A Big Points Trip!

Megan and Caitlin began their most recent journey with the best of intentions.  They boarded a flight from Bozeman to Minneapolis full of anticipation!

The plan was to arrive in Minneapolis in time to catch a flight to Kansas City.  "What's in Kansas City?" you might be thinking.  Well, you'll just have to wait because we were DENIED at the gate due to a full flight.  We decided to try for a later Kansas City flight, and spend some time in Minneapolis fulfilling our tasks.  We took this photo of the two of us in the Minneapolis airport with a moose (Task #14, point value: 12, photo credit to Sharon the random Delta passenger).

Now, we really aren't sure this counts, because we think the assignment is with a "live" moose.  But since having your photo taken anywhere NEAR a live moose can be considered very dangerous and Delta Air Lines is ALL ABOUT safety, we decided to submit the photo and challenge anyone on the voting panel who questions us.

Megan and I caught the Light Rail from the Minneapolis airport into the downtown.  Megan only had a $20 bill for the ticket machine so it gave her $18 back in $1 coins.  Caitlin  told her she better do her best to spend all her "fake money" before heading home to Bozeman, because nobody in Bozeman is going to know what to do with this!

We hopped on the Light Rail to Nicolet Plaza, where we completed Task #54--Throw your hat up in the air with the Mary Tyler Moore statue in the background (point value:  14, photo credit to fellow tourist Laura)

We felt pretty certain that one of our Bonus Photo point opportunities was nearby.  One of the mystery photos is of a brick building that looks very similar to the architecture of downtown Minneapolis.  We decided to investigate further!

First, Megan asked a local law enforcement officer.  Officer Abdullahi couldn't be sure, but he thought he recognized the building's location as being a few blocks away, near the Hyatt Hotel.

We wandered down the street toward the Hyatt, but still couldn't locate the building.  Caitlin then asked DownTown City Ambassador Todd if he could shed any light on this mystery.

Todd, who knew Minneapolis like the back of his hand, said he felt fairly certain the building was not in Minneapolis.  Feeling somewhat dejected yet satisfied that we had exhausted every search option (after all, who better to know the answer than a city cop and a city ambassador?), Caitlin and Megan made their way to Caribou Coffee for refreshment and making a new plan.  Megan searched for flight options while Red Caboose and Golden Boy looked on.

We headed back to the Minneapolis airport and boarded our chosen flight to Kansas City.  Unfortunately, the wheels fell off the wagon at this point, and we arrived into Kansas City MUCH later than we anticipated. And because of this, we had to make a split decision:  Figure out how to get to our assigned task (which was 45 minutes away according to the locals) and be stuck in Kansas City for the night OR hop on a different flight for a different task and try to fulfill the Kansas City task at a future date when we have more daylight hours.  We opted for the second option, and loaded quickly onto a flight to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In Grand Rapids, we earned lots of points for solving the location of this Bonus Mystery task--a Gerald Ford mural (Task #95, point value:  23)

And while we were saddened to leave the Kansas City task incomplete, believe me when I say that we WILL get back to it in a future post!

From Grand Rapids, Megan headed home to Bozeman.  Caitlin still had one task left in her before calling it quits.  She flew to Detroit, and completed ANOTHER Bonus Photo task--catching a glimpse of the Red Sky Train (Task #92, point value: 15, photo credit to Delta flight attendants Jackie and Liz)

Finally, it was time to head back to Bozeman for some sleep!

Caitlin, Megan, and Krissey have BIG travel plans this week.  If we don't post for a few days, rest assured we will be back soon!