"It's true I'm pretty clever, and I'm something of a rascal, but
all that's well hidden under this always easy and natural disguise
of behaving like a fool."
-Don Quixote
Many people know that Lewis and Clark began their journey
together in St. Charles, but few know that Don Quixote, the
elderly, idealistic knight, who set out on his old horse Rosinante
to seek adventure, and the materialistic squire Sancho Panza, who
accompanied him from one failure to another, left behind a cache
during one of their many (mis)adventures in St. Charles, MO,
too.
During his travels, Don Quixote's overexcited imagination
blinded him to reality: he thought windmills to be giants, flocks
of sheep to be armies, and galley-slaves (muggles?) to be oppressed
gentlemen. When the hero returned to La Mancha, and only at his
deathbed, he confessed the folly of his past adventures and told of
the caches he left behind...including one in St. Charles.
The cache is not located at the above
coordinates.
You will need to follow in Don Quixote's footsteps and gather
information left behind after his tilts with local 'beasts' and
such. Each piece of information gathered will lead you closer to
your Dulcinea...the cache.
There is ample parking near each area and each area should be
accessible to folks of all ages and most abilities.
Clue A: At the above coordinates you will find the first
'giant' with whom Don Quixote tilted. How many blades does he
wield?
The giant's mood may affect 'weather' you need to wield a sword of
your own to conquer him...If you're lucky, you'll catch him
napping.
Once you've defeated the giant, project a waypoint from the
posted coordinates (A*1.5)*(A+2) meters at a bearing of
A*(A+1) degrees...
Clue B: You should now find yourself near a 'mountain'
partially surrounded by a 'moat' and guarded by various types of
ancient 'dragons.' Our hero believed these beasts were holding his
fair Dulcinea captive. How many 'dragons' did he have to battle
to save his true love?
As you circle the 'mountain' and its 'moat' stay sharp...some of
the 'dragons' lay low in order to surprise weary travellers.
Once you vanquish all the dragons project a waypoint (from the
waypoint projected using Clue A) ((A*B)+(500/(A*B)))*A
meters at a bearing of (B+4)*A degrees...
If you've made it this far, you'll find yourself facing five
members of the 'green' army who cornered our hero and
attempted to keep him from crossing the bridge and continuing his
adventure. Initially overwhelmed, Don Quixote got down low, snuck
up on the quintuplets, and successfully defeated the army before
leaving behind a cache in honor of his fair lady, Dulcinea.
Please replace the cache as you found it...Dulcinea's a shy girl as
is her cache...neither likes to be seen by anyone but her hero!
Happy Tilting!!!
While you're in the area, check out the
New Town Webcam Cache, too.
The cache is placed with permission from Mike Cordry and the
St. Charles Parks
Department.
Original cache contents: Dougieniles' CacheBus! geocoin, Geocaching
patch, FTF gift, Charter Communications paperclip, logbook and
pencil.
FTF Honors
to Nickel01 and her trusty scribes Crazy4Moose and
CycleKen!