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Here's all 21 of our survivors at the day's first challenge
on the steps of Old Main
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Reward Challenge #1
TRUE or FALSE
steps of Old Main -- 9:00 a.m.
All survivors lined up at the edge of the steps on Old Main Lawn. Jack began
reading a series of True or False questions. Survivors guessed the answers by
holding up a card with T on one side and F on the other. Survivors who guessed
correctly moved forward one step or one block. John (G) was the first survivor
to reach the top step, winning the reward challenge for the Green tribe. The Green
tribe was rewarded a swivel caster.
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John and Annetta are procuring items for the scavenger hunt |
Reward Challenge #2
SCAVENGER HUNT
HUB Lawn -- 9:45 a.m.
The Green and Yellow tribes each received a list of 22 items they needed to
find in a traditional Scavenger Hunt. Out of 22 items, the Green tribe found 19
while the Yellow tribe found 18. The Green tribe was rewarded a pack of Bubblicious
Bubble Gum.
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The Green tribe is trying to assemble all their items before
time has expired |
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The Yellow tribe huddles to distribute the photos to their
tribe members
The Green tribe is going through their photos, making sure
they didn't leave any blank answers
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Reward Challenge #3
MISSING WORDS
HUB Lawn -- 10:45 a.m.
The Green and Yellow tribes each received 8 pages of photos. The photos (46
photos in all) had areas blocked out. The challenge was to fill in the words that
were missing from the photos. Photos ranged from graffiti, street signs, decals
on machinery, plaques ... my favorite was the dedicated brick walkway (photo at
right). Out of a possible 70 points, the Green tribe scored 62 while the Yellow
tribe rebounded to score 66 and win the final reward challenge. The Yellow tribe
was rewarded with a disposable Polaroid camera.
SEE THE PUZZLE
- it's an Acrobat PDF file. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, get it here.
(NOTE: This puzzle will make little sense unless you are on the Penn State campus.
There are puzzles you can play at home further down this page.)
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Nemma gets the tedious task of trying to locate the specific
bricks on the sidewalk
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LUNCH
11:30 a.m.
The survivors were on their own for lunch and had no puzzles
or challenges.
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The Yellow tribe in the design phase ...
... and the building phase ...
... Andy is strapped on and ready to go ...
... Sled can fly like the wind (with a little help from
Photoshop) ...
... and the Yellow tribe cart has a much quicker turning
radius, which was probably the edge they needed to win
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Immunity Challenge #1
BUILD AND RACE A CART
Beaver Stadium parking lot
12:45 p.m.
The Green and Yellow tribes each received an equal amount of 2x4 planks, screws,
nails, rope, tools and a saw. Each tribe also received two stationary casters
and one swivel caster. The Green tribe, having won a swivel caster in a reward
challenge, could build a 4-wheeled cart. The Yellow tribe would have to settle
for building a 3-wheeled cart.
The tribes were given approximately a half hour to build their carts while
the organizers set up the course in a vacant area of one of the large parking
lots. When construction time ended, the tribes were given a walk-through of the
course. The "riders" were given the option of wearing helmets and padding.
The object of the race was to finish the course in the quickest time. Each
tribe would have one rider on the cart, and all other tribe members had to either
push or pull the cart through at least one stage of the course (there were 13
stages).
The Green tribe lost a coin flip and had to go first. Their time through the
course was 1min:14.38sec. The Yellow tribe followed, but a sleek and solid 3-wheel
design that finished in just under one minute at 58.85 seconds. The Yellow tribe
won immunity and Green had to vote off one of it's players.
Joe (G), the tribe has spoken. (BTW: That's Ying
as Jeff Probst and Jan as Mark Burnett in the lower right photo).
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The Green tribe in the design phase ...
... and the building phase ...
... Ed is going to start out by pulling Chris ...
... the eventually switch over to pushing, but they lose
by 15 seconds ...
Ying gets out the beer stein to count the votes from the
first tribal council
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Everyone gave up as much clothing as they felt comfortable
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Immunity Challenge #2
STRETCH
Tudek Park -- 2:30 p.m.
The Green and Yellow tribes each had to choose 5 tribe members to represent
the tribe in a "stretch." You could use anything currently "on
your person" with the exception of contents from a purse or backpack. String
your articles together for the longest continual line of items in a short time
frame. (Oh, and you could also chew and stretch out your chewing gum, if you had
some with you.) Someone tore his undershirt into strips of cloth and tied them
together. Everyone removed their shoelaces and stretched them out as far as possible.
Ed was stripped to his boxers (as shocking as it may seem). The Yellow tribe won
immunity and Green had to vote off another player.
Barb (G), the tribe has spoken. (The organizers
were in unanimous agreement that this was probably a tactical blunder on Green's
part).
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The Yellow tribe won by a couple lengths |
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Here's the chain with the household items attached |
Immunity Challenge #3
MEMORY RECALL
Tudek Park -- 3:00 p.m.
The Green and Yellow tribes lined up opposite each other. Suddenly, Jack and
Ying pulled a 40-foot length of chain out of a bag. The chain had 40 common household
items tied to it at regular intervals. After 10 seconds, we reversed the chain
by running to opposite ends. After another 10 seconds, we put the chain away.
Out of 40 items, the Green tribe identified 35 that were on the chain while
Yellow identified 32. The Green tribe won immunity and Yellow had to vote off
two players.
Joey (Y) and Yulmer (Y),
the tribe has spoken. (Due to the number of players and the number of challenges,
3 random tribal councils had to vote off two members instead of one. This was
the first of those.)
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We stretched the chain out and the survivors got only about
20 seconds to commit as many items to memory as possible |
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Yes, you've seen it on Survivor ... but we talked about
this idea before that episode even aired on TV. So there! |
Immunity Challenge #4
MATCH GAME
Tudek Park -- 3:15 p.m.
Your classic match game ... items under shells (in this case, items glued to
the inside of disposable bowls). Each team sends one player in order to select
two shells. Teams exchange turns regardless of whether a match is made or not.
The Yellow tribe won immunity and Green had to vote off two players.
Chris (G) and Maria (G),
the tribe has spoken.
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Immunity Challenge #5
GUESS THE TUNES
Tudek Park -- 3:45 p.m.
A 5-minute musical interlude contained music-only clips (no lyrics) of popular
songs. The tribes listened to the clip twice, with 5 minutes of discussion and
note consolidation between the first and second playing. The Green tribe won immunity
by scoring 40 out of a possible 52 points (1 point each for song title and artist).
Yellow scored 37 points and had to vote off a player.
Leopard (Y), the tribe has spoken.
LISTEN to the clip (mp3: 3.5MB) ... can you identify
the 26 song titles and artists (hint: there is a hidden pattern that might help
you).
[answers]
(thanks to Beau, Keith
and Max for helping me test
this puzzle - Ron)
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The Yellow tribe seemed to do a lot of huddling during this
challenge
Here's a panorama view of the game ... you see the 2 tribes
discussing while the 6 players with all the clues are sitting at a distance in
front of the tribes
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Immunity Challenge #6
LOGIC PUZZLE
Tudek Park -- 4:00 p.m.
The six players voted off their respective tribes at this point got to play
a part in a logic puzzle. Each of those six was given an envelope containing two
index cards. On each index card a statement was written. The object was to determine
which 3 of 9 total items each of the 3 organizers had in an envelope. (For instance:
"the person with the cigarette lighter also has the nail clippers.")
The twist here was that the 6 people voted out could choose which of the 2
statements was seen by each tribe, producing some interesting quandaries for the
survivors. (Tribes could choose to send two people at once to force a player to
reveal both cards, but that tribe would then lose a turn.)
Each tribe attempted unsuccessfully to solve the puzzle. On the Yellow tribe's
second attempt, they solved it and won immunity. The Green tribe had to vote off
a player.
Binky (G), the tribe has spoken.
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The Green tribe was a little frustrated because one of their
former tribe members whom they had voted off was withholding a key clue to the
puzzle |
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The Green tribe is breezing along on this puzzle ... doing
very well |
Immunity Challenge #7
NATIONAL BRANDS
Tudek Park -- 5:00 p.m.
Each tribe was given a sheet of paper with letters on it. The letters (two
for each letter, A through Z) were photographed and cropped off a label from a
national brand product found at most any department store.
The tribes did surprisingly well (at least from Ying's standpoint, because
he made up the puzzle). The tribes finished tied, each tribe scoring 72 out of
a possible 78 points.
The first (and only) tiebreaker of the day was a simple "guess the number"
game where each tribe member guessed the number of M&Ms in a large clear bag.
A member of the Yellow tribe guessed closest, so Yellow won immunity and Green
had to vote off two players.
Trz (G) and Dunyak (G),
the tribe has spoken. (This dealt a severe blow to the Green tribe, which was
now left with only 3 members).
This is a fun puzzle you can PLAY
AT HOME. How many can you guess correctly? (file is an Acrobat PDF)
[answers]
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The Yellow tribe is also having no problem with this puzzle
... was it too easy?
We ended in a tie, so here was the tiebreaker: guess the
number of M&Ms in this bag. (there were 381)
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MERGER
At 10 players, the tribes are merged. As it turned out, the
merger was not an even match: 7 Yellows made it to the merger, while only 3 Greens
made it.
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Jack is right on top of the action, judging the Closest
to Stake challenge |
Immunity Challenge #8
CLOSEST TO THE STAKE
Tudek Park -- 5:30 p.m.
Our 10 survivors now simply lined up and took a shot with a croquet ball. John
(G) was closest to the stake, so he won immunity. The 10 survivors then voted
to remove one more player from the game.
Nemma (G), the tribe has spoken.
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Bait gives her plane a test flight |
Immunity Challenge #9
PAPER AIRPLANES
Tudek Park -- 5:45 p.m.
Our 9 survivors now simply folded paper airplanes and threw their airplanes
from the same spot. John (G) again won immunity as his plane traveled the farthest
distance. The 9 survivors then voted to remove one more player from the game.
Ed (G), the tribe has spoken.
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John appears to be working on a couple designs |
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The battle for the immunity idol is right here, between
John from Green and John from Yellow |
Immunity Challenge #10
SQUIRT GUNS
Tudek Park -- 6:00 p.m.
Our 8 survivors each received a pack of squirt guns, recruited a helper with
access to buckets of water, and lined up in front of an empty cup on the sidewalk.
The object was to fill your cup to the highest level by shooting water into it
from a squirt gun. After the allotted time, John (Y) eked out a narrow victory
over John (G). John (G)'s failure to win immunity for the third consecutive challenge
doomed the final member of the Green tribe.
John (G), the tribe has spoken.
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Sled has a slight advantage over Andy in arm length ... |
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Kenny, John and Annetta are ready on the blocks |
Immunity Challenge #11
FASTEST FINGER
Tudek Park -- 6:20 p.m.
Our 7 survivors now played a variation on the "Fastest Finger" type
of question used on the "Millionaire" TV show, but our survivors used
4 blocks of wood labeled A-B-C-D to put the answers in correct order. Each survivor
was allowed 2 incorrect answers before dropping out. Bait was the last person
left, and she received immunity.
Buss (Y), the tribe has spoken.
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Our final 7 survivors are all wearing Yellow shirts |
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Immunity Challenge #12
WIN JACK'S IMMUNITY
Tudek Park -- 6:45 p.m.
Our 6 survivors entered the final immunity challenge with the possibility of
no one receiving immunity, because they had to play against Jack (one of the organizers)
in a simple trivia challenge similar to the final segment of "Win Ben Stein's
Money." In this case, if a survivor beat Jack at the trivia challenge, he/she
would win immunity. If Jack won the challenge, no survivors would be immune. Sled
was the only player with more correct answers than Jack, so he received immunity.
Joe (Y), the tribe has spoken.
The 5 survivors that made it to the final tribal council were:
Bait, Kenny, Sled,
Annetta, John
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The 5 survivors will move on to the final tribal council:
Bait, Kenny, Sled (playing hoops in the background), Annetta and John |
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Ying reveals the final balloting to the jury and the survivors |
FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL
Hotel -- 9:00 p.m.
After a long and hectic afternoon, all players were free for dinner on their
own and met back at the hotel hospitality room. Before everyone left the park
following the final immunity challenge, the organizers asked all the players who
had been voted out to write down questions they would like asked of the 5 remaining
survivors. During the final tribal council, the organizers chose an equal number
of questions from those submitted. Each of the final 5 survivors answered 4 questions.
And then the jury voted:
Bait
is the Ultimate Survivor
Congratulations!
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Joan (aka "Bait") is ready for her closeup ...
and she's the Ultimate Survivor |
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Ying, Bait and Ed are on one side of a bizarre game of 6-player
caps (we usually only play with 4 players)
Sled, Yulmer and Barb are on the other side
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POST RALLY
In the tradition of Road Rallies past, after the winner was revealed (and chugged
beer out of the Newton Cup), we sat around chatting and playing games (some drinking
games, including caps) as well as went through some of the rally materials that
were prepared but never used (extra questions, extra tiebreakers, etc.)
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Janet gets everyone to play through the extra question sets
that weren't used during the Fastest Finger challenge |
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THE ORGANIZERS
Ron (aka "Ying"), Jan and Jack organized Survivor: The Road Rally.
The option to organize and plan the next rally will fall to the winner(s). Bait
declined, as she is moving out of state with a new job next year. Kenny accepted,
and will be assisted by Joey and Sled (and perhaps others).
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