Huenefelds retire from Escape Aurora

Almost six years after Dan and Linda Huenefeld started inviting people to try and solve mysteries in a timed escape room experience just off the downtown square, the couple announced this week that they are retiring from Escape Aurora.
Owning and running such a unique business has been a rewarding adventure for the Huenefelds, who both agree they made friendships and created memories they will always cherish.
“We put a post on Facebook and Instagram and we were both just amazed at the long list of comments we got from people,” Linda said in an interview just before closing night on Saturday. “All but one I readily recognized and could remember them coming in and who they were, so we made a lot of friends with people we would never have crossed paths with. That’s been good.”
Dan, a farmer by trade, said he’s always enjoyed the challenge of problem solving, so applying that logic to creating and running an escape room as “game masters” was something he thoroughly enjoyed.
“I love problem solving because that goes with farming just by nature, always trying to figure things out,” he explained. “Linda is very good at creating puzzles, but the mechanical part, how to build it, that fell on my lap. She comes up with a lot of good ideas so it’s been a good partnership.”
In fact, the Huenefelds first came up with the idea of starting an escape room business after having so much fun completing five games over four days on a trip to San Diego back in 2017. On the plane ride home they decided to give it a go, and within the next year Escape Aurora was opened in the former Salmon Auto location on 12th Street.
“All our kids and a few others helped with construction, but largely it’s been a Mom and Pop operation,” Dan shared. “It’s been a Friday and Saturday date night for the two of us here together for six years and we’ve enjoyed it. We’re grateful for the opportunity and I’m grateful for all the times we laughed together. 
“It turned out that it was just a good family activity and we wanted to share that with friends and the community,” he continued. “I feel like we’ve done that. It’s been a wholesome activity for a lot of people.”
Escape Aurora debuted in August of 2018 with two rooms featuring Lost Teddy, an entry-level challenge, and Baker Street Mystery, which was rated a 10 out of 10 on the difficulty scale.
“It didn’t take us long to realize that here in Aurora, the Midwest, that was just too hard for most people who didn’t even know what an escape room was,” Linda recalled. “So we quickly came up with an easier game called Sherlock’s Apprentice and we ran both of those games in the same room, depending on who the audience was.”
The Bank Heist Room was added soon after, and during a three-month pandemic pause Dan had the time to build new walls to create a Boundary Waters game, all of which drew positive response.
“You do see some dynamics coming out of the group when you are watching and listening,” Dan noted. “When you’re trying to solve puzzles you find out who the leader is and that kind of thing, so you learn some things about the groups. 
“In each individual room we would tell people this is maybe a 50 or 60 percent success rate, so there were different levels of difficulty, but the way we ran things is we wanted everybody walking out of that door feeling good,” he continued. “By providing unlimited clues, we had the ability to help people and even if the time ran out, we let them finish the game.”
“The most important thing to us is that people have fun,” Linda added. “We didn’t ever stop the clock if they hadn’t finished the room because we figured they paid good money and it was important to us that they feel good when they leave.”
Dan recalled doing some research before launching the venture back in 2018, when they learned from other escape room owners what makes people want to come back.
“I was surprised that the panel of escape room owners said the number one thing that people feel good about when they leave is not whether or not they solved the room, but how they were treated,” he said. “We tried to take that to heart and just be very conscious of how we treated people. We always tried, as game masters, to make it feel like we were on their side, not against them. We were not trying to stump them. We were trying to help them be successful and have a great time.”

Decision to close
The decision to close Escape Aurora was somewhat bittersweet, though both agreed the time had come.
“For me, I’m feeling stretched too thin, with too many irons in the fire,” Dan said. “This takes a large time commitment away from family and from my farming business, and we felt that pressure.
“I think we were both just saying we need to put more time into some other things,” Linda added, noting that grandchild No. 16 is on the way. “That’s exciting and that’s a priority for sure. We were both looking and thinking about retiring sometime this year, but it was just hard to let go.”
Escape Aurora officially welcomed its last customers Saturday, though the Huenefelds are hoping the business continues on.
“Our love would be for this to continue somehow in this community,” Dan said. “There has been some interest in trying to keep it going so we are going to have to see if we can put those pieces together. There is nothing established yet in that regard, but that is our highest priority. Obviously, it would be without us as owners under somebody else’s direction, but we want to support whoever would be willing to do that.”
The Huenefelds also reported that they have individual games they have acquired over the years which will be available for rent.
“We’ve done a lot of that, with people contacting us wanting to rent something personal for after-proms, church camps, businesses and birthday parties,” Linda said. “We have games from age 6 through teens up to adults.”
“I’m a farmer, not a business owner in town, so this has stretched us,” Dan concluded. “But I just want to say that I’m thankful for us to have had this opportunity. I’m glad we did it.”