Go Game

It may be no secret that Cappy and I have been thinking of sending in a video for the Amazing Race. America has not seen a team like us. We're totally unique. Our quirkiness would make for some racuous reality TV, I'd say.

We've even gone so far as establishing who would have the burden of certain tasks. Anything to do with heights: Cappy. Eating bug larvae: Penny. Putting together puzzles: Cappy. Getting on the first flights out of any country: Penny.

The reason I write about this is because I got a taste of what this madness might involve. It had nothing to do with TV actually....

This past week, I spent three days at a resort in Lake Tahoe. Unfortunately, it wasn't with Cappy, who would have loved the pristine tennis courts and close proximity to the lake.

I was up there for an all-company work retreat. Initially, the idea made us all nervous. People from our offices in Asia, South America, Europe, and headquarters would be there, we'd have roommates, not much down time, etc.

So what does this have to do with my Amazing Race aspirations? I participated in a high-tech team building activity called the Go Game.

80 of us were broken up into teams of six. We were given a superhero lunch box containing a text-message phone, an envelope, and a digital camera. The "missions" were creative, mind-boggling, and adventurous.

Missions involved teams creating a 20 second video with themes like "Historical Ballet" where you had to act out a historical event with ballet. Or interact with actors who were planted around the resort. One planted actor was a woman in a white dress. She was crying hysterically. Our mission was to find her, assess what was wrong, and console her. If we were successful, she'd give us a clue.

The game was fast paced and dynamic. Along the way on a particular mission, we'd run by other teams delivering pick up lines to "actors," singing songs in French, or choreographing interepretive dance routines.

My team came in 2nd place out of 12 teams. We were quite pleased with ourselves. The digital photo that may have catapulted us up to the top 5--an engineer posing in his birthday suit as Rodin's "The Thinker."

I've already broken it to Cappy, but I may have found another Amazing Race partner. My team captain and I were a perfect pair. At the end of our game, we agreed to call each other to send in our own Amazing Race audition video. Perhaps one day you'll see us: "Bob and Penny--Co-workers."