Driving sporadically around Bel Air, we screeched to a halt on Route 22 in order to pull over and take a picture with a dead fox. Find road kill: our team wins another four points as we cross off one of our 40 tasks for the night.
Next stop: McDonald’s. We experience walking through a drive-thru as we mime driving a car with our hands. Walk through a drive-thru: four points. The car behind us finds this entertaining, so we decide to combine our tasks. My friend hands the laughing woman in the front seat of the car a bouquet of flowers. Give flowers to a random girl: three points. After getting our fries as a reward for our strenuous walk, my friend and I jump into the car as our team heads to our next destination: our opponent’s house to steal something from an opposing team member’s house.
“Are you busy this Saturday night?” my friend from work asked me last Monday. “My friends and I are getting a huge group together to do a scavenger hunt around Bel Air. Wanna be on my team?”
It had the potential to be completely lame and uneventful, but maybe I could make it fun. And with a nod of my head, I joined Maria McFadden’s scavenger hunt team of former C. Milton Wright graduates. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
With two teams of five, we set out from Maria’s house at eight on Saturday night. Each team received a list of forty tasks to complete by 10:45, worth a different amount of points depending on the difficulty. We weren’t sure where to begin, but time was limited, so we drove on and decided where to go as we read the list aloud.
COME PREPARED
Running shoes, a few extra dollars to buy supplies, and a positive attitude are a must. Don’t forget one of these three things.
PLAN YOUR TASKS
Typing out a list of tasks for both teams was a great idea. Giving each task points by difficulty made it even more fun and gave us motivation to go through with the most embarrassing stunts. Part 1: Wear Depends in public, 4 points, Part 2: Tell five strangers about how you wet your pants, 6 points (Yes, I was the lucky team member that got to complete both parts of this task).
FORM TEAMS
Stuffing a bunch of people into a small and barely accommodating car makes for a long trip. Make sure your team has variety and is made up of people who are daring, along with people who can be the brains behind the operation.
GET INTO IT!
Be competitive! Even if you’re typically a shy person, the motivation to win should help you get outside of your comfort zone. The entire point of a scavenger hunt is to make an adventure out of an extremely boring town that we’re all a little too used to. So embarrass yourself, or at least have the guts to embarrass others. That’s the energy that makes a scavenger hunt worth it.
PROVE IT
Remember to take a camera along with you so that you’ll have proof for the opposing team. Pictures and videos are also great mementos of an amazing night.
Alex Bahr can be reached for comment at [email protected]