The motivation
From the day I met Zoë I knew I wanted to propose and more stressfully, I knew I wanted to do something special. But the more acquainted we became with each other, the more I determined I needed to do something *really* special. You see, this is no ordinary girl we're talking about. This is a stomping, Alaskan deck-handing, super-nannying, worldwide traveling, english teaching, epic snowboard shredding, family value encapsulating, punk rocking, van lifing, masters degree acquiring, pot luck hosting, adventure seeking, brassy seductress named Zoë Day.
Zoë introduced me to the rather ancient concept of writing post cards. It was one of her most refreshing traits; a much needed break from nauseating text messaging and cliche hallmark templates. An amusing picture and sturdy piece of paper you can put directly in the mail, what else could you ask for? It was in writing one of these cards that I had an interesting thought. What if I hid a message in the postcards I write her, then one day this message leads to a location where I propose to her? One word from each post card. Fast forward 3 years to me scrambling all over our house only days before I was leaving to start this proposal to find exactly 2 postcards that Zoë did not manage to keep with the others. Sometimes the long game bites.
As time passed I had a few other developments. Zoë's dad, Jonny, worked for several years on the amazing race so she was quite familiar with the concept. We also loved going to escape rooms for date night and Zoë is not shy about traveling, so I figured why not send her to a couple special spots and work in some puzzles? And what if I were kidnapped and she had to come find me? Ideas flooded, this all sounded good in my head as I thought of individual places and people to send her to over the years, but started to look like an impossible feat when Zoë handed me a life calendar last year of when she wanted to have kids by and when we needed to get married. Game on.
I need a ring because you can't propose without one of those says society, so let's get that out of the way (see Ring page). Next, I need to brainstorm. Where exactly am I sending her? How long will she be there? Who will she be with? When is she going and in what order? What is she finding? My original map didn't miss a beat; unfortunately, it would have taken 2 months of nonstop scavenging to get through. That won't work. How about we limit it to two weeks? Oh, and Zoë has a 2 week gap in her schedule between her Bachelor and Masters program. Perfect, May 18th is the day. Let's see that's....6 months away!?!
Okay, I'll start it off in Denver.
- Zoe
Okay, I'll start it off in South Carolina.
I want to draw on themes from our relationship, I guess there are a lot to choose from: Film Noirs, Monty Python, Shakespeare, Mormonism, The Office, The Lumineers, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Avatar, Outer Wilds. Maybe all of them? I know! I can test her knowledge on all of the things I've taught her: morse code, home improvement, radio fox hunting, ciphers, physics. Of course, I don't want to bore the people she's doing these puzzles with, I should probably gear the puzzles towards them too. It was a fruitful brainstorming, but there was a big piece missing. Why am I getting kidnapped in the first place? I need a story...
The storyline
Once upon a time Zoë came to Seattle to see me early after we met and as far as grand entrances go I kinda crushed it. When she walked in my apartment I had a big vase of sunflowers, a postcard, a newly decorated apartment, and a song playing for her called Past Lives on lightly used (but brand new to me) set of studio speakers. This song encapsulated a lot of the feelings I had for Zoë when we were falling. Like we had met before and were destined to meet each other again. So I decided that should be the entire storyline of this scavenger hunt.
I also wanted this story to honor some of her early roots in Mormonism and her favorite things like salamanders, adventure, the Lumineers, and the sun (sometimes I wonder if she is actually a frog). I needed to work myself into this story so I gave my past life a name and a role. In regards to how this story would be told, I wanted it to be in parallel with the scavenger hunt. Playing Outer Wilds was surprisingly one of the most euphoric experiences of my life, and since there is a less than 0% chance I'll ever get Zoë to commit to a story-based video game and I really liked the way they told that story, I decided to give her a similar experience in real life. She could use her "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (actually just her phone) to translate tablets at each spot I bury a puzzle. These tablets would be dialogue remnants of an ancient civilization and when translated, would tell her the story.
Being a big fan of big reveals, I wrote the end to have some surprises. The first one would be that these two characters she's learning about were really past lives of us the whole time: obvious. The other reveal is that this weird symbol I kept sticking on everything throughout the race (including some gifts I gave her in the past) and what the tablet script language is based on was the same shape as the sapphire in her engagement ring if you were to look top down. Hits me right in the feels...that'll do donkey.
The race
As much as I wanted to give Zoë a novel experience in each city, I was advised that there had to be some consistency between cities since Zoë was going to be doing this almost every day. So I came up with a scheme.
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Each time she gets to a new city she would go find a locked *location chest* and inside would be a location to go to the next city.
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She would have to carry the chest to other spots throughout the day where locked *puzzle boxes* are buried and marked with the tablet sign to solve them and move to the next location.
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*Hint Mushrooms*, which you could also scan with the *Hitchhiker's guide a.k.a Zoe's phone*, would be stored in special locations (conveniently somewhere you can eat and sit down to think) to help open the puzzle boxes.
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Early sketch PhotoWhat it became -
Once she was done with all of the puzzles, there would be a *finale* in each city that would give the final clue to open the chest.
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In order to introduce her to this whole concept, I would have a voicemail of me getting kidnapped and a pin to the first location chest. This chest would not be locked and would simply have a plane ticket to Orlando where my mom graciously agreed to pick Zoë up and drive her up the entire east coast. At the first stop in Gainesville I'd have a letter for her to get her started.
Lastly, I needed a hint line when she gets stuck, so I created a burner number and saved it in her phone as "Anastasia's Spirit" which is a character from the story. She could text Anastasia anytime who would either point her in the right direction or be more straightforward when required.