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.

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.

Big Machines? Bucket, Why Not.

Submitted By: Phil, Purveyor of the Finest Trucks

The Quest: Observing the Vanquished Beasts

The Challenge: Get a picture in the Bucket of the LARGEST Electric Shovel or the LARGEST Dragline bucket in the world

How about a picture in the Bucket of the LARGEST Electric Shovel or the LARGEST Dragline bucket in the world They are all but memories, as they won't make them this big anymore..

Big Brutus -
converted to a Museum in KS. if it's on the way to another quest, why not get a picture.
http://www.bigbrutus.org/about.html

The other - my personal favorite and I was trying to help get it converted to a museum in 1999, was Big Muskie, Made in South Milwaukee, by Bucyrus Erie, "same as Big Brutus"
All that's left is the 230 Ton, 220 Cubic yard bucket....on display, just a few miles from it's working area Ohio.

The Big Muskie was a model 4250-W Bucyrus-Erie dragline (the only one ever built). With a 220-cubic-yard (170 m3) bucket, it was the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created and one of the world's largest mobile earth-moving machines. could pick a load, larger than 2 grey hound busses, and sit it more than a football field away.

The bucket is big, 
http://www.noblecountyohio.com/images/largebucket.jpg
Now look at the bucket, in relation to the machine
http://www.noblecountyohio.com/muskie3.html
When you look at the mere size of this machine in this pic, it really puts things in perspective on just how big the machine was - It was featured by "That's incredible" and it walked like a duck...
http://www.stripmine.org/wwwboard/stripmine/uploads/1_6487c3625ca7a0c5b26d515079c01d5e.jpg

I believe there is a campground near by
Directions:I-77 exit 25 (Caldwell). Head west on SR 78 -- a winding, hilly, two-lane road -- 16 miles to the Bucket in Miners Memorial Park.

Zora's Note: This is brilliant! Fun, accessible, and that's a great amount of detail. Seriously people, take a look at those links the machines are ridiculous.

Wombat's Ruling: Them things are huge! Okay, 300 exp, 2 hours charity (1-4 hours, Easy "Sweat Factor").

Proof you have left!

Submitted by: Helen

The Quest: The Trove of Truck Travelling Trophies

The Challenge:  Take a photo with each 'Welcome to' state sign.

I have wanted to do this on our (smaller) road trips, but I end up being too busy napping: take a photo with each Welcome to State sign. So I challenge you to take a picture next to a state sign for each state that you visit, and strongly suggest you try and find something appropriate for Hawaii before you leave! https://tinyurl.com/yct5swn6

Tristan's Note: This is an excellent challenge! Unfortunately didn't take a suitable photo before we left Hawaii, I guess you just kind of know when you get there because you are either no longer flying or no longer drowning... However we do have a photo of Zora standing in front of a volcano, so maybe this will suffice:

We will treat this like 48 separate challenges I think, so we can earn the volunteer hours and xp with each state we go through, and maybe if we get all 48 we can have a bonus pay out at the end. Sound Good?

Challenge Accepted!

Wombat's Ruling: This is kind of an odd one. Let's say that it's 100 experience per road sign, and 0.5 hour charity. Bonus 300 exp and 0 hours charity for each 10 road signs they do. Bonus 1000 exp and 0 hours charity if they do all 48! (The seemingly low charity hours actually add up - if they do all 48 states, that's 24 hours of charity!). 

04/24/18 - An Update

Well we have so far crossed two state lines, the one from MO - IL wasn't really anything, plus we hadn't planned on going to IL so early and we don't have a photo, so that may not count. However our crossing from MO - AR was documented! Bear in mind that that we crossed on a tiny little lettered highway so there wasn't a grand banner or anything, but check out the photos:

05/10/18 - An Update!

We have so far crossed two more state lines! We crossed from AR to LA and we landed the missing Welcome to AR sign and also got nailed by a few fire ants. Owww! We also noted the distinct line between road qualities, little did we know how much worse they would get...

And just a few days ago we crossed LA to TX! This time we managed to cross on big enough roads to merit welcome signs. Here you go Helen!

Wombat's commentary (5-15-18): So far that's 3 signs, so 300 exp and 1.5 hours charity. I'm going to throw in 50 bonus exp for the thoughtful documentation of the state-by-state variation of road quality (suck it LA!).  

Update: 05/27/18

We got a bit stalled in Texas (the state is huge!!), but we've made a lot of miles all the same. We have now crossed through New Mexico and into Arizona. Here's the evidence! Also, New Mexico, what is up with that font?? You might as well have used Comic Sans. We almost missed the sign entirely because of the faint writing, we were so confused we took pictures with some sort of Energy Plant's sign, thinking that must be all that was there. Also, while we did our best to look enchanted (and most of the rest of the state genuinely was) the border crossing had a landfill on one side of the road, and smelly oil drilling in the midst of scrubby plants on the other. 

??

So amazing! Wow!

We didn't have a lot of road options for crossing into AZ, so unfortunately were stuck on I-10 with construction and lots of other vehicles, so we couldn't safely pull over to be in the picture with the sign. 

Wombat's Ruling: Really, New Mexico? That's the font you went with? Really? As for the Arizona sign, safety first. Full points (200 exp, 2 hours charity)!

Update: 07/7/18

Goodness, it's been ages since we cashed in our sign xp! Here's where we've been!

First: Utah! We definitely didn't get to spend enough time here, but between it being tourist season in the National Parks here, and it also being HOT, we just had to love it and leave it. What we saw was beautiful. Lots of good rocks, Utah. A+

Next up: Nevada!

Ok folks, not going to lie here. We didn't really like Nevada. To be fair we only saw a tiny part of Nevada mostly because we were sprinting through it because it was HELLISHLY HOT. A hot like I've never known before. 110-116F hot. With 30mph winds that just drove the hot deeper into your skin instead of cooling you off. Awful. Also this heat almost killed our rats even though we were driving pretty fast (luckily Leaky lost some trim on the highway and we realized just how hot it was). So forever grudge Nevada, no one messes with the fuzzballs. We were very glad to leave, see below.

Running out of Nevada, and into California. Oh California, we didn't want to like you as much as we did. You have too many people and too much traffic. Much of our rig spontaneously combusted within your borders. But goodness, your nature! We begrudgingly add you to places we could see ourselves living one day...

And now, suddenly (well sort of), we find ourselves in Oregon for what will unfortunately be a flying visit. But still, so far, so good! Nice trees! Also, this is our 10th state! Crazy.

Wombat's Judgement (7-24-18): Okay, that's 400 exp and 4 hours charity (reflecting new charity rules). Yay California!

Update: 8/3/18

Well, since we just had to blitz back to St. Louis from Washington, we have a lot of state signs to upload all in a rush! Let's start with Washington:

Google Maps has started welcoming us into a place now, so that's cool I guess?

After our super fast WA visits, we began the long distance 5 day sprint back to St. Louis beginning with a quick scoot through the skinny part of Idaho. We enjoyed it and its trains.

Next up was Montana. Montana made it as difficult as possible by placing their sign up on an overpass where you could not pose with it. However we caught on to this deviousness in time so we could take the exit before and get it in the background from an embankment. So there Montana! Shots from driving underneath it to prove it is the same sign in both photos. You can also admire the numerous bugs smashed on our windshield, and the fact the Montana rather grimly demarcates every single road death with a cross.  

Wyoming was next, and also pretty sneaky (read: boring) with their 'welcome' sign. We crossed into Wyoming initially while driving through Yellowstone. We couldn't pull over on that particular bit of road and the sign was entirely missable. Small, green, and all it said was "Entering Wyoming." We vowed to catch it on the exit, and we did, and the sign was equally uninspiring. 

Surprisingly Nebraska, for being the most boring state we've driven through thus far, had a pretty good welcome sign. Who knew they were the ones to found Arbor Day? Tristan was excited, and pulled his best tree impression (I'd give it a 6/10, can do better). There was also a funny little abandoned gas station that straddled the state line. The highway we crossed on used to be the main road between the two, but now there's a big interstate running parallel and is probably what killed business. 

The last state before crossing back into home territory was Iowa. I think we spent about 15 minutes here before being back in Missouri. There were A LOT of bugs. And we felt like we were going to get eaten by snakes and we were slightly delirious after doing a 700 mile day. But Iowa, here we were. And that's all for now! Next leg of the trip takes us north and east and into Canada!

Wombat's Ongoing Judgement: Good work! I don't have something clever to say about each state, but I think you've hit 15 states so far? But you've certainly hit 10 states, so bonus 300 exp for you guys!