"Kingdom Plantae" Quest

We worked on this in conjunction with several others (still trying to catch up).  These quests are certainly providing lots of fun for us this summer!

MEDIA
Watch one of two documentaries:
King Corn. Directed by Aaron Woolf.
What Plants Talk About from PBS. Directed by Erna Buffie.


not done yet


LITERATURE
For this objective you'll be writing free verse poetry inspired by a plant of your choice. Chicago's Poetry Foundation describes free verse poetry as "nonrhyming lines that closely follow the rhythms of speech." Check out some examples of free verse poems to get a feel for what we're looking for.
Unlike our Micro Quests, you should commit about an hour to get this one right. Feel free to go through several revisions before posting your final draft.

If you're not familiar with free verse poetry, check out this 5 step guide from Power Poetry. You can also find examples of free verse poems from The Poetry Foundation.

Find your plant. Go for a walk (or look out a window) to find your subject. Choosing a specific plant to write about will make your narrative stronger.  Then write a free verse poem about, or inspired by, your plant. Make sure to take the time to do your best work. Feel free to come back to it over a few days to make sure you've got it just right. Post your poem and a photo of your plant.

not done yet

LITERATURE
The book for this quest was "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver.

Martini Man: I generally liked the book, although I found it a little preachy at times. I did learn a lot about how gardening is done and how the rotation of the seasons dictates what you eat. I would like to make more of an effort to hit the farmer's market and I am interested in looking into canning.

And despite the tone, I can't deny my own suspicions about big business and its intentions to play fair. I still think about Milton Friedman and his seminal works about externalities. If we properly placed a value on the things we consume, the behaviors we see would drastically change. But we don't ..........

Wisconsin Hiker: Just finished the book and I enjoyed it. I liked how the main story by BK was supplemented with articles by her husband and older daughter. It was interesting to read about the whole year-long cycle of their experiment and how much they were able to get locally. It is making me consider what we could do in our own area to get more local products and to rethink an emphasis on "deals" vs quality. We gave up on growing vegetables when we moved to this house 24 years ago - too many local critters devoured what we planted, regardless of fences. However we do have several nearby farmer's markets that sell not only produce, but some meats. I will now be doing a bit more thinking when I purchase food. (P.S. I found the turkey story informative and hilarious!)

VISIT
Objective: Instead of going directly to the source of our food, lets meet it half-way.  Visit a farmer's market and purchase at least one fruit or vegetable from the market. If you're feeling adventurous, consider something you've never eaten before. Take a photo of your raw ingredients, then cook a meal that incorporates what you bought from the market. Post a photo of the finished product.

Wisconsin Hiker:

Martini Man: Earlier this month we visited a farmer's market in our hometown so I could purchase some fresh vegetables and make a meal out of it in support of one of the badge requirements for Kingdom Plantae. We bought fresh Brussel Sprouts and a nice sized squash to roast up and combine with quinoa and Parmesan cheese. it turned out quite well.

TRAVEL
Objective: Visit a public garden or arboretum.

Martini Man: Spent quite a bit of time at the Robert O. Cook Arboretum in Janesville, WI. Very rustic and much more about trees than anything else. Nevertheless we learned a few useful facts about these tallest of flora while we hiked around on the trails. Nice time.....

Wisconsin Hiker: We made a return visit to an arboretum in Janesville, WI. It is used as an educational area for school children and the emphasis is on the many varieties of trees in the area. And it just so happens that there are a few letterboxes also .... (including one that we planted a few years ago). We read the info signs which gave descriptions of the tree's bark, flowers, leaves and uses.

RESEARCH
For this research objective we'll be using plant identification guides. You can find guides in paper form and online, and either are great resources. Make sure to keep geography in mind when choosing your guide.

Objective:
1) Find a plant which you cannot identify from memory.
2) Photograph the plant.
3) Use a plant identification guide to identify the plant.
4) Post the photo of your plant along with its name to Twitter or Instagram.

not done


ART
Pressed flowers are a form of delayed gratification, but they're worth the wait. They can also be used to embellish a variety of objects and look great framed.

1) Build a flower press. You can choose to build any style of press, but construction is required to fulfill this objective. Completing this objective requires you to measure, cut, drill and/or glue your way to the finish line.

Flower Press Building Guides:
7x8" Flower Press from Lee's Wood Projects
Pocket sized flower press from Instructables
7x7" Press from Lowes

2) Share a photo of your completed press on Twitter or Instagram with the tag #QuestScouts.
3) Gather your flowers. Remember that flowers with bulkier centers will be more difficult to press.
4) Sandwich your flowers between layers of printer paper and place them in your press.
5) Tighten your press! You're done. (Collect your points.)
6) (Optional) Wait a month (some say more, some say less) and open your press. Your flowers should be flat and dry.
7) (Optional) Share a photo of your pressed flowers on Twitter or Instagram.

not done yet


PHOTOGRAPHY
For this component, we had to choose a tree that we find visually appealing and then take a high quality photo of it.  We were also asked to comment on any tree photo posted by another Quest Scout. 

Wisconsin Hiker: I took this photo of the catalpa tree in our yard. It is a very tall tree, but what I love most about it is its pretty flowers. It is unusual to have such a large tree that produces flowers and that's why we chose to plant it! 

Martini Man:  not done yet

DIY

This objective asked us to plant something you've never grown before. We didn't get around to doing this until almost the end of August, so I had to do some research to find something that we could start from seed this late in the season.  Luckily there were two that seemed like possibilities and amazingly there were still a few seed packets left at our local garden store for each of them!

We don't have great soil in our yard and we DO have lots of hungry critters, so we figured it would be best to just plant in pots on the patio.  That way they would be more protected and we would also be able to move them around to get the requisite sun (or to protect them from frost if necessary). 

Wisconsin Hiker planted Rocket Arugula which is a good fall plant and should be ready to pick in 35 days. Martini Man planted Cherry Belle radishes which should be ready to pick in 22 days. Here they are on the day we planted them (August 25): seeds in dirt, lightly watered.

One week later:

Arugula

Radish

6 weeks after planting, the radishes seemed to be doing well but it looked like the arugula was popular with something that ate the leaves.

Radishes

Arugula

8 weeks later we were somewhat disappointed in our harvest.

One tiny radish

Yep, VERY tiny!

A few arugula leaves that sprouted after the pests left/died

I guess we should have planted something earlier in the summer, or perhaps just stuck with flowers rather than veggies.  OH WELL!


FIND
To satisfy this component, we had to find a letterbox in a public garden or arboretum.

Wisconsin Hiker: Today we found the "Slowpoke No More" letterbox in an arboretum (no spoiler names). Instead of a photo of myself, here's the lovely view we had near the box.

Martini Man: We had the privilege of finding a letterbox in a beautiful arboretum located in a town in the south of Wisconsin. Yeah, I'm being a bit obtuse here, but the box is a mystery box to some degree and we will respect that. Anyway, we walked away from the box location and stumbled across the remains of a dragonfly. This was cool to look over and you have to wonder how the body of this poor thing got this way. Fascinating....

MICRO QUEST 1 - Media
Watch a short video about the cobra lily. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJpC05V2EaE

Wisconsin Hiker: Interesting video, good camera shots down the tube! The first plant DOES look like a cobra and second plant, the round-leaved sundew, is very pretty. Both plants know how to eat right to get their nutrients!

Martini Man: Pretty interesting. I was aware that there were carnivorous plants, but California? Neat! You also have to admire the symbiotic relationship that keep the cobra lily going. If you think about it, the cobra lily is really a composite creature, made up of not only the main structure of the lily but the mites and sludge worms living in the pitcher to help with digestion. The stuff of a good sci-fi tale......


MICRO QUEST 2 - Art
For this micro quest we took a look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy in this photo heavy article from Melt. Then we had to imagine we were planning to devote an entire day to creating a piece of art inspired by Goldsworthy. What materials would you use? How would you alter/shape your materials into a natural sculpture? Where would you build it?

Wisconsin Hiker: Oh, I just love some of the ideas in the article from the Artful Parent! I also loved the snake-like leaf construction in the video. There are still some colorful autumn leaves available, so I would use them to create a piece of art. Maybe I will take some toothpicks along on my next hike. Or just spearing them on some sticks that are artfully arranged might work. I also like the idea of creating pictures from rocks. This would be a good project on a beach, but may be possible in any area where smaller rocks can be found. If I do manage to create something, I will post a photo on the QS Facebook page.

Martini Man: not done yet


MICRO QUEST 3 - Travel

 Sometimes we need to remind ourselves to slow down. This micro quest asked us to take a moment to stop and smell the roses... or tulips.... or cherry blossoms...

MICRO QUEST 4 - Research

Mission: Humankind reaches into almost every corner on the planet. Wherever we go, we mold the resources around us, changing the environment. While humans are almost everywhere, so are plants. They grow in the cracks of our parking lots, their roots shove our sidewalks out of place and they generally make homes wherever they see fit. For this micro quest, lets take a look at the ways plants reclaim man-made landscapes. Post a photo of what you find.

Wisconsin Hiker: We took a walk in Simmons Park this past week (Pewaukee, WI) and saw these wetland plants trying to reclaim the boardwalk. I wonder how long it will take...

Martini Man:  This particular picture is of small plants pushing their way up thru cracks in paving stones outside of a replica of a toll house at the Elmbrook Historical Society grounds. Kind of reminds me of my driveway.......

MEMBER’S ONLY MICRO QUEST – Game
Without thinking about it ahead of time, we were asked to set a timer for 2 minutes and then write down as many types of flowers that we could think of.

Martini Man: I came up with 17, which is actually not bad for me as flowers are not my strong suit.

Wisconsin Hiker:  I got 23 and was starting to slow down when the timer dinged. Amazingly, Martini Man and I had only 7 flowers in common on our lists.


RESULT
We needed to get at least 1,000 points to complete the quest and we both exceeded that to earn our fourth badge! This was a nice summer theme and helped us to appreciate the wonderful weather and the plant life surrounding us.

"Kingdom Plantae" badge

"Cardboard Adventure" Quest

Since we didn't find out about Quest Scouts until late May, we were playing "catch up" to try to complete 5 older quests even as new summer quests were released.  This meant we started working on several quests at the same time, doing activities as we could fit them in. Luckily the founder of Quest Scouts decided to extend the deadline for retiring the older quests, giving us until SEP or OCT to complete them.

A fun quest for us was "Cardboard Adventure" since it revolved around games and puzzles. Right up our alley!  Here is a synopsis of the possible activities to earn a minimum of 1,000 points:

MEDIA – Big Screen Games
We had our choice of 4 game-related documentaries/movies to watch.  All of them sounded good, but we chose "Under the Boardwalk: The MONOPOLY Story".

Martini Man comments:
We just got thru watching Under the Boardwalk and it was fascinating. It was enjoyable learning about the history of the game and the world championship tournaments. But just as interesting were the people and watching their personalities play out. Can't say I cried much when the pompous lawyer got bounced. And while we rooted for the American, we were pleased to see the young fellow from Norway win it all. A fun, fun watch.............


Wisconsin Hiker comments:
We watched "Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story" tonight and being compatibly geeky people, we both enjoyed it! It brought many memories of playing Monopoly as a kid and teenager. I had no idea that there were championship games, not only nationally, but internationally. I liked the format of the movie, the discussion of why people preferred different tokens in the game, the fact that one tournament was played on a train and the focus on personalities of various players. Like Martini Man, I was glad the pompous lawyer was a big loser, but also not surprised there were several lawyers in the tournaments. I was very interested in all the statistics the teacher annotated on his board that he used with his students. Thanks for letting us know about this interesting movie!


LITERATURE – Choose Your Own Adventure!
This quest's literature objective was to read Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster. Reading the book is a game in itself. The story asks you to make choices and answer trivia as you navigate the familiar landscape of Jane Austen's world. Your choices and answers will affect how your story progresses.

Martini Man comments:
OK, this was not my favorite read. I think because it was in a game format it was a little more tedious than if I had more forthrightly played the game and maybe I will go back and give that a try. I was amused by the language, the utter mash-up of Jane Austin's characters into one narrative and also by the rather "interesting" ends your character could have inflicted on them if all does not go well. But, in truth, not one of my favorite read in Quest Scouts.

Wisconsin Hiker comments:
Well, I am sorry to report that I have few Accomplishments and many Failings. Although I developed a few Superior Connections and my Confidence was growing, my Fortune was small and my Intelligence was dwindling. That may explain why my first fate was quickly being attacked by a gang of gypsies who disfigured my face, so that I wasn't able to attract any sort of husband my livelong life. On my second attempt I made it a bit further before I ended up in melancholy solitude and ended my days in poverty and obscurity. Oh woe is me!! An entertaining book/game, but I'm glad I didn't need to persevere until I snagged a rich man! It might be years until I made the right choices...

VISIT – Friendly Local Game Store
For this objective we had to visit a "Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS)". This was defined as a term that tabletop gamers use to endearingly recognize the value of shops that specialize in board games. This was certainly no hardship for us and we enjoyed our time poking around!

Martini Man: We have been busy! Today we had a chance to visit Board Game Barristers in support of the Cardboard Adventure badge. It WAS overwhelming. But we managed to spot something we thought would make a nice gift.

Wisconsin Hiker: We visited "The Board Game Barrister", a FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) today. They had lots of familiar and not so familiar games and we had fun browsing around (and also made a gift purchase). A bunch of gamers were in the store and winners were being announced for an earlier game.

RESEARCH - Board Game Geek
To satisfy the requirement for this component, we were asked to familiarize ourselves with the Board Game Geek site. It is an interactive database of virtually all board games ever produced and is dedicated not only to cataloging board games, but also provides reviews, forums, and much more. Our task was to identify 3 games that we may want to play in the future and then post the titles of the games, along with the reason we thought they sounded interesting.

Martini Man: I thought using Board Game Geek was a pain. It seemed cluttered and rolling thru the categories of games is a real time sucker. Having said that, there is a TON of information here and I did run into some games that read well to me. I like strategy games like Ticket to Ride, so the following fit my tastes.

Civilization
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/77130/sid-meiers-civilization-board-game
Sid Meier created a great computer game called Civilization that has gone thru many iterations over the years. So I was pleased to see there was a board game version as well. The theme is you are a leader of a nascent civilization and you race your opponents to create a dominant culture whether thru science, the arts or military.

Food Chain Magnate
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175914/food-chain-magnate
Here you try and become the big "cheese" among other food chains. This attracted me more for the tongue in cheek approach to the game.Istanbul
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148949/istanbul
This was a game of the year in 2014. It sounded interesting. You move thru the bazaars of Istanbul, wheeling and dealing to get the most rubies before game play stops.


Wisconsin Hiker: I have to admit that although I love games, I didn't really like researching games on the BoardGameGeek website. I prefer Googling to find lists of games and places where they are reviewed. I couldn't figure out how to create good search criteria on the BGG site, but I plodded through the site to identify some games that looked interesting. Although I like a big variety of games, I tried to find some new party games for larger groups to play at a Game Night (which we like to host). We already have a TON of games, but these 3 looked like they would be good additions:

Activity 2: 3-16 players. A party game where you have to describe words verbally, by pantomiming or by drawing. Unfortunately this game is readily available and it seems there may only be a German version.

Synapse: 4-24 players. Described as a high-spirited game of teamwork and laughter. Form a sentence to get your team's Guesser to say a word. The Guesser has 60 seconds to get the answer...the faster you answer the more points you score. Sound easy? The catch is that team members must take turns adding one word to the sentence without consulting each other. Your synapses might not match your neighbor's. That's when the hilarity begins! Be ready for surprised looks, unusual sentence structure and outbursts of laughter as connections are made...or not! Unfortunately this is another game that is not readily available.

Rollick!: 6-24 players. Description: the entire team collaborates together to act out clues for one or more players to guess. It’s a hysterical, fun, fast-paced, team competition game that’s an absolute riot at parties, family gatherings, work events, holiday celebrations, with friends, and even loved by teenagers! This is a bit easier to find on-line, but the store I went to didn't have it. I bought a very similar game instead called Reverse Charades.

ART – Games Reimagined
Since tabletop game boards, cards, pawns and miscellaneous pieces are full of amazing designs and colors, for this objective we were supposed to choose a board game to inspire an original painting.
Not done


PHOTOGRAPHY – Game Component Snap
The Photography component also asked us to focus on highlighting the beauty of a tabletop game and its components by taking an artsy photo.

WIsconsin Hiker's photo of a game called Zitternix

DIY – Print & Play
This activity introduced us to Print and Play games, which area a subset of games that are born from a PDF and your own two hands. Game designers make them available for download and you then print them on your computer, cut them out, and play the game!

Wisconsin Hiker chose the game Take-Back-Toe (http://www.cheapass.com/node/43)

It was a pretty simple game to understand and only required 40 pieces of something (we used poker chips). We played 3 rounds and started to get a good feel for the strategy. There is definitely an element of chance, due to the dice roll, but also a lot of skill to play both offensively and defensively! Wisconsin Hiker personally liked the micro game "Coin Age" (see below) a bit better than this game, but Martini Man preferred this game. 

FIND – The Cache Examiner
In order to complete this objective we had to find a mystery letterbox with a newspaper puzzle theme. Mystery boxes require that you solve some sort of "puzzle" in order to determine where the box is placed. The instructions were to find a box that required solving a crossword, sudoku, or any other typical "newspaper puzzle." We've found several of these in the past, but because Quest Scouts wants your activity to be INTENTIONAL (doing it specifically for the quest, not some prior activity), we had to determine where some new boxes might be that we hadn't already found before. I asked several of our letterboxing pals if they knew of any in their areas, but before we had to travel to find one we got a surprise. Our friend PackerBacker created a new mystery letterbox and she cleverly used Quest Scouts info in both the crossword puzzle and the clues (and the stamp). And to top it off, she very conveniently planted it in a park within 10 miles of our house!! We immediately solved the puzzle and headed out to find the"Quest Scouts" letterbox tonight. Thanks PB! (She has also started doing Quest Scout activities, as have a few of our other LB friends such as SZSrocks and HowD girls.)

Here is the crossword puzzle we had to solve:

The circled letters had to be unscrambled to determine the park name and then we had to follow additional clues to find the box.  Here is a bit of the clue that includes some QS references: 

"Today you get to be a Park Explorer! Your objective is to successfully find, and log, this awesome letterbox. If it’s a hot day, be sure to bring some H2O with you. ..... Head over to the trail sign, where All That Came Before you started their quests too.

.... Soon, choose left and listen to the sounds of balls being hit. If hit hard enough, some may soar to Such Great Heights. After crossing the bridge you will see a tree of Epic Proportions pointing you in the direction you need to go. ......"

We stamp into the Quest Scouts box

GAMES – Play!
This component noted that "Games are a source of entertainment and brain stimulation that, for many, can help lead happier lives."  That is true for us!   We had the opportunity to earn up to 600 points by playing games in several categories (150 points per category). By playing a game from each category, we experienced both classic and modern games and "small" and "large" games.

CLASSIC BOARD GAMES - We chose Scrabble, a favorite of people who delight in vocabulary and strategy.

The game begins

Martini Man: As you can see, we played Scrabble and there's a lot of intensity in that picture. It was hard fought and I thought I'd squeak by. But I pulled the Q and could not figure out how to dump it. Hard fought game with Wis Hiker, as usual.

The game finally came to an end (good thing we have lights on the patio!)

Wisconsin Hiker: As usual, it was a very close game between Martini Man & I when we played Scrabble tonight. It took ~ 2 hours for the game and I emerged the victor by a measly 5 points because he had to subtract points for the "Q". 

CLASSIC CARD & SMALL GAMES - We chose Phase 10, a game that has been popular in our extended family for many years. My sister Diana and her husband Mark came over for a cookout on the 4th of July and that was the perfect opportunity to play a game to satisfy this category.

MODERN BOARD GAMES - Our friends Acorn & Golden Boy brought their "Ticket to Ride" game along with them when they visited us in August. We played it and we loved it! The box cover said it was the 2004 Game of the Year in Germany. We had the opportunity to play a couple of rounds of with them and we would gladly play it again. They left it with us for a while, so if any Quest Scouts are in the area and would like to play it with us, let us know!

Learning the rules

We used train cards & tokens to build routes between U.S.A. cities, based on our individual destination cards

CLASSIC CARD & SMALL GAMES - We borrowed Bananagrams from our niece Jessica.  The next day when our friend Joy stopped by we talked her into staying for pizza and two rounds of play. Martini Man won the first game and I emerged the victor the next time.  It was a close game between the three of us and very fast paced!

MICRO QUEST 1 - Find
This micro quest challenged us to take a creative photo of a letterbox. We were encouraged to take some time to make the photo something special by using creative angles, highlighting an unusual perspective or relying on the scenery around the box to make our photo "pop".

Martini Man's photo of a letterbox on Alcatraz Island in WI

Wisconsin Hiker's photo of a letterbox at the Exploring the Seas event in Oregon

MICRO QUEST 2 - Media
For this one we watched the documentary "Made for Play" about the process of producing and manufacturing games.

Martini Man: This was pretty fascinating to watch. What I liked were the ingenious machines you see at key facets of the process. Those machines have to cost millions. I also marvelled at the folks who did what I would consider mind-numbing tasks. Watching the assembly line for the games was daunting for me to watch and I am sure I would have shut down the line myself.

Wisconsin Hiker: The video reminded me of my career in the automated material handling field. One of the most interesting aspects of my job was seeing all the amazing machines and equipment created to manufacture everything from Fritos, to automobiles, to Boeing aircraft. I had fun contributing to many projects and systems at a variety of industries, but never at a game manufacturer. This video did a good job of showing the manufacturing process. The big game trade show in Germany looked very interesting, especially since the general public could attend.

MICRO QUEST 3 - Microgame
Most often tabletop games have a large number of components. However, a new trend, the "microgame", is challenging designers and players to squeeze the maximum amount of fun from as few components as possible. This micro quest asked us to choose a game to play and then comment on it.  I chose CoinAge which is played on a space the size of a credit card.  Here is the official description:

Coin Age is a microgame for two players that's played with a single card and pocket change. Players take turns placing coins on a map to control spaces, outmaneuver their opponent, and score victory points.

Coin Age uses an innovative "coin slap" mechanism to determine available actions. On a player's turn, he takes one of each of his remaining types of coins in hand (one quarter, one nickel, one penny, and one dime), shakes them up, then slaps them on the table. Based on the number of coins that match his "side", he can then either place coins on the map, move previously placed coins to an adjacent space, or remove them altogether. When placing coins, players may also place their coins on top of the opponent's coins if their size/rank is smaller, so while a quarter will give you the most victory points at the end of the game, it has the highest probability of being covered by your opponent.

Coin Age is a quick-playing area control game with lots of player interaction and a bit of push-your-luck gameplay.

Wisconsin Hiker: We played CoinAge tonight and we really liked it! It takes a while to figure out a strategy. It's pretty complex for a simple "Print & Play" game. We will definitely play this again! (I played it again with our 13-year old niece when she visited and am keeping it handy for other spur-of-the-moment game playing opportunities.)


MICRO QUEST 4 – Random Acts of Puzzle
This micro quest required us to print some type of puzzle, such as a Word Search, and then anonymously place it in a public place, along with a note that encourages community participation. After a day or so we are supposed to return to the location to see if anyone has worked on the puzzle.

Wisconsin Hiker
I thought I had a good idea by putting some dog-themed Word Search puzzles at our local dog park as a "Random Acts of Puzzle". However I was disappointed that there was very little participation.

MEMBER'S ONLY MICRO QUEST
This required us to solve a puzzle with a drop quote puzzle. Above each column was a series of scrambled letters. We had to “Drop” a letter into the correct square directly below the letter to reveal the quote. It was pretty quick to solve since Martini Man and I have done similar puzzles recently (except the other ones are harder since they have a choice of letters for both rows and columns, alternating each letter in a line). We love puzzles and have 4 different "Page-a-Day" puzzle calendars, so we do them regularly.

RESULT

We needed to get at least 1,000 points to complete the quest and we both exceeded that.  We thereby earned our third badge! This was an easy badge for us because we love games & puzzles.

"Cardboard Adventure" badge

"Epic Proportions" Quest

The second quest we attempted had an "epic" theme.  This not only referred to large things but also an epic poem.  Since we are trying to catch up, this was actually the February quest but we were working on it in June & July. The information below shows the requirement for each of the main quest categories and what we did to satisfy the requirement.

MEDIA – Watch The BIG Screen
We had our choice of 3 documentaries/movies with a "big" theme to watch and we chose "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" (a BBC documentary).

Martini Man's comments:
Watched "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" and was struck by the following:

1) Were the special effects ever cheesy...
2) I kind of thought there was a lot of effort made to make a cheap horror movie seem "highbrow". OK, I can buy some of the thoughts, but it seemed sort of odd.
3) Really dug watching Raymond Burr sweat out watching Godzilla tromp apart Tokyo.
4) Also almost fell off the sofa from the flying turtle.

The history of the whole thing was interesting but all in all underwhelming. I think King Kong was a movie far ahead of its time and frankly more disturbing.

Wisconsin Hiker's comments:

I watched the "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" documentary. I don't think I ever knew that Godzilla was supposedly created/formed by a nuclear explosion, nor that the movies were a Japanese allegory for nuclear weapons. But I DO remember watching some of these old black and white horror movies (Godzilla, King Kong, etc) when I was a kid. They were shown regularly on a UHF TV station back in the 1960s.

LITERATURE – Heroes, Epic Poetry and The Odyssey
For this quest we didn't actually READ something, but instead were asked to learn about "Epic
Poetry" via three videos about Homer's "The Odyssey". This was our assignment:

Great Books: HOMER‘S ODYSSEY The above video from the "Great Books" television series is an oldie but a goodie.

A Long and Difficult Journey, or The Odyssey: Crash Course Literature 201 We're huge fans of Crash Course at Quest Scouts. This video is more critical of Odysseus' and calls out character flaws the "Great Books" series glossed over.

What Makes a Hero? While this video doesn't directly discuss Epic Poetry it examines the "hero story" that originated there.

Wisconsin Hiker's comments:
I read the Odyssey in high school, but only remembered a few of the highlights. I didn't know (or didn't remember) that there was so little known about Homer. Both the first & second video made mention of this. I liked the quick format of the second video, but the first video made me curious to watch an old movie based on the story. The third video was a good synopsis of adventure story structure and fun that they used relatively current books as examples.

Martini Man's comments:
Last night we watched the three videos on the Odyssey and they were MUCH better than the one on Godzilla. While I liked all three of them a lot, I found the short one on the hero's story pretty interesting. I also liked the Crash Course short as these are ALWAYS hilarious. Nice bunch of videos.


TRAVEL- World's Largest
For the Travel component we had to travel to something that claimed to be the "World's Largest". We couldn't find anything near us in Wisconsin, but luckily we took a vacation trip in July. While driving down the Washington coast from Seattle to Astoria, OR we passed the "World's Largest Oyster" and of course we had to stop for photos to fulfill our quest!

RESEARCH & VISIT - American Giants
For these components we had to watch the first episode of American Giants by Stone Baker to learn about the history of "Muffler Men". They are large molded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions or for decorative purposes. Standing approximately 18–25 feet tall, the first figure was a Paul Bunyan character designed to hold an ax. Other versions of the figure were used to hold full-sized car mufflers, tires, or other items promoting various roadside businesses. Then we had to look at the Muffler Men Map compiled by Roadside America and figure out which Muffler Man/Men we could feasibly visit and visit one if possible.

We discovered that Crystal Lake, IL is home to THREE Muffler Men! Since we were down in that area for a letterboxing event in June, we swung through town to take some photos and fulfill the VISIT component of the quest. My favorite was the lumberjack at the firewood business.

Later in June we spent the weekend "Getting Our Kicks on Route 66" with friends in IL. Along the way we found another Muffler Man! This one was called the "Gemini Giant" and was an astronaut outside a defunct drive-in restaurant called the Launching Pad.

ART – Shrunken Mural
For this objective we had to visit a large mural, photograph it and then create a smaller piece of art inspired by the mural. We saw (and photographed) many different murals when we visited Pontiac, IL on June 27 and we also came across one in the Third Ward area of Milwaukee, WI when we were looking for hand-painted signs.  I chose to recreate the one from the Third Ward.  It was on the alley side of the Colectivo Coffee building, so it was hard to get a photograph of the whole thing in the narrow space.  I had to take a photo from each end.

Wisconsin Hiker's interpretation

PHOTOGRAPHY – The Bigger Picture
Our photography challenge was to learn about "forced perspective photography" and then experiment by using forced perspective photography to make a person appear either very large or very small. We Took some photos when we hiked around Devil's Lake in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Hiker: Martini Man holding up the top of the Devil's Doorway
so it didn't fall on the people climbing through the door

Martini Man: What force! What power! What focus!
That last superlative seems apropos as Wis Hiker shows how forced perspective works at Devil's Lake. 

DIY – A Big Help
This is a philanthropic component. It challenges us to do something BIG to help people by collecting money and/or food for those in need by hosting or attending a "food drive party".
Not done.


FIND – Cache Big or Go Home
This required us to find a "super-sized" letterbox, so we found "The Macrobox" letterbox created by TJMich. It made its second appearance at a letterboxing event in Oregon, IL on June 13, 2015. We originally found it back in 2008 when it made its initial appearance at the event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the first letterbox in Wisconsin. (We are substituting letterboxes for geocaches since that is our preferred hobby.)

GAMES – Gamin' Large
Play a giant board or card game! The game should be at least 2x the size of its normal sized counterpart, but the bigger the better! We went to a brew pub in Oconomowoc and played a giant game of Jenga while we waited for our food to arrive.

Getting a bit harder...

Happy that it is still standing!

MICRO QUEST 1 – Photography
This micro quest asked us to take some photos through a magnifying glass. This sounded interesting, but it was hard to get a good image.  The camera would usually focus on the background rather than what was showing in the magnifying glass.

This is the best image Wisconsin Hiker could capture

MICRO QUEST 2 - Art
This micro quest instructed us to divide a photo into six sections, then choose one of the sections to draw a larger scale drawing. This is the opposite of the main photography objective which asked us to create a smaller version of a large mural.  I chose a fairly simple photograph of a water lily that I had taken on one of our kayaking trips.

Wisconsin Hiker's colored pencil interpretation of top middle section

MICRO QUEST 3 - Literature
This micro quest is thought-provoking. It asks us to spend a full 15 minutes responding to the following prompt: "Where would I like to be six months from now? How would my "self" six months from now be different from my current self?" It then instructs us to spend a few minutes looking over what we wrote and the identify a major theme (or themes) running through what we wrote. We then had to share a single word that came to us while doing the exercise.

Wisconsin Hiker:  EXPLORING

Martini Man: EXPLORE

We don't look at each other's responses before posting our own, so it was interesting that we each independently came up with the same word!

MICRO QUEST 4 - Find
This micro quest requires us to find a MICRO box, just the opposite of the MACRO box we found as part of the main Find objective.  We kicked ourselves because there was a super-micro letterbox at the event we attended in June and we didn't log into it!  However we lucked out just a few days before this quest ended and found the "Barking at the Moon" letterbox housed in a film canister.  

MEMBER'S ONLY MICRO QUEST
We each completed a quiz about some BIG things to garner 50 more points toward our goal.


RESULT
We needed to get at least 1,000 points to complete the quest and we both exceeded that. We thereby earned our second badge! We once again had a lot of fun doing some different activities and look forward to the next quest.

"Epic Proportions" badge

Quest Scout Get-together

We had planned to travel to the Pacific Northwest for a letterbox gathering, so when we discovered that the founder of Quest Scouts lived in Portland, I emailed him to see if we could get together w/him.  Although he was a confirmed geocacher, he was open to the idea of letterboxing, especially since several different letterboxers had begun to participate in Quest Scouts.  He said he would come to the "Exploring the Seas" letterboxing event and hoped to spend some time with us.

I contacted our friend Baqash, a Washington state letterboxer and Quest Scout, to ask if she knew of any other people that would be attending the event that were also interested in Quest Scouts.  I also posted some info on the Quest Scouts Facebook page.  As a result, we ended up with a small group of people that were interested in meeting on Friday evening, July 10.  

This being a bunch of letterboxers getting together, of course I carved a stamp (Quest Scouts logo) for the mini-meet.  We were all happy to meet Dylan (aka "Mannard", his letterboxing trail name) and discuss Quest Scouts with him.  He began the venture with a Kickstarter campaign and interest has been slowly growing.  I personally think the prime audience/market is active baby boomers, but it seems some younger people w/o kids are also a good fit.

Our Quest Scouts mini-meet at Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, OR on 10-JUL-15

After the get-together, Martini Man and I showed him around the event and campsites and then went night-boxing with him and Magical Music Man from Pennsylvania.  It was a great series and we didn't finish until midnight.  Unfortunately we weren't supposed to be parked in the day-use area past 10 pm.  UH-OH!!!  A ranger was waiting for us, but somehow we escaped getting a ticket. However Dylan was not so lucky.  I think he had a different sort of pass on his car and received a $120 ticket - NOT a good way to introduce him to letterboxing!

Luckily he was able to shrug it off and returned again the next day to do some more letterboxing with us.  We did a series along the lake with Magical Music Man in the morning and then took a break for lunch.  In the afternoon Martini Man & I & Dylan headed to the beach to try an "X Marks the Spot" series.  We were able to decode the first clue, but the weather was getting a bit fierce - very gusty winds and a misty rain.  Martini Man took a stab at looking for the next clue/box, but returned to a sheltered area.  Dylan/Manard then headed out to give it a try and was successful!! He tried texting us, but we didn't realize it was him, so he ended up trekking all the way back to get us.  We then joined him and returned to the clue. Luckily the rain stopped and we proceeded to find all the boxes in the series.  He did a great job and we were impressed with his doggedness!

Saturday letterboxing with "Mr. Quest Scouts"