The Home of the Braves

From Las Vegas, Caitlin, Krissey and Megan booked themselves on a red-eye flight to Atlanta.  We reached this decision based on a couple of factors:

1.  It's now late in the evening.  Where can we sleep?  How about on a plane?!
2.  The flight showed over 60 open seats.  It seemed like a sure thing!

Sure enough, we were cleared to board.  And the best thing?  Both Krissey and Caitlin were seated in a completely empty row, which was PERFECT for lifting the armrests and sleeping a solid 4 hours.  Alas, poor Megan with her very low Delta seniority....she had to share a row with another person.  No stretching out for her.

Our arrival in Atlanta (at 6am) brought a bit of sadness to our group.  It was time for Krissey to head back to Bozeman, as she had to make sure she made it back to work.  Caitlin and Megan bid Krissey a fond farewell before getting down to business in Atlanta.

Now here is where the kindness of strangers kicks in.  Caitlin was in the restroom in the Atlanta airport, doing her best to freshen up to face the day.  A woman comes up to her and says "Oh! Are you doing that Non-Rev challenge thing?"  She then proceeds to ask if she can see our task list, as well as the Bonus Point photos to see if she can help.  She introduces herself as Joni, an Atlanta Delta employee, who wanted to do the Challenge last year but was unable to.

She was able to give us directions and information about the location of two of our tasks, and some "best guess" information about a possible third task.  This, unfortunately, didn't turn out as we had hoped, as you will soon see.

Wide awake yet wired from lack of sleep, Megan and Caitlin head out into the already-humid Atlanta morning.  We purchased a Day-Pass for the MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) since we knew we'd be spending quite a bit of time zipping all over Atlanta to our destinations.  Megan was very excited about her daily Breeze Pass!

Our first stop was at Turner Field, the home of the Atlanta Braves.  We took our photo (thanks to the timer on Megan's camera) at the place where Hank Aaron's 715th home run is memorialized (task #96, point value: 23).

About 1/2 mile away, we took a photo with a Delta billboard in the background (task #41, point value: 14, photo credit to Chamberlain, the young man waiting at a nearby bus stop).

This is where things turned sort of wild goose chase-ish.  Our girl, Joni, (from back in the Atlanta airport  bathroom) thought that one of our mystery Bonus Point photos was at one of the MARTA stops.  Megan and Caitlin hopped back on the MARTA and rode around for quite a while (thank goodness for our Breeze passes!), trying to identify the location.  After a while, we finally enlisted the help of MARTA employee Rhonda and Officer Stiles, who seemed as perplexed as we were about the precise location.

Rhonda finally said "I'm going to call TJ.  He'll know exactly where this is.  He knows everything about the trains."  She got on her handy walkie-talkie, and summoned TJ to solve the riddle.  TJ took one brief glance at the photo and declared, "This ain't here.  This is in Washington DC!" and walked away as mysteriously as he arrived.  With most of the day behind us, Megan and Caitlin hopped back on the MARTA to head to the airport and figure out our next destination.  Since we needed to start thinking about making our way back to Bozeman (remember, we actually have JOBS we have to show up for!), we didn't want to head any further east on this trip.  We decided to go to Minneapolis to try to knock off a few of our tasks before catching the late flight home to Bozeman.  But sometimes, the flights don't always work out like you hope they would, and a Plan B is needed......