Scavenger Dash

The weekend before last - my co-resident, Sarah, and I entered a Scavenger Dash.  It's approximately a 5 mile, run/walk/ride public transportation race around the city - following clues, completing tasks, and gathering items.

Here we are prepping for the race - both packing our bags.  2nd use for my camelbak and still I didn't drink enough water during the day.  I guess I forgot that I was in the desert.

"Two White Chicks"

That's our team name.  It's from an inside joke, that one of our other co-residents honestly believed that we both are through and through white.  According to her, neither of us appear to have any different ethnicity in our blood.  hmm....???

The rest of our team uniform - tail feathers and all!  MoJo is our favorite type of granola bar.  My favorite MoJo flavor is mountain mix - Trader Joes sells them for $0.99 each.  (like that plug)  Maybe next time we should contact the Clif Bar company to see if they will sponsor us!

The starting point - "The Hut" in Tucson.  We ran to get our envelope of clues and then immediately started trying to figure out the answer.  They give you all of the clues at once, so if you figure out all the places you need to go then you can map out your route accordingly with the least amount of back tracking.  You're allowed to use cell phones and have a "pit crew" who is at home and can look up stuff.  I immediately called Waseem (my old roommate from last year who was in town visiting) and Sarah started searching on her phone.  After a few minutes we decided to start and have Waseem figure out the clues as we headed for one of our first destinations.  (I eventually ended up emailing Waseem a picture of the clue sheet)

1st photo clue done - Picture with a Mannequin.

1st challenge - we met a representative for YELP and had a challenge that involved searching their website for clues and reviews.  This took us longer than it should have, because we were trying to use our iphone apps rather than use the actual YELP website.  Eventually, I got fed up trying to find it on my phone and called Waseem.  This ends with me yelling "SPLOOGE" - S-P-L-O-O-G-E - into the phone in the middle of a cafe.  Waseem couldn't hear me for some reason and wasn't getting "splooge."

2nd challenge - (sorry no picture) involved Sarah blindfolded in a park standing in a maze of cones.  It was my job, using only my voice to guide her through the maze without touching a cone or else we would have to start over.  1st try was a success!!!  I guess all that talking I do paid off and Sarah's a good listener.

Next photo clue - picture of the team in an elevator.  This is a random elevator at a parking garage on the U of A campus.  

Next up - put a dollar in the donation safe at a museum (can't remember the name of the museum now)

While on the U of A campus - we made a quick run into a Jimmy Johns and grabbed a "WIPE" - which apparently is just a Jimmy Johns napkin with the word WIPE on it.

A picture of border issues.  Who is who?

NCAA Softball Champions for a certain year - we found the plaque.  woo woo

Time to do some planning.  Where are we headed next?  Can we catch a bus back part of the way?  Let me tell you - reading the bus map/schedule is more complicated than you would think.  And....if you know me - you know that I'm not the best when it comes to directions.

YAY!  Having fun.

Oops....something went awry.  One of our clues was GPS coordinates that needed to be converted into an address.  Waseem sent us an address and well....it stuck us in an alleyway.  We actually caught a bus by chance, rode it for one stop - jumped off, only to find we were not in the right spot.  Sarah called another friend to try and see if she could help us with the coordinates after we both attempted searching on our iphones.  A new $1.06 iphone app later and we had found the address.  Waaaayyyyy down the street from where we were - many more bus stops.  Now that we knew where we were headed, guess what  - no bus.  So we walked and eventually made it to Rocks and Ropes to pick up a sticker.

Last stop/worst stop - at least for Sarah anyways.  Time to eat something nasty.  A pickled egg.  No bugs though.  Sarah reported the egg as being disgusting, all the wrong texture - apparently it was chalky and not easy to swallow.  A small 5 ounce beer helped wash it down, but probably a whole gallon of beer wouldn't have been enough.  We were both glad that was our last stop & not our first.

WE MADE IT!!!  Woo hoo.  Drinks in hand.  We didn't finish so hot in terms of ranking, but we had FUN!!!