Step 1 is of course to solve the crossword puzzle below.
Step 2 is to find a word/concept that pairs well with certain answers in the filled-out grid.
Step 3 is to allow that word to lead you appropriately to numbers.
Step 4 is to follow the numbers to two words (not in the puzzle).
Step 5 is to enter those two words, without spaces, into Certitude; you'll then receive the actual coordinates for the hide location.
We hope you have fun with this sort of whimsical puzzling! By the way, there's no need to print the grid in color: the red and blue are relevant only to the theme of the puzzle and have nothing to do with its solution.
Here’s to the Red, White, and Blue!
ACROSS
1 Troop groups
6 Rds.
9 Before Abraham
13 Not major
14 Poison, English, and Boston
16 Gardner who had his Medal of Honor rescinded and who prosecuted Johnson Chesnut Whittaker
17 34 Street, Hon, is known for them
19 It precedes “the season to be jolly”
20 A remark sans wit?
21 Israel’s fourth Prime Minister
24 Half a good-bye?
25 Brisbane’s UTC+10
28 Once the jumping-off point for the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trls.
31 With Exit, Sartre’s literary expression of the existential concepts set forth in Being and Nothingness
32 Word tripled after “Bongo la, Bongo” in a song by Sinatra
33 Headaches are the most common reason to go there!
34 With The, Brit Marling’s 2016 Netflix drama series, in which she also stars as Prairie Johnson
36 Nyle Steiner’s wind controller, an electronic musical instrument
37 With parts, what 48D, metatarsal bones, and distal phalanges are
40 Some applicants for admission to Gallaudet Univ. must score at least 2+ on this Lang. Prof. Interview
42 Sumerian myth, the divine personification of the sky, ancestor of all gods in Mesopotamian religion
43 What is playfully forbidden to pass, sometimes?
44 Hosp. section for some infants—or assoc. for cachers opposed to micro containers?
46 1500 chi (Chinese feet)
47 Ben Haith’s red, white, and blue creation with a starburst that represents a new beginning for all African Americans, a star that represents freedom, and a curve that represents a new horizon
51 Author of The History of the Standard Oil Company and a tireless crusader against lynching
52 To, for, or by every one of a grp. (and frequently appearing after a price)
53 Strangely, a solemn promise or a profane or offensive expression uttered angrily
54 Kappelhoff or McNulty, to nearly all their fans
57 Disfigure
58 Since 1789 it has included “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”
65 Karel Čapek’s classic sci-fi play, which premiered on 2 January 1921
66 “Who ___ 2 U” from Afrodisiac (2004) by Brandy (Norwood)
67 What you might find at Cahokia SocialTech + ArtSpace in Phoenix founded by Indigen. Women
68 Ed who played Grant, Capt. Davies, and Claus
69 The Hollies’ “All I need is the ___ that I breathe and to love you”
70 Strong’s 5055
DOWN
1 Designation for John Wesley’s people today?
2 Primary US agency responsible for biomedical and public health research, founded in 1880s
3 Imiprothrin, Cypermethrin, and Petroleum Distillates are ingredients ___, Ant Killer
4 The less formal French you
5 They were once jrs.
6 Ape or monkey
7 Canadian French-language sports specialty channel owned by a subsidiary of Quebecor Media
8 Your sib could be one
9 ___ Lay Dying, Faulkner novel of 1930
10 First Spanish golfer to win the U. S. Open
11 Respecting
12 Last word of the title of novel Richard Henry Dana wrote after spending two years at sea
15 Apt adjective for Will Ferrell’s Buddy
18 Short for a children’s book about trains?
21 Homophone of 13A
22 Persian mathematician and astronomer’s rhyme for bough and thou
23 It might modify league or room
25 Sometimes the beginning of space or sol
26 The Bard of Ayrshire’s whiskey, no doubt
27 Rooibos or chamomile
29 Called
30 Crusoe’s creator
35 He and his loyal men of HMS Bounty all reached Timor alive, after a trip of 3618 miles
38 Superlative, “one for the ___”
39 Canadian/Australian Rhiannon Fish in “The 100”
41 Thin, narrow piece of a fence or blind
42 Smooth- or groove-billed blackbird in the cuckoo family
45 Super-fast aircraft, maybe?
48 It sits above the heel bone
49 Tidier
50 Stage before pupal
54 You’d find it before clytus, jansei,oxylus, or swanepoeli
55 May 1st is international awareness day for anorectal abnormalities, which include imperforate ___
56 Rambling, implausible story—or the stuff skeins are made of
57 With two of these and a hypen, you have a dorado or common dolphinfish
59 Every golfer would love for his number for this stat to be 18
60 Flag adopted in this southernmost African nation in 1994, whose Y is its only symbolism
61 ___ straw extract may reduce inflammation and improve brain function and mood
62 ___’s goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate fossil fuel usage in heating and ground transp.
63 If it’s of sufficiently high grade, it can be mined, refined, and smelted profitably
64 It operates a global sys. of trade rules and settles trade disputes among its 164 members
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.