Day 2
Today we officially start the adventure portion of the Fireball Run. We start early in the morning lined up outside the Baton Rouge civic center. Over 50 cars sit at the line with a Police escort waiting to lead us out of town. We checked in and received our mission envelopes. At this point we all sit in our car ready to go with our still sealed envelopes held out our windows. At the start signal, a flare gun, we all are let go and open our envelopes. Our daily missions consists of many bonus points which involve solving clues to reach destinations and then solving the actual missions to reach a final destination. To say it’s stressful is an understatement. For about 6 hours straight it’s total mayhem as I’m on the phone, searching on-line, punching in directions on the GPS, using the CB radio, yelling at each other, ect. Our first passage control takes us to an air force base where we get the rest of our clues.
We do a couple of bonus destinations and wind up in Shreveport, LA. Here it got interesting. Our first clue takes us to a Children’s Hospital where we donate a toy. We wish we could spend more time here meeting some of the kids and brightening up their day. Our next clue takes us to the very first place Elvis played, the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. Here we get a treat and get to meet Elvis’s guitarist, James Burton. James played with the likes of Johnny Cash, John Denver, and Jerry Lee Lewis amongst others. Our final clue takes us to a mall in Shreveport where we get a real surprise! We pull up to the outdoor mall and it’s very busy with crowds and people walking around. Here we are wearing our flight suits and running around like mad men looking where to go. We find our destination and we need to do two challenges. The first is bowling and the next is a comedy club
We get one chance to throw the bowling ball so I give it a shot and choked. I throw the ball and knock down a measly 3 pins, horrible. We go next door and now we have to go on stage at the comedy club and make the judges laugh. We’re out of breath, stressed out and we look like two army guys escorting an inmate (Frank in his orange jump suit). We wing up dancing like idiots to techno and then Frank and I take turns slapping each other on the ass! That was actually pretty funny. I hit Frank so hard my hand went numb for 15 minutes. I took a running start and the slap was so hard it echoed throughout the comedy club. Everyone is laughing but I’m pretty sure Frank was crying. After that we need to find the finish line. We only see one other team and we both break into a sprint towards the center of the outdoor mall. In full stride we fly past people and break into the center, just seconds behind the other team. Turns out one team arrived before either of us so we wind up 3rd for the day!
What a day! We’re exhausted, sore, and sun burnt. We hear it gets harder from this point on and it already feels like we’ve been doing this for days. It’s time for bed and to get some rest
Frank lining us up on the runway!
Team ‘Top Gun’ ready to go!
In line for the start. Who’s idea was the trailer anyways?
Our first Passage Control Stop
Team AMS with Mr. James Burton, Elvis’s Guitarist.
Here is R.J. Meyers, the missing child assigned to our team. We’re spreading flyers and the word. It’s amazing how many people want to help us. We’ve met a teacher that took a bunch of flyers to spread them through her school districts and others.
