So, we last left out intrepid contestants standing on West Randolph Street. Let’s see what their next clue was:
Go east of your current location and find the store that could be named after certain types of collies. Once you’ve found it, consider this question:
What oceanside state park is located on the far northwestern tip of Oregon?
Once you find the answer, call FRAC HQ for your next clue.
ANSWER: If you head east on Randolph for two blocks, you come to the corner of State and Randolph, where you’ll find a Borders Book Store (Borders…Border Collie – get it?). Teams were to figure out that they had to go into the bookstore and find an atlas to look up the answer to the question, which was Fort Stevens State Park. (highlight text for answer, click here for a map)
Two amusing things about this checkpoint: First, to their credit, Minoriteam did in fact call HQ for a rules judgment to ask if they could go inside and look up the answer. Also, we didn’t account for a small event happening on State Street at this checkpoint: The Chicago Memorial Day Parade. Um, whoops. Fortunately, this didn’t pose too much of an impediment to the teams, even if the crowds made things sort of interesting. Team Vin Diesel Hubcaps maintained their lead at this checkpoint, though now both Minoriteam and Team Yuk were right behind them, only four minutes off the lead. Once teams located the proper park in Oregon, it was time for their next clue:
For your next clue, you need to proceed north on State Street to Grand Avenue. Choose whichever way is fastest: walking, bus, or train. Once there, you’ll need to solve this puzzle:
This puzzle is all about observation. Below you will find fifty statements that can be answered while standing at the intersections of State and Grand Avenues and State and Illinois Avenues. The number of each statement is keyed to the picture below – think of it as LED’s, like in old calculators. If a statement is true, fill in the corresponding segment. If a statement is false, leave it blank. When you have answered all of the statements, you will have a telephone number. Prefix that number with area code 312 and call it.
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Call FRAC HQ and tell us who that phone number belongs to and where they are located.
ANSWER: The Chicago Children’s Museum at Navy Pier (highlight text for answer)
This clue was a lot more time consuming than we expected, but it was also one that the players enjoyed the most; time to complete this checkpoint ranged from 37 minutes to an hour and 24 minutes by Team Crossing Gates (see below, though). More than a few wrong numbers were dialed. Minoriteam and Team Vin Diesel Hubcaps had to call for a hint (we told them what numbers were incorrect – ten-minute penalty), and Minoriteam finally had to call for the number (another ten-minute penalty). All of the other teams muddled through, though it was during this checkpoint that Team Crossing Gates suffered a disastrous technical problem: their only cell phone’s battery died. This added about 45 minutes to their time, unfortunately.
Teams who called in with the correct answer were instructed to open their next envelope:
Congratulations on solving the Number puzzle!
Go to the Chicago Children’s Museum at Navy Pier.
Call FRAC HQ and tell us: When is Miffy’s last day there?
ANSWER: September 4, 2006 (highlight text for answer)
Theoretically, all the teams had to do was ask a staff member or read one of the posters on the wall at the entrance to find the answer. Most of the teams had no problem with this, but Team Crossing Gates’ bad luck continued, as the only staffers they could find didn’t know the answer. They were the only team to take a ten-minute penalty on this checkpoint. The entrance is in the middle of a mall area, and by all accounts the place was a zoo, from the many families there to the singing pirate show (said one team member: “Now I know what Bristol Rennies do in the off-season”). Once the teams called in with the correct answer, they were instructed to go to the boat anchor just east of the Grand Ballroom. Ideally, teams looked at a map of Navy Pier and saw that the Grand Ballroom was at the very end of the pier, though some teams walked all the way through the complex looking for the ballroom.
What did they have to do when they got to the boat anchor? And why will teams learn to hate the Cubs? Click here to find out!
Wooo! It’s like a season of television captured and submitted for my low attention span! Love the number puzzle; that is extremely clever!
Some of the puzzles were really hard, I was having a blast, especially #5 where we had to figure out the number. There were a wide variety of things we had to find in the surrounding area, I saw a lot more detail than I think I’ve ever seen from an intersection in Chicago.
But I was never at Navy Pier 🙂
Man, this is too cool..I will NOT miss the next one! 🙂
“Now I know what Bristol Rennies do in the off-season” … unless you’re talking about us, I know that was said more than once 🙂
Return of the Racers 2: Minoriteam checks in
So I’m thinking when we walk up to the Borders that there’ll be something a bit obvious for us to just look at in the window for the answer. After going past all the windows twice and seeing Torgo’s Angels go in the store, that’s when I called in for the rules check. And no, I don’t usually go into a bookstore to look up something really quick — that’s what internet cafes are for. 😛
‘Twas nice to see Team Crossing Gates coming down the escalators as we were going up. I do have a couple of really bad shots of the crowd and the parade as we managed to cut through the route (Upper Wacker eastbound to State Street southbound) while pondering the next puzzle. I had a feeling it would take a long time, but I also had a feeling it would be fun, and without seeing Team Yuk I opted for the latter.
Holy crap if I only knew about ‘s solution tree, it would’ve made things so much easier. And I probably wouldn’t have left blank voicemails to a bunch of private numbers. Watching Team Simbius talking with one of the “parade cops” about the event gave me a good adrenaline rush for catching up, but when they boarded a bus heading eastbound and other teams started arriving I was getting stressed. That, coupled with the wording on some of the clues requiring a lot of inferences while the teams behind us were leaving before us, prompted us to just take the answer penalty. Would’ve been nice to have stopped for lunch, though.
Just as we’re pulling into Navy Pier on the CTA, who do I see off to the left boarding another bus but Team Simbius. Maybe we can catch up, I discuss with my teammate. Little did we know what was in store for us after calling in the info for Checkpoint 6. Much like a few of the other racers had commented: what were they thinking sending us to Navy Pier on a holiday weekend?!?
Re: Return of the Racers 2: Minoriteam checks in
Actually my coworkers and I used to hit Star of Siam for lunch when I was working in the area, and it is an excellent restaurant. At this point in the race though I was more tempted by what Rock Bottom had to offer…
Re: Return of the Racers 2: Minoriteam checks in
(I love the commentary – thanks for posting!)
what were they thinking sending us to Navy Pier on a holiday weekend?!?
{tries to look innocent}
{fails}
Where’s the challenge in sending people through empty streets? Half the fun is interacting with people along the way!
LOL
> Half the fun is interacting with people along the way!
Tell that to my teammate. 😉 Besides, I think that was my half.
To : you know I kid, ya big a**hole.