Marcus Tegtmeier turned a few heads at Yia Yia's Tuesday night when he zipped by on his blue bike.
It was quite a sight.
With his face painted like a skull, he pedaled past diners outside the downtown pizza joint with the baskets on his bike - the one with a banana seat and sissy bar - filled with such things as Styrofoam, an old book and a jagged piece of wood.
Some would say the stuff was junk, but for Tegtmeier they were prized possessions.
They were, after all, on the list - the scavenger hunt list.
Tegtmeier was competing in Acid Free's first costumed Dumpster-diving scavenger hunt on bikes.
Acid Free is an online culture magazine (acidfreelincoln.com) run by college art student Tegtmeier and Justin “Ragdoll” McDowell, an Arbor Day Foundation employee. The idea behind acidfreelincoln.com is to expose young people to what the Star City has to offer.
“We always hear how there's nothing to do in Lincoln,” Tegtmeier said as he pedaled up O Street toward another Dumpster. “That's not true. There's a lot to do, and a lot of it is inexpensive or free.”
Like the scavenger hunt.
The magazine drew only three contestants - Tegtmeier, McDowell and longtime Lincoln musician Jon Taylor - for its first hunt, but Tegtmeier still felt it went “pretty well.”
“It would have been better if we had more people obviously,” he said.
Starting at the Nebraska Union, the trio had five hours to Dumpster-dive for the 22 items on their lists.
Each item was assigned a point value. A radio, for instance, was worth 30 points, while a bicycle was worth 100 points.
The catch: Contestants had to carry found items while riding their bikes.
Tegtmeier scored most of his stuff - the radio, children's toys, etc. - at an O Street trash bin.
Taylor was more tenacious. The former Mercy Rule guitarist won with 286 points, followed by Tegtmeier (156) and McDowell (141).
Acidfreelincoln.com plans to do it again next year. They will publicize it more and shorten the competition.
Tegtmeier and McDowell tuckered out at 9:30 p.m., opting to hang out at a downtown sandwich shop. Taylor went home to watch “Damages” on FX and returned later.
“Jon suggested two hours,” Tegtmeier said. “Make it really fast, with people on a mad dash to find what they can.”
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