Will the Real GeoCHECKER Please Stand Up? GC5HCZ3

I haven’t blogged in awhile.  It’s been very dreary here in Southeastern Michigan.  What free time I’ve had is directed towards holiday shopping and getting ready for the family events. 

Saturday night a new puzzle cache was released (Will the real GeoCHECKER please stand up? GC5HCZ3). It’s a TomasDiaz creation – he only puts out puzzle caches.  He makes you think – no easy grabs here.  You always earn your stripes with him. I’ve spent anywhere from days to months working on some of his and, although I have almost a 1000 puzzle finds, there are many I’m not smart enough to solve.  So when a new one published…..

Again, I saw it on Saturday night, but TaGeez and I had holiday chores to do.  Every time he turned his back, though, I had pencil and notepad in hand.  (He’s so sweet – he kept turning a blind eye and pretending he didn’t notice). It’s so hard not to shout spoilers, but, in essence it’s about 50 or more puzzles within a puzzle.  Some simple.  Some complex.  And, of course, the red herrings and dead ends. Some testing your geocaching knowledge about coordinates and coordinate conversions.  Math.  Science.  Google Earth. Geography.  And then keeping everything straight – there are several times where you have to backtrack to other puzzles to solve later puzzles. As my log later said, it was “brilliantly convoluted”.  Luckily, I made copious notes and took many screenshots along the way.

Cool, eh?  One of the many sites I had to visit

I could only putts around with it Saturday, but, after TaGeez left for work Sunday morning, I sat down to “treat myself” to a few more hours of solving.  You had to solve dozens of mini-puzzles (some within other mini-puzzles) to then solve a larger puzzle by way of another complex puzzle. Call me surprised when I had the final in hand. 

Really.  I sat there on the loveseat.  Stunned. 

There was no way I’d get first-to-find.  We have too many puzzle geniuses in the area (I say with respect) and the cache was 12 miles away (as the crow flies – driving it was probably 18 miles).  Still, I changed out of my jammies and headed out the door.  I solved a TomasDiaz puzzle within 24 hours of release – I was going for it!

Warily I pulled up to the GZ.  Were these coordinates correct? Can this be right?  I don’t see anything. I was afraid I’d show up to find a note that said, “No, you are really wrong.  Go back and start from Square A again!”. Again, I can’t give too much away, but there was a note.  And, eventually, another container.  Inside this one was another paper, but it was a log with a beautifully pristine spot for an FTF signature!

I don’t know if the other seekers were busy with holiday shopping or travel plans.  And I probably should’ve been doing chores of my own.  But as I pulled away with a silly grin on my face, I kept thinking this was the best Christmas gift for me!