Ideas for new puzzle caches used to come easily to me. Nowadays, not so much. When I do have one, I'm reluctant to let it go.
Back in March I had the idea for a puzzle that would make use of a specific encoding of letters as digits. I wrestled with it off and on for three months, trying to find a way to make the idea work out right. I came up with this.
Using eight two-character postal abbreviations for states, fill in the blanks:
40 . 111 .
After I had finally finished the puzzle, I realized there were three problems:
- I hadn't figured out how to supply the eight state abbreviations
- I hadn't provided a clue so that solvers would know how to encode characters as digits
- The coordinates of the hiding place I had in mind wouldn't work with the puzzle
I had been so focused on a particular idea that I hadn't ended up with a complete puzzle. This is a prime example of tunnel vision.
But how to solve the three problems? Why, with three more puzzles, of course!
Eight State Abbreviations
Click an image to embiggen.
Clue
Which one of these numbers does not belong?
Final Coordinates
When you succeed in filling in the blanks, visit the coordinates. Determine these six digits by exploring the area in which you are standing:
A = The width of the area in feet divided by 15 (discard any remainder)
B = The number of conduit clamps divided by 8 (discard any remainder)
C = The number of screws used to hold up each panel
D = The length of the area in feet divided by 42 (discard any remainder)
E = The number of screws on the underside of each light fixture
F = The number of light fixtures
The final is 1.ABC minutes north and 1.DEF minutes east of the posted coordinates. You can check your solution, if you wish, with the first coordinate checker that I've ever employed.
The container is cylindrical, about twice the size of a standard-issue Seawind match container. It is lying against the west side of the trunk of a tree. The tree's trunk is about six inches in diameter, and has no branches for the first 6-8 feet or so. The tree is surrounded by hundreds of pinkish-white rocks, the size of a fist and larger. The container is covered by some of those rocks. It is wheelchair accessible.