The Luminaries
Several years ago, I left Muncie and traveled to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Here there were no bright city lights, highway lights, or anything. For the first time, I gazed into the night sky with my unaided eyes and witnessed the most inspiring view. There was the Milky Way in its full splendor, so bright that you felt you could actually touch it. I could see stars that I did not even know existed. The night sky was so pitch black and the stars so vivid that it made you dizzy, frightened, awe struck, and speechless all at the same time. The sky, stars and all actually touched the ground until you could not tell where one ended and the other begun. This is the one thing I truly miss the most from Arizona; the wondrous sky. Trust me, there is nothing around here like this!
It is no wonder, the Greeks named these Luminary objects, the brightest stars seen by the unaided eye. There is such an order to the heavenly bodies. It is so amazing that you are actually looking into the past at objects that may no longer exist or have evolved into something very different.
To solve this puzzle and locate the GPS coordinates you will need a little knowledge of the Constellations, nothing a good geocacher can't solve. Once you have found the solution, it will lead you to a bit of interesting Muncie history and to the coordinates of the final cache.
Walking down memory lane can be boring at times and yet if you stop to think, there are significant happenings in this Middletown, USA. The quiet, unnoticed work that the Little Red Door does for cancer outreach and education for the community is a statement to the unsung heroes. Downtown Muncie was a bustling center of shopping, banking, restaurants, movies, theaters, and parades as I grew up. I would go with my family on Saturdays and spend the afternoon "window shopping" and eating sugar cream pie at the soda shop inside the Woolworth's Dime Store. Then doom, by way of the "strip malls" hit the area. The downtown was empty. Many stores closed and were boarded up or torn down. Like Aries, the selfish and foolhardy city developers decided to ram beautiful buildings like the Rivoli Theater and Ball Stores to the ground. It is nice to see the downtown beginning to slowly awaken. There is a great spot downtown where maidens can sit with their mothers, sisters, friends, or alone and create beautiful pottery. Time has allowed the slow crumbling of many icons. Now our city leaders are as determined as the ram to preserve the valuable icons that still remain; such as, the critical repairs to Tuhey Park that is now underway. I spent many hot and steamy days swimming with my friends at this city swimming pool. Some of my friends were twins.
After moving to Arizona, I found something that you will not find around here; scorpions. These little critters may be small, but they deal a good punch. Arizona also has its share of rattlesnakes and mountain lions. There are several good farms and ranches south of Phoenix. Here you can find all types of crops including cotton, corn, and orchards. You will also find herds of Black Angus bulls, Llama and Ostrich. That's right, Ostrich herds. I guess the ranchers who herd ostrich make loads of money from the feathers and the eggs. Move over Little Red Hen, there is a new bird in town! No matter where you go in Arizona you will find many twin peaks and mesas. A famous telescope, known the world over can be found at the top of Kitt Peak. You may even find a thirsty bull wondering among the cacti. This area will be void of large commercial ranches, but you may find small family homesteads nearby. With patience, stealth, and luck you may see a majestic ram standing watch over his herd of long horn sheep. These sheep are on the endangered species list. These beautiful animals are now protected for all to behold.
I hope you have had fun figuring out my little story.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
I hope the final cache will be a good spot for travel bugs that need to move on. There are two bugs in this cache as well as some other interesting tidbits to get things started. I wanted this one to be fun, not too difficult, and as muggle proof as possible.
Enjoy !