Join Gadling’s Chicago scavenger hunt this evening!

by Grant Martin on

It’s a fine, early summer day in the city of Chicago, the perfect sort of day for some laid-back porch sitting, beer chicken barbecuing, roof deck loafing and maybe even some late evening troublemaking.

In case you’re locked in a cubicle right now, permit us to narrate. The strollers and the farmers markets are already in high gear in Lincoln Park, zucchini and squash flying off of plastic card tables while sullen children in Baby Gap polos glare at the passing families. Down at Big Star, the garage doors are rolled up and the tables are being walked out into the front patio while Suzy wipes the maple counters down and the LPs play on, play on, play on.

Today is Chicago’s magic hour, and today Gadling hosts it’s first micro scavenger hunt for the residents and visitors of our fair city. We’re pretty fired up about it, and hope that you can make it out for some of the festivity.

So here’s the skinny:

Go home, get a snack and make yourself a mint julep. At 7:30PM we’ll set up camp somewhere in the city and start tweeting. Some of our tweets may ask you to go to a certain part of the city, find something or bring something to us at home base. Some of our tweets may be more direct. Some may be complete, drunken incoherence (those are the best).

Eventually, we’ll hone you in on our current location where you can stop by, socialize for a bit, have a beer (hint!) and grab a prize. Only one prize will be awarded per team (until we run out), but you’re welcome to drink as much as you want.

After that you can stick around and help us mess with other followers on Twitter as they slowly approach the epicenter. Sound good? Great. We’ll see you real soon.

[Photo from erindrewitz]

The Global Scavenger Hunt is looking for competitors

by Katie Hammel on

Ever watched “The Amazing Race” and longed to run around the world, racing through airports, darting in and out of countries and competing challenges? Well, if you’ve got about $10,000 to spare, you can, as a competitor in the 2010 Global Scavenger Hunt.

The event, which is described as being “like Survivor, The Amazing Race and the Eco-Challenge all rolled into one except with much more cultural interaction” is limited to 25 teams and takes place over three weeks in April. The teams will visit ten countries while traveling west around the world from Los Angeles to New York and competing in challenges in order to win the title of “World’s Greatest Traveler”.

Contestants must apply and go through a screening process and pay an entry fee of $9,900 per person, which covers accommodations, all flights, and 40% of meals. The event kicks off on April 9, 2010.

The event isn’t all airport mad-dashes and physical feats though. According to the website, the goal isn’t to race through each country as fast as you can, performing outlandish stunts as you go, but to connect with each culture (though with only 2-3 days in the country, that may be difficult) through the challenges. Each team is also asked to raise $1 per kilometer (which equals the daunting figure of $40,000 per couple) for a total of $1 million raised per event for the Great Escape Foundation, a nonprofit that funds long-term projects and micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.