Our global adventure wraps up in Toronto- another city Jeff & I have never visited together.
An update on the GreatEscape World’s Greatest Traveler competition (view the event blog at www.globalscavengerhunt.com/blog.)... I can see why so many of our pals are so successful- what a goal-oriented bunch! Many of you have written back to say, “We love hearing about your trip, but how is the competition going?”
As you know, in Greece we made a difficult decision to pull back from the competition (the 24 hours of Greek & Romanian buses & trains did not sound the least bit enticing)- instead opting to forego the points for that leg of the competition, to fly to Romania. Since five other teams ultimately opted to join us (the more, the merrier, we always say!) we knew we’d drop from second place to a solid middle-of-the-pack position. We were at peace with this decision and at least knew we’d be well-rested for the remainder of the trip. Upon arrival in Bucharest, it became apparent many teams had veered from the prescribed (but a bit cryptic) rules for the leg- some in minor ways by utilizing taxis to one or two scavenges… others in more major fashion. The organizers debated partial point fines for each leg where infractions occurred to more draconian measures of eliminating points for entire portions of the journey. Ultimately, their decision was to call the Greece to Romania leg a “Mulligan” and not count the leg at all (We now refer to that entire region as the "Land of Mulligan!")
As you can imagine, this caused quite an uproar- especially from the teams that had endured train rides without food or water or waiting for hours for buses that never arrived due to modified holiday schedules. Those of us that flew to Romania felt well-rested but quite guilty, since the standings remained the same yet we were not forced to endure the hardships of the Mulligan leg. We found the decision particularly difficult as one of our favorite teams had worked extremely hard to follow each and every rule, only to have their efforts and points negated.
So, as we moved to Amsterdam, we remained with a meager few point toehold on the second position. Our attitude was that while we would continue to complete scavenging efforts, if a team that went through the grueling train/bus effort to Romania jumped ahead of us, we were fine with that as they truly deserved the recognition.
Apparently our “Steady Eddie” (the kissing cousin of Even Steven) approach paid off as when we met in Toronto on the final morning of the competition, organizers shared the current standings. No one could mathematically challenge the leading team, Steve & Bart, for the title. We’d partnered with them for several legs of the competition (think Survivor alliances) and were in awe of their work ethic (they awoke at 4am many days to begin scavenges and averaged 4 – 6 hours of sleep nightly.) We particularly enjoyed our many strategy sessions to plot and plan approaches to maximize our impact in each country (did I just slip into Pfizer-speak?) Zoe & Rainey, a hard-driving pair of attorneys seemed a lock for second place throughout the journey. These two had been action-oriented and ferreted out points around every corner throughout the adventure.
Three teams- none of which had taken the arduous Mulligan journey- were in close competition for the final third position- 100 points separated the teams. At this point, we had to make the call… do we turn it on in Toronto or take in a Blue Jays game?
Jeff was a trooper… The competition monster got the best of me & I dragged him around Toronto as we traveled the city through its labyrinth of neighborhoods by foot, subway and PATH to accomplish challenges in local markets, visit Toronto’s Chinatown & Little Italy, museums (we even visited the Shoe Museum, ladies!) and landmarks. Torrential rains may have dampened our shoes and clothes but not our spirits as we made final stops at the Hockey Hall of Fame (Jeff got to touch the Stanley Cup) and yes, we even got to catch part of the Blue Jays game, before our group convened at 3pm high above the clouds at the top of the CN Tower. How would the points tally up? Stay tuned...
An update on the GreatEscape World’s Greatest Traveler competition (view the event blog at www.globalscavengerhunt.com/blog.)... I can see why so many of our pals are so successful- what a goal-oriented bunch! Many of you have written back to say, “We love hearing about your trip, but how is the competition going?”
As you know, in Greece we made a difficult decision to pull back from the competition (the 24 hours of Greek & Romanian buses & trains did not sound the least bit enticing)- instead opting to forego the points for that leg of the competition, to fly to Romania. Since five other teams ultimately opted to join us (the more, the merrier, we always say!) we knew we’d drop from second place to a solid middle-of-the-pack position. We were at peace with this decision and at least knew we’d be well-rested for the remainder of the trip. Upon arrival in Bucharest, it became apparent many teams had veered from the prescribed (but a bit cryptic) rules for the leg- some in minor ways by utilizing taxis to one or two scavenges… others in more major fashion. The organizers debated partial point fines for each leg where infractions occurred to more draconian measures of eliminating points for entire portions of the journey. Ultimately, their decision was to call the Greece to Romania leg a “Mulligan” and not count the leg at all (We now refer to that entire region as the "Land of Mulligan!")
As you can imagine, this caused quite an uproar- especially from the teams that had endured train rides without food or water or waiting for hours for buses that never arrived due to modified holiday schedules. Those of us that flew to Romania felt well-rested but quite guilty, since the standings remained the same yet we were not forced to endure the hardships of the Mulligan leg. We found the decision particularly difficult as one of our favorite teams had worked extremely hard to follow each and every rule, only to have their efforts and points negated.
So, as we moved to Amsterdam, we remained with a meager few point toehold on the second position. Our attitude was that while we would continue to complete scavenging efforts, if a team that went through the grueling train/bus effort to Romania jumped ahead of us, we were fine with that as they truly deserved the recognition.
Apparently our “Steady Eddie” (the kissing cousin of Even Steven) approach paid off as when we met in Toronto on the final morning of the competition, organizers shared the current standings. No one could mathematically challenge the leading team, Steve & Bart, for the title. We’d partnered with them for several legs of the competition (think Survivor alliances) and were in awe of their work ethic (they awoke at 4am many days to begin scavenges and averaged 4 – 6 hours of sleep nightly.) We particularly enjoyed our many strategy sessions to plot and plan approaches to maximize our impact in each country (did I just slip into Pfizer-speak?) Zoe & Rainey, a hard-driving pair of attorneys seemed a lock for second place throughout the journey. These two had been action-oriented and ferreted out points around every corner throughout the adventure.
Three teams- none of which had taken the arduous Mulligan journey- were in close competition for the final third position- 100 points separated the teams. At this point, we had to make the call… do we turn it on in Toronto or take in a Blue Jays game?
Jeff was a trooper… The competition monster got the best of me & I dragged him around Toronto as we traveled the city through its labyrinth of neighborhoods by foot, subway and PATH to accomplish challenges in local markets, visit Toronto’s Chinatown & Little Italy, museums (we even visited the Shoe Museum, ladies!) and landmarks. Torrential rains may have dampened our shoes and clothes but not our spirits as we made final stops at the Hockey Hall of Fame (Jeff got to touch the Stanley Cup) and yes, we even got to catch part of the Blue Jays game, before our group convened at 3pm high above the clouds at the top of the CN Tower. How would the points tally up? Stay tuned...
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