But I always wanted to try it. So when my cousin invited me along during a recent visit up there to see family, I jumped at the chance.
The rules (as I understand them) are basically this: You get permission from Fox Control via your CB radio to join the game....
You get a clue as to where the fox (another car in the game) is hiding. The fox gets on the CB every few minutes with clues that describe landmarks or streets within two blocks of where they are. The first car to find the fox shines their headlights on that car, and then has five minutes to run off and find a new spot while all the other cars pull over and wait for the next game.
Again, I love Cheyenne -- spent a lot of time there as a kid and I'm related to half the town -- but this kind of game can really only be played in a city that size. For one -- the CB range for playing is as big as the city limits, two -- you can actually almost get to the other side of town within that five minutes, and three -- if you describe something like a Walgreen's in Cheyenne, there's only two (here in Colorado Springs, there are 28).
So it's perfect. Like really, really perfect. And there are TONS of places to hide, and lots of really great clues you can give for those hiding places. It's a game that's lasted since the height of CB radios to now, and it's still played up there by a lot of fun and great folks.
Even though I was technically an out of towner... (folks from Wyoming call us "Greenies" because of our green license plates, and it's always said with a sneer because apparently Colorado folks are notorious for taking over their favorite fishing and hunting spots)... I still had fun figuring out clues. Like I hear over the CB -- "Alien who likes cats" and I think really hard, and shout "ALF!" and then the two locals in the car yell "Alf's Liquor!" and off we go to find the fox before the other cars do.
We joined the game late, but still found the fox within our second game. Then we ran off and hid nearby and tried hard to think of good clues for where we were. "We're near Olive St... Ok, how about 'Popeye's Girlfriend'?" We got found there pretty quickly after a few clues, and then it was off on the hunt again.
The best one was when we found Fox Control, who goes by "Papa." He had a really hard spot to find, and it took us forever to find him. He kept getting on the radio and teasing all of us because he kept seeing us drive right by him, and even though he was in a giant truck no one could see him. After we finally did, we took off from there and found the best spot of the evening right by the cemetery and a memorial chapel (hence our first -- albeit offbeat -- clue: "DOOON'T YOOOU FORGET ABOUT ME.").
This game is pretty much exactly like hide and seek, especially since we were sitting in the dark and giggling as we saw car after car with a CB radio antennae drive by without seeing us.
For the cemetery, our clue was "2 by 8 by 6," which are the dimensions of a grave plot. The street Maxwell was nearby, so our next clue was "Good to the last drop." We were a block from 21st, so that clue was "Blackjack."
We had the pleasure of being one of the longest hunts that evening before we were found. It was a blast. I told my parents all about it the next day, and they couldn't believe there were still CB radios around in use.
I got to learn some neat CB radio codes too, even some that are specific to the foxhunting game. Like, you have to ask Fox Control permission to temporarily exit the game (so you're not driving around while there's a car trying to hide) like if you have to pee. That code is a "10-100," and I heard it used this way:
DUSTY ROSE: Break fox control. Dusty rose requesting a 10-100.
FOX CONTROL: A 10-100??? But you just had a 10-100 ten minutes ago!
DUSTY ROSE: When ya gotta 10-100, ya gotta 10-100.
Apparently, if you need a little more time, it's a 10-200.
I even got to have my own CB radio handle. I got dubbed "Tagalong Pixie" since it was my first ride. And I can't wait for my next one!
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