Scav Hunt - Thursday Morning 8:30 - 9:00 a.m.

As we mentioned yesterday, there is a Road Trip. To complete the road trip successfully, road-trippers must leave early on Thursday. In case you have not seen the list yet, it is here. It is long and (in my humble opinion) pretty strong this year. There are 330 items, plus 10 items for the ScavOlympics which will take place on Saturday.

The Road Trip Theme (see yesterday's post) is in item 318. The theme this year is Kevin Costner movies... I'm sure you would have chosen the same thing. Pictured here are the judges. On the far right is the Scavczar (see Article IV of the ScavHunt Bylaws). I have no idea what "JudgeOn" means. Judge shirts always feature inside jokes among judges. For the next three and a half days, these judges will wield awesome power over all participants in ScavHunt. There are funny stories from my own first year about demands from the ScavHunt judges inspired by a particular Ludacris song from that era, but they are not appropriate for a family blog.



This is Broadview's "Clan Costner." You should be able to recognize a few characters from some of his movies. On the left is Robin Hood, next to him is Ray Kinsella, next is probably the Mariner and finally we have "Criminelvis." The car, of course, is a Conestoga Wagon. This is easier to see in the next picture, which I think was Snell-Hitchcock's "Clan Costner."



Two members of Snell's "Clan Costner" ride on their Conestoga Wagon (see item 253). Two others provide horse noises in the front using coconut shells. Amazing. Snell-Hitchcock and Max Palevsky are well-known for putting on the biggest efforts in the Scav Hunt.



The assembled "Clan Costners" pose for a photograph.



So... where are they going? I'm glad you asked. There are a lot of Road Trip items this year and the trip is pretty long.

Start at item 36 - "we can't send you all the way to Mt. Rushmore, but we can send you to Rushmore, MN," and then turn the page to item 48: "remember when we said 'we can't send you to Mt. Rushmore'? Just kidding, you're totally going to Mt. Rushmore."

Then we have item 53: "The Mariner: IN WYOMING." The closest bit of Wyoming is probably right here.

Next is item 70: "Robin Hood: IN COLORADO." We know from item 140 that the Road Trip team will eventually make its way to Omaha, NE, so the easiest part of Colorado to reach is probably somewhere south of the Nebraska panhandle like Julesburg, for example (item 120 - the Rocky Mountain Oyster Sandwich). (Having driven on this section of Interstate 76 recently, I can tell you that some towns in that section of Colorado have highway signs like this: Ovid, CO NO SERVICES, perhaps to discourage people from stopping, though maybe they have some more sinister purpose...)

On their way back to Chicago, Road Trip teams will pass through Marengo, IA (item 119) where I stopped last summer on the RAGBRAI.

Other stops include Sioux Falls, SD (item 110) , Okaton, SD (item 168), Sturgis, SD (item 203), possibly Madison, WI (see item 248) and definitely Rochester, MN (item 123). This morning road-trippers were warned to stay off Route 16A in South Dakota, which runs from Rapid City to Mt. Rushmore, approximately. They were told that if they got on Route 16A they would not return by Sunday at noon, even though the road is all of 10 miles long. Perhaps someone from South Dakota can explain that to us.

If you are reading the list, basically any item which makes reference to "Clan Costner," or the Mariner, Criminelvis, Robin Hood, or Ray Kinsella is a Road Trip item. Some road trip items are not obvious at first glance, like item 119 ("Marengos best sub.") for which you must know that Marengo is a city in Iowa. An incomplete list of Road Trip items would include: 28, 33, 36, 48, 53, 57, 70, 110, 112, 115, 119, 123, 129, 140, 149, 168, 177, 203, 207, 218, 224, 226, 232, 233, 240, 247, 248, 249, 251, 252, 253, 255, 258, 274, 292, 312, 318, 327, and probably a few more.