YAACK Amazing Race

Saturday afternoon at 3 pm, 13 young adults and the activity leader met at church for a couple hours of adventure. The young adults were split into two teams (several unexpected people showed up and there was only enough clues for 2 teams, but that was okay, all had fun), Blue Team and Red Team. Each team split into their respective automobiles and were given their first clue, keeping in mind that no clues would take them outside of New Circle, with the exception of the final eating destination.

Teams came prepared with maps, phone books, and cars full of gas. J even brought Trivia Pursuit for his team to have continuous entertainment. Apparently, the game became a bit more involving after reaching the 2nd clue and Trivia Pursuit was put away, until later in the evening.

I was part of the blue team which consisted of 6 team members, 2 female and 4 males. The red team also consisted of 2 females but 5 males. The red team split up into two cars while the blue team packed into CM's Explorer, 2 in each row.

Other key things about the race, the first team to arrive at the final destination received 5 pts, the team with the fewest miles received 5 pts, and there were 3 bonus pts for 1 pt each. The next clue was found inside a brown envelope that was attached to a stake in the ground.

First clue took us to the intersection of St Ann and St Christopher.

Second clue took us to Memorial Coliseum with a bonus question.
The teams were neck and neck heading towards clue number 4.

Third clue landed us at the Newman Center at UK, unfortunately the clue had disappeared from this location. After searching by multitudes of individuals, we called the organizer and she gave us the 4th clue.

Clue four took us downtown to the library to get a magazine from circulation. Inside the magazine was taped clue number 5.

This is were things got a bit interesting. Car number one of the red team took off a good bit prior to us. As we set there trying to decode the clue and figure out where to go, car number two of the red team took off. We decided that we might better start heading in some direction.

Clue - 1775 the Frontiers set up a camp after hearing about some victory, and the bonus was to find the woman in which the fountain was dedicated to. (The clue was actually written better than that but those were the main pts) The only fountain we could really think of was at Triangle Park though that didn't sound right, but we headed in that direction anyway. Not seeing the stake with the next clue, we drove up to the Hyatt and set in the parking lot across the street.

At that pt, a couple great ideas came out of the group. KK suggested calling the commerce dept, CM reminded us about the phone books in the car. I had totally forgotten that we had phone books, since I didn't bring one. Who would have ever known that in the front of the Alltell Phone Book was a section devoted to historical museums, parks, seating for all the major complexes, and etc. As I started scanning through the section, KK called the commerce dept. Suprisingly on a late Sat afternoon, someone actually answered the phone and she tried to explain to her best ability what we were looking for. About that same time, I came across a park that had something to do with frontier in the 1700s. After double confirmation of the correct solution, we were off to get clue number 5.

As we were headed that direction, CM's phone rang. It was his wife calling to verify that we were not lost and had resolved the last clue. We informed her that we were on our way to get it now. (Reason why she called...car number two saw us sitting at the Hyatt, and one of the guys thought that MM might want to call us to make sure we were not lost.)

Clue number 5 then took us to Gratz Park on Translyvanias campus. Since the Newman Center, I had been sitting in the far back of the explorer. At this pt, I couldn't take sitting in the back any longer, especially after the guys couldn't seem to follow the instruction of going to the middle of the park to find the clue. So I said forget this and jumped out the car and went sprinting (well as fast as I possible could). The guys in a big group (3) all ran in front of the bldg and around, while the clue was stationed actually on the other side of the park. As they came around the right side of the house, I had already emerged around the left side and was headed towards the clue. Upon grabbing the clue, I started running back towards the car. I was accompanied by 2 of the guys, who said that DP had ran back to tell CM to come pick us up. I knew that would take too long plus put too many miles on the car because of all the one way streets. I said no we are running. We can get back to the car before he can even attempt to come get us, which proved to be totally true. Upon arriving back at the Explorer, I kicked SK out of the drivers seat and took over as navigator in the front, instead of navigating in the back. I have no clue what the next clue was because my lungs were ready to collapse (YES I am horribly out of shape. It was quite pathetic. And I spent most the rest of the event coughing up my lungs or at least trying to :-)

Clue 6 took us to Red Mile
Clue 7 then to Landsdown
Clue 8 to the final destination

By this pt, we assumed that we were way behind in terms of time and all we could do is try to keep the mileage as low as we could. The last 4 locations the red team had beaten us to the punch. Upon arriving, at the Z's for dinner, we were immediately asked if we had gone to McConnell Spring's. We responded well of course, didn't you guys? The answer from the Red Team was No. Apparently, they picked a park with a fountain and it just happened to be Gratz park were clue 6 was found and kept them on the correct path to the finish. But they missed the correct clue that would have taken them to Gratz park.

Therefore the Blue Team was victorious by finding all 8 clues and completing a half an hour behind the Red Team, who skipped a clue.

It was a blast and stories were flying once we all got into the house. You could feel the competitive juices and psyched up people, ready to go again.