"Geocache" is now a legal word in Hasbro's latest official dictionary for the game
(WOOT-WOOT!)
Naturally, I figured this was a good reason to put out a puzzle cache based on this momentous event.
In the gallery, you will find the pic of a Scrabble game in progress. All the terms in the game are familiar to geocachers, though a few may not be legal terms in a normal Scrabble game. Game-players familiar with the game know all about the scoring. Newcomers may wish to research how scoring is done. As per the legal rules, any letter- or word-multiplier square is only used on the first turn that it is used (covered)--subsequent words built off the existing tiles use only newly-covered bonus squares. This being the case, you will need to know the order that the words were placed.
Here's your word list in the order they were laid. Check out the game board to determine their score values:
CACHE
COIN
CITO
GEOCOIN
GEOCACHE
DNF
PUZZLE
SWAG
MULTI
VIRTUAL
EVENTS
FTF
BUGS
STEALTHY
Now comes the fun part: Take the scores of each word and insert them (using some simple math in some cases) into the following format--
North 43* (GEOCOIN) . (EVENTS - CACHE) (BUGS + PUZZLE + VIRTUAL)
West 124* (FOUND) . (FTF) (STEALTHY + GEOCACHE)
Note that one word in the above formula is NOT on the board in the puzzle picture. Using the available tiles remaining (no blanks included), there is only one place on the board to place this word. You will have to figure out where that place is to solve this puzzle.
Simple, right??
Oh, and a big "Thank You" to some local residents who contributed the container for this cache. You can see their house in a pic (also in the gallery) taken from near the final location.