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.

Learning about the TriTans

Here we are with our friends the Tri-Tans again at the best place in town to eat (in my opinion) Tre Bicchieri Italian Restaurant. Those of you that know me, know I'm biased about Tre B, but really, if you haven't checked it out yet, give it a try. Good food! Anyway, I digress, we met the Tri-Tans for an early dinner and some great conversation and learned a lot about this charming couple and their oh-so-cute little boy, Iynigo. What an inspiring family the Tans are. Jonathan and Cimily grew up in the Philippines. Jonathan got his medical degree and was a doctor and Cimily became a dentist, but when they came to the U.S. the requirements to hold their positions were different. They came to the U.S. and said if they didn't find a job within six months they would move back. But, just before the end of the sixth month, Jonathan found a job in California. They later moved to Columbus and Jonathan now works as a medical technologist for CRH's lab. Cimily works very hard raising little Nido at home. They both miss their family very much. What we learned about Nido is that he is SUPER cute, rarely cries (only if he wants to be held so he can be a part of the conversation) and likes when his dad moves his hand forward and backward in front of his face.

Here we are for a Newshounds cameo outside Tre B. Thanks for taking our photo Tri-Tans!
The kitchen staff was gracious enough to stop for a picture with us -- thanks Sous Chef Aaron and line cook Tyler!

Fifth place's not bad

Ahh.... the Biggest Block Party Ever. I love this event and am so glad it was such a success in its first year that the Arts Council decided to bring it back this year. We met up with the Tri-Tans at shortly after the Leg 1 awards ceremony, which we missed (even though we got 5th) b/c... well, because of me (Kelsey). If you'll notice I look like quite a scrub. That's because I signed up to work one of the two beer trucks at the party.... the one that happened to be in the sun ALL evening long. I'm pretty sure I sweated my body weight twice over. Good times though! After my shift was over (which happened to be about when the sun went down) I was able to enjoy the festivities, until I saw how busy the beer trucks were and decided to jump in an help again.

Needless to say, the Biggest Block Party Ever was the perfect way to say gooooodbye Leg 1 and helloooo Leg 2!

Anytime picnic with The Sizzle

We met the ladies from the Sizzle one hot July afternoon during Leg 1 of the Race. This energetic group was in the same mind set as we were... why not cool off in the shade with some snacks and good company. So above we stopped by Irwin Union Gardens, we happened to be there when a lot of other racers were completing the 7 Wonders tour.



Then we headed to the shade of some Millrace trees and plopped down, kids in toe, for some refreshments and snacks. Good times. Also, thanks to the group of teenagers that happened to be wandering nearby and offered graciously to take our picture after we flagged them down.

For the kids

Due to a previous obligation the Newshounds as a whole won't be able to make it to the Aug 9th FFY Triathlon. :(

But that doesn't mean we can't complete this challenge.....! Paige and I like to think of ourselves as women who think outside the box so we did some research on how we could still participate when we couldn't be there the day of the race. We called up Pica Saddler at FFY and offered our journalistic services. She said she'd love to have us take on the responsibility of writing the press release that FFY would send out to local media to notify them of the race and its details. So, Paige got to writing, while getting info from Pica and I.... well, I took photos:

There she is, hard at work.

After completing the press release we decided we needed to do more so we took a visit to FFY to see just what the money raised from the triathlon goes to. Lucky for us, tons of great kids were playing and learning in the invaluable resources that FFY has to offer youth in the area. Pica grabbed a few for a photo op with us.

We really appreciated Imani, Yijian, Trevor, Ethan and Shantel posing with us for a photo. We hope the triathlon raised a lot of money so FFY can continue to provide such excellent services!! Paige knows first-hand how FFY's programs can impact a child's life. Paige is a Big Sister to a 10-year-old girl with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. She has watched her Little Sister open up and feel much more confident after their year together. She meets with her little once a week at school for lunch and one day every weekend for some "girl time." This has been a great experience for both the Big and the Little.

After we hung with the kids for a while, Paige handed over the copy of the press release to Pica.

All in all, it was a great afternoon with FFY. Thanks Pica for letting us help out and good luck racers!!

Sk8'ers 4 life!

Our final challenge for Leg 1 was visiting the Jolie Crider Memorial Skate Park. We had planned to meet another team that was unable to make it at the last minute, but the Newshounds don't let the little technicalities like that spoil our fun. This was our first visit to the skate park and Paige's first time on roller blades (if it's not apparent from her many falls, sorry Paige). That's partly why we picked the Jolie park b/c what better excuse than the amazing race to explore new territory?

We headed to the skate park straight after work, which made it all the more apparent to park regulars just how out of place we were. "Hey, are you guys therapists?" one kid asked. "There was a group of therapists here yesterday." Apparently in our everyday dress the Newshounds look like members of the mental health profession.

As our pictures tell, Paige, although an inline skating rookie, attempted many more daring stunts than me. My biggest risk was attempting to go up on of the shallowest ramps in the park. However, she paid the price, paid the price. I'm bruise free. Plus we had our trusty helmet, which I decided to use to "break the skate park rules" in one photo. Paige, on the other hand, took a more fun-loving approach to the helmet picture.

All in all, we had a good time as we have in all the challenges. Can't wait for Saturday's Block Party!

7 Wonders

We met up with the SIZZLE for our tour of Columbus' 7 Wonders. Growing up in Columbus it was easy to overlook the amazing architecture and art this wonderful town has to offer. As I've grown older and traveled to other towns and cities across the country, I now realize how lucky I am to have grown up amidst such beauty!
Last year I wrote a story in The Republic about Columbus' 7 Wonders. The wonders actually were chosen by the public through an online survey we conducted of our readers . I will post that story when I get to work in the morning.
Our teams decided to pose next to Henry Moore's Large Arch, or the Whale Bone to everyone who grew up in Columbus. I remember many summer days spent reading under this sculpture as a child in the summer reading program.

Rock the Park

We chose the heat of the day on the hottest day of the year to help set up for the Rock the Park concert. We were so glad Jeff hooked us up with the volunteer opportunity and showed us what needed done. We started with setting up signs: "Entrance," "No alcohol beyond this point," etc. Once we were thoroughly covered in sweat, it was time to set up some tents so that the next round of volunteers could have some shade while accepting tickets. We should have set up some shade for ourselves because it was HOT! After the tents were ready to go, we moved on to folding cardboard boxes into trash cans and putting bags in them. The heat went to my brain and so I couldn't figure out how to fold the boxes. Kelsey had to fold the boxes and I put the bags in. We then put the trash cans all over Mill Race Park in preparation for the concert. I came back later that night for the concert , and thankfully it was much cooler! And the concert was awesome! I saw some other Amazing Racers working hard at the concert.

Riding the bus

After listening to the insightful words of John Goll in "Who's Driving Your Bus?" Paige and I thought long and hard on how we could demonstrate what we learned from the presentation. We decided once again to include our passion (newspapers) in the Amazing Race. As you can see in the two below pictures, I am wielding my trusty newspaper sword in the front of my bus as the balanced warrior -- I'm committed, accomplished and unafraid to face adversity. Paige is the balaced lover, welcoming and nuturing her bus.... so calming.

Things start to change a bit in these pictures.... at the back of the bus Paige is a controlling Sovereign who things she is the "special one" and everyone should bow at her feet. I'm the deflated lover... ripping my own heart because I fear abandonment. That's some powerful stuff!

We'd like to extend a special thanks to BCSC Transportation for letting us explore the bus!