Monkey Business

About a month a go my friend, Carolynn found this race online called the Gorilla Challenge. It describes the race as a mix of "The Amazing Race", "American Idol" and "Fear Factor". I thought it sounded fun so I signed up with her. We had two other team mates, but something came up and they both had to bail. 

The day started out wet and gloomy. We got to the start early to check in. Then we waited. and waited. There were probably 20+ teams there and they all had at least three people with them. We got our instruction, we were getting a sheet with 6 puzzles/clues on it and we had to figure out where to go, in whatever order we wanted and do the task or take a picture then be first to get back to win.

 When we got our sheet of clues, we decided to figure out as many as we could so we wouldn't back track locations. We also got on the phone for help, she called her hubby and had him googling like crazy and I called my mother-in-law, Leslie, who knows tons about the Salt Lake valley. Alone Carolynn and I could only figure out two clues so we were so thankful for the help.

Our first stop was at Richmond Park where Carolynn was blindfolded and I had to help direct her complete a puzzle. She rocked!

We then headed to some water hole where people used to come from all over to get special mineral water. Thankfully Leslie and Grandma GG knew just where that was. I had to jump rope while singing "The Star Spangled Banner". This gave us our second sheet of clues, what luck!

Our next stop was this Muslim Prayer Center. We had to form a human pyramid and take our picture under the sign. We had to stop a lady on a bike to take our picture.

 Then we headed to this amazing rock garden I'd never heard of, Gilgal Garden. I can't wait to take my kids back, it was amazing!

 On our way to a Sizzler, Carolynn spotted a car with New York plates. One of our tasks was to take a picture with someone from out of state. The state had to start with an "N". We walked into Cafe Rio to ask around who had the plate and beg for their kindness.

When we walked in there was a Utah Highway Patrol Officer in line ordering. One of our tasks was to find an officer, thank him and shake his hand while taking a picture.

 I couldn't believe our good fortune!! Two tasks in one spot while on the way to another task!

 When we got to Sizzler, which was our next clue of choice, there was another team there we asked for help. They weren't really thrilled in helping us, I even offered to help them on a clue but they declined. We had to take our picture showing the date with our hands while standing under the sign. The guy first took a picture of mostly the sky with a little sign to be funny. Thankfully we caught it and had them retake it.

 Our next two clues took us to the Salt Lake Library and...

 the court house across the street. We asked a guy, who appeared to be homeless, to take our picture while we did our best duck impressions. They guy was super nice, he even put down his joint to help us out.

 Last stop and on to the home stretch, Taffy Town. As we headed there, we saw another team ahead of us. Since we could do the clues in any order, we didn't know how close they were to being done, but because this one was closest to the finish we assumed they were ahead of us. They got stopped in a parking lot to find a person from out of state and we pushed passed them to get our picture.

We both had to be in the picture for it to count and because it was Saturday in a quiet part of town, there was no one around to help us. The blue team was heading toward us and offered to take our picture if we'd take theirs. Of course! They were SO nice and friendly, not like our Sizzler friends. They still had two clues to finish, the state one and the officer one. Did I mention how lucky we were?!

 We headed back to the start, which was at Legends Bar, we got stopped at an intersection waiting for the light to turn green. It was so frustrating, the bar was RIGHT THERE but TWO trax trains passed and we had to wait what felt like forever. I was going to be so sad if that was the only thing that knocked us out of the race.

We went running in and I really didn't think we were first, but we of course asked. When the lady said we were first to make it back I think we were both in shock! FIRST PLACE!! They checked our clues and we got them all right! We then waited for others to arrive.

20 minutes later the next team arrived. It was our blue team friends! I was so happy they won. Other teams slowly arrived after that. Carolynn and I finished in 1:45, the only team to make it under 2 hours!

Such a memorable day and so fun. Amazing Race, here we come!