"Amazing Race"

Warning this post is LONG.
**19 stops in 2 hours and 45 minutes.Team Millikan #13

Everyone is given a starting stop. (does that make sense?)
Ours was the townhouses across the park from the boat. A roadblock right out of the box. Where's waldo? Bryan ran up and down 4 stories and had to write down where 4 waldo's were. 4 minutes.
Next stop gift shop downtown. 5 blocks. Just a clue.
Back to the casino along the bike trail. 5 blocks. Another roadblock. Bags!!! You had to get to 21. It took me 13 tosses. 6 ringers and 3 on the board. less than 2 minutes.
Back to the bakery downtown 4 blocks. Just a clue.
Back to the park along the casino. 4 blocks. the First Detour. Catch or code. We take the code. You have 2 sheets of paper to write down the answers to the riddles. One was a word search and the other was a fill in the blanks. (Sharen and I are starting to feel the pattern - back & forth, back & forth).
"With our coat of arms logo we will feed you today. Still don't know? Check your back and be on your way."
On the back of our "Amazing Race" t-shirts was the logo for the bar that was sponsor this.
Back to the Elgin Public House where we first met up! 4 1/2 blocks.
I "AM" the place to go... When your funds are running low!
Thank you for Mary and her I-phone. We didn't know where this bank was. She looked it up and Dave and Jon ran there and called us back Yup - Amcore on Dundee Ave. get there -6 blocks.
It's Africa hot and we have 10 more stops. HELP!!! Sharen and I are melting....
Next stop the Center. 4 blocks.Another Detour.
Climb or Trek.. We aren't idiots - climb has to be the rock wall so they choose Trek.
Dave, Mary, Mike, and then Jon (in that order) all climb on one set of skis and have to walk across the grass from cones to cones. Sharen takes a potty break and I try to fill the water bottles and we get called back - They are done. WTF?
They have the clue and are out the door. Sharen and I are seeing a pattern here. Run the race drag the twins. We are not quiting and are determined (or stupid) to finished this thing.
Need to go back downtown. 6 blocks. Find the place for some "pep" at the corner of the "Windy City" and what you would want to put in your step" Chicago and Spring streets. The coffee shop. Now we have NOT stopped to rest or even breath for that matter.

After the 3rd stop Sharen and I haven't seen a clue or even heard a clue read. We are just following the group and trying to talk each other into continuing.
Head on down the hill to the tower building. 2 blocks.
Next stop is just a short 1 block to the new high rises. Detour. Mind or Move.
These guys want to move. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
We need to search the 6 floor condo for 6 items. pen or pencil, penny, book of matches, piece of candy, paper clip, rubber band. Carrie stood in the middle and kept shouting out what we needed to find. Mary comes through with the last item that was escaping up. The paper clip.
Note: Mind was fixing a puzzle. After we found that out Sharen and I were REALLY disappointed we didn't do that.
On to Walton Island. 7 miles away - OK maybe 7 blocks, but it felt like miles.
Sweat is running down my face, my arms, and even my butt.
Back pass the last stop to the new "Bandits" shop. The Bandits are the new pro softball team in town. 8 blocks the other way.
Shoot me NOW!!!
"We're open 24/7 365 days a year. We are here to protect and serve." Police Station!
Back and forth again - 6 blocks.
Of course they get there before us again and have to wait. One of the rules is that you cannot get your clue until ALL of your team is present.
By now Sharen and I are like whatever. Where do we go from here? Who cares about the damn clue - just keep walking.
Back down to Walton Island only we didn't cross over this time we had to go the far end at the bridge at the Pioneer Memorial statue. 4 blocks.
"Victorian in style, grab a table and stay for a while. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner... Our malts are always a winner! - 8 block back the other way for a roadblock. Eat (notice I didn't say drink - You have to eat these malts) a famous malt. Jon was the lucky one. Less than a minute we were off again.
Sharen and I have no clue what the clues said but we knew we weren't going to like it. By now we had crossed over 2 stop that we didn't use yet.
Back to the Hemmens Cultural center. 8 blocks.
My body is NOT listening to my heart. GO!!!!!!!!
"Hair, nails, massage and more- When you come out of this shop you'll get compliments galore!!" Sharen and I heard this one cause they didn't know which way to go. We just head on back downtown cause we know there are 2 salons down there. Jon and Dave run ahead to see if they can scope this out. Now Sharen and I have seen people go in the back door of this one place and are convinced it's in there. It was - but we just walked on by it. Go body Go. Please. 9 blocks.
We get it figured out and get our last clue.
Back to the back of the Hemmens along the bike path to the Doug Hoeft statue. State Rep Munson is handing out the clues. Only thing to do now is get back to our first stop. 10 blocks.

Stick a fork into Me and Sharen. Believe me, Sharen and I were trying our damnest, but we lost out on 3rd place and a trophy by 30 seconds. To top it all off we lost to a team of youngin's. Good friends of Jon's.

The Elgin Public House had free burgers and sandwiches for everyone. I was to hot and tired to eat and poor Byran was starving cause we thought for sure there was going to be a food challenge so he didn't eat before hand. oops.

I'm afraid to add up all the walking we did, but we had a good and exhausting time.