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.

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?

Meet me in...Minnie-sota sota!

Submitted by: misskarenjean

The Quest: Exploring the North

The Challenge: Meet us in Minnesota! 

If the timing is right, roll through Minnesota while Dave and I are in town. You are welcome to join us at the cabin up north (everyone has a cabin up north), where there are plenty of trees, stars, fresh air, and cold beers. We could even proceed to Minneapolis, and see the beauty of my home town!

Zora's note:Man...why does our family keep thinking we want to do things like see them in cool places? It's like they think we like them or something.

...

I think we're going to be in Minnesota sometime in August...but don't hold us to that, our timeline is all outta whack. We would love to see the cabin and the woods, and have the personal tour of Minneapolis! We love having that insider knowledge. If we don't meet up we will happily accept suggestions on where to go!

Challenge tentatively accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: To get any points, you have to document something about this tour. Give us a top 5 list of restaurants, or beers, or nature trails (or something else), with pictures and blurbs for each. If you do that, it is worth 600 points and 4 hours of charity (<1 day, moderate difficulty). 

Doing the Truckle Shuffle

Submitted by: Nicole

The Quest: Marching in the footsteps of giants

The Challenge: Goonies adventure!

Find the location of the Fratelli's hideout/restaurant from "The Goonies" and take the 100 steps to it together like the kids in the film did. (hint: the building no longer exists).
Ecola State Park, Cannon Beach, OR
http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=136

Tristan's Note: This will be a fun one! I'm always up for finding film locations!

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: Okay, you two are on the honor code. If you look up the location online and just go there, this is worth 300 exp, 2 hours charity (1-4 hrs, Easy "Sweat Factor"). If you actually figure out where it is yourselves, 600 exp, 4 hours charity (<1 day, Moderate "Sweat Factor"). 

Update: 8/7/2018: It is to our deep regret that we have to inform eveyone that we missed this challenge. We were in Portland for the sour beer quest, and just didn't have time to make it out to the coast. We were looking forward to this one. We will just have to come back, or have another quester take it on.

Coming down is the hard part

Submitted by: Nicole Bennett

The Quest: The Arduous Ascent of Grimness

The Challenge: Take a selfie on the top of one of Colorado’s 14er’s.
https://www.14ers.com/photos/photos_14ers1.php

Tristan's note: Ok, this is a real challenge. Unless there is a ski-lift up one of them... would that be cheating?

Challenge Accepted!!!

Wombat's Ruling: Assuming that Tristan and Zora actually climb the mountain, this is < 1 day, Difficult "Sweat Factor" = 800 exp, 5 hours charity.

Update 7/8/2018: Another Colorado quest which has gone begging. I'm sure we can find another 14er in some other state, but as we never set foot in CO it's a bit hard to claim that we can complete it. Womp womp.