So I'm putting on this treasure hunt, see?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Missus Coder and I have been taking part in an annual event here in our area. It’s the Greater Lansing Treasure Hunt, and it’s occupying almost every free minute we have.

See, the way this thing works is that a whole bunch of us nuts show up at a big empty parking lot one Saturday morning. We work in teams of about 4-6 nuts. Each team gets a big bag of clues, usually in the form of numbered envelopes. We have to figure out from clues on or in the bag which envelope to open first. Solving the puzzle gives you a location and something to find or get or do there. Once you get there, you finish the puzzle, come up with a number, and open the corresponding envelope. If you’re right, you find the next clue. If you’re wrong, you find a dud. Opening a dud envelope adds 30 minutes to your score. The team with the lowest overall time is the winner. And the winning team gets the honor of putting this shebang together for next year!

The locations for the clues can be anywhere in the greater Lansing, MI area, an area sprawling over 3 counties. In past years we’ve driven 80 miles, going from location to location. The last clue gives you the location of the party, where there’s music, drinks, dinner, drinks, dancing, and drinks.

Now the kicker in all of this is, our team didn’t win last year. But the team we compete against did. And they invoked an obscure clause from previous treasure hunts, namely the time when some oaf on our team said, “Wow - I’d like to win this. I’ve got some great ideas for clues!” I won’t say who this oaf was, but I did get a dopeslap from Missus Coder when she found out we were going to help put this mess together.

So we’re less than 3 weeks away from H-day. We’re meeting every weekend with the rest of the crew, stuffing envelopes, folding clues, double-checking, triple-checking, and fourple-checking that we didn’t make a mistake somewhere. Plus, we’re finalizing details with the caterer, the DJ, the hall, the baker, and so on. It’s like putting together a wedding & reception, except there’s no bride & groom. Oh, and add in the direct-mail portion of a political campaign, too.

So - have any of you done anything like this before? Do any of you Lansing Dopers wanna join in? Details are on the website, and who knows, you may be submitting a thread like this next year!

2

This sounds like a Road Rally. I did one last year here in Ann Arbor, and it was unbelievably fun. I was also stunned by the amount of work that had to go into creating it!

Sounds like a blast, ralf.

3

Yeah, it’s a lot like a road rally, Cranky, but the road rallys I’ve seen in the past didn’t have the puzzle bit. They had a timed race from point to point, and the closest to the correct times won. Arriving too soon would penalize you as bad as arriving too late.

This one is a ton of fun. People tailgate at the parking lot before things start, and you tend to see the same teams from location to location. We’ve had people competing in everything from cars to vans to limos to motor homes. Vans are popular, esp. conversion vans, 'cause there’s room for a crowd and often a table to spread stuff out on.

4

Well, every envelope had four numbers or codes on the four edges. At each location, something (which you could only get at that location, such as the year off a building’s cornerstone) would tell you which end to open to read the next clue to get to the next place. If you tore the wrong edge, you’d have time added on. So if you couldn’t figure out that part of the puzzle, you could still open the envelope to get to the next puzzle/directions, but you’d risk the penalty.

Clue envelopes were also provided in case we were unable to solve the location puzzle, but those two would add time if the seal was broken.

One thing they had us do was go to Target and get a bridal registry for a fictitious couple they’d set up. That was funny. Except the damned machine broke, so a bunch of us teams ended up agreeing to screw that clue and move on and lobby for no penalty.

5

Cranky, it sounds like you’d do well in our hunt. You’ve got the idea of it all.

Oh, man, what a great idea!!! I’ll pass this along to the rest of the crew, and (maybe) to the winning team, to possibly include in next year’s run. Thanks!