let me tell you all about it...

Ashley Makes a Pledge

It was a hot June day at the Magic Kingdom. A Florida afternoon soaker had just cut through the haze, leaving my hair somewhere between soaking and frizzy. What better time, I told my best friend Heather, to look for one of Tom Sawyer's hidden paint brushes.

I had read much on the web about these brushes. But my friends had never heard about them, and they were ignorant of the story behind the brushes, too.

As we drove to Disney from South Carolina, they begged, they pleaded, and ultimately I obliged, telling them the tale.

Right then and there, on a dark, lonely highway somewhere between the Okefenokee Swamp and Oscale, we made a solemn pledge that by the end of our Disney trip we would have found one of those paint brushes.

I had visions of being hoisted in the air and wheeled off in a parade float to receive my prize from Mickey himself as fireworks shot through the air and pixie dust rained upon my head.

Well, finding a brush was magical, but that stuff about parade floats and Mickey and fireworks... that didn't happen.

Ashley Tells Sawyer Stories

If you know nothing of these brushes, let me paint you a picture:

In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, there's a scene in which Tom is given the task of whitewashing his Aunt Polly's fence. But Tom tired of it quickly, and he ran off to play, leaving behind his wet paint brushes.

Every morning, Disney Cast Members hide a fresh crop of these brushes throughout Tom Sawyer Island. Finding a brush and handing it to your raft driver entitles you to a free FastPass.

If you want to cheat, you can research the typical places where the brushes are hidden, but that defeats the purpose - which is to have fun searching for them!

I will share one tip:

Look for the brushes as early as possible in the morning, because my mid-day they've usually all been found.

It's Sawyer She Seeks

Flashback to my day.

My moment in the sun... well, my hour in the sun, because that's how long we'd been looking. And we looked everywhere. I felt we were wasting our time, and that perhaps I had become overzealous about putting in all this effort just for a stinkin' FastPass.

So I gave up. In poor spirits, I headed back to the raft for Frontierland. But I was just looking, still checking things out, and then there it was: a paintbrush! I felt like Charlie Bucket in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had found the golden ticket!

Except that my ticket came in the shape of a blue paint brush, bristles glistening with dry white paint that did look wet, and a message on the brush telling me what to do next.

I could NOT stop smiling.

We took lots of pictures: jumping pictures, surprised pictures, pretending-to-paint pictures, next-to-the-raft pictures. Victory was so sweet!

I thought about keeping the brush as a memento, but it was so hot that night, I decided to turn it in for a FastPass to Splash Mountain, where we enjoyed a cooling soak.

You're on Your Own - Almost

Great story, huh? But not very helpful if you read all this way hoping to learn where I found my brush, or where Disney typically hides brushes.

I'm still not telling. I'm doing it for you! I want you to have the same sweet moment of victory that I enjoyed when I found my brush.

But as a reward for sticking with me, here's a link to my article, 'What Can Tom Do for You', where you'll find more details, more pictures, and maybe even a few clues.

If you find a brush on your own, you can write all about it!

I'm a big believer in the journey and to me the journey is where it's at -- not the destination. So get out that and find that paint brush!

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