Skip to content

Real Gone | Clang Boom Steam Multi-cache

Hidden : 1/1/2007
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   other (other)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:


Well my baby's so fine
Even her car looks good
from behind

Oh yeah! Well my baby's so fine
Even her car looks good
from behind

But the train that took
my baby -
It went clang, boom and steam
-Waits



If you go to the posted coordinates, you will not find a cache, although you may get an idea where the real caches are...



Pictured is a cover from an Appleton's transcontinental train travel guide dated 1869. I'm not sure if there's a connection between the author and Sarah Appleton (wife of Amos Lawrence) or her cousin Samuel Appleton, both of whom this town was supposedly named after [actually, Samuel was conned into believing the town was named after him to coax him into founding Lawrence with a huge monetary donation], but it's an interesting image nonetheless. Plus, it contains a hint as to the whereabouts of the final cache. Check out Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum to get a little historical perspective on mid-20th century rail travel across the United States. It will transport you to another time and place.

Now back to Tom. Waits has an affection for doing the same, crossing over to the seedier side of life, sketchy places of his imagination where carnies and caricatures reside en másse. An often conjured scene is the intersection of greasy steam engines with shadowy boxcars and pedestrial vagabonds, vagrants and multiple personalities. While this song is rather abbreviated in content (much like the final cache) there are many other Waits songs replete with magically murky stops en route. From Adelaide (Australia)"From Melbourne to Adelaide on the overlander with new fangled buffet cars and faster locomotives" (Town with no cheer, 1983) to Sheyboygan "Only once in Sheboygan did he miss at a matinee on Diamond Pier (Circus, 2004).

I decided to add a couple of verses to the song just to see where this train of thought would take me.

father Matthias, shaking in his tracks
endrails split at the beam
where's he been?

there's sweet Charlette, hard wind against her back
and clutching at her beads
what's she seen?

while youngblood Kenilworth
from down South Island way
sits, taking in the mean
- seldom|seen



This is a multi-part puzzle. The first part is to locate 3 mircos, we'll call them Clang, Boom and Steam. Clues necessary to find these cache stages are on this page. When you find the micros you will find a number representing the distance from each to the final cache. Logically, if you find just one of them it will be rather difficult to pinpoint the location of the final. If you find 2, then you're chances are much improved. And if you find all three micros, well then, your train's come in. To receive credit for the cache, you'll need to log the find as normal PLUS e-mail me the distances you found for Clang, Boom and Steam.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Pynat: ° Obbz: ° Fgrnz: ° Svany: ¬

Decryption Key

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

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)