On his special day, July 6, I wanted to show my good friend FishinGMCman how much he is loved and appreciated by me and the other north Louisiana geocachers! This guy always has a smile and words of encouragement to lift our spirits, a humorous observation or interesting bit of trivia to entertain us, and a unique perspective to share when anyone needs advice. He is a true team player who strives to include everyone in the fun. Knowing how much he enjoys puzzle caches (heehee!), I decided this would be the perfect way for all of us to celebrate his birthday.
Here is the encryption to be solved:
ODTREYITFFKTOMBXJDKNJKEYITKKKNZZTHTOZBHX
The decryption will spell out a string of digits, which you will enter in the given order for the missing values in the standard format:
N 32° MM.MMM
W 092° MM.MMM
This would normally be a very tough encryption to solve. Since I know everyone wants to solve it quickly and race to be FTF, I decided to put up a sign with the instructions. I had two messages to display on the sign, which together give the complete instructions for solving the encryption. I hurried over to LettersRUs to select the letters for my sign. The manager said that this week’s shipment of letters was delayed, so his inventory was low. Therefore, some of the letters that I was able to get, need to be used in both messages! (I figured that was no problem—I’d just alternate the two messages on a reader board.) Also, when I checked out, the manager gave me an extra letter that I didn’t need for either message, as lagniappe.
Then my bad luck continued--as I rushed out to my car, I stumbled in a pothole, and my bagful of letters spilled out all over the parking lot, as you can see below. I was immediately collared by a personal injury attorney, who wants me to sue LettersRUs over my road rash, so unfortunately I won’t be able to complete the sign. I apologize, but you’ll just have to construct the two messages for yourselves.
You are given everything you need to figure this out logically. You won’t need to research anything other than the technique for using a certain type of cipher. The identity of this cipher and other pertinent information are given in the two messages. Remember my shopping experience at LettersRUs!
Bring skeeter spray. Have fun & good luck!
Congratulations to LSUFan for being FTF on July 9, 2009
