A bit of stargazing - 4/30/18

Hello from Ithaca! Here I am back again after my two-week sabbatical.  I owe a HUGE thanks to Ol' Fogie for taking over for me so ably.  I am really in his debt for doing such a nice job getting things all set up for me to take a break, and I hope to be able to make some finds on his caches and some of the other Tennesee puzzles he presented us this summer.  Maybe I'll even have the chance to meet him in person, which would be great. 

I realized after the fact that there were two other past puzzle pickers I didn't acknowledge before my break:  rosebud55112, who I met and cached with last summer in Minnesota, and VPPlayer, who I had the pleasure of meeting and caching with a couple of weeks ago during an excellent caching adventure in the Columbus and Dayton, Ohio area.  Here I am with him and his good friend and fellow cacher CounselorTroi.  I'll have a lot more to report from my trip over the coming days, but I can tell you that I really enjoyed being able to meet so many people from that area's puzzling community.  What a great bunch of folks!

I've still got a few weeks to go before my schedule is going to calm down, but I'm going to keep up with things the best I can here.  Today I have for you a puzzle that's just up the road from me in central New York, but you'll think you're looking at the:

Night Sky Over Athens

Tomorrow we'll ...

Life is like a box of crayons - 4/29/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Well, this is my last day filling in for our resident puzzling guru, Jennifer. I hope she’s had a restful and fun couple of weeks and look forward to seeing stories from her break right here in the blog. Thanks to her for letting me fill in and thanks to all of you out there for allowing me into your mailboxes for a few days. Until next time, keep on puzzling.

Cache ya later!

Ol’Fogie

Now for today’s puzzle…  While on a recent caching adventure in Tennessee with yomegranate and jacktn, we were trying to score all the potential smilies near our hotel. There were several mysteries in the area and we solved all of them pretty quickly before bed… except one. I got up early the next morning and headed down to the breakfast area with my laptop and ran Google through its paces trying to determine the key. I have to admit that I never did figure out the significance of the information as presented, but another approach did lead me to the solution. I sent a message to the CO hoping to find out exactly to what he was alluding, but haven’t heard back yet. And, yeah, that is me laying on the ground peering into a drain in jacktn’s DNF log. Anyway, maybe you can determine the true meaning in this spectrum of...

Colors

Tomorrow we'll ...

Childhood Ickies - 4/28/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Children today get a plethora of vaccinations to ward off and prevent many diseases. They get shots for polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella and many other frightful malodies. BUT, this item from Maryland points out one of the most prolific childhood plagues has yet to be addressed by the scientific community: COOTIES! That’s right, that germ or repellent quality transmitted by other obnoxious or slovenly children generally of the opposite sex. It reaches epidemic proportions in every school and every playground, yet we leave the children on their own to fend off this dreadful plight. As such, each child is forced to create their own...

Cootie Catcher

Tomorrow we'll head back to Tennessee and do some coloring.

Oh, the Quandaries! - 4/27/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

  

If you’re anything like me, you look at a difficult puzzle and proceed to spend MANY, MANY hours researching ideas, thinking, over-thinking, converting, encoding, decoding, studying and chasing rabbits down their holes.....often in the whole wrong direction. Today’s Tennessee selection was one of those for me and several of my geobuds when we formed a braintrust to work on this one as a team. But, it’s tough to beat the euphoria when you solve...

A Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma

Tomorrow we'll head to Maryland to fight the dreaded childhood epidemic of cooties.

Bean Counting - 4/26/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

I bet all of you have taken a stab at one of those “guess how many beans are in the jar” contests. Well, here’s one from Virginia that has been turned into a cache! It’s a simple game; just submit a guess and you will be told if you are too high, too low, or correct. It really is that simple. Just find the correct number and you will get the coordinates. That's it... so simple... truly easy. Oh, did I mention that the number is between 0 and 2,147,483,647? Yeah, have fun with...

Bean's Game

Tomorrow we'll revisit Tennessee for a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. My head already hurts.

Extra-terrestrial Cachers - 4/25/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

  

One of the first mystery caches I attempted still remains one of my all-time favorites. The one that hooked me is in my homebase of Knoxville, TN, but I saw that it was based on two other puzzles from the American left coast in California. I spent weeks relentlessly scanning Google Earth trying to find spaceships and figure out the triangulation of the alien pod and thwart the impending attack! Now you can join the Interstellar Defense League and discover that…

Aliens Invade Sacramento

And why…

Knoxville has been invaded by Aliens

Tomorrow we'll be in Virginia playing the bean jar game.

Letter Belts and Pulleys - 4/24/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Today’s California puzzle is an awesome twist on the word search concept. No offense to anyone who likes word searches, but they just don’t move me. So, when I first glanced at this one I almost moved on until I saw that before you can even search for the words, you have to correctly align the given letters. OK, now it had my attention! Dozens of sheets of paper later, I finally cracked the...

Word Safe

Tomorrow we'll check out duel alien invasions in California and Tennessee.

Diagonal Thinking - 4/23/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Today’s Tennessee puzzle is an interesting presentation based on an ancient form of chess known as shatranj. I appreciate those folks that are good at chess and can think many moves ahead. Myself? Well I am by no means a master. Actually, I’m really bad at it; I don’t have the patience for the game and tend to start chasing shiny objects, squirrels or even shiny squirrels in my mind. BUT, make it a puzzle cache and my attention stays focused on the...

Knight Moves

Tomorrow we'll visit the left coast of America and try to crack open the word safe.

We're All Crazy Here! - 4/22/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

This is one of a series of puzzle caches near my homebase in Tennessee that will produce some appropriate GeoArt. The series was started by PokerLuck, who then passed the torch to Elorabug who has continued on. The series, currently consisting of 49 caches, provides a variety of mysteries and coordinate obfuscating techniques. I encourage you to work your way through all of them as they may introduce you to a puzzle type you haven’t encountered before. We puzzlers are a different breed of cacher, foregoing 100 park and grabs to spend hours working on a singular mystery to gain one smilie. Just goes to show you that...

WACH43 - We're All Crazy Here!

Tomorrow we'll be back in Tennessee for a game of ancient chess.

What’s In a Name - 4/21/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Today’s selection takes us to Spain. Calella is a seaside city on the Costa del

Maresme, 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the coast between Sant Pol de Mar and Pineda de Mar. The mystery involved here is determining the Roman villa that was...

Calella Antiqua

Tomorrow we'll get crazy in Tennessee.

Artificial Intelligence - 4/20/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Technology amazes me. I remember when I was a kid watching The Jetsons and wondering just when we would have flying cars and robot maids. So far things haven’t quitegotten to that point, but hovercraft and Roombas make me think we are on the cusp. And I am awestruck at all of the things that exist now that I couldn’t imagine 30, 20 or even 10 years ago (hang on, gotta catch a video call on my wrist while I watch a movie through my Google glasses). OK, I’m back; where was I? Oh yeah… I have even gotten very used to having Alexa control things in my house and become comfortable (lazy) letting her just handle stuff for me. Which brings me to today’s puzzle. Most of you have probably come across something similar, but I have found that each one of this type is a bit different and this one in Virginia is active and not nearly as impossible as some others. But to solve it, you will have to...

Stare Into the I.R.I.S.

Tomorrow we'll explore ancient Spain.

Latitudes, Longitudes and Rotations - 4/19/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

As cachers we spend a lot of time dealing with latitudes and longitudes. But we seldom, if ever, stop to think about our home planet in terms of rotations and poles and axes. Well, today’s puzzle from Tennessee is designed to get you pondering more about this big ball of confusion. So, grab a drink, pull up the cache page, put on your thinking cap and try to solve it...

As the World Turns

Tomorrow we'll explore artificial intelligence in Virginia.

Color Guard - 4/18/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

After attending Geowoodstock last year, I was roaming around the area scoring smilies with yomegranate and jacktn when we met up with a group of cachers from Florida. We all sat around the gazebo where we had found a hide and talked about our likes and dislikes and discovered that one in their group, dcutright, was also an avid mystery seeker. She had been working on one near her homebase involving flags but the solution was eluding her and she asked us to take a look. Now, jacktn is way into geography and flags; so we hunkered down until we got the green light on the checker, our small contribution to bringing the world together even if it was only caching worlds. Thus, I encourage you to think globally as you work on...

Banner Man

Tomorrow we'll be in Tennessee to get edumacated about Earth.

There’s no place like 127.0.0.1 - 4/17/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

According to Wikipedia, the word geek, “typically connotes an expert or enthusiast or a person obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit.” Hmmm, sounds a lot like puzzles cachers, don’t
ya think? Yesterday I mentioned my geomate, yomegranate. Now, yom is also a puzzle enthusiast and, while we usually work together on other people’s caches,things can get testy when it is one of our own. We don’t give nudgessingularly; any hint one of us would give to the other is shared on the cachepage for all to see. So, sometimes it is difficult to not get annoyed at the CO when they are sitting beside you on the sofa just smiling at your frustration. (In all fairness, I have caused her such grief as well.) Yom was smirking largely on this one as she knows how much of a geek I can be, and here she challenged me to...

Master Your Geekdom!

Tomorrow we'll raise the flags in Florida.

When in Rome - 4/16/18

Greetings! My name is Ol'Fogie and I am from Knoxville, TN. I LOVE puzzles in general and I LOVE caching, so mystery caches are truly a passion for me. The first thing I do every morning is check out the Geocaching Puzzle of the Day and explore the wonderful ideas and imaginations of other players out there in this big beautimous world. So, when Jennifer asked me to fill in for a couple of weeks while she took a much-deserved break, I was ecstatic!

Anyway, here is today’s offering…

When in Rome - 4/16/18

If you ever have the opportunity to attend Going Caching, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is definitely my favorite mega event, particularly when it is held in Rome, GA. The caching community of Rome is loaded with puzzlers and they take it very seriously. I have done many of the mysteries there on multiple visits and still have a plethora to ponder when I return again. One of my favorites from Rome is today’s offering. My geomate, yomegranate, and I spent quite a while working on this one before we came up with just the right tweaking of our theory to score the green light on the checker. So, check out the story of three brothers...

Huebert, Deuteronomy, and Louis

Tomorrow we'll get geeky in Tennessee.

Sliding Around - 4/15/18

Today's puzzle takes us to California for a little game I hope you won't find too taxing (you do have your taxes done, right? ... just two more days to go!).  I've never been too good at this kind of game, but I did work it out eventually.  Too bad a high score here isn't really the goal:

Yams Arcade: Numbers

Enjoy the next two weeks of posts brought to you by my special guest Ol'Fogie!

A Pleasant Picnic - 4/14/18

Today's puzzle takes us to Texas.  Spring is finally starting to think about arriving in upstate New York.  Perhaps before long we'll be able to have a:

Pleasant Picnic

Tomorrow we'll ...

Announcements - 4/13/18

I have several announcements to pass along today, so I'll get right to it.

I received notice a couple days ago that the next installment of the Cliff Knowles mystery series by The Rat is hot off the presses and ready for us in either kindle or paperback form.  You can read a summary of the plot and indulge in the kindle version here for less than the price of a Grande Caffe Latte.

If you haven't noticed it yet, geocaching.com's puzzle-checker has been upgraded to a single box entry format.  I know that's something a lot of folks will appreciate.

Starting on Monday I'm going to be temporarily turning over the reins to a guest puzzle-picker from Tennessee, Ol'Fogie. He and I started corresponding last fall after I read a log he wrote in which he discussed going to make a FTF on a puzzle cache I had blogged about here.  As I usually do, I let him know that I'd love it if he'd pass along any puzzles that he thought other people would enjoy.  When he volunteered to guest-post for me sometime I thought that sounded great, as I really enjoyed the submissions by previous guests fastflyer and SilentP42.  Things have gotten very busy for me lately so I checked in to see if he were still interested, and he replied that he'd be willing to work up two full weeks of submissions.  I am looking forward to a little break and since I've been queuing up his submissions I know you're in for some fun.

Oh, and I guess you're expecting a puzzle for today.  Let's see.  Here's one that features an early story by the aforementioned author, The Rat.  This one's not a mystery, but a story of:

Love

Tomorrow we'll ...

Can't ... Stop ... 4/12/18

Even though I have more Ohio puzzle caches ready than I will ever be able to find during my time there, I can't seem to stop looking at more of them.  And if I hadn't looked at this nice little piece of geoart I never would have known that the Wright brothers were originally from Dayton.  And now you know too.  So here's one little piece from near the beginning of the series:

B-Dayton Flyer

Tomorrow we'll ...

The Captain of Her Heart - 4/11/18

Here's another cache I spotted while working on puzzles in central Ohio.  I don't think I'll spoil anything by saying that it references neither the "Captain" nor the "Her" I was thinking of:

The Captain of Her Heart

Tomorrow we'll ...

Alphabetography - 4/10/18

If you thought I was a little late still talking about Planetary Pursuits yesterday you might be interesting to know that the deadline has been extended until next weekend which may actually give me the chance to make my way to the fnish line.  Today finds us in Ohio once again, for a puzzle with a bit of:

Alphabetography

Tomorrow we'll ...

Planetary Caching - 4/9/18

So how are you doing with your planetary pursuits?  Today we travel to Ohio for a pair of "PlanetaryCaching" puzzles in a series I first featured way back in 2014.  I returned to it recently while planning my upcoming puzzle run there.  You can start with the original, if you like, and then try your luck with:

Zyx the Alien – Part 3, Sightseeing

and

Zyx the Alien – Part 4, Decoy  

Tomorrow we'll ...

Down the Garden Path - 4/8/18

Today's puzzle takes us to Ohio.  After years of puzzling there remotely I'll finally be able to cache there soon and am really looking forward to it.  Not only will I be able to log some finds on some great puzzles, but I hope to meet up (and maybe even cache) with some of the folks whose work I've enjoyed for so long.  Here's hoping nobody leads me:

Down the Garden Path

Tomorrow, another Ohio puzzle.

Music to your ears - 4/7/18

I apologize for the delayed post ... I just got distracted and thought I had gotten everything in order.  Musical tastes may vary, but I have no doubt that today's Virginia puzzle will have you saying:

Now That's What I Call Music!

Tomorrow we'll head to Ohio.

That's Noteworthy - 4/6/18

Today we travel to Massachusetts for:

A Noteworthy Cache

Tomorrow we'll ...

We have a decision! - 4/5/18

Today's puzzle takes us to Colorado.  We've been anxiously awaiting our daughter's decision about where to go to grad school for her Ph.D. in Chemistry and were excited to learn yesterday that she's made her choice. We're super-duper proud of all she has accomplished and know she's headed for great things.  I'm very pleased to post today's puzzle:

In Honor of My Daughter

A little Chemistry humor ...

Hot off the Presses - 4/4/18

Here's a brand new California puzzle that just appeared last night while I was searching for something to share with you today.  The format is basically the same as one I posted about 10 days ago, but this one is a much larger:

Repository

Tomorrow we'll ...

A train leaves ... - 4/3/18

Remember those famous math problems that start out "If a train leaves ..." ? Well, if you find yourseslf in the situation posed in today's puzzle from Norway, you had better have been paying attention:

A bridge almost too far

Tomorrow we'll ...

Planetary Pursuits - 4/2/18

There was certainly a lot going on this weekend, with the confluence of Easter, Passover, April Fool's Day, and a lot of geocachers making "Planetary Pursuits."  It always surprises me how many of us (myself included) are motivated by the challenges and virtual souvenirs that geocaching.com comes up with.  I've made it to Uranus, but don't expect to get any farther.  We did have a small meet and greet here in town and it was fun seeing some folks I hadn't seen in quite a while.  Today's puzzle was created to coordinate with the event, but the timing didn't quite work out.  Here's a chance for you to engage in a:

PLANETary Pursuit Puzzle

Tomorrow we'll ...

Easter Egg Hunt - 4/1/18

Today's cache takes us to Florida for a little:

Easter Egg Hunt

Tomorrow we'll ...