There is no cache hidden at the posted coordinates. However, the coordinates might bring to one's mind the idea of "escape"... Phil Connors found himself trapped in a recurring time loop, reliving the same day over, and over, and over again. February 2, Groundhog Day. "I wake up every day right here... in Punxsutawney, and it's always February 2. There's nothing I can do about it.", It seemed for a long time that Phil might not be able to escape his predicament.
In 2020, Groundhog Day is happening on a special "Palindrome Date", one that reads the same backwards or forwards: 02022020. And every year, mrGreen317 enjoys the now "classic" film Groundhog Day, one that he knows pretty much backwards and forwards... So once again, here is another Groundhog Day themed puzzle for the local geo-map.
For this year's puzzle, you might need to know some general events from the movie. At least enough to be able to determine which of the following statements is True or False from the screenplay. For those that do not own or wish to rent this film, there are some internet resources that might prove helpful, some of which are provided after the puzzle text for your reference (others may be available by internet searches). Each group of questions refers to one 'day' of events from the film, assuming the numbering of days with just those days of the time loop that are portrayed on screen (and presuming that other 'days' likely occurred between some of these days that were just not included in the script - there are all kinds of online theories about how many days Phil was really stuck in the time loop, but those discussions are not relevant to the puzzle).
Your final coordinates will be at N 40 AB.CDE W 078 FG.HIJ
A: Day 1
- On the first day, down in the bed and breakfast dining room, Phil and proprietor Mrs. Lancaster make chit-chat over the latest sports news.
- On the way over to the festivities, an old friend, Ned Ryerson, recognizes Phil and tries to sell him Groundhog Day mementos.
- The Pennsylvania Polka plays while Phil approaches producer Rita and cameraman Larry to do the Groundhog Day broadcast.
- After Phil (the groundhog)'s prediction is made, Phil Connors sarcastically quips, "...television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather."
B: Day 2
- On the second day, when things seem to be repeating themselves, Phil asks Mrs Lancaster if she ever had deja vu, and she tells him that, yes, she experiences it all the time, especially every February 2.
- When Mrs. Lancaster asks Phil if he will be checking out of the Bed and Breakfast today, Phil laughs at her, saying, "Of course I will, you silly woman!"
- Phil is concerned something might be wrong with him, so back at Gobler's Knob he asks Rita to give him a good hard punch in the stomach to make sure he is not dreaming.
- Phil tells Rita, "I really feel weird." She replies, "Let's just do this, then we'll talk." Phil starts his (now second) introduction to the news report, saying "It's Groundhog Day ...again..."
C: Day 3
- On the third day, things are repeating all over again, but this time, back on the street, Phil decides to ask Ned Ryerson if he ever experienced anything like this, and if there was some kind of advice Ned could give him.
- At Gobler's Knob, since he has already done the broadcast twice before, Phil tells Rita, "When you get finished, meet me in the diner."
- At the diner, after Phil tells Rita about his day repeating now for the third time, Rita tells Phil, "I think you should get your head examined if you expect me to believe a stupid story like that, Phil."
- Phil visits both a doctor and a psychiatrist, but neither offer much help; at the end of the day, he winds up throwing all cares to the wind once he realizes there would be no next-day consequences for his action; he gets put in prison after a wild ride around town with Gus and Ralph after drinking at the bowling alley.
D: Day 4
- Phil wakes up the next day back in the Bed and Breakfast to find the cycle is starting all over again, but he is not in prison from his escapades at the end of Day 3; he is so pleased with his new-found 'freedom' that he even kisses Mrs. Lancaster in the dining room after learning there will be no police out looking for him.
- At the diner, Phil is sitting with Rita and she is disgusted with him as he is acting on his new-found freedom from consequences by gorging himself on hamburgers and hot dogs.
- When Larry comes in to ask, "Are you guys ready? We better get going to stay ahead of the weather," Phil responds with, "Yes, we need to get back to Pittsburgh this time around."
- Before exiting the Diner, Phil meets a girl sitting there, Wilma Watkins, who he asks out to an early lunch before leaving town.
E: Day 5
- The first thing Phil does on the fifth day is to slide down the bed and breakfast banister, grab the toaster from the dining room, and run outside with it.
- At Gobler's knob, Phil meets Nancy Taylor, who he now has information from meeting on Day 4 at the diner (but she would not remember it), and he uses that information to make her think that they are old school classmates, setting up a romantic liaison with her for later in the day.
- On his date later with Nancy, Phil takes her to a Wrestle Mania show, having found out that it was a secret favorite of hers.
- At the end of the date, Phil uses experience gained from his repeated days to make an ice sculpture for Nancy, and she asks him to marry her.
F: Day 6
- Phil has some fun with the man at the top of the stairs by slapping him on the back of the head this time around when he asks Phil about an "early spring".
- Phil pushes Ned Ryerson into the puddle this time around, saying, "Take that Neddy... Now THAT'S a doozy!"
- Phil uses his repeated knowledge of the schedule of things going on around town to take a bag of cash from an armored truck when the two guards are distracted by a roll of quarters spilling on the ground.
- Phil uses the bag of cash to buy his date an expensive dinner, and afterward they spend the evening in the TV room of the bed and breakfast watching Wheel of Fortune, an episode Phil has seen hundreds of times by now.
G: Day 7
- Phil considers trying to ask out Mrs. Lancaster on a date, and she almost accepts, but when there is smoke coming from the kitchen, she runs out to check on the problem, muttering something about "the deja vu might be burning!"
- After his one-day dates with other women, Phil turns his attention to getting to know Rita better, starting a series of repeated days asking her things about herself that he would later use to get closer to her in subsequent repeats of the day; when at the production truck, he starts by asking her, "Rita, if you only had one day to live, what would you do with it?"
- Phil laughs when learning of Rita's college studies in medieval German poetry.
- When Rita asks what to drink to, Phil says, "Let's drink to love's eternal glory."
H: Day 8
- Phil leaves the Bed and Breakfast early, while it is still dark, to learn to play piano, as that is the only time open in the piano teacher's daily schedule.
- Instead of going to the diner this morning, Phil decides to go practice bowling and get better at it to hopefully impress Rita.
- When Phil suggests they drink to "the groundhog", Rita says, "I always drink to world peace."
- Phil takes Rita on a crazy ride around town to relive the misadventures he had on a previous day with Gus and Ralph.
I: Day 9
- Before getting drinks with Rita, Phil spends time with Larry at the bowling alley, and that is where Larry orders a martini, shaken, not stirred.
- "Sweet vermouth, rocks with a twist" is Rita's favorite drink, which Phil by this time has found out and pretends to also like it to win her affection.
- Phil says of Rita's favorite drink, "It always makes me think of Rome... the way the sun hits the buildings."
- Getting further along with Rita this time, they are in a candy shop, and Phil ask her, "Would you like some white chocolate?" Rita responds, "Yuck! Don't make me sick." Phil files this away in his memory for the next time, "No white chocolate."
J: Day 10
- Phil shares with Rita his idea that he wants to live in a big city in the future, which Rita finds a romantic suggestion, saying that she agreed and was hoping for a move to New York or Philadelphia after her producer stint was over in Pittsburgh
- When Rita tells Phil she studied nineteenth century French poetry, this time around he wows her with a quote of a poem - in French.
- Later in the evening, Phil and Rita are out building a snowman, when they engage in a snowball fight with some local kids.
- Rita and Phil share a wonderful moment of dancing in the pavilion, the highlight of their relationship so far; the relationship then goes south when Phil pushes it too far (followed by a montage of Phil striking out with Rita on subsequent days and getting slapped by her day after day).
Some possible resources: (and these are just suggestions if you need help)
RECOMMENDED https://youtu.be/K6kXx674Evc : A very interesting edit of all the days of the film in 'simultaneous' fashion. This might be helpful for those not as familiar with the film (and it provides a condensed view), or it may prove to be a very fascinating look at what all those day cycles might look side-by-side with each other. The various days of the time loop are numbered within the video for reference.
https://idoc.pub/documents/groundhog-day-transcript-vlr070xkdjlz : A transcript of the lines from the movie.
https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/movie/groundhog-day/summary : A scene-by-scene summary which is pretty good, but be very careful of this resource with a number of ads and popups. Avoid it if you are concerned about pages that overuse these types of ads/marketing tricks.
There may be others to investigate, but also check out the Wikipedia article of a general overview of the film if needed : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)
NOTE: There is a very early script ("screenplay") floating around the internet that may come up on some Google searches. Since this is an early script, it does not bear a lot of similarity to the final film and will not be a very good resource to use.
A geo-checker is provided for you to verify your solution. The geo-checker will provide a hide hint. Using the checker is recommended considering the number of neighborhoods within 2 miles of the posted coordinates. Please, NO NIGHT CACHING at this location. Obey any signs found around GZ.
A big thank you to e-r-h for the container for this cache. The container was received as part of a gift from the geocacher during Profbrad's 2019 Bison Exchange (GC8E271).
A congratulations on FTF goes to m3a9, ellehcim510, and CachedIronSkillet. Way to "...get up and check that hog out there!"
Don't forget to check out GC82Z9X, 2019's Groundhog Day puzzle if you happened to have not logged it yet. GC7HPAE is the 2018 Groundhog Day puzzle, still available for finding and logging (2017's puzzle has since been archived).
This is a Green-Hippo cache