Funny things happened on my way to an Escape Room tonight…
Several things fell into place for this plan to work, I finished enough work in the work office to hit a nice stopping point. We left at 5:15 PM, we were going to hit some 5:00 PM traffic, although we were going in the opposite direction, one of the traffic notification signs warned us of an accident up a head a few miles, and we went on an alternative route. It was in the middle of the alt route that I thought to myself, hum, we probably all need to be at the Escape Room place at the same time, or they won’t “lock us in”. Brief panic ensued, but traffic on the alt route was working in our favor. We pulled on to the street the Escape Room was on, and as an added bonus a parking spot opened up in front of the location. With all of that going our way, we walked into the Escape Room location 60 whole seconds early!
I have been to 3 Escape Rooms over the last few years, and I’ve gotten out of 2 of them. They can be fun, challenging and often just as aggregating as they are exciting. This one had a lot of stuff in it, and most of the doors and secret compartments were activated by magnets that opened up after you solved some series of clues. There were 7 of us in this room, ranging in age from 48 to 12, and there were a lot of styles to attacking this room. Some were all about speed and getting through as much stuff as possible, screaming out numbers and letters to solve some puzzle in another room with no regard for documentation or process. Others found ways to write things down, cross off ways that didn’t work and even found places to put clues that had already been completed. The combination of attacks worked sometimes and other times just had one group, moving out of the way, while the aggressive clock racers screamed louder.
In a larger sense, locking yourself in a room with 7 other people and telling them to cooperate in order to get out on time seems like a great way to build trust and community. Or maybe just one extra martini when the whole thing is over.
Be Good,
- Chris