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!