Wow, what a fast Urban Dare! Jordan
and I clocked in at 1:45 for second, just seven minutes
behind the first place team – about half the time it
took Drew and I last year to win. I had been
battling a sinus infection since the week before and
finally felt better on Thursday – just in time run
around the city on Cinco de Mayo.
The race start was moved from
Rittenhouse Square to the Schuykill River Park due to a
big fair in the Square. Twenty-seven teams
registered for this year’s Dare, a big jump from
last year. When all the teams had assembled, Kevin
went over the instructions and we were ready for the
multiple-choice start (he asks a trivia question with
four answers and each team walks to the answer they think
is right). Kevin made the questions a bit too easy
– every team got the first one right (and possibly
the second one too!), and all but about five teams got
the next question right. I had no idea what any of
the answers were, but when every team heads to the same
square you best follow!
Needless to say, 20+ teams running
to the person with the dare sheets makes things a little
chaotic – better work on those trivia questions
Kevin! I finally grabbed a sheet and we were off!
The first location mentioned a mayor from 1897 –
1891, which at some point we figured really was 1887
– 1891. We had to go to his square for the
dreaded letter hunt dare. I called Joe and he
started searching for Philly mayors while we scanned the
sheet. There was only one easy photo dare and
nothing that hinged on something else in the dare (in the
championship we did one thing if the woman had been
wearing sneaks and another if she wasn’t – it
definitely pays to read ahead!). Joe was finding
all sorts of mayors when I realized that was probably
Fitler Square, which was very near us. I had him
search “Fitler mayor” and we got the hit.
Jordan paced us to the park.
When we got there several teams
were already looking for their words. We got “steampower”
(note: not a real word!) and had to look for
letters on sticks around the one corner of the park.
Each letter had a number with it – you had to add up
the numbers and tell the judge the total. We got
all the numbers in short time, then went into math hell.
Somehow it took us about 10 tries to correctly add up the
ten numbers. Both Jordan and I were getting
different totals, and neither us was right. Yow!
I went back to check the numbers just as Jordan came up
with the correct answer. Finally! We got our
passport stamped and we were off.
The next location referred to
arcane English weight system and 140 pounds. I
figured it had to be the 10 Stone bar, which was just
around the corner. I had Joe check it back when we
were talking mayors, so we knew the first five locations
and had time to look at the rest. Luckily I did not
read the instructions too closely, as referred to the Ten
Stone as a store, not a bar. Apparently this threw
several teams for a loop. We got the photo and set
off for location 3.
The next location was a garden that
turned junk into art – the Magic Garden of course!
It was eleven blocks east of us, but we ran down South
Street to it. There were still many teams with us,
so I figured we were near the lead. The clue was to
find a commode in the installation. It was bit of a
bizarre experience. The people at the gate wanted
$2 to go in (the usual). I mentioned that I did the
Mosiac Mystery Tour 1 and 2 for Isaiah (raising about
$2000 for the garden), which of course they never heard
of. Then I spotted Isaiah who not only wanted me to
pay, but wouldn’t even tell me where the commode
was! We did one circuit, then I pulled Jordan into
the building where the working commode was – I
figured that the whole building is an installation
(certainly the bathroom was), so it counted (which it
did, though Kevin was thinking of one embedded in the
wall - I could visualize that one, but couldn’t
remember where I saw it). We were off to location
4!
Location 4 was Anthony’s
stuoochahodceel (anagram!) – I knew from the trials
of last year (finding the Café Tosano while running
around the Italian Market) that is was Anthony’s
something House, just across the street from the Villa de
Roma. Joe confirmed that the other word was
Chocolate. Our dare there was to each eat two
chocolate-covered strawberries. Having visions of
being poisoned by some nut paste in the chocolate I
successfully lobbied to have Jordan eat her two
(originally she was going to have to eat all four!),
rather than risk death (it seemed sensible to me). The
woman stamped our passport and we were off.
Location 5 referred to John Kerry’s
infamous cheese steak order wit Swiss (ouch!). I
had Joe working on it while we were running down South
Street and he confirmed it was Pat’s (not Geno’s).
It was just a few blocks from Anthony’s, so we took
the photo and raced for Location 6. On the way, we
found four wacky folks and got them to pose with Vulcan
salutes (Location 11 – photo hunt).
Our clue for this location was a
partial photo showing “KOSHER & GENTILE KILLING.”
Jordan thought she knew it was, but a woman outside
Anthony’s gave us the exact location. As we
approached the place Jenny and Kris were moving across
the street for the photo. That’s when we heard
the cccrrraaazzzyyy man in front of the store. He
was f-ing up a storm and I had concerns that he might
come across the street (we had crossed also) and kill us
(Gentile killing?). The whole time he is screaming,
we are begging this man to take our photo. It took
a few tries for him to figure out how to hold and aim the
camera, but we eventually got our photo. And the
man was still screaming. Later!
Location 7 referred to a detour
(which it really wasn’t) for a photo with a
Dalmatian mural. We figured it was at a fire
station and there was one at 2nd and Washington – an
actual detour. I had had Anne working on this for a
while (there really wasn’t a lot of stuff for phone
support to do) and she had located the station. As
we neared Washington we were only 40 feet behind the team
that eventually won the race. They (correctly) went
straight, while we veered right onto Washington. Luckily
at about 4th, Anne called to say that there was a
Dalmatian mural next to Beau Monde, at 6th and
Bainbridge. We u-turned and sprinted up there.
The mural was huge and some guy sitting at the outdoor
eating area said that he was taking everyone’s
picture. I asked him our place and said we were the
third team through.
After the mural we sprinted to
Washington Square and the relighted Eternal Flame. We
did some cheer and 20 push-ups to get our passport
stamped. The next location was the big game pieces
next to City Hall, so I realized we could finally catch a
bus!!!!!! We ran to Market Street and caught the
33. I was hoping to see one of the teams as we went
up Market, but no luck.
We took our photo on an extremely
hot domino, then sprinted up the Parkway – past work
– to the Calder installations. Second to last
location!
At the Calder sculptures, we had to
do an up and back wheelbarrow race. I figured it
was better to have Jordan be the wheelbarrow (never
discussed this strategy). We went up and back, then
got our passport stamped. At this point we were
still third!
The ending location was the Irish
Pub. We sprinted south on 22nd Street, then right
onto Walnut. Kevin was in the front part of the bar
with the good ole jigsaw puzzles (the same ones!). Surprisingly
there was only one other team there – never figured
out where the other team went. They were about 10+
minutes ahead of us and – unlike last year –
not arguing. Darn! We were about 1/3 of the
way through the puzzle when I heard the victory yelp.
At some point another team came in, but we hit the home
stretch for the puzzle and finished second, about seven
minutes behind first and four ahead of third. I was
quite stunned that our time was only 1:45 – Jordan
had mentioned that this was not taking 3+ hours (like the
year before), but I wasn’t looking at my watch, so I
didn’t realize how quickly we were moving.
Except for the bus ride up Market,
we ran the whole way (Kevin thought it was about 8 miles)
and paced each other really well. It sounds like
the championship will be different this time around (no
more free ride for the winners, and the location will be
announced), and with races scheduled into mid-December it
may not take place until next year.
Once we finished, Jordan and I
settled in for some well-deserved refreshments. Abny
(Jordan’s phone support) showed up and hung out with
us. I handed out some ClubEdVentures cards and
talked up my late June rallye. All in all, an
excellent time was had by all!
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