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SINCE 2020

Back in 2016, a friend suggested to Puzzle Rides’ founder Katie that they “buy a golf cart together” that she could use in Prescott in the summer, and they could use in Scottsdale in the winter as a taxi-like service. Golf carts had run around Old Town Scottsdale for several years at this point, so it seemed like a fine idea…until the friend decided to no longer participate a few months into the arrangement.

Undaunted, Katie saw something more in the golf cart business than just being a taxi, and began to experiment in Prescott with different ideas – some more successful than others! An instant success in December of 2019 was “Sleigh Rides”. The golf cart was decked out like a sleigh, and tours were given by “Santa Joe & his ReinDog Charlee” to look at Christmas lights while sipping hot chocolate. Sleigh Rides sold out…and Katie learned a lot about running tours. Not wanting to compete with existing tour companies, she conceived the idea of Puzzle Rides after visiting a local escape room in January 2020. Over the next few months, the very first Puzzle Ride was written: Hijacked by Science. Test rides were done and enthusiasm was high. An opening date of Friday, March 13, 2020 was set… only for the world to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic on March 12th, 2020.

By summer it was apparent that outside was the only “safe” place to be, and Katie headed north to Prescott where she recruited Shawna as her partner. On July 5th 2020, Puzzle Rides gave its first ride. Puzzle Rides would go on to do a total of four rides that month, but saw a leap to sixteen rides in August. By September, Puzzle Rides Prescott was booking consistently, and in October Puzzle Rides opened in Scottsdale. As the weather turned colder in Prescott, carts were moved south, but the quiet first weeks of January resulted in mounting bills. Facing tough decisions to continue or close shop, Katie settled for the former. She sold her personal collection of Barbies and antiques to pay the January bills, when unexpectedly the call came that her mother had died. Her widowed 81 year old father had Parkinson’s, so she moved him from Florida into her Phoenix home. It was later that same week a hyper-local community blog featured Puzzle Rides…and the bookings started pouring in. By February, the business started to hold its own; from March 2021 they’ve never looked back.

As a former team sales trainer for over a decade, and with 10,000 hours on golf carts from 2016-2021, Katie took Puzzle Rides in a new direction in September 2021 with the Puzzle Relay, a premium team building concept. After a year in development, the proprietary “After Action Report” set Puzzle Rides apart as providing actual ROI for a teambuilding event – a first in the industry. Moving into 2024, we are excited to expand nationally as Puzzle Rides and Puzzle Ruckus Teambuilding…one with golf carts (or other special rides) and one without!