Help me with some Road Rally ideas

I recently went on my first photo-scavenger hunt road rally and had lots of fun. So, I decided to host one for family and friends. I have some ideas but am turning to the brain-trust that is the GRM forum.
I am not necessarily looking for items to be brought back (I don't really need 2-dozen blue straws or plastic grocery bags) but more like places/things to photo. These are not really car-folks so while auto-related things are great, I can't get too "out there". Oh, and I plan on having kids there so I'm trying to make it fun for them (like the whole team silding down a slide, a fireman in uniform, member in a tree, things like that for the kids).

What do you think?

Picture of someone with a tattoo
Picture of someone from out of state (with license in hand)
Picture of whole team with a car from each decade (pick a decade to start at)
Armpit farting on a street corner for money

Picture of someone using a cell phone while driving (that won't be hard)

Picture of someone flipping you off (OK, that might be dangerous)

Picture of a cross street pair of signs, one a name of a tree, the other then name of a President (you can adjust requirements accordingly)

Picture of a Miata (as a sort of a GRM tribute)

I say set the route first and then choose stuff along the route to require for pics... pic with a particular waitress, pic of a particular sign, etc.

I set up a few rally's for our annual SVX meets slightly different.

I made the route and gave detailed instructions. I also took pictures along the route, and gave all participants 4 pages of photo's (6 pictures per page). The pictures in the booklet were out of order and they had to place ID the photo's where they fell along the route.

It sounds like it would be easy, but in the two years I ran it, no one ID'd all of the photo's and the groups probably averaged about 60%.

Hmmm. Interesting.
I only have this one rally as experience. Basically, we were either given direct instructions "Take a picture of this" or, more often a little clue as to what to take a picture of. Often though, there wasn't one specific thing/location that was correct. That way, the teams didnt' get bunched up. In fact, we only saw 2 other teams, maybe 2 times all day (out of 12 or 13 teams).

I still have my rally's on disk. If your interested give me an email and I can send them to you so you can copy the formatting. Or if you want to send everyone to Morgantown PA, you're work is already done

One thing to make things interesting: give points for each picture. Low points for the easy ones, high points for the tough ones. And throw in a couple of really valuable ones that are hard to do, so that you either go for the big money or a bunch of easier ones. Also, any photos that are duplicates get tossed out. For example, if one of the goals is to get a photo of the team members in the back of a police car, it's worth 50 points. But if two teams come back with such a photo, neither get any points for it.

Adds a whole new dimension of scheming and strategy.

Set up the course first, then find points of interest along the course.

In reply to Hocrest: Hi, can you give me a copy of your road rally disk. I am hosting a rally and I am looking for some ideas. Thanks Dan and Gale

Dangale1227@gmail.com

I used to do a lot of gimmick rallys with a local group (B.A.R.E - Bay Area Rallye Enthusiasts). The standard format was a course following rally with numbered instructions:

1. Rt at Stop

2. Lft at T

3. Rt at 1st Op

etc. with questions thrown in along the way to insure that competitors were on correct path. Often were bad puns. Example. Q) What happens when you wear shorts? A) Shoneys (i.e. you passed a Shoneys restaurant). The nice thing about a course following rallye is that everyone's odometer reading should be fairly similar. We would normally do an odometer correction run before the start of the rally to align our OD with that of the course planning vehicle. Most of these rallyes took 2-3 hours and ended at a pizza joint, etc. Address of end spot was always supplied so if anyone got lost you could just go to the end.

Every year the group would do a 2 day event with an overnight at a hotel. Rallye out and rallye back. Saturday was normally a mapping rallye where we were supplied strips of paper with addresses on them and had to plot our own routes. At each location we had to answer a question specific to that location (historical marker, last item on menu, etc.). If you didn't answer all questions correctly you weren't in running for other trophies (lowest mileage/best route, closest to average set speed). This was before digital cameras so you could easily incorporate that. Sunday rallye back was always a Hare and Hound which is not for the feint of heart of the organizer.

Regardless, rallyes of this type are good fun. Make sure speed is not an issue and give people plenty of time to complete so they don't feel as if they have to drive harder than they normally would. I think I still have a folder full of course following rallyes somewhere...

I'll resurrect this post. I've hosted a photo scavenger hunt 5 years in a row. They were a blast and the folks had lots of fun. I'm looking to do something closer to what hobiercr and SVreX said next year. I did a google search for "How to host a road rally" and this thread came up second haha.

We've done a couple of rallies with the mini cooper clubs, and since the course decided the clues, they were seldom stuff you had to be a car guy to get.
The most entertaining ones were not a point to point but rather a map of the area with clues at marked locations. Several different point values were assigned to the clues, and a time limit was set so you had to pick what you were going for when you started.

This meant not only were you exploring the town, you were constantly meeting other rally competitors at intersections and going the other way.

I have put together a few rallies for the PCA over the years. Our format is everyone meets with a set start time. Cars are released from that point one at a time and staggered a minute or two so that they aren't in a train. I would have some riddle like questions having them find the answers on the side of the road. I always put a stop in the middle where they would have to get out and find something: a person's name on a brick at a monument, details about a spot, and once a person hiding at a park. The stop helps to get everyone closer on time as the stragglers will see where the leaders were finding the answer. We would end somewhere with food so that answers could be "graded". Winners were announced after the food came out. Prizes were usually a gift card to use for dinner.

I always wanted to get photos into it, but the group is a bit "older" and we usually get 20+ cars so that makes it a time issue.

A tip for you is to stay off of really busy roads as slow moving participants can be in danger with 90MPH cell phone users on the same roads.

Related story: I proposed to my wife on a rally. I had the planner give us a special set of directions that had an extra direction at the end that led to my proposal. Its also a great date activity as you can gauge a lot about someone when you're stuck in a car for a couple of hours getting lost and trying to solve riddles. It either goes really well or really bad.

It's all in the name:

Road

Activity with

Lots of

Loud

Yelling

Picture of a Miata being raced

Picture of a car driving with the donut spare

Speed limit sign that does NOT end in 5 or 0

Last Alpine 500 rally I went on, the guy in the Lotus 7 married his girlfriend when we did the over night stay at Cal Neva. It was cold and snowy, so my brother and I gave her a pair of ski gloves and a hat for a wedding present.

If you are in Northern California, I could give you a list of stellar roads for a rally.

Old timer Paul told me how they'd do bike road rallies. They drop bags of lime at a intersection. You had a choice to go left or right. If you didn't see a bag in 500ft, wrong way, turn around. The runs were timed. Seems like a fun bit of skill, and luck.

Picture of a Pay Phone

Something sold only in your area.

Spell the longest sentence, created from photos of signs.

Park at the lowest/highest point.

Photo of a cartoon character out in the public view somewhere.

Something Purple

Something that tastes disgusting, worst taste wins

In reply to Appleseed:

We used to do these and called them a "Hare and Hound" except we would paint an "H" on the road before an intersection and then you had to chose from the intersection options. 500 ft down the road there would be a painted dot confirming direct route. Lots of U turns ensue. Even more fun was when someone was behind you and waited at intersection to see if you came back. Park, let them fly by and then head back to other route. Our rally club would only do these once a year as they are a bit of a PITA to do.