Sitting here in the Tampa airport, boarding in about ten minutes for our flight to Newark, which will take us to Grand Rapids. It is really very sad, none of us want to leave and go back to the snow, or classes. Since I don't have much time, I'll recap yesterday really quick and if you want to read more, I highly recommend checking out calvincollegeamazingrace.blogspot.com Those posts are usually more detailed and have pictures. But really quick, yesterday we went skydiving. Nine people got to go skydiving before it got too windy and it got called off. This was too bad, Scott and I did not get to go, but a rescheduled skydive is in the works for sometime this spring. Our plane is about to board, but you should really check out the official Calvin blog, it is much better than ours. We'll be back in Grand Rapids in a few hours, and tomorrow is the final race!
Oh, we are in first place by a whopping 20 points!!!! Thanks for all the support
-Aaron
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Yeah We Ballin'
This morning we woke up tired and sore. Last night we all slept in a Christian Reformed Church and the girls got all the air mattresses while the guys slept on the floor or in my case on the table...yup it was pretty much as soft as the floor ;). So we rolled up our sleeping bags and moved out to the vans. Once the vans were packed to capacity we drove about 45 min to Tampa where we met the Josh (this is the same man and company that put together the race around gas lamp quarters in San Diego). The majority of us were not excited at all to see him because 1. it meant we would have to be competitive. 2. we were all extremely tired. and 3. the last time we did a race like this there was some discrepancy in the final standings.
But, Aaron and i kept a positive outlook and decided to just walk it and try to get as many as possible. When we started out there was a light rain coming in spurts...But about ten minutes in the hard stuff started coming down. Aaron and I went from one clue to the next and after the second clue was completed our socks were saturated and our upper bodies drenched. We stuck it out and kept up positive attitudes and it all ended up working out. In order to get the answer to one of the clues one partner (me) had to navigate a maze - that was painted on the ground - with only our partners instructions to get us through. My eyes were covered but after ten minutes we made it through and were on our way to solve another.
Of course the rain backed off once we were ready to finish. We decided that it would be ok to run to the finish since we had walked pretty much everywhere all day. So we sprinted to the park and met up with Josh who told us we were team number 2!!!! so that was a second place finish for today.
Then we loaded up the vans again and took off toward Orlando... We drove by Disney, and Bush Gardens and all the amusement parks. Eventually our van guessed right - We were going to an Orlando Magic game - that's pretty swah!
We parked the vans in the parking garage and met up with Shelly. She is the activities coordinator (her real title is much more official sounding but this is what i will describe her as). She gave us all passes we had to wear since we were in the stadium early. First we went to our suite (yes a whole box to ourselves) and then we went down on the court to find out what our next challenge was going to be. Shelly told us that there were six envelopes spread out among the 15,000 seats and that the teams to find them would either get to do something where you spin around and then shoot a layup, or at the end of the fourth quarter throw tee-shirts into the crowd (both of these were on the court in front of everyone) So we raced all around and Aaron found an envelope and we were stoked! So Aaron and I got to do the dizzy shot! That was totally sweet! So we spun and spun and shot...but before i shot i managed to run and fall all the way out of bounds....
Later at half-time Mr. Vander Weide took us on a tour of the Orlando Magic offices. We saw the conference room, the "war room" where they all gather to do the NBA draft, Van Gundys' office, and some other important sweet offices and rooms.
Today turned out to be one of the best days on the trip. Not only because we solidified our spot in the final race (because we had two second place finishes today). But, also because Aaron has decided that what we did tonight is one of the top 3 favorite times in his life! I have to say that it was really something special and we owe a huge thank you to the Vander Weides.
-Scott
But, Aaron and i kept a positive outlook and decided to just walk it and try to get as many as possible. When we started out there was a light rain coming in spurts...But about ten minutes in the hard stuff started coming down. Aaron and I went from one clue to the next and after the second clue was completed our socks were saturated and our upper bodies drenched. We stuck it out and kept up positive attitudes and it all ended up working out. In order to get the answer to one of the clues one partner (me) had to navigate a maze - that was painted on the ground - with only our partners instructions to get us through. My eyes were covered but after ten minutes we made it through and were on our way to solve another.
Of course the rain backed off once we were ready to finish. We decided that it would be ok to run to the finish since we had walked pretty much everywhere all day. So we sprinted to the park and met up with Josh who told us we were team number 2!!!! so that was a second place finish for today.
Then we loaded up the vans again and took off toward Orlando... We drove by Disney, and Bush Gardens and all the amusement parks. Eventually our van guessed right - We were going to an Orlando Magic game - that's pretty swah!
We parked the vans in the parking garage and met up with Shelly. She is the activities coordinator (her real title is much more official sounding but this is what i will describe her as). She gave us all passes we had to wear since we were in the stadium early. First we went to our suite (yes a whole box to ourselves) and then we went down on the court to find out what our next challenge was going to be. Shelly told us that there were six envelopes spread out among the 15,000 seats and that the teams to find them would either get to do something where you spin around and then shoot a layup, or at the end of the fourth quarter throw tee-shirts into the crowd (both of these were on the court in front of everyone) So we raced all around and Aaron found an envelope and we were stoked! So Aaron and I got to do the dizzy shot! That was totally sweet! So we spun and spun and shot...but before i shot i managed to run and fall all the way out of bounds....
Later at half-time Mr. Vander Weide took us on a tour of the Orlando Magic offices. We saw the conference room, the "war room" where they all gather to do the NBA draft, Van Gundys' office, and some other important sweet offices and rooms.
Today turned out to be one of the best days on the trip. Not only because we solidified our spot in the final race (because we had two second place finishes today). But, also because Aaron has decided that what we did tonight is one of the top 3 favorite times in his life! I have to say that it was really something special and we owe a huge thank you to the Vander Weides.
-Scott
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Internet in Vegas was 12 dollars a day....
We decided to avoid the Tod Hostel this time around, which proved to be a GREAT decision for all involved, except that they charged way too much for internet so we are way behind on this blog. I'll try to give an abbreviated version of events. We arrived Monday and had a short challenge which was our only challenge during our time in Vegas. We struggled mightily, but thanks to help from some of our follows and supporters, we figured it out in time to still finish 8th. We ended up getting tickets to the Blue Man Group which was phenomenal and it was really cool that our buddy Grant got selected to be on stage with them during one of their skits. (Check out the official Calvin blog for Grant's take) The next day was totally free time. (It turns out Vegas really sucks if you aren't 21. There is seriously nothing you can legally do.) Scott and I wandered about a mile down the road from the Stratosphere where we were staying to Gold and Silver Pawn Shop where they film the History Channel's Pawn Stars. We had a good time seeing the shop but did not see any of the guys from the show. We did buy some souveniers and Scott's autographed Chumlee hat is probably the most popular clothing item among our group currently. The pool at the Stratosphere was on the 25th floor and we enjoyed sunbathing and playing volleyball. Amber has mentioned many times how much better we are than Calvin's team. To cap the night off we went to Mandalay Bay and checked out The Lion King and it was spectacular. I loved the music and seeing it acted it....seriously a must see.
The next day we took the flight from Vegas to Houston, and from Houston to Tampa. Our flight to Tampa was eventful, as one of the guys from the TV show Entourage was on our plane, as were former Philadelphia Phillies Ricky Jordan and Mike Lieberthal. They were really nice guys and we got our picture taken with them. They also thought our class was super tight. We met up with the Calvin sailing interim after that for about 15 minutes, and they hated us. Apparently we are loud, wild, and obnoxious. We think they just don't know how to have a good time. In fact, everyone on that trip is really lame. (Abbie is on that trip. She is not lame, and it was great to see her.)
Finally, today. We woke up, went to a dive shop or something of the sort, and went swimming with wild manatees! They migrate to the hot springs of Florida at this time of year (72 degree water) and we had a good time petting the manatees (one hand only!) and not chasing them at all. Florida is super strict on these things and if you do one thing wrong it is a $10,000 fine so that is really not cool. After that we took the hour and a half drive back to Tampa where we went sailing with the other Calvin students. It was relaxing and not that eventful. Once again, good to see Abbie and hang out for a bit even though it was only for an hour or so. Tonight we are at Bradenton Christian Reformed Church and it has been a good time so far. Tomorrow we have no idea what we are doing but we all have a feeling we will be ending up in Orlando. It's bed time for now, hopefully we will be able to update tomorrow!
-Aaron
The next day we took the flight from Vegas to Houston, and from Houston to Tampa. Our flight to Tampa was eventful, as one of the guys from the TV show Entourage was on our plane, as were former Philadelphia Phillies Ricky Jordan and Mike Lieberthal. They were really nice guys and we got our picture taken with them. They also thought our class was super tight. We met up with the Calvin sailing interim after that for about 15 minutes, and they hated us. Apparently we are loud, wild, and obnoxious. We think they just don't know how to have a good time. In fact, everyone on that trip is really lame. (Abbie is on that trip. She is not lame, and it was great to see her.)
Finally, today. We woke up, went to a dive shop or something of the sort, and went swimming with wild manatees! They migrate to the hot springs of Florida at this time of year (72 degree water) and we had a good time petting the manatees (one hand only!) and not chasing them at all. Florida is super strict on these things and if you do one thing wrong it is a $10,000 fine so that is really not cool. After that we took the hour and a half drive back to Tampa where we went sailing with the other Calvin students. It was relaxing and not that eventful. Once again, good to see Abbie and hang out for a bit even though it was only for an hour or so. Tonight we are at Bradenton Christian Reformed Church and it has been a good time so far. Tomorrow we have no idea what we are doing but we all have a feeling we will be ending up in Orlando. It's bed time for now, hopefully we will be able to update tomorrow!
-Aaron
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Santa Monica
Today we loaded up the vans and headed out for the challenge. We were given instructions and a map with a perimeter drawn in and also they gave us 32 photographs. Today we had a picture scavenger hunt in the hills of LA right near the HOLLY WOOD sign. There were tons of stairs all up and down these hills because before there were cars people needed to be able to get anywhere and stairs made that easier (more of a workout but easier than just climbing an insane grade incline. Aaron and I made the decision to walk the whole time (except the end) because this would give us more time to be observant and we would get less tired throughout the day.
So we wandered all around these neighborhoods and everything looks different here than it does in the mid-west or even the east coast. The people were friendly but some were not very helpful. We met one woman who said she had lived there her whole life but she didn’t know where one road was because she was so hung over…this was around noon. So we wandered and managed to find 21 of the photos. (This was the most of any team)
So the time came to head back to the starting point and after trying my hardest to convince Aaron to run the last stretch with me we ran across the finish line. And it’s a good thing we did because in the event of a tie the team who had the better time would win. So we found out a little while later that we had finished in first place because the team we tied with was one of the teams we sprinted past in the last 200 meters.
After this race aspect we took both of the vans to In and Out Burger and had lunch. I really like in and out because it is absolutely true to its name. We ordered and it was the shortest wait I have ever experienced with a fast food restaurant and it was definitely the best food too. I ordered one burger regular, and another in their “protein” style. This is without a bun and the burger is just wrapped in lettuce. And then I ordered Animal style fries, which were French fries covered in cheese and their special mystery sauce.
Then we took a fifteen-minute drive to Santa Monica where we found our hostel and were given the rest of the night off (completely free)! The guys wandered around and found a cigar shop. We all bought cigars and later had a man night on the pier and smoked them together and had guy time.
For dinner we broke up into smaller groups and went our separate ways. Nine of us ate at Yankee Doodles Sports bar. Where the food wasn’t the greates but we had fun just sitting around the table talking. And some of the others (Aaron included) went out for pizza at a really nice restaurant.
We wandered the pier and beach and just had a grand time wandering around this new place together.
-Scott
Scotts Surfing
Today we woke up at our host families houses and drove the whopping 3 1/2 minutes to the Zondervans house where we all met up and split into the two fifteen passenger vans. We drove about 45 min though some light L.A. traffic and arrived a small inlet where there were kayaks lined up on the shore just waiting to be taken out! Curt and Amber staggered the start and handed all the teams a map. Aaron hopped in the back of the sit on top kayak and started paddling while I sat in the front and prepared to navigate the canals lined with million dollar houses and boats.
We had four checkpoints along the way. At our first checkpoint we bad to carry the boat up to a wooden walkway and then go down a children’s slide and get our picture taken by Amber who was there waiting for the teams. Our next two places we had to visit were bridges. We had to go under these bridges and call out to people who were there waiting for the groups to arrive. Our final destination was possibly the most difficult. Mark Asma was in a kayak hidden in one of the side canals off of a larger canal… so yeah trial and error on that one.
We raced back to the starting point, which is also where we started and we ended up coming in fourth. We were pleased with this because there had already been several teams that finished in front of us but due to the staggered start we beat out a few of them. The next challenge of today was not one for points but rather experience and fun in the sun!
We traveled less than a mile to Huntington Beach and met up with some Valley Christian High School students who spent their Saturday morning bearing with surfing newbie college students. It was a ton of fun! I have decided that I would have loved to grow up closer to the ocean because surfing would have been my sport of preference.
After about and hour in the water we switched so our partners could have the same awesome experience that we had. It was too much fun J After everyone had surfed for the say we just laid in the sun and talked amongst ourselves. It was a relaxing afternoon and the beginning of some color coming back into our faces! That night for dinner we went to the Huntington Beach pier. At the end of this pier is the diner Ruby’s. Classic burgers and shakes and it was sweet (also on this trip the word sweet is pronounced –sweat- I really don’t know why.) After dinner we walked the pier and wondered the streets around Huntington Beach. It is a really cool town and there is always something to do.
Today was sweet we kayaked and surfed (which may just be the highlight of my trip).
-Scott
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Surfin' in the USA
This morning we had a delicious breakfast at the Slager house with our host family, who are the nicest people in the world. Both taught in the Christian schools for over 40 years and are now retired and travel everywhere. Our first destination this morning was a set of channels full of boats and we had to navigate our tandem kayak through the channels, finding certain things. Scott and I did well, finishing fourth less than a minute behind first place. Being the heaviest team we felt like we moved pretty quickly, although we did get passed as we approached the finish (but they were more than 100 pounds lighter than us)
After our satisfying fourth place finish we took to Huntington Beach, where we would be surfing! Scott went first and got up a few times. I was really impressed with him (and even more so after I tried it myself). Actually, everyone in the group did pretty well. I have to say that wetsuits are one of the top 10 inventions of all time. It made the ocean water bearable, which would have been freezing otherwise. My attempts at surfing involved a lot of salt water up my nose and in my mouth, but I did manage to get up onto my knees every time and got to my feet once (arguably twice).
We spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the beach exchanging stories with one another which was really enjoyable. As a group we are all getting pretty close and have gotten to know each other really well. After that we went to Ruby's which is on the pier, and we watched the sunset in the restaurant and it was so beautiful. After that we had a bit of time to shop, and I bought a crazy hat and some sunglasses which I really enjoy wearing. I'm sure pictures of that will surface soon.
Tomorrow we have church and then we will be racing in the hills of Hollywood, which sounds exhausting to me. Wish us luck!
After our satisfying fourth place finish we took to Huntington Beach, where we would be surfing! Scott went first and got up a few times. I was really impressed with him (and even more so after I tried it myself). Actually, everyone in the group did pretty well. I have to say that wetsuits are one of the top 10 inventions of all time. It made the ocean water bearable, which would have been freezing otherwise. My attempts at surfing involved a lot of salt water up my nose and in my mouth, but I did manage to get up onto my knees every time and got to my feet once (arguably twice).
We spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the beach exchanging stories with one another which was really enjoyable. As a group we are all getting pretty close and have gotten to know each other really well. After that we went to Ruby's which is on the pier, and we watched the sunset in the restaurant and it was so beautiful. After that we had a bit of time to shop, and I bought a crazy hat and some sunglasses which I really enjoy wearing. I'm sure pictures of that will surface soon.
Tomorrow we have church and then we will be racing in the hills of Hollywood, which sounds exhausting to me. Wish us luck!
Friday, January 14, 2011
From Bummin it on the beach to a race aorund lil India!
This morning we got to sleep in! wow all the way to 8 o'clock ;) But when we got up the hostel provided pancake batter for us and all we had to do was cook them up. I probably made about twenty pancakes for a bunch of people before I ate some myself but i really didn't mind it was a fun morning.
Then we all packed into the vans and rode about an hour and a half to Laguna Beach! where we were the crazy people from out of state who wore bathing suits and no shirts in the middle of January! We were completely comfortable and loving it while people passed us wearing boots and scarves... it was 75 out. We played Beach Volley ball for about two hours and then had to get on our way to Kara Zondervans' house where we were given our next challenge. We traveled to Little India and some Chinese part of town and there we were given instructions.
In Little India there were three things you had to do. 1-we had to choose either Dye it or Try it. I chose Dye it, and Aaron chose Try it. For try it Aaron had to try on the traditional Indian wedding apparel ( a tunic because they wouldn't let him try on a sari). Then for dye it I had to get a Henna Tattoo. Pretty cool and i lucked out because she didn't put any flowers in my tattoo :). After that we had to get our picture taken in front of some elephant statues. And then we had to go to a Dutch furniture store in lil India (postma's furniture). After that we returned to the pit stop to pick up our last clue. (sadly at this point we were in last!) So we got our last clue and headed towards the China section of town. We had to go into a local Chinese Grocery Store and once in there follow clues to find a particular kind of food that we then had to take outside and eat in front of Mark Asma. So Aaron and I by sheer luck of the roll had to eat jellyfish salad. It kind of looked like cole slaw except that it didn't taste anything like it and was quite slimy. I enjoyed it but it wasn't Aarons favorite part of the race...so as we proceeded along to the finish we were in 7th. However, do to some minor issues and discrepancies they split the 11 groups in two so there were two 1st place teams, and two 2nd place teams etc. So our 7th place finish turned into a 1st place victory!
We have had an amazing amount of fun so far on this trip and there is nothing that can compare to some of the things we have had to do or try. So i will be going to bed now... it's really only 11:10 here but the sun wore me out :) and i think tomorrow may be a surfing day... but we don't know yet.
pics will be here tomorrow
-Scott
Then we all packed into the vans and rode about an hour and a half to Laguna Beach! where we were the crazy people from out of state who wore bathing suits and no shirts in the middle of January! We were completely comfortable and loving it while people passed us wearing boots and scarves... it was 75 out. We played Beach Volley ball for about two hours and then had to get on our way to Kara Zondervans' house where we were given our next challenge. We traveled to Little India and some Chinese part of town and there we were given instructions.
In Little India there were three things you had to do. 1-we had to choose either Dye it or Try it. I chose Dye it, and Aaron chose Try it. For try it Aaron had to try on the traditional Indian wedding apparel ( a tunic because they wouldn't let him try on a sari). Then for dye it I had to get a Henna Tattoo. Pretty cool and i lucked out because she didn't put any flowers in my tattoo :). After that we had to get our picture taken in front of some elephant statues. And then we had to go to a Dutch furniture store in lil India (postma's furniture). After that we returned to the pit stop to pick up our last clue. (sadly at this point we were in last!) So we got our last clue and headed towards the China section of town. We had to go into a local Chinese Grocery Store and once in there follow clues to find a particular kind of food that we then had to take outside and eat in front of Mark Asma. So Aaron and I by sheer luck of the roll had to eat jellyfish salad. It kind of looked like cole slaw except that it didn't taste anything like it and was quite slimy. I enjoyed it but it wasn't Aarons favorite part of the race...so as we proceeded along to the finish we were in 7th. However, do to some minor issues and discrepancies they split the 11 groups in two so there were two 1st place teams, and two 2nd place teams etc. So our 7th place finish turned into a 1st place victory!
We have had an amazing amount of fun so far on this trip and there is nothing that can compare to some of the things we have had to do or try. So i will be going to bed now... it's really only 11:10 here but the sun wore me out :) and i think tomorrow may be a surfing day... but we don't know yet.
pics will be here tomorrow
-Scott
Look!
We spent our Thursday in 75 degree weather wandering around the San Diego Zoo. For the most part it was pretty relaxed, we just had a sheet we needed to fill out as we went around. We got points for however many of the tasks we completed, such as "take a picture of _____" or "what is the only other mammal besides the platypus that lays eggs?" Turns out we did pretty well....good enough for first place!!! There is not a lot that can be said about the zoo, it is better seen in pictures. Those will be up soon enough, as Scott does that stuff and I don't.
After the zoo we went to the Point Loma hostel, which turns out is pretty nice. We had a great time meeting people, grilling burgers, and just hanging out last night. Oh, and we saw a beautiful sunset on the Pacific Ocean! We plan to leave here in about a half hour and head to LA, but on the way we will stop at the tide pools and probably see some really cool things.
These are our Point Loma sunset pics!
Scott and I are having a great time on this trip and learning lots about ourselves. One of our favorite things we have learned is that even though during the race we have different ideas and seem to always end up upset at each other, it really is not a big deal...we are realizing our friendship is bigger than that, and can stand disagreements. One thing I have learned about myself is that I love routine. Not to say I am not having fun....in fact, I am loving every minute of this trip and I'd do it again in a heart beat. It is just that I am out of my comfort zone, never knowing what is coming next....something that I am not familiar with. I love routine and knowing what is happening, so this is a good experience for me and I am loving it.
Pictures to come soon, have a great day!
-Aaron
After the zoo we went to the Point Loma hostel, which turns out is pretty nice. We had a great time meeting people, grilling burgers, and just hanging out last night. Oh, and we saw a beautiful sunset on the Pacific Ocean! We plan to leave here in about a half hour and head to LA, but on the way we will stop at the tide pools and probably see some really cool things.
These are our Point Loma sunset pics!
Scott and I are having a great time on this trip and learning lots about ourselves. One of our favorite things we have learned is that even though during the race we have different ideas and seem to always end up upset at each other, it really is not a big deal...we are realizing our friendship is bigger than that, and can stand disagreements. One thing I have learned about myself is that I love routine. Not to say I am not having fun....in fact, I am loving every minute of this trip and I'd do it again in a heart beat. It is just that I am out of my comfort zone, never knowing what is coming next....something that I am not familiar with. I love routine and knowing what is happening, so this is a good experience for me and I am loving it.
Pictures to come soon, have a great day!
-Aaron
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Downtown San Diego
So this will probably be one of the shorter blog entries, but today was a bit more cryptic and a little bit shorter than the others. Aaron and I woke this morning in the King sized bed that we share and realized that it was still dark outside. However, with traffic like it is in California on the Freeway we needed to leave at 7 to travel the 13 miles to the school where we would be meeting the rest of the teams by 8. So we met up with the other teams and had a little get to know you session with some high school kids and then we were racing down the freeway toward downtown San Diego.
Once there we gathered our wits about us and prepared for a real mental challenge. the company was named something crow...or raven...but you can find that on the Calvin blog since i can't remember it now. It was a cross between the amazing race and national treasure. The clues were fun and interesting. we needed to us a uv light to see some of the secret clues hidden on the sheets of paper with the clues on them. So overall we had a great day and everything went well.
In the afternoon Travis, Ryan, Grant, Kyle, Aaron and me all went to a restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. It's the kind of place where the wait staff is mean to you and they give you a hard time. so that was a ton of fun and we all laughed extremely hard! For the most part apart from all the traffic on the freeway i think San Diego would be a really great city to live in and i think the weather is just absolutely wonderful! While MI and MA were getting snow we were sitting pretty in the sunshine at a comfortable 72 degrees!
-Scott
Once there we gathered our wits about us and prepared for a real mental challenge. the company was named something crow...or raven...but you can find that on the Calvin blog since i can't remember it now. It was a cross between the amazing race and national treasure. The clues were fun and interesting. we needed to us a uv light to see some of the secret clues hidden on the sheets of paper with the clues on them. So overall we had a great day and everything went well.
In the afternoon Travis, Ryan, Grant, Kyle, Aaron and me all went to a restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. It's the kind of place where the wait staff is mean to you and they give you a hard time. so that was a ton of fun and we all laughed extremely hard! For the most part apart from all the traffic on the freeway i think San Diego would be a really great city to live in and i think the weather is just absolutely wonderful! While MI and MA were getting snow we were sitting pretty in the sunshine at a comfortable 72 degrees!
-Scott
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Holy Cow!
All the guys woke up this morning in the basement of the Voss' house. It was a wonderful time watching the game and eating pizza and just hanging out with everybody. It was too bad the ducks couldn't pull out the W.
We left early this morning and stopped about an hour later at a huge dairy farm. In fact, the family owns over 9000 cattle, 3600 of which were at the site we were at. The smell was horrendous, naturally, but we got used to it as we toured the facilities and learned more about cattle than we thought there was to know. After that it was time to compete. We drove about a half mile to a spot with maybe a dozen pens of cattle. We were then assigned to pens and told we had to count the number of cattle inside, which was nearly impossible because the cattle were easily spooked and were constantly moving around. We finished third at our pen, good for three "cows", which were used for keeping score. The team with the most cows would be the winner. We then drove back toward the place we started, where we approached a large pile of cotton seed. I would say it was something like 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and maybe 3 or 4 feet high. There were 52 cows hidden in there, and it was up to us to find them. These cows are maybe, emphasize maybe, an inch tall. We found three of them, for a total of six cows, which was probably near the middle of the pack...honestly I am not all that sure.
From there we continued our drive to San Diego. We got in around 5 pacific time, ate dinner, and met with our host families at Calvin Christian High School. Tomorrow begins our racing in San Diego, which will be on foot. Sore muscles and fatigue may come in to play, but we'll be alright. Wish us luck!
PS....vote for us at
We left early this morning and stopped about an hour later at a huge dairy farm. In fact, the family owns over 9000 cattle, 3600 of which were at the site we were at. The smell was horrendous, naturally, but we got used to it as we toured the facilities and learned more about cattle than we thought there was to know. After that it was time to compete. We drove about a half mile to a spot with maybe a dozen pens of cattle. We were then assigned to pens and told we had to count the number of cattle inside, which was nearly impossible because the cattle were easily spooked and were constantly moving around. We finished third at our pen, good for three "cows", which were used for keeping score. The team with the most cows would be the winner. We then drove back toward the place we started, where we approached a large pile of cotton seed. I would say it was something like 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and maybe 3 or 4 feet high. There were 52 cows hidden in there, and it was up to us to find them. These cows are maybe, emphasize maybe, an inch tall. We found three of them, for a total of six cows, which was probably near the middle of the pack...honestly I am not all that sure.
From there we continued our drive to San Diego. We got in around 5 pacific time, ate dinner, and met with our host families at Calvin Christian High School. Tomorrow begins our racing in San Diego, which will be on foot. Sore muscles and fatigue may come in to play, but we'll be alright. Wish us luck!
PS....vote for us at
Monday, January 10, 2011
VROOM, VROOM!!!
We got in the vans and headed to the outskirts of Phoenix, to Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. After taking sharp turns at 80 mph (a professional driver, of course) inside of 15 passenger vans (no joke!!!!), we were taken to our cars....brand spanking new super-charged corvettes. We had races in the corvettes, driving through an obstacle course. Scott and I took 5th (I was fast, Scott was slow :P)
Earlier tonight we received the current overall standings. We are in 4th overall, one point behind 3rd place and two points behind two teams that are tied for first. We'll continue to do our best and try to stay in that top 3.
Tomorrow we drive to San Diego, which will be a long drive but we are looking very forward to our new adventures. Thanks for reading!!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
Please head over to www.calvincollegeamazingrace.blogspot.com and find the post where you can vote for your favorite team. A vote for us gets us one point, which as you can see from the standings is very important to us at this point! Please help us! And tell everybody else to vote for us!!
-Aaron
Sunday, January 9, 2011
WINNERS!
Hey guys, we won the race today!! Because of this, it is our privilege to write for the official Calvin College blog so if you want to read all about of cliff diving adventure (which of course you do), head over to www.calvincollegeamazingrace.blogspot.com
-Aaron
-Aaron
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Hoover What?...Dam!
Once we gathered all of our stuff and packed it into our two 15 passenger vans we took off south toward AZ. But on our way to AZ we made a stop at the Hoover Dam. Our first stop along the way was the new concrete suspension bridge that has a six foot wide walkway for pedestrians and the cars pass right by on the other side of a concrete wall. The view from the bridge was amazing! Then we got into the vans and drove over the Dam so we could see the other side. Once there we parked the vans and had a quiz. It was difficult because we didn't really do any research about the Hoover Dam so needless to say we learned quite a few useless facts about the construction of the dam.
Then it was back to the vans! four or five hours later we arrived in Phoenix and ate dinner at Macayo's a Mexican restaurant that Amber really likes. Then we went to the Wigboldy's and met our host family for the next three nights. The Botma's are a really nice family. They have three boys the oldest is 27 and the youngest is 21 they all went to school in So.Cal. Well it's 9:30 (mountain time) here which is like 11:30 at home (which isn't late....but i am exhausted). So ttyl
-Scott
Welcome to Las Vegas!
Well, it wasn't the way we expected to get here, but we made it. Our original flight was with Continental, scheduled to leave at 1:48. Slightly after that time we got on the tiniest plane ever, only like 40 seats, headed for Cleveland. However, the plane was broken (something about not being able to de-ice. Oh, and the thermostat was affected and the plane was 100+ degrees inside! We were all dying) so we went back inside, where we switched airlines and found a flight with Delta to Las Vegas through Minneapolis. We finally left Grand Rapids at 7:45 last night, and got to Vegas around 11 pm Pacific time. We got some sleep at the Tod Hostel, where we were lucky enough to share a room with two other racers, Adam and Marshall. Last night we were very thankful for Adam, he won a game of rock-paper-scissors that got us our room of four while the other group of 4 boys had to share a room with 2 strangers. We didn't sleep particularly well, but a bed is a bed, and for 15 bucks a night I won't complain. In about a half hour we are heading to Phoenix, and it should be a beautiful drive. We are expecting some sort of racing today but we are not sure what it will be, so you can find that out in our next blog post, whenever we can get to it. We'll try and update our blog every day, but that might not happen...we'll do what we can.
-Aaron
-Aaron
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