Leg 2 Complete!

The following is a list of challenges The Newshounds completed for Leg 2 of the Super Spectacular Amazing Race!



1. Biggest Block Party Ever!
2. FFY Triathlon
3. Yoga at One Body One Soul
4. CYP Social at CB
5. Fair on the Square
6. Discover a downtown eatery with the TriTans
7. Heritage Fund croquet court and balloon
8. Exploding Engine
9. Picnic in the Park with the Sizzzzzzle
9.5 Bad Hair Day photo op
















This is a tiny glimpse at the challenges we completed in this leg of the race. Keep reading below to see our complete blogs on each challenge.

Bad hair day

The Newshounds couldn't fully participate in the Amazing Race challenge for Bad Hair Day because I'm a slave to my second job -- waiting tables at Tre Bicchieri. However, the picture above is why I love the TriTans. All of the service staff at Tre B. had bad hair the night of the event (mine is kind of a wrong-side of Punky Brewster look) and the TriTans stopped by on their way to the judging to say hi and take a photo op. Hey, a little bad hair is better than nothin!

The Amazing "Exploding" Newshounds

Cummins Inc., a global power leader, is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana (USA), Cummins serves customers in more than 160 countries through its network of 550 company-owned and independent distributor facilities and more than 5,000 dealer locations. Cummins reported net income of $739 million on sales of $13.05 billion in 2007.

The Amazing Race shirt wanted to be in a shot alone for once. He said he's sick of being held up by us and wanted his own chance to shine in the spotlight and shine, he does!

Paige and I had the chance to see what it would look like if we exploded (which ended up looking more puppet-like). After we left our tour of the engine at the COB we decided to take a tour of some of the infamous Cummins' grounds.

Here's a little known fact about Columbus: White-corn cerealine flakes were invented, perhaps accidentally, by Columbus, Indiana mill worker James Vannoy circa 1884 or 1887. Cerealine was established as a breakfast food by at least 1897, when the Illinois Farmer's Institute annual report noted that, "Some mills make hominy of white corn, roll it into broad, flat flakes, called cerealine, which are used here as a breakfast dish...."

Aurora, Indiana's T. & J.W. Gaff & Co. distillery built the Cerealine Mill, at 607 Jackson Street in Columbus, Indiana, in 1867. Their Cerealine Manufacturing Company moved to Indianapolis, Indiana sometime prior to 1898, though the Columbus mill's building remained extant and was restored in the late 20th or early 21st century for use as a cafeteria and conference center by the engine manufacturing corporation Cummins Inc. The mill is in the background of Kelsey's photo below.

Uh oh, here's Paige exploding while she takes a rest on this lovely courtyard bench.

And here's me, exploding where I stand in front of what I like to call "The Fountain that Graces 1,000 Pictures." Good thing our body parts are being held up by those strings. Do you think people would come see us on display in the main entrace lobby of the Republic? Ya, probably not.

Farmers Market

Our most unique item were these ridiculously long green beans! We thought they looked like the World's Longest Fingernails so Kelsey posed that way for the photo. She said they taste good too!
Kelsey also took a photo with Barb Hackman of Hackman's Market. Her daughters, Jenny and Liana, were home working hard on the farm. I think it's so neat that the whole family works together. Their dad, John, started the market many years ago, and after both girls graduated from college they came back to run the market. They have some of the best sweet corn in the county!!
I had my photo taken with local artist Sara Hanlon. While I was standing next to her she was working on a painting of the Farmers Market. She had some pretty great paintings and she recognized Kelsey and I from the newspaper which was cool. The market was great for me because I grew up on a farm in eastern Bartholomew County. My dad still raises beef and grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa. I know first hand the hard work the people at the Farmers Market put in to be able to sell these wonderful products. I hope people never forget the importance of America's farmers.

Croquet

Thanks Mary and Sherry for the photo op! We can't wait to come to the party!! The balloon came in handy as well. I gave it to Harry McCawley for his birthday and he loved it! We love Harry!!
I have never played croquet, and knew very little about the game, so I went online to find some info. Croquet is a game played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport which involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing arena.
The game became highly popular as a social pastime in England during the 1860s.
By the late 1870s, however, croquet had been eclipsed by another fashionable game, tennis, and many of the newly-created croquet clubs, including the All-England club at Wimbledon, converted some or all of their lawns into tennis courts. From then onwards, croquet was always a minority sport, with national individual membership amounting to a few thousand players.
Croquet was an event at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Beer tasting at CB!

Who doesn't love beer in tiny cups?
When we arrived at the CB for the Third Thursday, Paige and I were pleasantly surprised to find Andrew the beer/wine rep handing out samples, so we promptly decided to test our palates. Thanks for being a good sport Andrew!

I'm pretty sure CB co-owner Doug Memering (standing in the background) is watching over Paige and I in case we get too rowdy and he has to kick us out. (kidding) But really, is that a happy smile or an uneasy smile??

Here we are with Paige's cousin, who actually looks less like a person and more like a painting in this picture. That wasn't planned.

And the whole group. We definitely represented for CYP that night with a looong table set up on the dinning side of the CB. Good times!

Yoga

Paige and I started our Saturday morning at One Body, One Soul with a little yoga. Both of us are yoga virgins, which is why we picked that session over the others (and it gave us an extra hour to sleep in since the pilates class was at 8 a.m.) We were pleasantly surprised by the wonderful brunch complete with yummy breads, fruit and mimosas that Tamera Pauli prepared for us. Once the pilates class was done, we were able to head upstairs to start yoga.

Here we are with our fellow CYP classmates.

Thanks Tamera for posing during your busy morning for a photo op.
Here's Tamera helping set up the mat space.
Now, we'll back track for a minute. Here's the group prior to the session, I'm reading up on the class schedule to figure out when I can sign up on my own time. The yoga was a great experience -- so relaxing and well worth waking up earlier than I normally would on a Saturday morning.