andipantz

What seems like 2 months ago was really only less than 2 weeks ago.  My dear friend Robyn was coming home to Maryland for her family’s annual road rally.  They’ve been having this road rally for at least 5 years and I have never been able to make it.  I had never been in a road rally before.  In my mind, it sounds like a bunch of white trash road races on a dirt racetrack in the middle of nowhere.  And honestly, in some places of the US, I’m sure that’s exactly what it is.  But no.  It’s actually a scavenger hunt of sorts where you’re given clues and have to answer questions and locate specific points along the way while driving in your car….with a team.  A team being two or more people.  Robyn’s boyfriend, Roy, was coming along and also a novice so he and I formed our own little team: me as the driver and Roy as the navigator.  Everyone else had a team name, but I don’t think we really ever formed one.

Roy and I started out on our course of adventure, full of hope….only to drive down the street and realize that we had no h*cking idea what we were doing.  We drove around in a circle…Roy suggested that I keep driving and I suggested that we go back and ask Robyn how the hell we play this game (as you know, it’s the woman who always wants to stop and ask for directions!).  We went back to the starting point and as soon as we show up, Robyn is laughing at us….but ONLY because she thought we were coming back to tell her that this road rally is dumb and we quit.  We are not quitters!  We continued on.

Shortly into the rally, we happened upon another team of two people that we knew….each of us trying to make conversation about the game and trying not to give away hints or answers.  “Yeah so we’re trying to figure out what that flag is there.”  “Um…yep.”  “Do you know what it is?”  “Yep, but we think we might have missed something previously.”  “Oh, what did you miss?”  “Well, we can’t say.”  “How do we know what this flag is if we aren’t from around here?  Oh wait, can I use google on my iPhone?  Can I phone a friend like they do on who wants to be a millionaire?” “OK.  Well, we’re leaving now.  See you at the end!”

We didn’t see them at the end.  We saw them at least one or two more times.  We eventually thought that it was silly that we just keep following them so Roy and I decided to pull over and have a heart to heart discussion…about body over (I think it was the parking lot of a Popeye’s nonetheless).  Because, you know…this is common conversation between people who don’t know each other.  And I’ll have you know that neither of us were stinky; it was a discussion about other people’s stinky B.O.

Both Roy and I ended up with the worst stomach aches in the history of gastrointestinal fallout.

We got lost in Annapolis.  We realized that we were lost in Annapolis when we couldn’t find our clue and just drove around the traffic circle in the center of town at least 6 times before Robyn called to tell us that we were slow and needed to get our asses to the finish line with some help from her.  We were the last ones to begin and we were the last ones to finish the rally so everyone clapped upon our return.

We did not take home the trophy, but instead headed to the “after party”, which included Sangria.  yum!

I made friends.

I stayed overnight in Maryland at Robyn’s house.  Her mom made us a really great quiche for breakfast.  I didn’t get to make a departure before taking some photos.