Just do it challenge #12: Go on a treasure hunt!

Amazing race participants, the Goonies, and Nicholas Cage...

What do they have in common with Dan and me?

We are all treasure hunting bad asses!

Two days ago, Dan and I read an ad for a real life treasure hunt! A local jewelry store set up clues around downtown Richmond, each with a different challenge or question. Teams of two receive said clues via text messages, run or bike to that destination, and answer questions to earn points. Once the teams text the answer, the next text-message clue appears. The prize for the couple with the most points? A diamond ring worth $15,000.

Let me repeat: that's $15,000.

Holy. Snapple.

So you can see our motivation. To be honest, I was less interested in the bling than I was in selling that massive ring. Dan and my conversations the past two days have consisted of a lot of "Dude! We could get a new fridge... and oven... and fence... AND see more of Europe... and pay for some classes... and still have money for a dinner out!"

We were also doing a lot of quoting from the Goonies. This was "OUR time!"

In short, Dan was on a mission to win. He stopped by the Richmond Visitor Center for a map and marked all the landmarks. Later that day, we walked around downtown Richmond to get a feel for how far apart everything was.

Then, we registered to participate, adding our story in hopes that our sentimental "we're-just-two-hardworking-under-appreciated-teachers-in-lovey-love-love" would get us accepted. A few hours later, we got the "congrats" text. We were in!

Our next stop was to buy me a bike and helmet at Walmart. I had loved the beach cruiser I used to mill around Ocracoke this summer, so we bought a similar sturdy bike with foot breaks. For those of you who don't know, beach cruisers are designed for relaxing rides on flat terrain.

It was the wrong bike to pick.

We showed up at the starting location at 11:00 and were greeted with about 200 other greedy couples with the same desires for "put a ring on it". Let me tell you, some of them looked hardcore. People were holding fancy navigational devices and wearing the gear that they presumably sport when running marathons. Thank goodness the text message clues varied to prevent all 400 people from stampeding to the same destination! Still, everyone wore bright yellow "Diamond Dash" t-shirts, so Dan and I were constantly spotting our canary competitors scrurrying around the city.

Here's a picture snapped by a local radio show:
I know you can't tell by the picture, but it was a HUGE crowd.

By 12:30, the official countdown began and we were off biking to our first location after reading the text clue.

Let me walk... make that sprint you through a few of our more memorable challenges:

Challenge 1: Answer a historical question by studying statues near the capital

**ALSO KNOWN AS: Climbing the stairs from hell...with our bikes...**

Challenge 4: Find the wedding dress sponsor's display and cross dress as a bride and groom for photo

**ALSO KNOWN AS: Dan dons a tiara!**

I love how dazed and exhausted Dan looks here! We had just biked up a huge hill, our water bottles were near empty, and then the bossy wedding shop ladies were trying to get him to dress as a bride. He actually was a lucky one; some guys wore the full-on dress with corset!

Challenge 6: Go down Cary St. to answer Richmond trivia question

** ALSO KNOWN AS: Riding bikes down cobblestone street= OUCH! **

Anyone out there find that extensive bike riding kind of has you wishing for...err... a more padded seat? Or just me?

Challenge 10: Answer a historical question by studying statues near the capital

** ALSO KNOWN AS: F@*$! The stairs again! **

Challenge 12: Find photo booth and take photo strip.

**ALSO KNOWN AS: Flushed faces, helmet head, and sweat. Oh, the sweat...**

Challenge 17: Answer a historical question by studying statues near the capital

** ALSO KNOWN AS: YOU HAVE GOT TO BE EFFING KIDDING ME.**

Challenge 18: Pedal up an enormous hill to reach an anogram clue.

**ALSO KNOWN AS: Christen's beach cruiser is worthless.**

I've had anxiety nightmares where a psycho killer is after me and I can't run because my legs are cemented in one place. Today, I had a similar scenario, except there was no murderer. Instead, I tried to pedal up a Mount Everest hill with a bike that felt as heavy as a Harley. At one point, I actually drifted backwards. I finally hopped off and ran while wheeling the bike next to me.

Sufficed to say, we never finished challenge 18.

I was proud of us, though! We compared scores with several competitors afterwards, who seemed impressed by ours (52). While another lucky guy with a score of 80 took home the ring, Dan and I enjoyed rings of a different sort: the deep fried, onion variety. We went to a BBQ place afterwards because there's nothing like fried food and limeaide to wash away the bad taste of being losers. After all, we had some restocking of all those burned calories to do.

Cheers to our treasure hunting adventure!

Verdict: Treasure hunting was an epic fail... but a fun one!

Pictures via here, here, here, here, and here