Milwaukee Challenge

Kathy and I participated in the Milwaukee Challenge during a hot hot day.  This is a scavenger style race where you are given clues to where you have to go, take a picture of that spot possibly doing something like acting out an Academy Award winning film (we did Chariots of Fire).   You must complete 11 out of the 12 clues to finish.  There were over 150 teams, some with 4 team members, and some with up to 8!  I don't think having more team members was any kind of advantage, since the photo that needed to be taken at each "challenge spot" should include all the people on your team, but I did see at least one group of 4 not stay together, they divided in two and split up and two waited on the corner while two ran up and took the picture...now I am not the whistle blower here, I am just saying that rules were not really enforced.

The winning time was an hour, meaning that team got their clues, reviewed them to decide where they were going to go then went in some order from Rock Bottom Brewery to Peck theatre (that is where we imitated the film), then Walk of Fame, then outside the Arena to the referee statue, (* here see below), then to the Public Market, to Broadway and Erie, then to Wisconsin Avenue and O'Donnell park (where two things were accomplished) then back west on Wisconsin, over the river, pet Dee Dee the duck in a picture

 and back to Rock Bottom to check in...all in an hour.  Along the way they "found" someone wearing an athletic jersey from outside Wisconsin, a building built before 1905  

Here is our old building..Federal Building built 1892

                       
and a person from a state starting with M, N, O or P (a different person than the one in a t shirt).  If they did not do one of these things, then they had to include a run to 9th and Wisconsin where the Victorious Charge statue is, and continued in some order after the * above.  Doing all that in an hour is damn good.

We did it in two and a half hours.. judging by the winning time.. not that good but considering there were teams finishing after us and 90% of the participating teams were in their 20s and the other 9% in their 30s, we can say we probably won the over 50 division if there had been one.  We wasted time (about 15 minutes) in the Grand Avenue thinking the Victorious Charge was somewhere there, duh?, why would it by near the mall.  Obvious thinking does not come into play when you are running around in over 90 degree heat.  Then we missed the lone Fireman and his friend statue which was on Broadway and Erie and had to double back to snap the picture, wasted 45 minutes on that one.  So take off an hour and we would have finished in the top group of 30.  Should have, would have, could have..ha ha.  We did well, AND had fun, and even though I enter every competition with the goal to win it, both Kathy and I are completely happy with how we did.  While near the end of the race I said to Kathy, "our current goal is to beat that group walking back ahead of us" so we picked up our pace, jaywalked, and passed them.  In your face!

Overall, we had mixed feelings comparing this race to the Urban Dare, which I did with Leah in Chicago a few weeks back and I also did with Kathy in Milwaukee two years ago.  I think the clues were easier on the Challenge Nation and they supplied five hints on their facebook page the night before, and four of those hints actually helped...though I never did figure out where the fifth hint fit in.  The cost for the Challenge Nation was less than the Urban Dare and I believe cash money was the prize for the top four finishers in the Challenge.  I am not exactly sure what the Urban Dare winner got, entry into the Super Dare competition maybe.  The Urban Dare does have the dares, and they are fun, but the dares that Kathy and I did in 2009 were the same dares Leah and I did in 2011.  The organizers need to get a little more creative.  The clues were a little more challenging in the Urban Dare, but both clue sheets contained irrelevant information.  We learned to ignore the  descriptive information and concentrate on the main topic of each clue.  One error we did was not noticing the line..This clue is our "outlier" meaning this clue takes place farther away..if we had we would not have wasted time looking where we did.

There were also MANY people dressed in costume, best costume earned a money prize as well.  Never saw what team won but the racing (homemade) sausages got our vote.

Thanks Heather and Scott, best anagram unscramblers by far, and they helped us over the phone with band names, building ages and where paving bricks with donors names was located.

Super thanks to Kathy, for running around downtown Milwaukee with me, asking strangers if they live in Wisconsin, and then laughing when they look at us strangely.  Pretty amazing that the first paving brick I looked at had the name Kathleen on it, and how confused was look on that young boy's face with the Cub shirt on when you said pretend you are throwing a football.  Good Times!

                                        Kind of hard to make a human pyramid with two people!

Little Boy Big Jelly Belly

Scott and I had our first adventure with Nick recently, we went to the Jelly Belly factory in Pleasant Prairie.  The store is open daily 9am to 5pm and tours from 9am to 4pm.

 There was no wait when we arrived, and within minutes we were handed our hats and told to board our train.  Its more of a shuttle that is pulled by a train, but Nick liked the train engine AND put on his hat.... so it was already a success.

As we sat waiting for the tour to begin, Nick said to me, "I want a white one".   There were about 40 people on our tour.

Here is a little history on the #1 gourmet jelly bean in the country.  The Goelitz brothers came to America from Germany in 1869.  They made different kinds of candy and were successful even during the depression. In the 1960s, Gustav Goelitz's great grandsons, fourth generation, developed jelly beans of all different sizes.  The "Extra Touch" which became the signature of the company, was flavors cooked into the centers of the jelly beans.  Jelly Bellys were a favorite of governor, and then President Ronald Reagan.  He made sure there were jars in both the White House and Air Force One.
The tour itself is not very exciting.  The train travels around the factory, making stops so the visitors can watch  videos about something pertaining to Jelly Bellys:  family history, Jelly Belly Art, Flavors, to the Kitchen, Engrossing, Finishing and Packaging.  Its pretty much like turning on the TV and watching "How It's Made" and kind of a let down.  But, Nick seemed to like the stuff hanging from the ceiling so we were happy because he was happy.

When the tour was over (about 25 minutes long), we exited our train, Nick immediately removed his hat, and everyone was given a sample bag of assorted Jelly Bellys ..score.  We were lead to the Jelly Belly Store.  Inside the store the walls were lined with containers of all the flavors of JB.  You take a bag, put it under the spout, pull the lever and JBs drop into your bag.  How do you know if you like a certain flavor?  Scott put his hand under one spout so we could try them, but then we heard the announcement that visitors should not sample candy from the bins but should go to the tasting station.  Ok, we went to the tasting station but that was pretty lame.  You say to a worker, I would like to try a French Vanilla and he gives you ONE BEAN.  I mean come on.. there were three of us.  We let Nick pick a few to samples to try and he liked them all.  I found the Harry Potter display, none of which we tried..

I filled the requests, cinnamon for Leah, fruit punch for Heather (which there wasn't any JB called Fruit Punch so we mixed some Cherry, Island Punch and Tutti Fruiti) and Scott made an assortment for us, and we checked out.  The price in the JB store is $9.00 a pound, and they have an area with Belly Flops, which are misshaped beans, they were sold by bag not by flavor.

Rating?  Pluses:   It is a great value as the tour was free and they gave each person a sample bag of Jelly Bellys.  Nick liked the train ride as would most kids under the age of 6.  He liked the store and sampling the beans.  The JB store has a large selection of clothing, toys and a snack bar. 

Minues:  There isn't any personal tour guide, no one answers any questions or gives out strange but cool facts, and though the videos are informative they also are boring.  I would have loved to see a glass wall with the actual operation of making JBs on the other side.   

But, once again, this wasn't a tour for us, this was for Nick and he liked it and that is all that mattered to us!