Travel... Compete... Win! » Team 5 – Gadling

Final update for Day 5 – Team Gadling

Team 5 - Gadling — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:24:05 +0000

It only took an extra week, but my last post covering the final day of the inaugural Competitours has been posted.

Competitours Race Day 5 – Paris “We won!” (with video)

Read how, for three hours we celebrated our first place finish for the Monday to Wednesday portion of the competition, only to find out that a scoring error was the culprit. Or how La Goutte d’Or in Paris was the most dangerous place for a challenge so far.

Linda and I finished with a win for the Thursday/Friday portion, which was great, but it wasn’t the real “win” in this game. It was the opportunity to participate in something entirely new, meeting people who are rather like-minded and ‘touring’ places we never would have seen before, all while documenting everything with video and photos like this, for example. That’s where we won.

Here’s the final “Day 5 Video” for Team Gadling. Thanks Steve for such a great experience!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Team 5 – “Team Gadling” Day four update “Belgium”

Team 5 - Gadling — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:53:56 +0000

We’re still recovering from the trip. As David from Team Goldtroni said, it’s not a vacation, it’s a trip. But what a trip it’s been!

I posted a ‘day 4′ video and post on Gadling. I doubt if my wife and I had found ourselves in Brussels on a vacation we would have ventured into the town of Gent, but that’s one of the things that makes Competitours so exciting. You never know where you’ll be going next.

And Gent was well worth the visit!

Here are a few scenes of some of the competitourists on Thursday:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Friday’s post is coming soon. We should have some final scores for both the Monday to Wednesday and the Thursday and Friday competition by then.

A special thanks to Flyertalk for sponsoring some of the nicest people around to participate in this competition. We really enjoyed them all!

Kent and Linda

Team 5 – “Team Gadling” Day three update

Team 5 - Gadling — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:15:56 +0000

Kent here.

After days 1 and 2 and the uploading issues we had, I decided I couldn’t keep up the effort required to blog each days activities. It became too much to post the video, read the next day’s challenges and to check in with Gadling. So I’ll have reports from each day coming soon.

I just finished the day three write up.

Personalities are definitely coming out, and we’re getting to know everyone better. I’m amazed at how interesting and friendly this group is. There’s only some friendly competition going on right now. I wonder if that will change when the grand prize is upped to $6500 in the future with 40 nights at a Starwood.

Even though we’re exhausted from the first three days, we’re feeling a bit of a rush, really. A typical, relaxing vacation just couldn’t compare to this.

I’ve had some ask if we’re able to really ‘see’ the sights. If you’re the kind of person that likes whitewater rafting, this is for you. If you’d rather walk down the riverbank, taking in various flat rocks getting a little fishing in along the way, then you might be better off staying in a hotel and exploring one area for a week at a time. But most Americans don’t have the luxury of so much time off, so this has been a great way to enjoy a race with some really interesting people and to see some sights along the way.

Linda and I laughed far more than we’ve argued on the trip and I think I could convince her to come back and do it again.

Day three video from Team Gadling…

Team 5 - Gadling — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:47:55 +0000

We chose to head out of the city to see more of Holland. Here’s one example of a challenge that we really enjoyed. We really took our time and enjoyed the challenges, spending at least an hour at each one today.

Now we’re off to Brussels. I haven’t even looked at the challenges yet. There’ll be time on the train, I hope. Day 4 represents the start of a new contest, this time for a pair of US or Canada airline tickets. We’ll know the results of the first three days next week, after everyone gets their videos uploaded.
Kent and Linda

Click here to view the embedded video.

Team 5 – “Team Gadling” Day one details

Team 5 - Gadling — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:31:55 +0000

After a 36 to 41 hour day for many of us, we were spent. Nearly everyone had issues with the T-Mobile connection in Cologne, but Steve has promised that this won’t affect anyone’s standings.

I gave up at 1:30 a.m. and tried again the next morning. Not only did I manage to get the contest videos up, but I was able to upload my daily report for Gadling as well, even if it meant we’d be 20 minutes late out the door for our challenges for a second day in a row.

Here’s a run down from our perspective of the race. (we spent most of the time in Dusseldorf and Duisburg)

One thing is for sure, there are some really nice people competing in this event. We really do like ‘em all!

We’ve just arrived at our next city, Amsterdam, where we’ll be competing tomorrow, Wednesday. So far, the WiFi looks good!

Team 5 – “Team Gadling” checking in from Cologne

Team 5 - Gadling — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:52:40 +0000

Team Gadling checking in!

The inaugural Competitours is off the ground!

All 11 teams sporting bright yellow Flyertalk messenger bags have made it from Newark to Frankfurt and then on to Cologne where we’ll begin our challenges in just 15 minutes!

All of us are going on 24 hours without sleep before we’ve even started the challenges. Some of the events will be held in Cologne, Dusseldorf, Bonn, Koblenz and Duisburg. There’s a total of 175 points up for grabs and there’s no limit to the amount of tasks we can attempt between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. today (Monday).

For more on the trip, check out my post for the travel website Gadling here. I’ll be updating it regularly and letting you know on this page as well.

Team Gadling, Kent and Linda from New Hampshire.

Team 5 – “Team Gadling” is ready!

Team 5 - Gadling — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:24:13 +0000

We’re finally ready to pack our bags! Kiddy care has been arranged, and Team Gadling, Kent and Linda are ready!

Kent’s a pilot and a writer for Gadling.com, a travel website and Linda is a former flight attendant. Kent has posted the first update for Gadling, and hopes to include interviews with all the other competitors in future posts.

We love the element of surprise, so we’re not interested in finding out any of the destinations, other than the Frankfurt starting point. So keep an eye out for us. We’ll be the ones with the yellow messenger bags! Er, wait. Never mind.

Can’t wait to meet everyone!

Kent and Linda from New Hampshire