Last Saturday, linnaeus, mirkowuff, takaza, and I took part in Spring Stampede 2007, sponsored by the Round Lake Area Park District. This was a race/treasure hunt throughout Lake County. It was a bit pricey at $25 per team member, but it was also a benefit for the MS Society.

As many of you know, Dan and I have some experience with treasure hunts, so we had a special interest in taking part in this – if nothing else, to crib ideas for future events! Our team name for this event: Hungarian Soup Orchestra, in reference to a certain infamous challenge on The Amazing Race. For our team: I was driving, Dan was navigating (and taking pictures), and Mirko and Paul provided clue support and puzzle-solving skills.

The Rules of the Game
There were four people per team, and there were 14 teams total. Participants ranged from toddlers to grandparents. The rules were:

• Teams that reach the finish line in less than two hours would be disqualified, since they obviously drove too fast.
• Teams that did not reach the finish line in three hours would be called in.
• Each team has a designated item that all team members had to wear when receiving their next clue. These ranged from cowboy hats to bandannas to oversized sunglasses. Our team had plastic shower caps. (Dignity is overrated anyway!)
• Some clues have additional challenges to perform that will take time off your finish time.
• If they can’t figure out a clue, a team can call in and get the answer, but they will incur a ten-minute penalty.
• Teams should look for a sandwich board with a black-and-white checkered flag and some balloons; that will be the checkpoint. Every checkpoint has a volunteer there, who gives out the next clue. They can provide no information about the clues, though.
• Teams are sent out in two-minute intervals in random order.
• Teams are given a 9-question quiz about Lake County (When was Lake County founded? What was the first county seat? etc.)

Want to follow along? Here’s a Google Map with our route and checkpoints marked on it.

Clue #1: Head northwest and traveling out of town, find a place to rest the best to be found.
The first part we tackled was “northwest” – we though that would be the town of Fox Lake, so I started heading west on Rollins Road. “Rest the Best” – was that a restaurant called “The Best {something}”? Then we wondered if there was a Best Western hotel. A little googling found that there was a Best Western in Antioch. I thought that was more north than northwest, but that seemed our best approach. We headed north on Cedar Lake Road only to find an accident at the corner of Cedar Lake and Monaville Roads. After about a ten-minute delay, we made it through the intersection and proceeded up to the Best Western Antioch, on IL 173 just west of IL 83. And sitting right in front of it was the checkpoint! We quickly parked (dodging other teams in the parking lot) and got our next clue.

Clue #2: Neals not there nor are his sons, show up here for power sport fun.
Bonus: Complete the word search and you’ll improve your time by 5!

I guessed it was “Nealson” something, and Dan remembered a Nealson Power Sport shop on IL 83. We immediately turned and headed south on 83 as Paul googled and brought up Nielsen Power Sports, an ATV and Ski-do shop, on IL 83 in Lake Villa. Sure enough, we found the shop and the checkpoint, and they gave us a word search, which Paul and Mirko worked on through out the race (and poor Mirko almost got car sick from staring at the tiny print!).

Clue #3: Susie, Susie’s Sweet and great look downtown in Grayslake (sic)
Bonus: Grab a kit-kat to see if you can win by 3!

It just so happened that a few months back Dan and I walked through downtown Grayslake and came across Sweet Susie’s, on Center Street. We found the shop quickly and picked up one of a number of Kit Kat bars wrapped with a white wrapper. When we unwrapped ours, it said, “HAVE FUN!” Evidently some had a 3-minute bonus written on the wrapper.

Clue #4: Freedoms tree in Lake County land near a garden you must stand. (sic)
Bonus: Take the group garden photo and minus 2 minutes you will see!

It helps that when he searching for answers to the quiz about Lake County, Paul came across a page describing the first county seat as Libertyville, formerly known as Independence Grove. Mirko connected “Freedom” with Libertyville, and I remembered that Independence Grove is the name of a large park on IL 137 just east of IL 21 in Libertyville. So off we went, and sure enough, we found the checkpoint there! We didn’t see the garden in question from the checkpoint, and guessed that it would take longer than two minutes to find it and get everyone out to take the picture, so we skipped the bonus.

Clue #5: Where ewe can grow up with the kids and helpful special people.
Bonus: Take a photo op with your team and minus 2 you will be!

When we read this, pretty much everyone knew that the answer was Lambs Farm, which is just off the Tri-State Tollway at IL 176. It’s a good thing that I used to work in that general area so I knew where the back roads were and we arrived there quickly. We took a group photo there while holding the little plastic animals they gave us at the checkpoint.

Clue #6: You may have passed by here on your way to the last two stops, saddle back up and enjoy this shop.
Bonus: Lasso the cow and giddy-up with a minus 2!

I remembered that there is a western store on IL 137 just west of IL 21. Paul did some googling and Dan used Google Maps to determine that The Saddle Shop was where we were headed. Once we got there, Mirko saddled up and successfully lassoed an orange road cone for the bonus. (We wanted to lasso the sheltie!)

Clue #7: Milling about will make you late unless you glide on an indoor frozen lake.
Bonus: Skate a team of 4 around the rink minus 5 minutes you will be!

Dan immediately knew that this was Rinkside Sports, in Gurnee Mills Mall. We got there pretty quickly (the quick bit of speeding I did on the Tollway was offset by the near-heart-attack I had as a state trooper followed us up the exit ramp – then turned off into the maintenance yard). We ran in and got our clue (and a hockey puck). We guessed that it would take more than five minutes to get skates our size, put them on, skate around the rink, then get back to the car, so we elected not to do the bonus.

Clue #8: Board and bike up and down this place is in the home town.
Bonus: Group photo with Seemore and minus 2 minutes you will see!

Fortunately, I remembered doing a YouTube search on “Round Lake” a while back and being surprised at all of the skateboard video that were returned, until I realized there’s a skateboard/BMX park right by the Sports Center at Orchard and Hook Roads. Off we went and were met by a pair of park rangers. Alas, Seemore, the eagle mascot for the Park District, only lasted a few teams before bowing out due to the heat, so we got little Seemore keychains instead, and we took a group photo.

Clue #9: Mmmmm – wings!

This was easy, since I knew there is a Buffalo Wild Wings on Rollins Road right near the skate park. We hustled over there and that was the finish line!

In hindsight, several stops would have been easier if we had actually work the T-shirts they gave us at the beginning of the race, since they had the names of the sponsors on them – including Sweet Susie’s, Rinkside Sports, and Buffalo Wild Wings.

We settled in to a buffet lunch of wings and fries (or in my and Dan’s case, fries) while they tallied up our score. Initially we clocked in at 120 minutes even, with no credit for the Lake County quiz since they said we missed two of the questions. We got to go all rules lawyer on them, though, and Paul showed them the web pages that had our answers (Lake County’s web pages, actually), so they accepted them and our final time was 111 minutes.

Alas, that wasn’t quite enough – we came in fourth. The third place team was at 109 minutes, and the first and second teams were at (I think) 98 and 100 minutes. Without the delay for the accident on Cedar Lake Road we might have had a shot at second place, but that’s just plain old bad luck.

So, my final take on things? It’s not exactly as I would have run it, but we had a really good time. This was the second time they’ve done this kind of event, and the next time it comes around, you know we’ll be signed up for it!