I had a great idea for a puzzle cache, but it didn't work out. My idea was to carve the coordinates into a big field of corn. Solvers would have had to fly over the field to read the cache coordinates.
I liked this idea so much that I hid an ammo case in the Wasatch Mountains (a few feet from a well worn trail) and then looked in the Yellow Pages for someone who could help me with the corn field part. I found a listing for "Conway's Crop Carving" and dialed the number. I explained what I wanted and the owner said he'd be right over.
It wasn't ten minutes before the company truck pulled up. A man of about 70 got out and shook my hand.
"John Conway's the name," he said. "Point me to the field and I'll get started right away."
The man was certainly prepared. He had one of those industrial strength GPS receivers that is accurate to a fraction of an inch. He had a supply of stakes and cord for marking off regions. And he had some kind of miniature chainsaw that he used for chopping down corn stalks.
It took John almost two days to complete his carving. When he was done he drove me to the local airstrip where he kept his two-seater biplane. It was just a short hop back to my field.
I don't mind telling you that I was devastated by what I saw. So devastated, in fact, that I didn't even bother to take a picture of my field. I fumed silently during the flight back to the landing strip.
"What did you think?" John asked when we were back on the ground. He was beaming proudly.
"What are you trying to pull?" I snapped. "That's the most incompetent job of corn field carving I've ever seen."
"I thought you might think that," John replied. "Tell you what. You post the blueprint that I worked from when I carved your field. If no one finds the cache within two months, you owe me nothing. In fact, I'll pay you. But if someone does find the cache, you'll owe me double. Deal?"
"Deal!" I answered. "There's no way anyone will ever be able to find that cache."
"Don't be so sure," John smiled mysteriously. "In the game of life, you never know what will happen next!"
And with that, John jumped in his truck and drove off. I had to walk home.
For the record, here's John's blueprint, which was drawn with black ink on graph paper.
Hopefully it won't make any more sense to you than it does to me. I could use the money.
Congratulations to GeoPooch Sobachka for being first to find.