SCAVENGER HUNT/CAR RALLY

In 1994 I attended a scavenger hunt/car rally party with a group of adults. It was not a wild party with drugs or alcohol, but just a bunch of adults acting crazy and having a great time. I had such fond memories of the event that when my husband and I became Social Chairmen of our LifeQuest Adult Sunday School class at First Presbyterian Church, I thought it would be fun to try it with our class. We recently had our Fourth Annual Car Rally/Scavenger Hunt.

Here's how it works: We meet at a house and divide into teams of four (two males, two females but couples are on separate teams). We have two hours to find or do the following and we accumulate points for each:

• WORD CLUES (Example: According to the Flyer Eagle store, what is the definition of a vegetarian? Answer: Indian Word for Bad Hunter - this is on a T-shirt )

• BRING BACK A LIST OF ITEMS (Examples: takeout packet of sweet and sour sauce, Skeeball ticket, tumbleweed, picture of a person with the most tattoos and/or best spiked hair)

• DIGITAL CAMERA PICTURES WITH AT LEAST TWO MEMBERS OF YOUR TEAM IN THE PICTURE (Example: in a grocery cart, in front of a Port-O-Potty)

There are about 50 clues to find or bring back. We have to be back to home base by 5:30 p.m. sharp and for every minute your team is late, your team loses 5 points.

The first three years the clues were anywhere from downtown to Manitou to the northwest part of town, with a lot of driving and scrambling out of the cars to look for clues. This year we decided to try a more area-focused scavenger hunt in Manitou, as the competitive nature of participants was leading to car sickness and faster driving in hopes of finding all of the clues and not being late.

The car rally rules have evolved due to "interpretation". A few years ago one of the items to bring back was a token from the Manitou arcade. My team drove from downtown to the arcade for the token and were penalized because we were late getting back, while my husband's team happened to "find" a token in his team member's car, thus saving them a trip to Manitou. They also "found" about four other items to bring back in the same car and won because they did less driving (we still argue about that year's car rally). In the same hunt, our team drove to a lake to find a "fowl feather", while another team drove to someone's house to pull a feather from a pillow. Even defining a packet of soy sauce caused seaching through Google and the dictionary because a plastic tub with lid was questioned versus a packet. When challenged with searching for clues while being timed, even the most mild-mannered people become amazingly competitive, ruthless and creative.

This has been a highlight of our class activities. We have many events throughout the year for families (camping, hiking, swimming parties, pot lucks). One couple in our class loved the concept so much that they did a birthday party scavenger hunt for their triplet middle schoolers. We are planning a scavenger hunt this spring for families. However, the car rally/scavenger hunt with the adults gives us a chance to get to know each other in a different and fun way and we definitely find out who the ruthless ones are.