The Amazing Race

 Actually it is called Bullslinger Rally but this reminds me of the Amazing Race.   Let me tell you about it.   This was my and my husband's first year doing this and the couple we went with it was their 4th, I think.  Now this is all about taking and knowing your directions and reading clues, not my strong suite.  So you start out at point A, get clues to lead you to through leg 1 and then you pick up clues to leg 2 and so on,  there are 3 legs and one final destination for two routes, we drew route 1 to begin our journey.  You are to time yourself at each leg and after each leg you are to met  and get your next clues, eat or snacks usually dumped you out at a dining place so at the end, all routes final destination is a restaurant with a buffet and lodging if you so asked to be lodged, we did not do lodging.  Know that when you sign up, to pay for your dinner and if you want lodging and you have NO idea where you will end up!!

This should have been out first clue, we left our house at 6:30am to met up with friends, this was our first snowfall of the season and the road were icy with black ice from exhausts.  The first meeting place is 45 minutes from our house, the other side of the cities at a Dairy Farm.  We get there are get assigned a car number and our rules (no maps or GPS allowed) and a window flag.  Wait until they say we can all start - GO!

Smokey the Bear!!  This is at a T in the road so you can go either right or left here.  So this clue reads, "Wine and Spirits are just ahead, be Smokey's right hand man".   So you have to turn here.  Now realize that there are 4 of us and I like to think reasonably intelligent people and so we all decided to turn right which was WRONG.   The clue said Smokey's right hand so we should have turned left!!!  I just bet you are wondering how we did on this leg.  It should have taken 2.5 hours but we took the very scenic route and took over 5 hours.  Not very good.

The clue reads, go past the well rested, turn right.  Which is a Cemetery.  I make us stop and take pictures, I tell them all that I am going to be blogging, I get all eyes rolling!!

Other scenery, God's Country out here.  The thought behind the rally is to take you out of the City and enjoy the fall's colors of the leaves changing.  There is another clue: "Silo's are calling, don't make them cry, quick hit the dirt, don't pass them by.  Shy of 100, straight is your way"  Which really means turn before you pass them on a dirt road and the road was County 99.  AND we got that one right!!! 

This one I just thought it was pretty.

        
                                   My view from the back seat.

I bet overall you wonder what happened.  We continued to mess up, having big debates, talking about the merits of the clues, finding restrooms, going down dirt roads we should not be on, eating junk food, ending up in the wrong towns, LOL. and luckily you get envelopes that you can open to find out where the final destinations is but if you open it you are disqualified from the race.  We only opened it because it was dark and we needed gas so bad that we had to stop looking and find a gas station, I so did not want to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere in the dark on a dirt road.  So we did open the envelope and still had to travel 30 minutes to meet up with everyone.  We were so late that everyone stood up and clapped at us/for us?  We were lucky we still were able to eat!

It was a long drive home, I think we got home about 11:30 pm.

Would we do this again, Everyone said YES, In a heartbeat!!!  We had SO much fun.  My girlfriend said, this really is the worst we have ever done.  I say, hang with me, things always get worse!!!

Hope you enjoyed the story.  It is hard to tell and understand from there, one of those that you just had to be there!  I have a few more, my camera is getting full.  This is several weeks old, I have been trying to find the time to get it blogged.    Talking about blog  ~~ Candy  ~~~   I have some blog candy below, take a look and see if you are interested and if so, sign up.  ~~

Warmly, Jane