Teamwork key to winners' strategy

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| Saturday, May 10, 2003 11:12 PM CDT | () comments

Greg Swanson

All great minds do not think alike.

And Saturday, during the QUAD-CITY TIMES' $5,000 finals of the ultimate hide-and-seek game "Keys to the Cities IV," that theory was given a workout.

Seven teams traversed the wilds of Davenport and Rock Island (no clues were hidden in Moline or Bettendorf) and tried to outsmart each other and outpace bad weather in the hopes of being the 2003 champion.

Team Camp � Mike and Julie Camp, Rock Island; Jim Johnson, Moline; and Brett and Jennifer Long, Vernon Hills, Ill. � did just that and did so in record fashion when they pulled the tiny silver key from inside a marshmallow at Davenport's Credit Island Park after 4 hours, 26 minutes and 19 seconds of looking.

In an interesting twist of deja vu, team captain Mike Camp came up missing after his teammates had found their third location clue at Rock Island's Haymaker Park.

"We looked and yelled and used our air horns to signal him and he never showed," Julie Camp, his wife, said. "Finally, about 15 minutes later, he came out of the woods."

Last year's champion � Bill Schmidt of Princeton, Iowa � survived a similar fate when his team, after finding a clue, couldn't track him down. Their almost 45-minute delay did not cost them as they won the $5,000.

Forecasts of severe weather forced the game to be moved ahead two hours and when heavy rains and lightning hit early in the morning, it slowed some teams' progress. Team Camp's pursuit of its first location � near the bike path behind the Quad-City Botanical Center in Rock Island � was delayed because of heavy rains.

"At first, we started slow and I thought �Oh, no, not again,' " said Johnson, who participated on another finals team last year.

"Then the rains came and we were sitting in the botanical center's parking lot," Jennifer Long said, "and I thought two and two just weren't adding up."

So, Team Camp left.

Later in the day, Team Buck � led by Bettendorf math teacher Joe Buck � faced a similar weather quandary.

Crackling lightning forced them back to their vehicle at Haymaker Park, the team's first location.

"� It slowed us down but I don't think it cost us in the end," he said.

Team Buck finished second.

All about team

The Camp crew knew that figuring out complex clues would be difficult enough so they didn't want the constant barrage of ideas to impede them.

"What we did was, once the clue was opened and read, we each wrote down where we thought it was. There was no discussion � just thinking and writing," Mike Camp said. "After that, we would read what each person had written down and if there were duplicates, we would go and look there. It worked great."

That team philosophy was intact right up until the end when they came across six grocery bags full of marshmallows. The bags were hanging from branches in the wooded area behind Credit Island's golf course. With five of the bags down and searched, Mike made sure that all the team members were present when the sixth made it to the ground so the entire group could search its contents and share in the fun of the finding the winning key in that bag.

Oh, so quirky

The finals players had more than just four locations to overcome. Each location had a little something for the teams.

n At the Times' parking lot, there were fake flowers in pots that had the clues in the bottom of them.

n At the botanical center, duck hunting decoys were hidden in tall grass just off the bike path. Taped to the bottom of each was a team's next set of clues.

n At Haymaker Park was the "Bucket O'Sludge." The 5-gallon bucket (inside a child's wading pool) consisted of 1 gallon of mustard, 1 gallon of maple syrup, 1 gallon of tomato sauce, 2 gallons of white hominy and 1 large jar of dill pickles. The clues were laminated and pushed to the bottom of the mixed-up concoction.

n At Credit Island were the hundreds of marshmallows.

n And, each team was given a small bucket to start the day that contained: a light bulb, roll of masking tape, grocery produce bag, bar of soap, razor knife, one fake flower, shop towels, a fishing lure, small toy shovel and a paint stir. Some of the items could have been helpful and others were like the ducks off the bike path � decoys.

Coming up

In Tuesday's Faces & Places section, we will recap the 2003 game, provide you with the clues (and reasoning) the players had and break down what teams made it where.

Greg Swanson can be contacted at (563) 383-2279 or at gswanson@qctimes.com.