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Homer Goes to College Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

hellifiknow: Homer's College days are over... Time to head home and do something new.

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Hidden : 9/16/2004
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

If you follow the coordinates above, you'll be close to the cache but end up in the same place as Homer - outside of Sears Hardware at SouthPark Mall in Strongsville (he was looking for Moe's but forgot he wasn't in Springfield). A great place to puchase tools, but not such a great place to start searching for this cache.

Homer goes to college and along the way has to solve a puzzle or two. If you know Homer, you know he needs your help. To add insult to injury, the puzzles are hidden somewhere and Homer can't remember where - D'oh!

So, where to start? Fortunately, Lisa was around and knows that you must first solve a word search which will lead you to the coordinates for two more caches containing puzzles and instructions. Finally - those puzzles will each give half of the coordinates for the final location, where it is rumoured that games and more puzzles await.

To find the initial cache, first complete the word search below with the 24 words on the right. You may want to copy and paste the puzzle and word list into a blank document and print from there to prevent the puzzle from breaking across pages as it might if printed from this listing. We don't recommend circling the words on your monitor - but, hey, it's your monitor!

Once complete, starting from the upper left hand corner, and moving left to right one line at a time, list in the spaces below (above the numbers), the shared letters. That is, all letters that are used in two or more words. There are 14 in total.

Finally, decode the coordinates to the first micro cache with the resulting key.

R D I L T E F S T E R E G U L A R H   Word   List
S M E N H J E D U T I G N O L Q L O      
X C A Z U R B A N H I D E C R Y P T   Bushwhack   Logbook
M L W K A C I N O R E V Y H R N R E   Coordinates   Longitude
N I O P T R A D I T I O N A L Y N J   Decrypt   Micro
W E D N I F O T T S R I F E M L P K   Encrypt   Multi
O L I C N E P U Z Z L E B G K Q G T   Event   Pencil
N H F Y A S S E L N O I T A C O L B   Firsttofind   Poisonivy
K S T E V H M C O O R D I N A T E S   Geocache   Puzzle
I C H R H I J Y T R E W A B H K P L   GPSr   Regular
F S C Z Z C N T N I O P Y A W D E K   Hellifiknow   Traditional
I T L U M T A O U N M R K C H E D E   Hint   Travelbug
L A O O N M N C S G E T O J S H U I   Latitude   Urbanhide
L X T E B I B O O I N A O E U S T G   Locationless   Waypoint
E Q V Z T C W M S E O S B L B M I E      
H E E L L R S D M A G P G L W I T N      
V G P S R O E A R W J Y O Y F S A B      
A I D A N H R T R A V E L B U G L L      
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  0   3   9   0   1   4   3   7   8   1   2   6   7   5 

North   41° CI.NAE'   West   81° LC.WTL'
10-Digit Checksum (C+I+N+A+E+L+C+W+T+L)= GUVEGLSBHE (answer ROT13 encoded)

After a few Duffs, Homer recalls the puzzles being in small containers with the final location as a large metal box. The small red bumps on his arms also reminded him that there is poison ivy around a couple of the cache locations - especially the final.

One last thing - The final cache is initially well stocked with puzzles and games. We would prefer if trade items remained puzzle or game themed, if possible.

Good luck, have fun, and happy caching!

Thanks to the Recreation Director of the Strongsville Parks and Recreation Department for permission to geocache in Strongsville City Parks.

Also - special thanks to both Sarah and Chris for the tour of the cache location and their enthusiam and help with this cache.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[Initial Cache Location] FVG ONPX, ERSYRPG, NAQ LBH JVYY SVAQ VG [Puzzle 1] [Puzzle Location] EHA N UVTU CBFG EBHGR [Puzzle Solution] BA GUR SVEFG SRJ CNTRF BS RIREL CHOYVFURQ OBBX [Puzzle 2] [Puzzle Location] PNEELVAT QRNQ JBBQ? [Puzzle Solution] Q'BU [Final Cache Location] ARNEOL FRIRA GRA FCYVG GERR

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)