Scavenger Hunt Report
At the last minute another obligation I had vanished and I was able to ride in this year’s El Grupo Scavenger Hunt. Team Janet and Paulus let me ride with them, along with Greg Yares, Tucson’s realtor for bicyclists (you also have him to thank for the Fourth Avenue Bike Swap).
As usual, just before the ride began I educated my team about the purpose of the scavenger hunt. Like all competitive endeavors, the purpose of the scavenger hunt is to demoralize, humiliate, and defeat the enemy. The enemy of course being all the other people in the ride.
For some reason though my team leaders made a tactical decision, completely against my wishes, not to compete for Fastest Team, but instead to compete in different categories, all of which we won. For example, we got first place in Longest Average Wheelbase per team member, Highest Average Age per team member, Greatest Number of Beers Consumed at Barrio Brew Pub During the Race per team member, and Most Carrying Capacity per Bicycle per team member.
We also came very close to winning the prize for Last Place, but we made a critical and fatal miscalculation toward the end and accidentally beat somebody.
Here we are leaving Barrio Brew Pub, after celebrating our successful solution of the airplane clue:
And here we are sampling our growler of Barrio Brew Red Cat Ale (we got it to go), to celebrate our future solution of the walkbridge clue:
Here we are enjoying a relaxing beverage at the Forbes Building, after quickly finding the clue (thanks to Janet’s superior knowledge of all things involving Tucson, plants, buildings, and other stuff) that stumped team Feathers-in -their-Helmets for a long time:
We made it back just in time to see Tucson Department of Transportation Director Jim Glock get his picture taken in front of the new Time Market Bike Corral.
The Time Market bike corral has distinct advantages over the one on Congress, namely that you can lawfully ride a bike to it, which you can’t do to the Congress Ave bike corral.
Anyway, the Bike Scavenger Hunt was, as advertised, a really good time. Mike M. has a great write up on it at his blog about bicycling in and around Tucson. (http://michaelmckisson.com/blog)
Important Update for the Too-Literal Minded Among Us: This post features, as rhetorical devices only, dramatic overstatement, warrantless exaggeration, and, let’s face it, one or two or more outright lies. The people featured in this post did in fact enjoy an afternoon adult beverage during this ride, but they did so responsibly and in moderation. No animals were harmed and recycled materials were used whenever possible.
–Erik Ryberg
October 13th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I’m so sad we missed this. Eric, you know that we would have given you a ride for your money on the beers consumed at Barrio part of your contest, after all we trained the whole summer for a golden moment like that!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:38 am
My face still hurts from grinning. I hope El Grupo will start doing this twice a year.
PS: We also won in another category: Greatest Number of Combined Years of Living in Tucson (75).
October 14th, 2009 at 9:56 am
You guys really cleaned up in a lot of the categories. I am pretty sure I had already left Time Market by the time you guys got back!
I agree with you about doing this twice a year. I don’t think people would get burned out on it if you did it twice each year.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:44 am
haha hey, im pretty sure i was the dude that beat you on getting dead last =P
October 14th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
[...] as a team. Team Janet and Paulus, of which I will again be a proud member, will be defending its historic 2009 second-to-last-place finish with every bit of speed, strength, and drinking capacity we can muster. (We should be competitive [...]