Announcer Voice with flowing violin music fading in ~ ~ ~ ~ “It’s time once again for the continuing saga of “The Geo-caching Radio Show”, staring little Timmy and his faithful dog Lassie”.
Music fade ~ ~ ~ ~
Announcer voice-in: “In this episode, Timmy and Lassie are in the forest near their mother’s farm, searching for mushrooms and wild berries to bring back home for the evening meal. It is to be a festive occasion with a visit from their long-time friends, Sky King and his niece Penny, flying in with their plane, Songbird, from their Arizona ranch.”
Deep in the Colorado woods Timmy is bent over a cluster of Chanterelles mushrooms and after savoring a few of them is harvesting his find when Lassie comes suddenly bounding back from a nearby thicket, holding a canvas bag in her mouth.
“Whatcha’ got there Lassie, let’s see” Timmy said, as he finished nibbling on one of the mushrooms.
Timmy took the bag from Lassie’s mouth and placed it on the ground, smoothing it out and commenting, “this is about the size of my lunch box”, remembering he had again forgotten to bring it home with him again after school yesterday. His Mother was not happy with him about that. As he flattened the bag out to read the lettering, he realized there was something inside the bag and it made him a little afraid, thinking there might be a snake or scorpion inside.
Just as Timmy was about to back away his curiosity kicked in as he made out the name 'D.B Cooper' scrawled in with what looked like a black felt tip pen.
“Golly gee willikers Lassie, I know this guy.” “I mean, I know about him.” “He’s the guy a few years ago who kidnapped a bunch of people on a plane and got a lot of ransom money for them and then took off in the plane and later jumped out it with a parachute while it was flying way up in the air. They never did find him or the money.” “Lassie, do you think this bag belongs to him?”
Lassie barked her agreement several times while pawing the ground in front of the bag.
“Well then, let’s see what’s in here Lassie, maybe it’s the money”, Timmy said, excitement in his voice, eagerly reaching for the bag’s strings.
Timmy snatched up the bag and instantly felt like a silly goose; it was way too light to hold the $200,000 dollars Cooper got away with. Still, he knew the bag had something inside; he could feel it. Maybe it’s a map showing where Cooper hid the money, thought Timmy. Or a winning lottery ticket Cooper bought with the money and decided to hide the ticket until the heat was off before turning it in and collecting the mega millions of dollars.
The string was just too tough and the knots too tight to untie, so Timmy dug his trusty ‘Always Prepared’ Boy Scout Knife out of his pocket, snapped the blade open and slashed though the cords with a couple of swipes.
“OK Lassie, this is it” said Timmy, turning the bag upside down, shaking the bag.
“What the heck?” Timmy said, looking at the items on the ground.
Lassie chimed in with a ‘Whoof’, looking at Timmy with a “Should I eat it or bury it" look on her face?
On the ground lay a piece of cardboard, a thumb tack, a single sheet of paper with the handwritten words “X” marks the spots, followed by a bunch of random letters. Timmy couldn’t make heads or tails of it. The last item was a paper disk made of two rings. The outer ring had all capital letters on it with some numbers and the inner ring had just all small letters.
And then it struck Timmy like a lightening bolt! “Holy Shitake Mushrooms Lassie!”
I bet I know what this is, he yelled excitedly, picking up the paper with the printed disk rings. “This looks a little like my Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring”. “And I bet this paper holds the secret code of where he stashed the cash in a cache”. “Lassie, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Barking over and over, Lassie ran around Timmy and thought, “Hot Dogs! I’ll be knee deep in chew bones for the rest of my dog years”.
Fade out as Timmy starts to put the disk rings together to decipher the letters ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Fade in to commercial/Music ----- “Umm Umm Good.” “Umm Umm Good”. “That’s What Campbell’s Soup is, “Umm Umm Good!”
Music fade out.
Announcer Voice fade in (serious tone) ~ ~ ~ ~ “And now listeners, an update.
“Just as Timmy started to decipher the code, he started feeling light-headed and sick to his stomach.”
Timmy immediately realized one of the mushrooms he had eaten earlier must have been a toxic Jack-o-lantern mushroom, a look-a-like of the Chanterelles mushrooms he had been harvesting.”
“Lassie, go home and get Mom and Gramps”, Timmy said just before passing out.
Seeing Timmy lying there, and with a look of understanding on her face, Lassie took off running back to the farm.
Announcer: “Until the next episode, viewers can help Timmy by deciphering the code and finding the stash of cash at the cache for him.” “
“Download the two photos, put the wheels together with a thumbtack and cardboard to decipher D.B. Cooper’s secret message.”
“If you’re able to decipher the message and find the cache, let Timmy know by signing into geocaching.com and logging your find.” “Until next week, this is Bonita Granville saying Goodbye for now.
Fade out ~ ~ ~ ~
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