Saturday, July 9, 2016
Wilmington, Delaware
Schedule
Participants
Dave (20th), Marc (20th), Span (), Brian (), Eugene (), Matt (), Mehr ()
Photos: Highlights | Complete Set
Videos: Highlights | Complete Set
Anecdotes
Reviews
The planning for MBBB 20 began in February when Mehr sent a number of group texts which tried to get the conversation started. Soon thereafter, the group decided that it would be easier to keep track of everyone's opinions using email and so it went. The first two orders of business were familiar: where would the event take place and when? Span had mentioned in the recent past that he'd be up for hosting, so the question was put to him and he confirmed (through his wife, Rachel natch) that he would love to make Delaware the location for the upcoming MBBB.
The date was a little harder to finalize, but that's something that the gang is used to. May has Mother's Day and Memorial Day, June has Father's Day (and even graduations now!). It was surprising however that the group had to look all the way to July to find a suitable date. Avoiding the Fourth of July was crucial, but they didn't want to wait too much longer on account of the increasing temperatures. Thankfully, July 9th worked for everyone and they were able to move onto other questions about the day.
The first follow up question was: where is everyone going to sleep? As it would be silly to expect Span to try to accommodate everyone at his house, hotels and Airbnb were brought up as options. However, before that issue was even settled, the possibility of different activities was broached. Frisbee golf seemed like a great option, as Span had two courses nearby, and the idea of watching a movie again was also suggested, specifically because the weather would likely be hot and humid. Other early suggestions were an escape room and knockout basketball, with a board game being mentioned in lieu of poker for post-dinner fun.
The conversation then turned ever so briefly to when everyone would be arriving on Friday. Because of traffic concerns, most agreed that they would be arriving more towards 10:00 PM and so taking a half-day off from work might not be necessary for those who lived closer to Delaware. David then interjected that he had received word from Rachel about potential meal locations. Eating at a diner for breakfast is a MBBB tradition, and so the Hollywood Grill was an easy choice. Likewise, Rachel raved about the Iron Hill Brewery for dinner, and so that was locked in as well. As for lunch, Span mentioned that there were a number of fast food joints near the escape room facility. Once David completed the reservation for 4:00 PM, utilizing that group of restaurants became a no-brainer.
In the week leading up to the event, all of the plans started rounding into shape. It was agreed that Brian and Marc would sleep over at Span's house, while David, Mehr, Eugene, and Matt would stay at the nearest hotel that was reasonably priced. Meanwhile, as a movie could not be agreed upon (primarily due to a poor selection at the time), Mehr suggested either bowling or mini-golf as a replacement and bowling was slipped into the schedule. Supplies were also needed: Mehr would bring a basketball, a few members would bring frisbees with Matt actually purchasing a frolf set, and David would try to bring a board game.
On July 8th, everyone drove down to meet in Delaware. Marc drove his car from Long Island with Eugene and Brian in tow, David came from Massachusetts, Matt from upstate New York, and Mehr from central Pennsylvania. The plan was for everyone to meet at the hotel so that Marc could drop off Eugene before he and Brian traveled to Span's for the night. This was a bit trickier than expected. The road for entry to the hotel was unintentionally well-hidden and many people missed it. A number of people had to drive a large loop around to get back; Matt even decided to park in an adjoining hotel parking lot so as to avoid the extra driving. Need I remind you that he drove all the way from upstate New York!
Everyone was there except for Span who was waiting patiently at his house. The rest of the MBBB members took some time to talk about all that happened over the past year before Marc and Brian took their leave. They arrived some twenty minutes later and then chatted up Span and Rachel while they gave them a tour of their home.
A few interesting things happened the next morning: at the hotel, Eugene noted that he smelled marijuana after stepping out of his hotel room (he remarked that he "loved the smell of it!", or not). Additionally, the hotel stayers saw that a man with no shirt was also staying at the hotel. Finally, when Rachel woke Marc up, her son Matty lied down on his lap for a few minutes. He must have known that Marc had a son just about his age as well!
Breakfast
The drive to the Hollywood Grill was mostly uneventful, though Span did almost miss the entrance and had to create some skid marks as he used a hairpin turn to glide into the parking lot. Span, Marc, and Brian waited in the parking lot for a few moments before Matt drove in with the rest of their friends. After arriving and sitting down at their designated table, the crew picked up where they left the night before, talking about another year gone past.
A few notes: It was very noisy in the restaurant when the group first arrived, but that abated as the meal stretched on. Even though it was by far the least complicated dish to cook, Marc's meal (oatmeal and fresh strawberries) was the last to be served. And the pancakes? Yeah, they just happened to be huge, but I suppose that's something you see in diners.
Knockout
After eating a hearty first meal of the day, the two cars drove to the park and its awaiting basketball courts. The courts were thankfully empty, but a slight drizzle had started which would make the games a little messy. Nonetheless, everyone got to practicing their dribbling, jump shots, and most importantly free throws (each person's turn begins with a free throw). During practice, the gang immediately realized that the game would be a little more frantic than expected as the courts were not enclosed by a fence. Thus, any airballs ended up rolling onto the grass and down towards the running track.
A decision was made that the order of the first game would be set by the first person to hit a three-pointer (?). After that, the first person (?) eliminated each game would set the order. Eugene (?) was the first to hit the three-pointer and immediately tried to place as much distance between himself and Mehr, the odds-on favorite to win each game.
Every game was very competitive, with plenty of points that stretched on for well over a minute. But it was David and Mehr who excelled the most, with both players being among the final two in each game. The results are listed below, but it is highly recommended that you view some of the videos linked at the top of the page so that you can witness these epic and fierce battles.
Game 1 - Order of Elimination:
Span, Matt, Marc, Eugene, Brian, David, Mehr (winner)
Game 2 - Order of Elimination:
Span, Eugene, Marc, Matt, Brian, Mehr, David (winner)
Game 3 - Order of Elimination:
Marc, Brian, Eugene, Span, Matt, David, Mehr (winner)
Frolf
With their competitive juices flowing, the group was ready for more, even though frolf would entail a much more relaxing style of competition. Both cars again drove to the next destination and found the frisbee golf course to be almost as deserted as the basketball courts had been. Matt, Marc, and David distributed the frisbees (and somehow ended up one frisbee short despite their meticulous plans, so Marc and Matt (?) ended up sharing one).
There ended up being a lot of conversation about which frisbees would allow for better scores: the smaller, frolf-specific discs or those of the larger variety that most are familiar with. Begrudgingly, David and Mehr took smaller discs but, as you can see from the scores below, they did pretty well with them.
The gang took a few quick throws at the practice hole and then walked over to the first tee area. They surveyed the area and immediately thought, "Hey, where's the pin?!" It turned out that that each hole was several hundred feet long, much longer than they had anticipated, and so long in fact that the group had to review the course's sign to figure out exactly where they should be aiming with their first throws. However, after a little bit of discussion, everyone was ready and did their best to throw straight and true.
This proved to be difficult. The smaller discs had a natural tendency to curve (at least in each player's hands) and the larger discs suffered from a decent headwind. On the first hole alone, Span's disc went so far right that it flew over a stone wall that bordered the course while Matt's throw ended up at least 50 feet to the left instead. Nonetheless, the MBBB members persevered and had a ton of fun, working through a mere five holes, but only because each hole took so much time to complete. With seven people cycling through throws, holes that were the length of football fields, and rough that sometimes made finding frisbees a wee bit difficult, you can imagine why.
As you can see from the scorecard below, Eugene was by far the most successful, even nabbing the game's only par on hole no. 3.
Here are some additional points of interest:
-- Above, it's mentioned that each hole was REALLY long. To give you an idea of what the gang was up against, hole no. 4 was 435 feet from the shorter tee, while hole no. 5 was a whopping 665 feet! Uphill!
-- On the second hole, Marc's second throw hit Eugene while he was running to his disc. It bounced off of his foot and Marc gained a couple of extra yards courtesy of the bump.
-- Speaking of which, Brian constantly ended up in the path of discs as people tried to play through. Through sheer luck, he never actually got hit by a frisbee, though.
-- On the fourth hole, Mehr accidentally somehow threw his disc backwards. At that point, David advised that each player would get one mulligan for a bad throw.
-- On the final hole that was played, Mehr's frisbee got stuck in a large bush while approaching the pin. Unwilling to let it go, Mehr spent a good 15 minutes maiming the bush in an effort to retrieve his disc. Thankfully, he was able to find it before any park authorities asked him what he was doing.
-- The gang let another group play through as they had real frolf discs and were MUCH better at throwing them.
Lunch
Two long and somewhat strenuous events down, the gang decided it was time to procure some sustenance for their bodies. At that point in the day, the timing of their schedule had gone swimmingly, and so there was no rush to meet their 4:00 appointment with the escape room. The two cars drove towards the next event, and Panera Bread and Five Guys Burgers were chosen as the two restaurants at which they would eat.
Marc and David (and Matt?) decided to go to Panera, primarily because they are a vegan and vegetarian respectively. While there, Marc needed the cashier to consult the ingredient list on a couple of items as it was difficult to fully determine if the menu items he was interested in were made entirely from ingredients not sourced from animals. The three (?) of them finalized their orders, sat down to eat, and then took a quick drive down the street to meet up with the rest of the gang at Five Guys. A few people also took this opportunity to clean up after being outside for so long before heading over to Axxiom.
Escape Room
The waiting room for Axxiom consisted of a hallway, a long bench, a stairwell, and a desk at which each of the members paid for their admission. It wasn't a long wait, but they did see a few other teams that had just completed their escape adventures and were raving about how fun they were.
Soon thereafter, the host for their escape room walked them upstairs and into an escape room based on the movie, "The Shawshank Redemption". Fittingly, the members were divided into three jail cells and handcuffed to both the cells and each other. The host explained a few things. One was that they should be able to escape the handcuffs pretty quickly. Another was that their escape from the room might not actually be through any of the doors of the jail cell. Finally, it was pointed out that the room had a television screen which would be used to indicate how much time remained (45 minutes to start?) as well as provide clues if they felt they were needed.
After answering a few questions, the host left and the clock started. Oddly enough, there was a fair amount of rain now coming down outside, which was ironic considering [SPOILER ALERT] the climactic scene in "Shawshank" where Andy escapes the prison. [END SPOILER ALERT]
To begin, each cell's tandem needed to construct a pole out of a magnetic parts and then use that pole to grab keys that were hanging in each corner. Once released, the gang found many clues including baseball gloves, a chess set, cigarettes, and a puzzle made out of physical pieces in the shapes of triangles and trapezoids. The locks on some cells were numeric, while one lock's combination was based on which pieces were missing from the chess set (three pawns?).
It wasn't long before the team was out of their cells and opening the lock to an interior door (not the one to the hallway). They opened it and, to their surprise, they found that the escape was only half-way done. They were now in a room modeled after the office of the warden. There was a bookshelf, Andy's diary, a lamp, and a desk with drawers that were systematically unlocked as clues were solved. The main goal was to find the combination to a safe hidden in the wall where the key to escape the room was locked.
In the end, the group ran into a few problems that prevented them from completing the challenge, if only barely. The first was the nature of the safe: if you were to enter the incorrect combination, it would lock itself out and you'd have to wait a few minutes before entering another guess. Additionally, the gang had discovered that the combination was to be found on cards with cities (?) on them, but they didn't know how many cards there were nor how to put them in the correct order. In fact, even after the game was over and host explained how to find the combination, they were still a little lost.
So, after leaving the room, they took a team picture and also took pride in the fact that they were only one clue away from escaping. Not bad for their first time. They descended back down the same steps they had ascended to arrive at the escape room, and tried to hold onto any conversation for later so as to not spoil the room's secrets for other groups that were sitting on the bench, waiting for their chance to conquer the challenge.
Bowling
Hmm, bowling. This might be the event that has taken place at the most MBBBs to date. That being said, there's not a lot to be said here. Everyone bowled their best, with some having more success than others. Matt had the highest score in the first game (179) despite only two strikes. He did this by picking up the spare in every frame but one. In the second game, Matt was again the high scorer with 155, with Marc following close behind with 143 (which is close to his personal record). In the final game, Span decided to sit it out while Matt dominated one more time, netting 175. David hit 153 for second place and, in fact, every player bowled over 100 in this game.
The only other notes worth mentioning were that Matt hit a turkey (three strikes in a row) during his third game and that the alley through in a pitcher of soda for the group while they bowled (part of a coupon?).
Full results are here:
Dinner
The drive to dinner was pretty interesting, at least for Matt, Marc, David, and Brian (?). For one, they happened to drive through an area of town that could only be described (and this is done generously) as a "ghetto". There was probably a joke or two about Matt blowing through stoplights so that he didn't lose his rims a la "National Lampoon's Vacation". This group also passed by an Italian restaurant that claimed to sell "New York pizza". As all of them are native New Yorkers, they had to laugh because they were pretty certain they wouldn't be fooled by a pale imitation of the real thing.
As with breakfast, after arriving at the restaurant, one group was forced to wait for the other. It was okay, though, because Matt and his crew were afforded a few minutes to go behind the restaurant and check out the beautiful walkway along the Christina River as the sun began to set.
It also gave Matt, David, and Marc time to talk about their upcoming 20 year high school reunion. Remember, MBBB was started in their first year out of college. This meant that MBBB 20 represented 20 years since high school. Throughout the day, a Facebook "conversation" had been going on whereby some Sanford H. Calhoun alumni were trying to wrest control of the planning from others. Matt, David, and Marc mostly laughed about the situation, if only because MBBB 20 effectively acted as their 20 year reunion, with not an ounce of drama in sight.
Soon it was time to go into the restaurant where the gang was met by Span's wife Rachel and their son Matty. A long large table had been reserved for them and everyone sat down and did their thing. Rachel said hi to some other patrons (because she knows everyone), Matty did some coloring, Marc quizzed the waiter (?) about vegan options, and Brian, Mr. Restaurant-goer and Yelp-lover that he is, hemmed and hawed about what item would be worthy enough to touch his insatiable taste buds.
As the restaurant was also a brewery, Span ordered a beer sampler which was passed around for others to try. Other than that, it was standard fare for MBBB: great food, great conversation, and great company.
Board Game
The ride back to Span's house for a game of Loaded Questions wasn't as straightforward as it might have been. For reasons that are too complicated to explain without going into great length, Marc's employer was upset that he decided to spend a Saturday with his friends instead of coming into the office to work. Much to their chagrin, Marc offered the compromise of coming into work on Sunday instead. Since Marc would have to drive back from Delaware to Long Island, he had planned to wake up very early to do so. However, during dinner, everyone else convinced him that it would make more sense to drive back after the board game, then catch some Zs at home. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about sleeping through an alarm or even the remote possibility of traffic.
As Brian and Eugene had come from Long Island with Marc, they would have to drive back in the middle of the night with him as well. And since all of Eugene's stuff was still at the hotel, one car had to detour back to the hotel before coming back to Span's house.
Maybe a half an hour later, everyone was gathered in the living room and read to play Apples to Apples. the nature of the game is slow-paced and so it was, but this allowed the MBBB gang to continue to talk more about the day passed. One particularly funny moment came when Span (?) judged that "Postal Worker" was the winning clue. He thought its use was ironic, funny even. As Mehr is a postal worker, Span immediately thought that he had played the card in a self-deprecating manner. But Marc quickly interrupted, indicating that it had actually been him who had made the clever play.
It was probably about two hours before everyone decided that it was time to wind the game down. Rachel had actually decided to join the boys for the game and, after the final card was played, found herself in a three-way tie with her husband and Marc, each having five green cards. It was decided that a sudden death clue would be played for the three finalists only. After submitting their cards, Span's was eliminated first before the win was ultimately given to Rachel.
With the night ended, Marc and his companions who were heading back to New York packed their things while others made plans to head back to the hotel for some sleep. It was another great, fun, full day that mostly went according to plan. That might just be the perfect definition for MBBB.