San Diego Rocket Race
Another year, another San Diego Rocket Race! It gets tougher every year, and this year wasn't an exception. This was the 4th Rocket Race (and the 3rd ran by my team, Xur and the Kodan Armada).
It's a little bit like The Amazing Race. Or Urban Challenge. Or Midnight Madness. You get a clue, you solve a puzzle, and you go onto the next location. There is a theme (this year's was 'robots taking over the Earth'), and the clues are science fiction based (more on that in a moment). You are allowed to use any resource you want - including cell phones, laptops, iPhones, Blackberries, 'Phone-a-friends', etc.
We started at 9am at Coronado Tidelands Park (the end point for last year's race). They dropped the flag and told us to race under the bridge - our first clue was on the fence there. Naturally, we all ran over - and I immediately discovered that I'm old! I can't run nearly as fast as I used to - and the body hurts pretty quickly when I try. Oops!
Clue #1 - Recovering the clue, we were given an overlay (think overhead projector overlay), with some text and cut outs. It told us to find the 4th Hole, and the bike path near it, and use the overlay to get to our next location. It might be faster to drive than walk. Immediately, we hoped into the car, and headed across the street to the Coronado Golf Course. We found the map along the bike path. If you used the overlay correctly, you would find yourself headed toward a park on 3rd street in Coronado.
Clue #2 - We arrived at the park in short order, and got our next clue. It was a picture. We had to find the location of this picture to get our next clue. We could see the Hyatt Hotel, across the bay, and some condos on one side of the picture. We drove down 1st Street until we reached the correct street. We arrived here in 7th place, but only 6 minutes behind 1st place. Not doing bad to start.
Clue #3 - This is where things got difficult for us, and killed us for the game. We were handed a clue, and a bottle of Root Beer, being the label 'Fortran'. We ignored the root beer for a moment, and tried to decipher the clue. There were four parts to this clue. Each one referring to something in Star Wars. From the way we read the clue, we thought we might have to go across the bay on the Ferry. But, that's a bold (and risky) move. After about an hour, we called in for some help. We discovered we needed to DRINK the root beer (oops!). We'd discover there was an additional clue on the label. And it instructed us to look for words between the words. (In other words, the clue for our next location were words where the first few letters would be the last few letters in a word, combined with the first couple of letters in the next immediate word, i.e., house condition would tell us SECOND).
Clue #4 - Was a park in Imperial Beach. We got there, finally, and got our clue. We stlll weren't doing too bad, but we had definitely lost some time. It was a KenKen puzzle. Numbers were missing, and the questions on the back helped us figure out some of the numbers we had to use (i.e., how many of the follow four robots were Asimov robots; or what was the name of the computer in War Games, with a number next to each multiple choice answer). Also, we had to find a statue in Imperial Beach, and count the number of fish in the statue, to get one of our answers. The sum of some specific squares would have corresponding pieces of the final answer - our next location. We had the answer quickly - but we did it by guessing. We should have gone with our gut, because we spent the next 45 minutes fighting with the puzzle to confirm the answer.
Clue #5 - Another park, not far from Plaza Bonita. There, we got an identity key - pictures of robots and humans, and we were told to identify how many in each row and column were robots. Again, the correct answers would give us part of the answer to the next location. If you brute forced it, you might go to Plaza Bonita; or you might go to Horton Plaza. The correct answer was Plaza Bonita.
Lunch Break - This was our lunch break. We only got 35 minutes this year, but we were told we could get out of there 5 minutes early, if we could solve a bonus clue. We worked a little bit on it, but, feeling a little low, we decided to eat, recharge, and have a good second half.
Clue #6 - We were handed an envelop with a puzzle and scotch tape inside. It was made up of a series of triangles and squares. Some pieces just said one word - such as 'Earth' or 'Prime'. Others had multiple words on them. It looked like you could put them together - such as 'Optimus' connected to 'Prime', or 'Doctor' on one 4-word square and 'Who' on another. We thought we might be looking to make a map to put up to the mall directory. We weren't really sure.
Looking this over for awhile, we started to notice something - there were a few words that appeared on triangles, that had the word next to them flipped upside down. We started to put some things together - 'Basilone' 'Piazza' 'India' 'Fur'. Is there a Basilone Piazza in Little Italy, where India and Fur Streets are? We decided to head to the car and go downtown.
Clue #7 - We got our clue - discovered we were nearly 3 hours behind first place now - and headed out. It was a decoder clue - you were told to set the letter 'A' to a certain number (say 24), and then count to a particular number (say 17). You figure out what letter 17 was, and that would be a letter in your clue. We figured out quickly that we needed to head to Amici Park in Little Italy.
We had a list of 14 additional clues. But they were in a random order. If we answered the questions in the clues, we would get a number. Arrange the numbers in the correct numerical order, and we'd get the correct order for figuring out the decoder. There are a series of plaques in the park, and the answers we needed were found on these plaques. Once we figured it out, we discovered we were headed to Kensington Park.
Clue #8 - We got to Kensington Park, and got our clue. It was a postcard or picture, and it had been cut into about 30 different tiny strips. And, another overlay. Just as we started to assemble the clue, we got the phone call - we were being recalled to the finish line, as the race was over.
We got to the finish line, and heard the stories. Had we finished Clue #8, we would have gone to the finish line, which had yet another puzzle to complete before you could check in.
We were one of 5 teams that didn't make it to the finish line (and only two of us found our way to the finish line). We were the 'furthest' head of the recalled teams, so, we were the best of the teams that didn't finish? (Hey, I gotta find something good, right?). We had a blast, though, and we can't wait until next year.
It's a little bit like The Amazing Race. Or Urban Challenge. Or Midnight Madness. You get a clue, you solve a puzzle, and you go onto the next location. There is a theme (this year's was 'robots taking over the Earth'), and the clues are science fiction based (more on that in a moment). You are allowed to use any resource you want - including cell phones, laptops, iPhones, Blackberries, 'Phone-a-friends', etc.
We started at 9am at Coronado Tidelands Park (the end point for last year's race). They dropped the flag and told us to race under the bridge - our first clue was on the fence there. Naturally, we all ran over - and I immediately discovered that I'm old! I can't run nearly as fast as I used to - and the body hurts pretty quickly when I try. Oops!
Clue #1 - Recovering the clue, we were given an overlay (think overhead projector overlay), with some text and cut outs. It told us to find the 4th Hole, and the bike path near it, and use the overlay to get to our next location. It might be faster to drive than walk. Immediately, we hoped into the car, and headed across the street to the Coronado Golf Course. We found the map along the bike path. If you used the overlay correctly, you would find yourself headed toward a park on 3rd street in Coronado.
Clue #2 - We arrived at the park in short order, and got our next clue. It was a picture. We had to find the location of this picture to get our next clue. We could see the Hyatt Hotel, across the bay, and some condos on one side of the picture. We drove down 1st Street until we reached the correct street. We arrived here in 7th place, but only 6 minutes behind 1st place. Not doing bad to start.
Clue #3 - This is where things got difficult for us, and killed us for the game. We were handed a clue, and a bottle of Root Beer, being the label 'Fortran'. We ignored the root beer for a moment, and tried to decipher the clue. There were four parts to this clue. Each one referring to something in Star Wars. From the way we read the clue, we thought we might have to go across the bay on the Ferry. But, that's a bold (and risky) move. After about an hour, we called in for some help. We discovered we needed to DRINK the root beer (oops!). We'd discover there was an additional clue on the label. And it instructed us to look for words between the words. (In other words, the clue for our next location were words where the first few letters would be the last few letters in a word, combined with the first couple of letters in the next immediate word, i.e., house condition would tell us SECOND).
Clue #4 - Was a park in Imperial Beach. We got there, finally, and got our clue. We stlll weren't doing too bad, but we had definitely lost some time. It was a KenKen puzzle. Numbers were missing, and the questions on the back helped us figure out some of the numbers we had to use (i.e., how many of the follow four robots were Asimov robots; or what was the name of the computer in War Games, with a number next to each multiple choice answer). Also, we had to find a statue in Imperial Beach, and count the number of fish in the statue, to get one of our answers. The sum of some specific squares would have corresponding pieces of the final answer - our next location. We had the answer quickly - but we did it by guessing. We should have gone with our gut, because we spent the next 45 minutes fighting with the puzzle to confirm the answer.
Clue #5 - Another park, not far from Plaza Bonita. There, we got an identity key - pictures of robots and humans, and we were told to identify how many in each row and column were robots. Again, the correct answers would give us part of the answer to the next location. If you brute forced it, you might go to Plaza Bonita; or you might go to Horton Plaza. The correct answer was Plaza Bonita.
Lunch Break - This was our lunch break. We only got 35 minutes this year, but we were told we could get out of there 5 minutes early, if we could solve a bonus clue. We worked a little bit on it, but, feeling a little low, we decided to eat, recharge, and have a good second half.
Clue #6 - We were handed an envelop with a puzzle and scotch tape inside. It was made up of a series of triangles and squares. Some pieces just said one word - such as 'Earth' or 'Prime'. Others had multiple words on them. It looked like you could put them together - such as 'Optimus' connected to 'Prime', or 'Doctor' on one 4-word square and 'Who' on another. We thought we might be looking to make a map to put up to the mall directory. We weren't really sure.
Looking this over for awhile, we started to notice something - there were a few words that appeared on triangles, that had the word next to them flipped upside down. We started to put some things together - 'Basilone' 'Piazza' 'India' 'Fur'. Is there a Basilone Piazza in Little Italy, where India and Fur Streets are? We decided to head to the car and go downtown.
Clue #7 - We got our clue - discovered we were nearly 3 hours behind first place now - and headed out. It was a decoder clue - you were told to set the letter 'A' to a certain number (say 24), and then count to a particular number (say 17). You figure out what letter 17 was, and that would be a letter in your clue. We figured out quickly that we needed to head to Amici Park in Little Italy.
We had a list of 14 additional clues. But they were in a random order. If we answered the questions in the clues, we would get a number. Arrange the numbers in the correct numerical order, and we'd get the correct order for figuring out the decoder. There are a series of plaques in the park, and the answers we needed were found on these plaques. Once we figured it out, we discovered we were headed to Kensington Park.
Clue #8 - We got to Kensington Park, and got our clue. It was a postcard or picture, and it had been cut into about 30 different tiny strips. And, another overlay. Just as we started to assemble the clue, we got the phone call - we were being recalled to the finish line, as the race was over.
We got to the finish line, and heard the stories. Had we finished Clue #8, we would have gone to the finish line, which had yet another puzzle to complete before you could check in.
We were one of 5 teams that didn't make it to the finish line (and only two of us found our way to the finish line). We were the 'furthest' head of the recalled teams, so, we were the best of the teams that didn't finish? (Hey, I gotta find something good, right?). We had a blast, though, and we can't wait until next year.