40 by 40 - Learn To Drive Stick Shift & Try Adventure Rooms Canada

Two more down for the blog today.

First, learning to drive stick shift. I had the basic idea a while ago but I just get so nervous when people are around me that I will stall and look like an idiot. Before AJ got rid of his manual transmission, I drove it a few more times. Enough that I am confident that I can do it if needed and also enough to know that I will always buy an automatic.

Secondly, and more fun, escape rooms. I have been looking forward to doing this for a long time. It seems like an activity designed just for me and, as it turns out, that's pretty accurate.

We didn't actually go to an official Adventure Rooms Canada, but an Escape Room opened up in Barrie and that made getting there and getting babysitting much more convenient.

We went with another couple that we don't see enough who also wanted to try it out. The place is called Perplexcity and although I have nothing to compare it to, the rooms seems pretty good. The rest of the place doesn't quite give off the same vibe, but the rooms themselves are great.

We got a quick lowdown on the story and the way all the different locks work from our gamemaster and he "locked" us in and started the 60 minute clock. Immediately, we figured we'd all just take a side of the room and find anything we could that might be part of it and go from there. I won't go into details because I'm not going to ruin the fun for anyone.

Like I said, this sort of thing is perfectly aligned with my competitive nature and nerdy love for puzzles. I was pumped and moving at lightning speed through the things we found. AJ actually had to reel me in once or twice because I sort of took over and he reminded me that perhaps our friends would like to play too. Ooops.

A lot of the puzzles came fairly easily to me, but when I was stumped or slow at getting something, someone else jumped on it and had the answer. We ended up escaping in 40 minutes and our gamemaster was pretty impressed. Apparently we were the first to even escape that room, never mind with 20 minutes to spare.

I loved it and can't wait to try it again!