ROAD RALLY'S ARE ALWAYS FUN AND HERE ARE IDEAS FOR TWO...
ROAD RALLY from
Queen Debi of Claus� s Red Hatters
The main idea for
the rally is to choose your final destination (usually a restaurant)
Then you begin
from your starting point where all check in and then make out a route.
You need someone to help you on this. My husband and I do them
together. Once you have selected a basic route then you go over it and
write the route in a riddle or question answer format. You must also
do a cover story which they read first with permanent instructions. Like
always make a right hand turn unless instructed otherwise. Addendums
always take precedence. etc. You can write in a story around
something you want them to find for bonus points. But that doesn't need to
be extremely obvious. We wrote one cover story about the Greek Marathons
and in the story talked about how many will you run by today. We were
basically asking for them to count how many marathon gas stations they passed
by. Well the route should be numbered and then the questions are all
varied with some answers to fill in. And some can be tricky.
We did one where the question needing an answer was at this corner which
direction on a compass is the school sitting. Well everyone put down the
NW corner, but the joke was the school could only be seen from that corner, not
on the corner. Other things you can write a riddle to have them find
things or how to turn. For instance there was a Peter Pan restaurant
on a corner where we wanted them to turn, and we wrote the question as
Turn right where Wendy's friend is.... don�t get Hooked up here. You
need to station a couple of checkpoints along the way with someone waiting there
to check them in. Usually we have a hidden clue there. We use a
poster board with a huge check and a period drawn on it so they know it is a
checking in area. Once time we had them stop at an ice factory to purchase
ice. It was at night and it was closed but our checkpoint was in front of
the building with a cooler with ice cubes in it that they had to buy for a dime.
The next clue was inside the ice cube. I typed and laminated it and they
had to figure out a way to melt the cube. It was hysterical to watch and
take a few pictures of what some will do. Anyway, All they needed to do
was to place the cube on the hot hood or engine. You could make them do
silly things like a Mae west routine to get a kiss and then give them a small
bag with Hershey kisses with the next clue folded tiny and rewrapped on the
bottom and then make them open them to find the clue and then give extra points
at the end for the hand-ins. This should be on the cover sheet about anything
collected should be turned in at the end for points. You wouldn't believe
how many will turn in the bag, the note, but will have eaten the candy.
They just groan when they hear they were supposed to turn in the kisses.
You also should give each group three emergency envelopes, in case they get
lost. But they are sealed and they are told they lose points if they open
them, but they are there as a precaution. 1st one directs them how to get
exactly to 1st checkpoint, second envelopes directs them to the 2nd checkpoint
and the third takes them to the final destination. Usually they lose like
20-30 points for opening them. Also make sure they know that at all times
they follow the laws for driving. You have your judges go over the papers
in the end and award trophies and prizes.
1st Annual Red Ruckus Road Rally.
There were 30 of us in attendance.
We had 6 Queens, and 6 chapters represented. Since I was short-handed (everyone
wanted to play) we let some hubbys be clue givers or photographers at some of
the locations.
On our little race about town we made our rowdy red
presence known, creating a Red Ruckus at 8 locations about town. Following are
some highlights of the great race!
We met at the marketplace at 10:00 to check in and
get instructions for the race. Then we rolled our red & purple fuzzy dice to
determine the starting order of our 10 teams. Queen Sissy La-La met them at
Unique Accents in the new Design Center called Surroundings. Queen Sissy’s
friends Mike Stelow & his girlfriend Marsha, the photographers with the
clues, had just beat her there so the teams had already posed for their
pictures, dramatically advertising Linda Dart’s lovely red hat items.
Since everyone had found the first location so easily, they were all there
anxiously awaiting their next clue, so we proceeded to roll the dice again out
on the front sidewalk, and off they went to look for their next location.
At Carol’s Consignments (a consignment store
with an entire section devoted to red & purple goodies for us) they had to
sing a song in a language other than their own, and they had the sales clerk,
little Andrea (our newest Pinkie), in stitches, kazooing and singing Frere’
Jacque, La Cucaracha, La Bamba, and even a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday
in Pig Latin!
For our next ruckus, we turned Fire Station 61
upside down, with Red Hatters all hitting the location nearly at the same time,
running around the firehouse looking for firemen to kiss, and exchanging their
red hats for firefighter hats (there was a bonus of 15 minutes shaved off the
total time if they brought back a picture with a fireman wearing their hat and
them wearing his hat.) The firemen were totally cooperative, wonderful, and
played along with us all. A huge thank you to the adorable Captain Shuler and
all the firefighters at Station 61for allowing our Red Ruckus to go on at their
firehouse.
Sitting under the clock tower at the Kern County
Museum was Queen Sissy La-La’s boyfriend Kent who handed out the next
clues - which had been laminated, folded up and FROZEN inside a Styrofoam cup. I
wish I could have seen their faces when they saw that, but nothing stops these
women, and they proceeded to throw the block of ice down on the ground and
against the wall and stomped it until they got their clues and off they ran.
The next clue had them heading east to the Old
Corral Cafe (used to be Ethel’s) where they’d been instructed to
have their picture taking sitting ON the counter in front of a sign behind the
bar that stated “No Pissy Attitudes”. Natalie, the new owner, had
thoughtfully blocked off three stools in front of the sign just for our girls.
The regulars at the Corral were highly entertained watching our colorful crews
try to climb up onto the counter (one got one cheek on and announced that was
all that would fit). Brand new chapter Queen Donna Schwartz and her hubby Jeff
were our photographers here - Jeff said it was great fun getting to tell all
these women what to do and have them just do it with no backtalk – said
he wasn’t used to that (hee-hee).
Southward then to Bob’s Bait Bucket where
Princess Prissy’s hubby John Sheehan was waiting to photograph them with
Pete, a ZZ Top clone who works at the store. He has a long white beard down to
the middle of his chest and is a real character. He said it was great fun and he
enjoyed every minute of it.
The last place to pick up a clue was Sugardaddy’s,
where Sherry had decked out her front window completely with Red Hat goodies.
Here they had to sing the Tigger song from Winnie the Pooh in order to get a
clue. Kim, the sales girl, told me they all did it except one group who didn’t
know the song, but she said “they bribed me with brownies and some other
cute red hat stuff and it worked, because it was just so cute I couldn’t
pass it up.” You go girls!
Their last stop was the Marketplace fountain where
the teams rolled in right behind each other as fast as we could record their
time. Everyone turned in their cameras for Mike & Marsha to download -
unfortunately the laptop battery died so we didn’t get to show them all,
but I’ll be putting them on the website within a few days at the most for
everyone to enjoy. While the scores were being tabulated, we all spread out and
grabbed some lunch (and answered lots of questions about who we were) and sat
down to chat about our adventures that day. And the stories we heard!
One team grabbed a police officer to have their
picture taken with him (for another bonus of 15 minutes off their time) and when
they went to ask a woman standing near him to take the picture, they discovered
she was sobbing! After a red hat hug and a “what’s the matter,
honey?” she explained that she had just been robbed (which explained the
policeman’s presence). Then this poor sweet thing sucked it up and took
the picture for the red hatters anyway. What a trooper!
Another team was so persuasive with a police
officer that even though he had a prisoner locked in the back of his car, he
still took the time to pose with our girls and have his picture taken with them.
Ah, our men in blue – don’t we love ‘em!
Another bonus point was to bring back a photo of
the entire team with a live animal that was NOT a dog, a cat, or a fish. Five of
our enterprising red hatters brought back photos with a horse, a lop-eared
rabbit, a macaw, a guinea pig, and a gecko!
The team that got the picture with the macaw tells
me they looked up pet shops in the phone book and found an aviary on Ming, but
when they got there a sign on the door said “I’m next door”
so one of them ran to get her to let them in and take their picture with a bird.
Terri said Brenda had hold of her arm and was literally ‘dragging’
this confused-looking lady back to her store, talking a mile a minute the whole
time trying to explain why they needed her to HURRY!!! It paid off, though and
hey- they got the picture.
In all there were 3 teams who came back with all
three of the bonus point items, shaving off a whopping 45 minutes from their
total time. The winners were the Red Hatted Rascals, Rogues & Scalawags, who
took home $290 cash. And listen to this – they are donating it all to
some of their chapterettes who are on fixed incomes, so they can join them to go
to the next RHS convention. Don’t you love Red Hatters? I think Sue Ellen
Cooper calls that a “Scarlet Sparkle” – a touching story.
The “Booby Prize” went to the Red Hat
Ladies of the Lake (from Lake Isabella). It was a lovely red and gold trophy
with a large pair of “boobies” wrapped around it, be-decked in red
glittered top hat pasties. Queen Glynda Meyers said they were “the biggest
boobies I’ve ever had!”
I had a ball – I’ve been on a “fun
high” for days. This was a TON of work, but it was SO worth it. The whole
town is talking about us, and they're running an article with 10 pictures in
Bakersfield M
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