All of the caches in this series have original coordinates on local freeways and highways, hence the common element in their names. Obviously, the caches are not hidden at the given coordinates.
NOTE: When this cache was replaced, in May of 2018, it was moved, so a new cipher was generated. If you solved this before the Thomas Fire, that solution no longer works. A new cipher, with the new coords, replaces the old one. We also activated the auto-updater for the coordinates.
Ciphers are, perhaps, the most common type of puzzle used in Unknown caches. They range from very simple alphabetic substitutions, to very complex multi-substitutions, using both the Roman alphabet and other symbols. In this first lesson we will look at simple substitutions; in later lessons, we'll tackle more complex methods of enciphering.
Let us state at the outset that ciphers are *not* codes. Codes use a term, phrase, symbol or some other device to represent anything from a single word to an entire sentence or paragraph. Ciphers transpose one letter, number or other symbol for exactly one other letter. There are variations and hybrids, but this is the gist of the difference.
The system used by Groundspeak for enciphering cache Hints is a simple substition cipher, of the type known as a Rotational Cipher, or a Caesar Cipher. The latter name is used in deference to General Julius Caesar of ancient Rome, who used simple substitution ciphers to disguise communiqués to his field officers, as well as dispatches to his superiors in Rome.
The term "Rotational Cipher" (abbreviated to ROT on a cache page) means that the alphabet has been rotated a certain number of places from its standard form. Let's take a closer look at this. We'll start by lining up two alphabets, one on top of the other, with 'A' above 'a', 'B' above 'b', and so on...
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
It is "traditional" to let the letters on the top row represent the enciphered letters, and the bottom row to represent the message letters. This is why upper case is used for one row and lower case for the other: it keeps things clearer. When enciphering, one works from bottom to top; when deciphering, one works from top to bottom. If the first letter of your message is 'p', then you look along the bottom row, find 'p', and look at the letter above it. If the first letter of the enciphered message is 'D', then you look along the top row, find 'D', and look at the letter below it.
Geocaching uses a rotation of 13 (ROT 13)...
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m
It can be folded in half, saving space, as A=n and N=a, M=z and Z=m, and so on. Rot 13 is but one of 26 possibilities. Julius Caesar commonly used a rotation of 3, thusly:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c
It should be noted that the Roman alphabet of the time did not have the letters 'u' or 'i'; 'v' stood for both 'u' and 'v', while 'j' stood for both 'j' and 'i'. In modern times, the 26-letter alphabet is usually used, but be aware that some puzzle caches use the older alphabet, and they don't always tell you!
In the above example, C=f, but Z=c, so it cannot be "folded back" on itself in the way that ROT 13 can.
In any puzzle cache that uses *only* a rotational cipher, there are only 25 different possible transforms: the 26th is A=a, B=b, etc. which is a pointless cipher. This makes your job as solver fairly easy, as you only have to make, at most, 25 attempts before you will find the one substitution that works. Naturally, this doesn't make for much of a puzzle, so the difficulty will likely be only a 2-star, as this one is. If the CO (Cache Owner) wants to make it harder, there are a number of ways to make a Caesar Cipher harder to break. We'll deal with some of those in future lessons. For now, here is a simple substitution cipher; break it successfully, and the coordinates for this cache will be revealed. To make it just a bit more difficult, the entire message is concatenated: given as one long string. The break in the line is there solely to keep the string from running off the page. Concatenation is fairly typical of most Caesar Cipher messages, as it eliminates word breaks, thus eliminating one means of guessing some of the words. It will be up to you to figure out the rotation, and the word breaks; neither is going to be very difficult. Look for repeating patterns that might represent common words, especially ones likely to be used in geocaching. Remember; we are teaching you how to do these, so we want you to break this easily 
Also, we should mention that there are websites that eliminate a lot of the mechanical work of deciphering. And one more thing: ROT 13 was not used, but you probably already guessed that 
XYBDRDRSBDIPYEBNOQBOOCDGOXDIYXOZYSXDYXOREXNBONDGOXDIXSXOWSXEDOCLIGOCDYXOREXNBONKXNXSXODOO
XNOQBOOCDGOXDIPSFOZYSXDPSFOREXNBONKXNPYBDICSHWSXEDOCCDYZCWKVVLBYGXBYEXNMYXDKSXOBSXCZYBCDYZ
The cache is right along the road, three or four feet off the pavement. Bring your own pen.
Good luck! Have fun
