N97 24/7: The Chicago Challenge

(Note: This particular challenge took place last Friday afternoon — I’m just getting around to posting it now because I was apparently busy with other things Friday night…)

So our city-specific challenge for Chicago was a four-way race to the top of the Sears — sorry, Willis Tower — from different sports venues scattered across the city.

My challenge got off to a rocky start. For starters, I made the mistake of using Google Maps (instead of Nokia Maps like I was supposed to), which misled me into believing that United Center was but a few blocks from my hotel. Then it started pouring rain. And then my N97 starting acting up due to a bunch of updated apps that Jon Bruha had installed on it. In fact it was crashing so bad that I actually accused him of sabotage at one point, as you’ll see in this video:

[qik url=http://qik.com/video/2223601]

Such was not actually the case, however, and as I made my way to the United Center proper Jon actually talked me through some necessary steps to make things right. And soon it was 5:19pm CST and time for me to jet, taking photos of three pre-determined objects on the way.

The first required photo was of a fire hydrant — oh and look, there was one conveniently located at my feet when I started the race.

My transportation options from the United Center were exactly two, bus or cab. And since a bus had passed by minutes before I flagged down a taxi and said the hackneyed Reality TV phrase: “I need you to go as fast as you can… I’m in a race!”

Fortunately my cabbie was up for the challenge. I told him I needed to grab a pic of a police car, and without missing a beat he informed me that a police station was on the way. Here’s the photographic proof.

I also told him I needed a photo of a doughnut, and moments later he slammed on the brakes at a nearby Starbucks.

His only misstep was pointing me towards the wrong entrance to the Willis Tower, but it didn’t ultimately matter — there was an unbelievably long line-up to get up to the Skydeck, and through the crowds I could just make out that damn Jonny Bruha in front of me.

George soon fell in behind, and really the only bit of drama that happened over the next hour-plus was that George got on the same elevator as me, and upon emptying out the same door he catapulted to second place and sent me back to third.

But honestly, that line-up was so excruciating that when I finally met up with George on the Skydeck Jon had already left, and the two of us went straight back down to street-level to drink with Matt, who had given up altogether due to some technical difficulties of his own.

And that’s why there was no blogging from yours truly Friday night, only drunken tweeting and qikking…