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Somewhere Over the Litter Box Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

TeamMcG: Time for this one to fade into Geocaching history. Thanks all.

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Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

..........Congrats to yjjohnston for FTF since adopted and reborn!!.........

Note: The Cache is NOT at the Above Posted Coordinates. Please do not open the Stage Caches. Just turn them over to find all the info you need for the next stage.

Somewhere, over the litter box, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.


Young adopted orphan Dorothy hurries down a flat, dusty Georgia road accompanied by her small Geocat, Bubba. “She isn’t coming yet, Bubba – did she hurt you? She tried to, didn’t she? Com on we’ll go tell Uncle Trailerman and Antie Em!" Dorothy rushes into the bustling family farm where Antie Em and Uncle Trailerman are counting chicks and trying to find the “That’s Not Fair!” cache. Dorothy attempts to tell them about their nasty neighbor, the dreaded Almira Gulch.

Dorothy: Just listen to what Miss Gulch did to Bubba. She…
Antie Em: Dorothy please. We’re trying to find a microcache.
Dorothy: Oh, but Aunt Em, she…
Uncle Trailerman: Don’t bother us now, honey. This old GPSr’s goin’ bad and we’re likely to lose a smiley face.

The upset young Dorothy isn’t taken seriously by her aunt and uncle so she takes her problem over to the farm’s hired helpers, Amazingracer, Trez, and Yellow Jacket. Amazingracer is attempting to fix a broken-down wagon by performing a Laplace transform on a 3rd order differential equation.

Amazingracer: Now look it, Dorothy. You aint usin’ your head about Miss Gulch. Think you didn’t have any brains at all! When you come home, don’t go by Miss Gulch’s Place. Then Bubba the Geocat won’t get in her garden, and you won’t get in no trouble, see? Your head ain’t made of straw, you know.

As Trez feeds the pigs and Dorothy tight-rope walks the top of the fence, he encourages young Dorothy to have courage:

Dorothy: I’m not afraid of her.
Trez: Well, next time she squawks, walk right up to her and spit in her eye. That’s what I’d do.

Dorothy topples off the fence into the pig sty, causing Trez to frantically haul her out from squealing pigs and rescue her (and more importantly her GPS) from being trampled – and then faint at the fright of his own bravery. After being rescued, Dorothy realizes: “Why Trez, you’re just as scared as I am!”

Yellow Jacket, who had been pre-occupied with “tinkering” on a metal contraption that looks like a common every-day electrical box, joins the commotion. Antie Em is disturbed by the three shiftless farm hands, “Stop jabber-wapping, there’s work to be done. Then Yellow Jacket, boasts, “When I get my cache-finding machine working I’ll be famous. Someday they’re going to erect a statue to me in this town.” Antie Em interrupts him, “’Well, don’t start posing for it now.”

After giving everyone some freshly baked trail-mix bars, Aunt Em rebuffs Dorothy sternly for causing trouble… “Now Dorothy, stop imagining things…find yourself a place where you won’t get into any trouble.”

Somewhere, over the litter box, skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.


Dorothy’s dreams are shattered as stern-faced, ugly Almira Gulch peddles up in her creaky bicycle to complain about Dorothy to Uncle Trailerman… “That Geocat’s a menace to the community, I’m taking him to sheriff Mtn-Man to see he’s destroyed.” She then presents a sheriff’s order allowing her to take Bubba the Geocat. As Uncle Trailerman stuffs Bubba in to the wicker basket on the back of Miss Gulch’s bicycle, Dorothy screams… “No, no, I won’t let you take him. You go away, or I’ll bite you myself…You wicked old witch!” Miss Gulch pedals away. But a little down the country road, the redoubtable Bubba pokes his head out of the wicker basket, jumps out, and scurries to the farm and into the window of Dorothy’s bedroom to be embraced tightly by the teary-eyed Dorothy. Fearing that Miss Gulch will return to claim Bubba the Geocat, Dorothy decides to take control of her own destiny and run away with Bubba… “They’ll be back for you any minute. We’ve got to run away.”

Without hesitation, Dorothy packs her backpack full of carabiners, travel bugs, and CITO containers, grabs Bubba the Geocat and her GPS (but forgetting her compass) and hurries down the country dirt road. On their way, Dorothy and Bubba encounter a horse-drawn carnival wagon with the inscription “Professor GeorgiaGeoDude, Acclaimed by The Crowned Heads of GGA, Let Him Read Your Past, Present & Future in his Crystal Palm Pilot.” Out steps a white-haired Professor GeorgiaGeoDude, dressed in formal clothes and wearing a white smock and bedroom slippers. He miraculously divines (guesses) her plight…

Professor GeorgiaGeoDude: You’re traveling in disguise, no, that’s not right…you’re looking for a multi-cache, no, I’m wrong…you’re running away!
Dorothy: How did you guess?
Professor GeorgiaGeoDude: You look like you’ve been “Down Under, With Cold Feet.”
Dorothy: Why, it’s just like you could read what’s inside of me.

Dorothy wishes to join him in his adventures… “Can we go with you and see all the Crowned Heads of GGA?” To find an answer to her request, GeorgiaGeoDude consults his crystal Palm Pilot. After Dorothy is instructed to close her eyes so he can be “better in touch with the infinite,” the Professor rummages through her basket and finds a printout of a cache from geocaching.com with a picture of her kindly Aunt next to the farm’s white picket fence. Cleverly, he reports a painful vision of a house, a picket fence, and an elderly woman.

Professor GeorgiaGeodude: Her name is Emily.
Dorothy: That’s right. What’s she doing?
Professor GeorgiaGeodude: Why, she’s crying. Someone has hurt her. Someone has just about broken her heart.
Dorothy: Me?
Professor GeorgiaGeodude: What’s this? Well, she’s putting her hand on her heart. Oh, she’s dropping down on the bed.
Dorothy: I have to get to her right away!

Dorothy turns and hurries her way back to the farm as a fierce storm begins to brew and looms on the horizon. As she approaches, the farm hands, Trailerman, and Aunt Em prepare to take cover in the safety of the storm cellar. Auntie Em shrieks and calls out repeatedly for Dorothy, and is finally dragged down into the storm shelter by the men. Dorothy runs into the house, continually calling for Antie Em, and stumbles into her bedroom. A window shutter breaks loose and hits Dorothy in the head, knocking her unconscious.

When Dorothy wakes up, she opens the farm house door to go outside. There are brilliant, oversized, garishly-colored flowers, lovely ponds, low buildings, tiny thatched huts, and a spiraling yellow brick walkway the extends into a central Plaza. “Bubba, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Georgia anymore. We must be somewhere over the litter box”

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me,
Where troubles melt like lemon drops.
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.


Dorothy looks down at her GPS, but the wicked witch of the west has changed the coordinates she needs to get home. Please help Dorothy and Bubba the Geocat find their way back to Georgia so they can attend the next GGA meeting. Solve the following puzzle to help Dorothy and Bubba the Geocat find their way to Emerald City and back home to Georgia.

In what year was the MGM classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” Released? Answer = A
In what year was “The Wizard of Oz” first shown on TV? Answer = B
In what year was L. Frank Baum’s children’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” published? Answer = C
How old (in years) was Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in the film? Answer = D
How many letters are in Dorothy’s last name? Answer = E
How many Academy Awards was the film nominated for*? Answer = F
How many Academy Awards did the film win*? Answer = G
How many characters in the film were played by Actor Frank Morgan? Answer = H
How many letters are in the last name of the actress who played Almira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West? Anwser = I
How many letters are in the last name of the actor who was removed from the role of the Tin Man because of a near-fatal allergic reaction to the silver make-up? Answer = J
How many letters are in the name of the Wicked Witch of the West’s head Winged Monkey? Answer = K
How many times must Dorothy tap the heals of her ruby slippers together to get home? Answer = L

*not including the special award for Outstanding Juvenile Performer

Now take your answers and adjust the above lattitude and longitude as follows to get the correct:
Add the following to the Latitude: (B - A) x E + (F x I x J)
Add the following to the Longitude: C – (D x G x H) – (K x L)

Important Note: Ignore the decimal when adding the above (i.e., 33° 53.786’ + 1234 = 33° 55.020’)

Somewhere over the litter box, bluebirds fly,
Birds fly over the litter box,
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the litter box,
Why oh why can't I?


NOTE: When you find the cache leading up to the next stage, no need to open the containers. Just turn them over and you will find all you need to reach the next cache.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)