Hey guys! I have made it back to my computer so I thought I would write a little recap of our spoiling day yesterday to accompany the pictures WP posted above. I hope this is the right place to post it.
Originally it was believed that teams would go to Toronto City Hall to rappel off one of the buildings, as per the permit discovered online. I was not far from City Hall, and since Walking Pneumonia was headed to the airport, I headed there around 9AM. After looking all around city hall, and staring at the roof for a while, it was pretty apparent to me that TAR Canada was not coming to City Hall after all. There was a lot of local news there, and it turned out in the morning there was a press conference by the Deputy Mayor (i think) and later in the afternoon the Mayor of Toronto showed up for a press conference. There is a lot of political scandal going on at City Hall right now, and judging by the amount of media there, I didn't think they would come. I texted WP who told me that teams had arrived but was unsure why they had not been released. Finally, after several hours, teams were released from the Toronto Airport (YYZ) and WP overheard that they were headed to the L Tower, which he then informed me.
I googled L Tower, it is an iconic looking building in Toronto, but I was sceptical because it is still being built and is a construction site. I grabbed a taxi (who thought I was crazy for heading to a construction site and tried to ward me off) and headed toward the L Tower on Yonge and the Esplanade. The taxi didn't think he could get me too close, so he went to pull over about 2 blocks away and let me out when I noticed a team with their camera men trying to flag down my taxi! I freaked out (fan girl moment!) and quickly gave the drive some money, jumped out, and told them they could have my cab as I was leaving anyways. They asked me to hold it as they were trying to get the cab pulling up behind me, which ended up stopping. I was able to snap a few pictures of Team #1 (first team I saw, not necessarily their placement) and then luckily I heard them frantically tell the cab driver to take them to 277 Gladstone Ave, which on a quick google search revealed to be the Cadbury Adams factory (yum! Chocolate). I texted WP, and proceeded to head toward the L Tower in hopes of spotting the other two teams, with no luck. WP offered to grab me on his way to 277 Gladstone, and as I waited I noticed a man walking with a camera man, carrying a clue box (picture above in WP's post) and they placed the clue box on the corner, filmed the clue box, picked it up, and walked back to the L Tower.
WP picked me up and we headed on our adventure to Cadbury Adams. When we got there, we saw the cluebox and the race flag on the door (see pictures above). Some very lovely production people were unimpressed with our picture taking and tried to discourage us, but we were not swayed. I estimate we were about 10-15 minutes behind the Team #1 who I saw get in the cab. We hung around Cadbury Adams for a bit, we knew there was atleast one team still inside as their cab was waiting for them. After a while, I think close to an hour, a team (Team #2 for the second team I saw that day) came running out and tried to take the cab that was waiting, no luck though. They quickly found a cab and took off. The cab driver that was waiting stayed a while longer, and then left as the team inside was taking a long time. The final team we saw (Team #3 of the day) came out of the building around 230 and ran down the road to find a Taxi.
We followed them as far as we could, but lost them when they took a quick turn onto the highway. We believe now that they were headed to the zoo. Just a general observation, after seeing Team #1 get a taxi and head to Cadbury Adams, we did not see them again! When we left to follow Team #3, production could be seen packing up and leaving. We were not far behind Team #1, so I'm not sure what happened to them. We didn't see them arrive (or any teams arrive), but we saw Team 2 & 3 leave, but not Team 1.
Sorry for the long post! Overall, it was so much fun! Such a cool experience for me as someone who has been following (although not posting) RFF for years.