This puzzle cache is a tribute to my favorite piece of art at Denver International Airport.
The City and County of Denver has a “one-percent for art” ordinance that allocates one percent of the design and construction budget for any public works project to fund public art installations, in order to make public spaces more appealing.
Denver International Airport – the largest and most expensive building project in Denver’s history – has produced a number of memorable works. Leo Tanguma’s vibrant and thought-provoking murals are alternately praised and vilified, and fuel many a conspiracy-theorist’s nightmares. Luis Jiminez’s striking and intimidating “Mustang,” stationed outside the terminal along Pena Boulevard, is most famous for killing its’ creator. My favorite, however, is Gary Sweeney’s modest, “America: Why I Love Her.”
Gary Sweeney was a customer service agent for Continental Airlines back in the 1990s. He had just spent a year travelling the country, revisiting many of the off-beat roadside attractions he remembered from family vacations of his youth and snapping black-and-white photos with a box camera. He then created a wonderful celebration of the oddball tourist "traps" that dot the lonely byways of America.
You are looking for two large wooden maps of the USA in one of the halls of Jeppeson Terminal (the big tent-like building, if this is your first time at the airport). The maps are on the 5th floor, in one of the short hallways that connect the baggage area with the atrium. The art (and therefore the cache) is NOT on the secure side of the security screening area. It is available to anybody, whether they have a ticket or not. If you are flying into DIA, you will be able to visit the cache AFTER you leave the secure area. Look for the following roadside attractions on the maps and then solve the puzzle to get the coordinates for the final:
A = Coon dog graveyard
B = Grandma Prisbey’s Bottle Village
C= Wonder Tower
D = Hippie Memorial
E = Bible bird show
F = World’s Largest Ball of Twine
G = Whiskey Museum
H = Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
I = World’s Largest Termite
J = Dan Blocker Memorial Head
K = House on the Rock
L = Birthplace of the Jackalope
The container is not at the airport, but some distance away. The container is small. Do this cache when you are arriving, not leaving. The final is at these coordinates:
N (J+1) (E*4).C(G-1)(I+5)
W (B+50) (H-K).A(D-13)(F+L-2)
You can check your answers for this puzzle on http://www.geochecker.com/index.php?code=9298810d2e62f9a2cd76973ec7cab419&action=check&wp=47433558585041&name=416d65726963613a20205768792049204c6f766520486572&visitcount=1
To dig deeper into the wonder and mystery of America's roadside attractions, please click the "related web page" hyperlink near the top of this page (just below the ratings).