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Meet My Family Mystery Cache

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pneuma: corrupted. My 2nd cache. Sad.

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Hidden : 3/6/2005
Difficulty:
4 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

My first cache was quick and easy. This may take you an hour. Enjoy your trip through the Oakland cemetery walking the memories of my childhood. Initial coords will take you to a bench where you can park alongside the road.

You will need a compass or have a good sense of direction to get to the final co-ordinates. You'll probably need a print out of this page to work the challenge. Next to the bench you'll find the graves of Jack & Louise, my mom and dad, and Dave and Judy my brother and his fiance. You will need to gather the death dates of 12 of my relatives and from those you will cipher the cache co-ordinates. David was the youngest of six siblings. He and Judy were to be married two weeks from the day they were killed in a car accident. Since they died together you can put their death date down as one. (not the first in the final list). Dad was a man's man and held people spell-bound with his hunting, fishing, trapping and wilderness stories. Mom was a great mother to us 6 kids and a woman who walked with God. We lived just West of the cemetery and this was frequently our playground. Now move to cousin J.B.'s grave. Take a 250 degree reading to the WSW and walk off 60 steps. J.B. (John) was active with WPRS radio until he died and if you're in the age bracket you may remember him giving news, sports casts, etc. Note his death and take a 225 degree reading to the SW and pace off 40 steps. Lester and Doris are my in-laws. They were simple hardworking farm folk and she worked as hard at home raising 3 kids as he did in the fields. My wife is the youngest of the three. Now take a 350 degree reading and walk 120 steps to the NNW. Dan and Della are my grandparents by my dad. They too were simple farm folk and my fondest memories from childhood are of their chickens, garden, orchard, and of course the deep fluffy feather bed. Now take a 08 degree reading N and pace off 70 steps. Lauretta and Mary Alice are my half sisters. Baby Lauretta died less than a month after birth and I never got close to Mary Alice until her latter years when we had her over for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now take a 138 degree reading SE and step off 83 steps. William and Sarilda are my great grand-parents, parents of grandma Della and they had 8 children so you can see I have lots of Hawkin relatives in the area. Now put all these death dates IN THE SEQUENCE THAT THEY DIED and number them from one to twelve. Here are your final co-ordinates: Take about 20 steps East and relax on a nice bench to cipher them: (proper order would be William #1 and Mary Alice #12 you fill in the rest)
N 39.39.ABC W 88.01.DEF
A=3rd number in the year number 8 died.
B=3rd number in the year number 2 died. Easy huh?
C=Subtract the 3rd # of # 4 from the last number of #10
D=Add the 3rd # of #7 to the 3rd # 1
E=Subract the 2nd # of #11 from 4th # of #3
F=Add the last # in the year Della died to the last # in the year Doris died. (hope ya kept the names with the dates)
Before you head off for the cache, or after you find it you might want to try out these options:
1. Take about 16 steps south of the this bench to see where a "celebrity" is buried (BF)
2. Just East of that is Viola and Franklin Beck who were Doctors in Oakland for over 50 years and she delivered me.
3. Hide some small treasure (or trade) on the huge stone just to the East. Let the little muggles find them. I used to climb this stone as a kid and I'm sure some do today. You can put something just over the "T" or the "P" in "Temples".

Extra option: To the NE there is a wrought iron area fenced in and you can see the huge grave marker for Dr. Hiram Rutherford whose house and office is in the Landmarks Complex South of the Oakland square.
Note: You don't have to disturb any stone in the cemetery to find the hidden cache.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Frnepu sbe n "fgbar" jvgu "ZpTertbe" ba vg.

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)