Movie history would read differently if the famous quote was “Forget it, Jake … it’s Omaha.” J.J. “Jake” Gittes is well known for his adventures in Los Angeles, but here he reappears to help you get from stage one to stage two.
STAGE ONE: Work the puzzle below to discover the stage one coordinates. The online verifier is for this first stage only.
The original stage one had a "battery-required" gadget, but there were voltage problems. It's been replaced with a battery-free version where you'll need to provide the power. There's a fallback set of clues in case of malfunction. Please don’t leave trading items in the stage one container, and carefully replace everything as found for the next finder. STAGE TWO: The container for stage two is a small water bottle about the size of a small peanut butter jar. The log sheets are made of Repap, the paper developed in Italy that's made from stone (calcium carbonate), without using either trees or water. It's waterproof, and feels just like you're writing on a sneaker with a ballpoint.
Measuring the distance between two cities is, obviously, contingent on what is used as the actual gps coords of a given municipality. Some sources use the main post office, some (particularly weather-related ones) use airports, others city hall or the geographic center of the city’s boundaries. Many of the most popular sources apparently just use the spot where the cartographer could fit the name of the town.
Let’s say you’d like to travel from Omaha to Lincoln. First off, most online mapping services assume you’ll be using an automobile to get the job done, with some other options being bicycling, public transit or walking.
Asking different sites to simply go from Omaha to Lincoln brings various results:
Google Maps assumes a start at 55th and Leavenworth In Omaha, and a destination of So. 28 St. between J St. and Randolph in Lincoln.
OpenStreetMap uses Douglas St. between 16th & 17th (Omaha) and So. 37th St. & B (Lincoln).
MapQuest, Rand McNally and Yahoo (which I assume all use NavTec data) all start at 19th and Capitol in Omaha and end at 9th and O St. in Lincoln.
Bing takes you from (the hole in the ground that used to be) Omaha’s Civic Auditorium right to UNL’s Memorial Stadium.
One search engine which prides itself on scrupulous accuracy maintains that, as the crow flies, the distance between Omaha and Lincoln is 45.84 miles or 73.78 kilometers. Driving time: 50 minutes at 55 mph. (You DO keep it at 55 on I-80, right?) Keep these assumptions in place for the puzzle that follows.
From Omaha to Lincoln at the speed of sound would take (a) minute(s) and (bc) seconds.
In a ship at 25 knots, it would take (d) hour(s) and (ef) minutes to get from Omaha to Lincoln.
At the speed of light (in a vacuum) the trip would take (ghi) microseconds.
The exact midpoint (again, depending where you start and finish) between Omaha and Lincoln might be 41° 0' 17" N 96° 18' 59" W, just a few hundred feet from NevaP’s “Eastbound Again” cache. There are those who claim the midpoint is here.
For those who don’t like math, you’ll want to know that all the answers may be found by simply using a certain search engine. But which one, and how?
Bonus trivial super-helpful (not!) hint: it will take you about a tenth of a second to get from stage one to stage two, if you choose to travel at the speed of sound.
Stage One coordinates:
N41 18. (g) (h) (a)
W96 08. (d + e + f) (g+c) (b + d)
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
The Great Detectives are back with version 2.0: new graphics, more multis, math and map fun, and more batteries required. The Great Detectives series of geocaches has its own webpage, which may be accessed by using the “Related Web Page” link above. Jake Gittes is the 38th in the series.