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!

Ed Jones

Here are the Newshounds mid-morning at Andy Mann's Edward Jones office. Ya know, the great thing about the Amazing Race is that you never know what's gonna happen. While Paige was waiting for me to arrive (sorry, I was a bit late, I know) a woman came out of the Edward Jones office who recognized Paige from her many roles at the newspaper.

I pulled in and because Paige is a well-mannered girl, she introduced me so I could share in her fame and the woman also recognized me from She magazine. The Newshounds love running into people who read or view our work, so we were naturally very humbled and appreciative of her.

While in conversation the woman found our we were also part of the Amazing Race (perhaps the shirts gave us away) and we learned she was Andy Mann's mother.

What a coincidence! It was wonderful to meet you Marijean Mann!

When we went inside to accept our challenge, we met office administrator Shannon Ferrill and she was nice enough to take the picture you see above. What great people we're meeting along the race! Written on our challenge paper was "Tim Grimm." How lucky-- our paper just featured a story about Grimm and his latest CD, "Holding up the World." Editor Bob Gustin wrote a great article!
Grimm grew up in Brown County, but his family moved to Columbus when he was in second grade. He spent part of his adulthood in Los Angeles, and was an actor in major motion pictures and television shows. Lately, he’s landed roles in three more movies, including the Johnny Depp version of “Dillinger.” Grimm's latest CD, "Holding up the World," is his ninth album. He will perform and talk about his new CD at 8 p.m. Saturday at Columbus Unitarian Universalist Church. For more info, check out his Web site: timgrimm.com.
The following video will give you a glimpse into Tim Grimm:

Dirty job

Kelsey and I were so lucky that the BCSC bus folks let us pose for one of our blogs in one of their buses. We thought it would only be fair to volunteer to help do whatever we could to show our gratitude. So, we walked over to the maintenance garage and asked what we could do. J.R., one of the mechanics, was more than happy to put us to work. After we lifted a bus with our bare hands (see the photo), we set it on jacks and got to work. Bus #962 needed new shocks, so armed with a wrench, air-powered drill and pure muscle, Kelsey and I removed the old pair and put on the new shocks. This was actually not nearly as hard as it sounds. I don't know anything about cars, so I thought there would be no way I could change the shocks, but J.R. was very helpful and patient. Watch the video to see us putting on one of the new shocks. With grease and everything else that lives under a bus, this was definitely a dirty job. And a very important job--all of the children in the county remain safe every day on the many buses because of the expertise of mechanics like J.R.

Webb-tastic

Now, uh… I know this may look bad and my having Paige as my teammate, I have made her an accessory to the incident, but when a girl has the chance, she’s gotta give her dad some props. Especially when the family’s been in the eye biz for…. well, a loooong time. So this little jest if for my dad, Ken, and my late grandpa, Paul, who started the business.

Eos

Eos is probably my favorite sculpture in Columbus and I think fellow Newshounder Paige would echo my sentiments, so naturally we were happy to have our pictures taken with her for the race! Having just two people on a team provides for innovative thinking of how to get photos at the challenges and get us and the landmark or activity involved also viewable in the photo. But Paige is pretty much a genius when it comes to camera angles and we made it work. Eos, really has more leaf hands than wings so I think Paige has interpreted her perfectly with this pose she chose. So serene. Shh, if you listen closely you can hear Enya playing.
I chose a more comfortable and reflective position. If I was Eos, I’d have the wings instead of leaf hands because I could get more done that way.
Either way you put it though, we both got in our goddess modes.

As the world turns

It was a hot one in the C-bus today, but that didn’t stop the Newshounds. We’re working to check off the challenges one by one and so today we visited the globe that floats on water. Paige and I decided to make our creative aspect of the challenge to both try and fit into one of our XL Amazing Race t-shirts. During general wear, the shirts hang on both of us with plenty of room to spare, so we thought, we can totally fit two of us in there.

We made a test run of it before heading to the globe site and it worked…. with some maneuvering. Of course our test run was in the luxury of air conditioning and two girls in one shirt, no matter how big, trying to hold out the camera far enough to get us, the shirt and the globe in the shot proved a bit more challenging. We took about 10 unsuccessful photos and the sweat on our brows and the desperation in our hearts increased until a savior came along. Arts Council director Warren Baumgart happened to be walking by.

“It’s Warren!” I declared. “Warren, can you please, please take our picture.”

After laughing and getting over the initial surprise of the two of us smooshed in one shirt, Warren took the shot and we owe him! Thanks Warren, you’re the best!

Of course one, plus 10 “test” shots, isn’t enough, so we set up some scenes where we didn’t have to be in the same shirt. We’re the Newshounds and what do Newshounds do best? Deliver the news. And what did we have in front of us at this particular task? The whole world. Thus at this challenge, Paige and I also took time to deliver the news to the world.

Hey, we’re just trying to make a difference — one Amazing Race challenge at a time!

Peace.

Mmmm...chicken

Well kids, the Newshounds had fun volunteering with the Kiwanis booth this weekend at the fair. Paige and I worked the lunch hour helping out by shucking corn and serving delicious plates of chicken, corn on the cob, fresh tomato and dinner rolls to hungry customers. Thanks to some marketing efforts by Paige and I, Kiwanis had one of the busier lunches, according to our supervisor. Of course, half the crowd was Paige’s family and my family stopped by for a bite, but hey, at least we brought the people in. We also got to hang with fellow Amazing Race team CEMM Racers and at one time we had quite an assembly line going with Paige and two gals from CEMM dishing the chicken, rolls, butter and tomato and me cooking corn in the back and delivering it to them.
Meanwhile, we’re enjoying the race!

Our first post

As stated in the title of this blog, we’re on the hunt — the hunt for an Amazing Race WIN! Team Newshounds consists of myself, Kelsey VanArsdall, and Paige Harden, with whom I work. We officially met when we both started at the Republic about four years ago, but because we both grew up in Columbus and attended rival high schools, graduating in the same year, we knew of each other before that fateful day we signed on to the newspaper.

At the paper, I serve as the editor of She magazine and Paige is the features editor. You can see us both on the big screen (okay your computer screen) by watching our Connect newscasts at therepublic.com and you can see Paige staring solo in Project Paige, also available on the newspaper web site.

We signed on to the Amazing Race because we figure perhaps we have an advantage being born and raised in this glorious city, but also because even in our 26 years of life in c-bus, there’s more to be learned. But watch out fellow racers, all sentiment aside, we’re in this to win it and we’re not going down without a dog fight!