“The water activity was probably the best part,” Christopherson said. Ignasewski added, “The water felt good because it was pretty hot out.”
Both Christopherson and Schuller knew from the get go that they had some serious competition. For the majority of the race, they were on the Ignaszewskis’ tails.
“At one point, I thought my bike chain broke, but it turned out I grabbed the wrong bike, so it was all good,” Christopherson said.
A few roadblocks behind them, number four definitely raised the stakes. Teams headed to the NRHEG football field to either kick a field goal starting from the 40-yard line, moving up 10 yards every time until completion, or run two laps around the track.
“I almost made it at the 40-yard line,” Peter Ignaszewski said. “I was a foot away from getting it.” Cole added, “He drilled it in the second time.”
The next mission, Eggstravaganza, required all teams to find a hardboiled egg, in a sea of uncooked eggs.
“We just squished them in our hands,” Cole Ignaszewski said.
Moving right along, the 13 teams mustered up some American Pride for a photo taken with five different adults. Dressed in patriotic garb, the youngsters also had to sing each lucky adult’s favorite patriotic tune.
“The winners of the Amazing Race just ask the right people for help,” Schuller said. “They must also be quick.”
Clue number seven read: Pig’s Eyes! No good food can be enjoyed without a blindfold, so you can savor no doubt. Have you heard of this delicacy? I’ve hear they taste like fruit…you’ll see.
“Last year, they had to carry pickled pig’s feet in their mouths,” Schuller said. “That was pretty nasty. So some participants that had to eat them could have believed it was really pig’s eyes.” Christopherson added. “The pig’s eyes tasted a lot like grapes. Wink, wink.”
Next, they headed to a place where people play ball in the sand. Buried treasure was to be found, and inside laid the next clue.
“We had to dig in the sand in the volleyball court and try and find this medicine case that had a clue in it,” Hailey Schuller said. Cole added, “The volleyball one didn’t take us that long because I could see where their footprints were. I just went there and grabbed it.”
Completing number nine didn’t take all that long either. All the teams raced back to the park to find whip cream-topped paper plates. The goal: both teammates needed to smear their face in the whip cream to find a piece of bubble gum.
They chewed and chewed some more, until they finally could concentrate on blowing a bubble. Now with the bubble gum bubble popped, one last clue was only a few steps away.
“Number 10 was a scavenger hunt,” Schuller said. “They completed puzzles to figure out the four items to be found.”
The top two teams took no time at all decoding the puzzles. They needed to find a safety pin, sucker, a yellow crayon and an envelope. The Ignasewskis knew their grandma would have all those things.
“Grandma has everything, so we rode bike there and grabbed them all,” Cole said. “Hailey and Abby went to Wagner’s, so they were closer.” Christopherson added, “We took the shortcut and bought stuff instead of going home to get it.”
First-place victors scooped up a $30 prize to share. Second place received $20. And third place were rewarded with $10.
“It was fun to do this with my cousin and compete against my friends,” Cole said. “There’s not a whole lot of this contest stuff for us at Farm and City Days, so it’s fun to do it whenever I can.”
