Last edition!

Since the Amazing Race ends today...I guess it's time for a final update. We are far behind in updating this blog. I guess we all got busy. A lot of these tasks took place back in August....

Amanda, Beth, and Emily took a Saturday afternoon in early August to tackle several of the tasks. We dragged Beth's husband, Ben, along to be the cameraman. What a good sport!

The first thing we did was to take a break from the heat at Hamilton Center and take part in the free skate. I think we remarked that we found a new spot for those days when it is even too hot to go swimming...the ice skating rink! Why not? It's nice and cool in there. It was pretty strange though to be there in the dog days of summer. Ice skating in shorts? Who's ever heard of that? Who knows...but we have proof that it can be done.

After the ice skating, we hit up the batting cages. We all did better than expected. Here to the right we have Beth following through on her swing. Swing batter batter swingggg!!!

After sweating buckets at the batting cages, we took a ride up to IUPUC to find Between Heaven and Earth. We thought this was a pretty cool work of art...but we were left with one question: Why the name Between Heaven and Earth? But I guess that's what art's about. There doesn't have to be any reason. We did take that time to check out all the other interesting pieces of art in the garden.

Next we stopped in at the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum. This was a neat little place. None of us had ever been there. We did find our random fact there, which was the following: The base chapel is the only remaining WWII barracks style building remaining.

The next destination was Freedom Field at Parkside. Our quest here was to locate the number of tic-tac-toe boards. We had a hard time determining what was meant by the tic-tac-toe boards. So, we found something that could resemble one...and we found three of them. Hopefully we're right! We had a good time at Freedom Field in the meantime. The rubbery surface was quite fun to walk around on. It was nice to be a kid again!

Even if we were having fun, we had a lot of things on the schedule for the day...so moving right along. We went up town to the Irwin Gardens. We had our picture taken with the elephant and we thought it was only right that we acted like we were elephants too. We also were to find all of the other animals in the gardens as well. Among some of the other animals were lions, frogs, and birds.

After hanging out in the gardens for a bit and getting to see several wedding parties having their pictures taken there, we headed out west of town to check out Tony Stewart's accomplishments on the highway sign on SR46. We were definitely flattered ;) by all the honking and staring we got as we stood underneath the sign. Maybe passersby thought we were giving them all the peace sign, but we were really holding up two fingers to represent the number of championships "Smoke" has won.

We headed back to town to take a spin around the Putt Putt course on Marr Road. We all better keep practicing, although there were a few hole-in-ones throughout the game. We found the big giraffe and took a picture with him. The giraffe is much taller than Emily, Amanda, or Beth; not that it took us long to figure that out.

Next, we stopped at the BCSC Administration building to say Hi to the kids at the fountain. It was a good day to play in the water...but we didn't (although it was tempting).

Since the People Trail is so close to the Administration Building, we took a quick stroll on the trail and got our picture taken at the bench right off of 10th Street.

We got a bit hungry and thirsty after our walk (since it was so hot outside) that we wanted a snack and drink from the SRT Bazaar. We got some sort of a spicy snack and some pineapple tasting cookies. We also bought a mango flavored drink. We were not disappointed in any of these items. We call it a "pleasant surprise!"

Our final stop for the day was at Goodwill. We found several items on the list. Each of us got a cassette tape. Beth=Cocktail Soundtrack; Amanda=Ghostbusters Soundtrack; Emily=M.C. Hammer. Amanda and Emily found old Mickey Mouse shirts and Beth found an old People Trail t-shirt. Amanda found orange tupperware cups and Emily found an orange tupperware pitcher. Beth and her husband ended up finding some useful items for their house. Amanda also found some fun games for her classroom and a Purdue fleece! They are, apparently, seasoned Goodwill shoppers! :)

Throughout the day, we stopped at three of the parks throughout Columbus. These parks were Noblitt Park, Donner Park, and Harrison Ridge Park in Tipton Lakes. The fourth park we needed to fill the requirement of visiting four parks has already been completed a few days beforehand when we went to Mill Race.

After the eventful day, the three of us and our cameraman were plum tuckered out. So, we called it a day!

A few days later, we made a visit to Home Federal and got a refer a friend coupon and sampled the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. We had our friend come along and take our picture. The woman in the back of the picture said to the cameraman, "Don't get me in the picture." But he told her it was too late. How nice of him.

We also visited the Bartholomew County Historical Society and found the train upstairs. It was pretty cool to see what Columbus looked like all those years ago.

Later on in the day, the group lost the company of Amanda, but gained Kelly, her husband, Beth's husband, and another friend. We voyaged down to the Bartholomew County Landfill where we got our picture taken with the "recycle" sign mowed into the grass. We also stopped in at The Brick to enjoy a delicious hamburger. Everyone in the group has been there, except for Emily. She thinks that the hamburger she had there might be one of the best hamburgers she's ever eaten.

A few other tasks that we accomplished were volunteering at the Dog Swim for CARE, an animal rescue group. We also presented the president of the group, Elaine DeClue, with a donation of dog treats. Emily, Beth, and Amanda also went to see the Bagpipers when they were playing at the Visitors Center. They enjoyed the music while they sat and hung out for a bit.

Those were all of the tasks that Team Spade had time to complete. They had a great time while doing it. They think the Amazing Race was a great way for younger people to get to know their community better!

Mission Impossible? I think not.

Team Spade has decided to get our rears in gear. Today we met up and knocked out several of the downtown tasks. With school starting next week, that means that two of the members will be kind of busy with back-to-school activities; therefore, we gotta get a move on. Where did the summer go?? Anyway, moving on...

The first thing we completed on the list was to eat at an independently owned downtown restaurant and get our picture taken with Chef Matt Davis at Tre Bicchieri. The Italian food there is quite delicious! From there, we set off on foot to the library. Once we finished our books on the steps of the library, we continued the journey down 5th Street and stopped at the Cummins Corporate Headquarters Museum and marveled at the exploded engine. Then, we took the sculpture tour and decided that we all liked the angel sculpture at 5th and Lindsey. Boy, did we get some awesome stares by people waiting in line to turn. The imitation was not too far-fetched because all members of Team Spade are angels :o)

After the sculpture tour, we took a trip to Mill Race and climbed to the VERY top of the Observation Tower. We think that we picked the wrong day to do this as it was one of the hottest days of the year...if not THE hottest. Plus, the elevator was "closed for repairs"...not that we would have taken it anyway. There's just something about taking an elevator to the top of a tower on a hot day that didn't sit right with us. Then, we moved a little farther into Mill Race, which used to be called "Death Valley" to get our picture taken in front of a tree by the river.

By this time, we were extremely hot and sweaty, not to mention getting some strange looks for appearing a little scraggly. We got into the air conditioned Commons Mall and had a Kodak moment with Chaos I. After the heat and all the walking, we needed a break...so we stopped in at the Columbus Bar, which just happens to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce. We did not find the plaque hanging on the walls, so we got our picture taken with one of the owners. Man, he's tall! To gain strength to carry on in our journey, we ordered tasty beverages. Someone smart once told Emily not to "fruit your beer." She didn't listen, so this is what happens...she gets orange squirted in her eye.

Pushing on, we decided to visit the Philharmonic next and borrow a trumpet. Beth was the lucky one who got to play on the corner of 3rd and Franklin Streets. It was only befitting because she used to be in her high school band. Lucky for her, 3rd Street wasn't that busy at the time...but, Emily and Kelly did their fair share of laughing WITH Beth, not at her. Right, Beth?

Along the way, we also stopped at City Hall to pose with the Yellowwood Coral sculpture, which was part of the 2006 Sculpture Invitational. We decided that we thought this particular sculpture, which is made of old bike frames, looks a lot cooler farther away than up close. We also stopped at the Senior Citizens Center. While there, we sat and had another Kodak moment with the plaque that honors the founder and namesake of the county, Tipton and Bartholomew.

To round out the day, we were getting hungry again, so we ventured to the Fair Oaks Mall to eat Riviera Maya, a non-chain ethnic restaurant. We ate so much that we felt sick afterwards. Full as ticks!

Today's missions were accomplished and we had fun doing them...even if we were soaked in sweat by the end!

Check back this weekend for more updates!

The Biggest Block Party EVER!!!

Team Spade has taken a small hiatus...but we're back! On July 28th, Team Spade attended the 2nd Annual Biggest Block Party EVER!!! And boy, it WAS big. Good times were had by all. We brought several friends along and everyone had a good time and saw a lot of friendly and familiar faces. The food was delicious, the entertainment was fun, and the beverages were frosty (not really, but it sounded good).

County Fair, County Fair. Everybody in town'll be there.

Our third team activity was to go to the county fair, where we had to get our picture taken with a prize winning animal. Really, who can resist the county fair? We made our way down (a few times in fact) to the fair while it was open. We met up at the fair for lunch one afternoon. We got to eat the delicious fare including cheeseburgers, fish sandwiches, pork, and ice cream. After we ate, we waddled over to the livestock barn and took a tour. One of the favorite animals was the pygmy goats. We stopped along the way to pose with a few of the lucky prize winning animals.

Our first stop was with a New Hampshire hog that won Champion County Born and Raised Gilt. We also posed with the Arnholt Holstein, which was not only a prize winner, but a Grand Champion!

Won't you be my neighbor!

After our trip to the Farmer's Market, we strolled down the street to Neighborfest. Again, Annie joined in the fun. The band that took the stage was Manifest Blues Band. We spent some time listening to the band and hanging out with the team members and some friends. Neighborfest is always a great way to spend the summer nights!

We support local farmers!

Our first official activity that we completed was our visit to the Farmer's Market downtown a few Thursdays ago. One of the team's namesakes, Annie (Beth's dog) accompanied us on our venture. We walked around and visited many of the booths eying a number of the delicious looking vegetables and fruits. We were ultimately lured in by AppleWorks. Who can resist a 2 lb. Apple Danish?? We also bought some corn and since we're in Indiana, we thought it would be appropriate to capture that special "Kodak moment" with the corn.

We had arranged for a friend to come meet us, as he works downtown, but he was bit tardy, so we enlisted the help of one of the AppleWorks workers to do the pleasure of taking our photo for this task.

The Kick-off

The day of the kick-off event was June 28th. We did not have a creative mode of transportation, but we thought maybe our banner might make up for some of those creativity points. There were a lot of other pretty creative ideas done by other groups. You can check out the pictures from the event by going to the CYP Amazing Race Photos Website.

Some of our friends and family came out to support us on this adventure. We'd like to thank them!

After the kick-off, we wandered over to the CB with our friends and family for some dinner and the tapping of its first keg of beer they brewed themselves.