A Warrented Delivery

Submitted by: Cinemagoat

The Challenge: Deliver a gift from Warren to Durham

Please visit my cousin… she makes excellent soup! I have a gift for you to deliver to her.

Tristan’s Note: We met Cinemagoat a few days ago when we were in the fantastic artist’s co-op Made in Warren, she helped us to select a nice present for a friend and we got to chatting about what we are doing this year. Well it turns out that we are cruising right by her cousin’s place on our way to stay with family so what better excuse to sneak in a quest!!! It’s nice when new friends can get involved! If you want to check out her personal artwork go here www.cinemagoat.com

Wombat’s Ruling: Very sweet idea! Tristan - you look like adorkable in that photo. (Sorry, Wombats are known for being brutally honest). Let’s say this relatively leisurely quest is worth 200 experience points and 3 hours charity.

Update: 10/24/2018

We did it! After a couple of tries with no one home, we finally caught someone (sadly not our deliveree) at home and left the package with our card. Here we are on her front porch, trying not to seem like creepers:

We hope she likes it Cinemagoat, let us know if she did! Also we would like to highlight our first guest artist! Cinemagoat gave us the title image art for this quest and it is hilarious and perfect and we appreciate it so much! Again you can find her quirky, intelligent, and beautiful artwork at www.cinemagoat.com

Wombat’s Judgement: Wow, that was quick! Full points!

So Long As It's Just Pretend

Submitted by: Lady Tannerlot of Stonehurst Glen

The Challenge: Play on a fire truck

Contact and meet Cheryl Lamerson and Dr. Will. Tour their personal fire station and go on a drive on one of Dr.Will's Fire Trucks, have you picture taken, opposite Lunenburg on Tannery Road, with Tristan at the wheel wearing the fireman's cap with Zora hanging off the side.

Tristan's Note: This is a great idea. Simple, fun, and something I haven't done before!

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat’s Ruling: This is too much fun for a quest! Bah. Kids these days. 200 experience points, 3 hours charity.

Capture the Lighthouse

Submitted by: stephdye

The Challenge: Sneak up on five tall beacons and catch them on film

Q: What did the ocean say to the lighthouse?
A: Nothing. It just waved.

Take pictures with five lighthouses during the east coast leg of your trip. Bonus points if you make it to the top of them! Keep an eye out for whales and other wildlife.

Zora's Note: I LOVE lighthouses. I like using them as navigational beacons. I love touring them.  I even love playing capture the lighthouse (like capture the flag but at night with flashlights instead of flags). I may pretend to steal all of these in the photos. This will be an excellent quest.

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: Sounds like fun! Remember when TGA hosted a Capture the Lighthouse on the Old Golf Course? Did you hear they're putting dorms up there? Anyway, let's call it 400 exp, 5 hours charity. Bonus 50 exp (no charity) for each one you climb. 

Update 8/19/18:

Well we aren't sure if Wombat will count these towards the total as they aren't technically East Coast lighthouses, we thought we should at least get some practice in. Those lighthouses are wily structures, always disappearing in the fog or getting swallowed by waves to avoid capture! Maybe these will be worth some pre-actual-quest bonus points! 

We had a pleasant drive up the shore of Lake Superior and got to meet the Split Rock Lighthouse (albeit from a distance), in Two Harbors, MN and the Grand Marais Light in the town of the same name. Tris did his best to climb this one (surprisingly no signs saying don't), and got to the locked hatch. Not the most impressive of lighthouses (perhaps why it was so easy to approach and scale), but an important navigational beacon nonetheless. The Quest Continues!

Wombat’s Judgement: A lighthouse is a lighthouse - full points.

Giggin' in Maine

Submitted by: AC2006 Forever

The Challenge: Give a gig some love

Word on the street is that there are some Bantry Bay Gigs floating around Belfast, Maine. Loyaute, Joie de Vivre, Communite, Humanite... So many to choose from! How many can you find? How many can you row? 

Earn volunteer points by giving these beauties some maintenance. Scrape, paint, caulk, you know the deal. If you time it right, plant some garlic, join the choir. Don't get too comfy, you might want to stay.

Loot is an AC USA2018 size large t-shirt which you will have to retrieve from me.

Zora's Note: Yay more gig quests!! And the bonus of getting some volunteer time in is also excellent.

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat’s Ruling: This is a tricky one - you guys can either opt to use this time as charity hours or as a quest. If the latter, record how many hours you worked on it and take some before and after pictures. I’ll figure out the experience points once I see how much work it is.

"Diana is Invited to Tea with Tragic Results"

Submitted by: stephdye

The Challenge: A Cordial Invitation to Deliver the Goods

Fetch quest! 
Hand deliver a bottle of raspberry cordial from Prince Edward Island back to St Louis, to me, Steph. Try some yourselves while you're at it - if memory serves correctly, it's divine.
Bonus points for taking pictures of as many green-gabled buildings on PEI as you can!

Zora's Note: Since we've been stuck in St. Louis longer than we hoped, we're not entirely sure we're going to make it all the way to PEI, however, since it's conveniently connected to Nova Scotia by a great big stick, that cordial has been known to pop up around my home province. We should be able to retrieve some. I also know someone who worked on the original Anne of Green Gables TV show, so we'll see what insights she may have. 

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Judgement: Fair enough. 300 exp, 4 hours charity. Double exp if you bring me one! (It's good to be the king). 

If One's Fire and One's Ice, I'm Like Lukewarm Water

Submitted By: The Mountain Trolls

The Quest: Recuperating With The Ice Man

The Challenge: Hot Spring Snowman!

Find snow (we've got plenty here on Mt. Hood!). Take that snow to a genuine Oregon hot spring. Build a snowman and take well-deserved soak. Pictures with snowman are mandatory. Half credit for just finding the snow and building the snowman. The mountain trolls would be happy to quest with you, should you accept this challenge!

Tristan's Note: I'm kind of skeptical about this winter activity in the summer time, but ok! If it means we get to soak in a hot spring then we are in! Also I think this one will actually be relatively complicated Wombat, its got a time sensitive element to it so lot's of xp?

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: This sounds tricky and potentially grueling. 800 exp, 9 hours charity. (Wow, 9 hours!) Have fun storming the castle!

Update 7/8/2018: Well this was it folks, our most difficult and complex quest to date, and also undeniably one of the most fun! Thank you for the massive xp value rating on this one Wombat, it was deserved.

Ok so here we go! We visited The Mountain Trolls in their Oregon based cave way back at the start of July. It was not actually a cave, but an absolutely gorgeous home set in forests and directly situated along the Pacific Crest Trail. Also since they are going to be pictured in the photos I should probably reveal that the Trolls aren't actually trolls, and if they are they are very good looking ones. They are two fantastic people called Eric and Liz who did a damn fine job of hosting us for many days and allowing me to win at table tennis...

The first part of our quest was to drive up to the Timberline Lodge, which a lot of you will recognize as the hotel from 'The Shining'. It's such a cool place, constructed on an epic scale out of local timber back in the 30's as part of the CCC work program.

Anyway, it was an elevation gain of roughly 5000ft in 30 minutes along winding mountain roads, so by the time we got out of the truck Zora and I were both suffering from altitude sickness. It passed for me relatively quickly but Z had to do the rest of this leg whilst looking quite green. She's a trooper.

After checking out the architecture and having a drink of water we set off to hike up to the snow line. This is the oldest ski resort in North America, and the only one to have snow sports year round. 

The views on the way up were incredible! You can see a vast swathe of the state from all the way up there. Plus there were beautiful wild flowers and some pretty hardy bugs buzzing away, making the most of the beautiful weather we were lucky enough to have.

We stopped briefly before reaching our goal to appreciate the novelty of being able to make snow angels in July. It was bizarre and wonderful!

Our target was the last gondola station on the way up, where the snow line was, and where we could get some nicer powder, rather than the glacier ice that was still present further down. We packed our cooler with as much as it would hold, took a couple of victory selfies, and gratefully started to head back down.

There was a vague idea that we would take the snow to Bagby Hot Springs on the same day, but that seemed like entirely too much effort. We had done a 2.5 mile hike with 1000 ft of elevation gain already, and we were tuckered out. So instead we retreated to the cave and put our snow into the freezer.

The next day we headed South about 2 hours to the trail head of the hot springs. The countryside in this area is gorgeous. Lot's of steep, wooded valleys with shallow clear rivers burbling along in the sunshine. It was nice to have Eric do all the driving, it gave us both time to look out the window and appreciate the environment without worrying. 

The hot springs were a mile and a half down a beautiful trail, which was only spoiled by the fact that someone had covered loads of the trees in bloody glitter! It was probably some adorable child trying to attract fairies but Zora was not happy! (Zora edit: Nope. Let's be honest here, it was most likely a lot of people old enough to know better. Shameful.) Fortunately we were there to relax, and it's hard to dwell on anything when there are baths full of lovely hot mineral water ready for you to jump in. It was not the easiest hike in since we were carrying a cooler full of ice containing the smaller cooler full of snow, but we all took turns schlepping the load and we made it!

So here it is, the quest fulfilled, a snowman, next to hot springs, in July! He lasted long enough for us to bequeath him to the next group of soakers, who arrived as we were leaving. They were very tickled.

This was a brilliant quest, and a wonderful way to see so much of Oregon. Thank you both!

Wombat's Judgement: Wow, really hard work! This may be the most involved quest so far, and probably the best writeup. Therefore, in recognition of Zora's travails, and the quality writeup, I'm awarding 200 bonus exp, for a total 1,000 exp, 9 hours charity. Congratulations!

San Diego Zoo Selfie Sprint

Submitted by: Jenkins

The Quest: The Chronicling of Creature Contact

The Challenge: San Diego Zoo Selfies!

I want you and the fair maiden to visit the SD Zoo, and take selfies (across the fence, of course) with an Okapi, Fennec Fox, and Hippo, if they have such animals, and a 4th animal of your choosing that reminds you of me. Remember: selfies; I should see one or both of you with the animals. 

Tristan's Note: This is potentially the best quest ever. We didn't think that we would get to visit the zoo, and it is world renowned so that would such a shame. But this is the best!

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: This is too easy! Bah. Let's call this 200 exp, 3 hours charity (we've changed the rules, it's now 1 hour + 1 hour/100 exp, double what it was before). 

Alright, here we go. We went to the zoo on Friday, June 22nd, getting there at around midday, this was later than we had planned because it only gave us 8 hours (!?) to look around and give it the attention it deserves.

We started out taking the gondola from near the entrance to the far end of the park, using it to scope out the lay of the land and make a plan for where we were going to go. The first thing that struck us was just how enormous the zoo is! It goes on for miles, and it is so well maintained, with every enclosure offering a pretty decent space for the animals. It also struck us just how much merchandise was getting sold, this place is a cash cow!

When we landed we took a walk to see the polar bears, which looked pretty sweaty on a 100 degree day, but were very cool, and one was rolling around scratching its back, which was pretty adorable. 

We followed that up by heading towards the big cats and elephants. The cats were mostly sound asleep, the jaguar was awake and active though and put on quite a show for us! We got very lucky by visiting the elephants just as the oldest girl was going through her daily health checks. We got to see how respectful and professional their handlers were, and how majestic and intelligent Mary the elephant was. It was a really special experience.

We dawdled as much as possible, nerding out on the animals (apologies to the ones that I don't name check, there were many many). I can officially confirm that Zora is completing her descent into crazy bird lady status and spent as long in the aviaries as we did looking at the bigger mammals!

We saw giraffes and bears and orangutans and so many other things and it was wonderful. But most importantly here are your 4 requested selfies:

1: The Hippo

2: The Okapi

3: The Fennec Fox

4: Our choice for best representing Jenkins - The Mandrill! Now I know you are thinking that that is a strange choice, but hear us out. From far away they look kind of big and intimidating, but as you get closer you see that they are colorful both in their looks and their personalities, and beneath the big teeth and questionable hairstyle (not that you have that problem Jenkins) they spend quite a bit of their time being sweet to the other members of their group.

It's not the best series of selfies, but they are all there! We really had a fantastic day. Thank you so much for your generosity in purchasing the tickets for us, it is a memory that we will treasure for a very, very long time!

Quest complete Wombat?

Wombat's Judgement: Quest complete! Looks like a ton of fun! I also got to see them cleaning an elephant when I was there a few years ago, which was really cool.

Get Back To Where Ye Once Belonged

Submitted by: sjil28

The Quest: The Meeting of the Medievals

The Challenge: Attend Ye Old Renaissance Festival!

Attend the Renaissance Festival in Crownsville MD and either dress up in costume or compete in games.
https://www.rennfest.com/

Starts in Aug and goes through Oct so you have plenty of leeway to arrive in MD.

Tristan's Note: Oh my goodness yes! A thousand times yes!

Wombat's Ruling: A very good idea. 300 exp, 4 hours charity. Maybe I can come join you...

Duck Race!!!!!

Submitted by: Dai

The Quest: Out Pacing the Plastic Paddlers

The Challenge: Race a Duck.

You have to beg, steal or borrow a duck. Then you have to race it from the usual Middle Mill start point to the finish by the rocks. However, you either race in a dinghy or on a tandem bike.

Tristan's Note: This is a great quest! However for our non-Pembrokeshire based contingent I'll put in a little explanation; every year my village of Solva holds a 'Duck Race'. This means that about 50 plastic ducks are floated down the river from Middle Mill to the finishing point at a bridge in Solva. Everyone buys tickets which give you a share in a specific duck. Whichever duck floats past first, wins. Simple. And strange. And great.

We would love to try and race one, when we eventually end up in Wales.

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: This one should be good! 400 exp, 5 hours charity. I want to see video with epic music (think Chariots of Fire). 

The Bomb-lette

Submitted by: Whatever

The Quest: The Tasting of the Mega Egg

The Challenge: Visit the ostrich and emu farm in Solvang, CA and try an egg!

Tristan's Note: I love the eating quests. We will do our best!

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: I think the pattern is clear - Americans just want you to come visit and eat local food. This is an easy 100 exp, 30 minutes charity. An extra 100 exp (no charity) for good photos of emus.

Update 7/8/2018: This one was probably our most egg-regious missed opportunity. We drove right by Solvang! There is no excuse for us missing it other than having a collective period of derp. We apologize, however we may be able to send some representatives there in our stead. Watch this space!

Wombat's Judgement: Boo! Terrible pun! And you should have said: "There is no egg-scuse" too. Bah.

Surf's Up Dude and Dudette...

Submitted by: Zoe Emery

The Quest: The Hanging of the Ten... or Twenty

The Challenge: Go Surfing!Let’s go surfin now, everybody's learnin now, come on safari with me... etc
Go surfing!! 
Double points if both if you go for it. Beg, borrow or rent a board (don’t steal), it’s up to you. Proper surf pose pictures on the beach are required. Have a lovely time.

Tristan's Note: No smart comeback to this one, it would be my pleasure!

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: Ooh, I'm looking forward to some videos of falling off a surfboard! 600 exp, 3 hours charity, +100 exp (no charity) for uploading a hilarious and short video of someone either falling off or being badass.

This Otter Be Good!

Submitted by: Zoe Emery

The Quest: The Finding of the Aquatic Fuzzballs

The Challenge: Spot a Sea Otter!

Find and photograph a wonderful sea otter. These are my favourite animals and I wish I could be one.
Extra points for getting a photo of them holding hands. So cute!! 
Fun otter facts are also appreciated.

Tristan's Note: I don't think you could find anyone who didn't think that otters are adorable (although in the Brian Jacques books they are also pretty badass (Finnbarr Galedeep is a personal hero of mine)), and we would be more than excited to go and find them! Of course there will be fun otter facts, have you met Zora!?

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: Otters are adorable and badass - not always an easy combination to pull off! Let's call this 400 exp, 2 hours charity. 

A mighty warrior otter.

The Original Tim's

Submitted by: Dani

The Quest: Take a pilgrimage to the Canadian Coffee Shrine

The Challenge: Find the first Tim Hortons Store and drink deep

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go to, get your picture taken in, and buy a beverage from Tim Hortons store #1 here in Hamilton. Bonus points if we get to visit with you.

Zora's note: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!! Anyone who has ever been within any distance of Canada or the Canadian border with me knows that I am obsessed and pine after Tim's when I am away. This is the best.

Wombat's Ruling: Man, this is just way too easy - she was probably going to do it anyway! Let's call it 300 exp, 1.5 hours charity. 

Update 08/31/2018: We made it! A couple of weeks ago we spent one night in a parking lot in Hamilton. During the <24 hours we spent crossing Ontario we jumped on the brief opportunity to spend a ton of money at Tim's, including the pilgrimage to store #1. It was actually pretty neat, there is a little museum upstairs :)

Wombat’s Judgement: Freakin Canadians… Full points.

Ze train! Ze train!

Submitted by: David Lovell

The Quest: Observing the Steely Steed

The Challenge:

Easy part: Find your way to Rollinsville, Colorado. From there, head directly west on the dirt road called "East Portal Road" or "Tolland Road". Take it about 9 miles to its terminus at the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel. Get a picture of the front end of an eastbound train exiting the tunnel.

Hard part: At about the 5 mile mark (from Rollinsville), there is a grey concrete cabin hidden back in the woods just on the south side of the road. You'll probably find my mom there. She will not shoot you, and most likely will feed you.

Bonus: figure out where the train used to go before the tunnel was built.

Zora's note: This sounds like a lot of fun, we both really like trains, so this is right up our...tunnel? We also really like being fed :)

Wombat's Ruling: This one sounds like a real adventure! Both bits sound time consuming. Let's call it 300 exp (2 hours charity) for the first part, and then another 300 exp (just 1 hour charity for this) for the second part. 100 exp (no charity) for completing the bonus.

Update 7/8/2018: Not only did we miss the opportunity to do this quest, we also missed the opportunity to step foot inside Colorado entirely! Another route issue I'm afraid, and being constrained by an important appointment in St.Louis. Next time!

Floaties and Flashlights

Submitted by: Aziz Agis

The Quest: Submit to the cold, dark, damp

The Challenge:  I challenge you to visit Hamilton Pool Preserves and/or Jacob’s Well in (around) Austin, TX and document your visit. If you like, you can also visit inner space caverns where you can hike into a cave and experience total darkness, viewing stalagmites and stalactites.

Tristan's Note: I love any excuse to get in the water. But riddle me this... if I'm experiencing total darkness, how will I be able to view stalagmites and stalactites!? 

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: Sound fun, and creepy. Let's make this a nice 300 exp, 2 hours charity.

Update 8/7/2018: Yep, another one we missed. We were in the area and trying to find a way to get in Jacob's Well, but unfortunately you have to book a time slot and there were no convenient ones available, also you have to pay $15 which is probably reasonable but we were not feeling flush... Any Texans out there want to make some easy xp?

Dance like no one is watching (but they totally are)

Submitted by: Cassie

The Quest: The Courtly Caper of the Cowherds

The Challenge:  If you’re in Texas you have to go line dancing one night! 
Challenge extended!

Tristan's Note: No problem! I love making a fool of myself in public, and if I can do that whilst also embarrassing Zora then so much the better!

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: 200 exp, 2 hours charity. Bonus for posting a video, bonus bonus for posting Zora looking embarrassed. 

Summit the mystical peak

Submitted by: Mother Dearest

The Quest: The Conjuring of the Stone

The Challenge:  Climb 'Enchanted Rock' in the Texas State Park. Described as a pink granite monolith - Summit 425 ft. A bit like a scaled down Ayers rock in Australia. Photographic evidence is required of a Welsh flag and the quester/s at the summit. 

Tristan's Note: Another mountain!? Ugh. Do you know how unfit we are at the moment? Well I guess it wouldn't be a challenge if we weren't lazy swine.

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: Quit whining, you rugged Welsh mountain man. (They have mountains in Wales, right?). 400 exp, 3 hours charity.

Update, 5/25/18:

We have climbed the rock! We had a great day trekking up and around the summit, then exploring the boulders strewn around it's base. And we had a trusty Welsh flag backpackers patch with us to complete the challenge.

Tris fell in love with a fluffy black squirrel (that's grounds for divorce right?) and a turkey vulture fell in love with him and spent considerable time posing for him on a dead tree. We also met Jared and Joelle who gave us some great suggestions on where else to go in the southwest. Quest Complete!

Photo evidence at the top complete with Welsh flag as required!

Jared and Joelle accidentally photobombed us, how all the best friendships are formed right?

A view from the top, unadulterated.

Poser.

Wombat's final judgement: Good work, you two! 400 exp and 3 hours charity awarded. Though next time I'd like to see a much larger Welsh flag (think Spanish explorer claiming this land for queen and country kind of thing).

Denude the Mudbugs!

Submitted by: MEH

The Quest: Peel the armor off three scores of fearsome clawed water monsters!

The Challenge: Determine who is the best in all the land at peeling crawfish

Eat a big ol' brew of in-season crawfish. You must research the best crawfish in new Orleans, order a bunch and then have a crawfish peeling contest. First to 30 wins, report on the winner and the time to completion, and report on what you think the best method of peeling is (there is much debate). As a reward for completion, I will reimburse you for your meal up to $40.

Tristan's Note: ACCEPTED!! Challenge, most definitely, accepted. And this may take the title of best challenge so far!

Wombat's Ruling: Let's call it 30 minutes of hard work, plus 90 minutes of research and shopping for 300 experience, 2 hours of charity required. Trayf!

Update from 05/04/18: Quest Complete! Find our video of the quest below (We aren't good at editing yet, but we will improve!). What do you think Wombat, good enough?

Wombat's judgement (5-15-18): Good job guys! Full points awarded. I know video editing on the road is hard, but next time try to get the video under about 2 minutes. Wombats are known to have very short attention spans!

Take advantage of Houston's generosity

Submitted by: MEH

The Quest: Attend a house of culture and delve into a bat swarm

The Challenge: Take a selfie at Miller Theater and a video of the bats at Waugh Bridge

If you manage to take your camper through Houston central, two of my favorite free attractions while living there were the Waugh bridge bat colony (a huge colony of bats flies out every night at dusk from their living quarters under the bridge, to feed on the insects in the bayou) and free shows at Miller outdoor theater which range from Opera to musical sing-alongs. I challenge you to attend one or both of these places. As proof, you must take a video of the bats flying out from the bridge, and report as to whether the colony is slowly recovering from Harvey, and/or post a selfie of yourselves at Miller Theater. Houston has a lot to offer if you're willing to park the camper somewhere and explore for the day!

Wombat's Ruling: This sounds too pleasant to be a quest! Let's call it 200 experience for each quest with 2 hours of charity for each quest.

Update 5/28/18

We turned up in Houston with just enough time to get to the bridge, find a place to park the rig, take a little stroll and set up to watch the bats emerge. We were there so late (because they were so cool!) that we has to turn our attention to where we were going to sleep that night (Walmart in the suburbs, ugh) and didn't have time to make it out to the Theater. 

The Waugh Bridge bats had a colony of 300,000+ but unfortunately Hurricane Harvey caused the river under their bridge to flood. It came up so high that it trapped the bats in the crevices they live in, and even though some local residents braved the flood water (and bat bites!) to scoop out and rescue some of the bats, unfortunately a lot of them didn't make it (there are still bat bones in the bridge, grim!). So between drowning and probably some of the colony deciding that the bridge was cursed, the colony is thought to be about half of what it once was. It was still amazing and huge to us. I think they're starting the recovery process. Plus that hunting hawk doesn't seem to be too good at his job, so hunting pressure isn't as high as it could be...

Wombat's Ruling: Very cool! I was hoping for something a bit different (see below), but full points for the bat quest nonetheless (200 exp, 2 hours charity). 

Defeat the Mighty Mississippi in its puniest of forms

Submitted by: misskarenjean

The Quest: Leap over the mightiest of rivers

The Challenge: Jump over the Mississippi

Find Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox and they will lead you to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Jump over this puny little trickle of water that becomes a mighty river!

Zora's note: I've always wanted to do this! Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: This is too easy. You only get experience points if you do it while singing "Old Man River" together (you can substitute a more appropriate song if you can think of one). 100 experience, 1 hour of charity.