Do you know what the Raleigh Typhoon is? If you answered no then don’t feel bad, neither did I a few weeks ago. The Raleigh Typhoon 2 is a downtown Raleigh, NC, scavenger hunt with cash and prizes around $4,500. After seeing a brochure at one of the downtown establishments, I asked my twitter coworker Ginny Skalski if she was attending the Raleigh Typhoon scavenger hunt, and she let me know that her and a few more twitter buds are putting together a team. Thus team Tie-phoon Tweeple was created. The team featured: @ginnyskal @dtraleigh, @dimambro, @nematome, @kitch and two non-Tweeple.

With the Kirby Derby http://www.kirbyderby.com/ planned for the same day, June 22, I decided not to join the team and try to mobile broadcast as many teams and the event as I could. The first team I saw was team Namco who I thought was team pac-man. Next I saw the roaming Segway which was Bruce from Triangle Segways. The roaming Segway was actually a clue, in which teams had to take a picture with him as part of the Scavenger Hunt. After that, I decided to check on team Tie-phoon Tweeple and they were inside the registration bar planning their strategy. Next I decided to hit the street where I walked from City Market to Davie Street to Fayetteville Street where I stopped and interviewed about 10 of the 85 teams. I was doing well until the 90 degree heat started to wear on me, but then I saw the typhoon sheriff whose job was to stop various teams and slow them down while hunting for clues. While interviewing him, I had a chance to see him in action, as he stopped two teams with his whistle. If you didn’t know, when the typhoon sheriff blows his whistle you must stop on a dime and can’t move. Sadly for both teams they moved and he made one team member do 20 pushups and he had the other team race to the end of the block.

As the day went on, the sunny weather turned into cloudy skies. So after a short break, I headed over to Glenwood Avenue where I met new Raleigh resident Matt Miller. Matt took a few pictures of teams that stopped by the unofficial twitter hangout spot, Helios which was on Glenwood Avenue. I think Helios had a clue there, so teams had to make a visit there too. Also while on Glenwood Avenue I stopped two teams to ask how they were doing. By that time, all the teams were in a hurry to not only finish the scavenger hunt but trying to find a dry place and avoid the rain that was on the way.

I must say even though I didn’t participate in the Raleigh Typhoon 2 Scavenger Hunt, it was fun to watch the teams dress up in various costumes, look for clues and most of all, learn more about downtown Raleigh, NC. I even had a chance to catch up with the winning team, Michelle's Mountaineers, which as you can tell in the video where in a rush to find clues and on a mission to win. Congrats to team Michelle's Mountaineers!

A few blog post recaps from team Tie-phoon Tweeple are in the Related links.

Related Links

1. The Raleigh Typhoon 2
2. find out what happens when 7 tweeple take on a downtown raleigh scavenger hunt
3. oh happy day
4. Raleigh Typhoon 2 - Typhoon Tweeple Team