Simple Enough

All I was missing to finish Wheel of Challenges was an EarthCache and a Mystery. Mystery caches are all over the city. Annoyingly so, actually. Austin has a very persistent crop of puzzle solvers and (more importantly) puzzle makers, meaning that there’s a plethora of Mysteries out there of various difficulties. This is also a city of natural wonders, meaning that there are EarthCaches aplenty; all I would have to do was pick one and be on my way, which was exactly what I did on Monday. I went to a relatively new subdivision (I think it was only about ten years old), and parked beside a stream to learn a little about drainage basins. Of course, it was Austin‘s fortieth day of hundred-degree temps this year. The stream was nothing more than a ditch filled with brown grass. Regardless, I began taking headings as if water was rushing through the culvert. I learned that the border between Travis and Williamson Counties was partially based on a division between river basins. I went over to a dry reservoir pool and noted the direction in which it would release. I amalgamated all the information and sent my answers on to the CO. I was right about everything except the direction of flow of the stream, which is not surprising since my skill at reading moisture-caused wear and tear on concrete is of questionable provenance.

Yesterday, I decided to tackle a Mystery. I could have gone the easy route and logged a completed challenge, but why? I certainly had time on my hands, so why not go find an unsolved one? Of course, as I stated previously, there are a lot of puzzle makers around here. There are Mysteries around here that I’ll never solve. In the muggle world, I qualify as a pretty good puzzle solver. Among our little cosa nostra, however, I am little more than a babe in the woods. There are so many that I don’t even have the slightest inkling of how to begin. But fate smiled upon me (or, more accurately, the search function). I found a nearby D1/T1 Mystery. The GZ was at a fence with a number. I gave the number to Certitude, and it returned coordinates. I backed my car up about eighty feet because I was feeling just that kind of lazy, and pulled a key box off a shaded guard rail. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. So easy, in fact, that I almost forgot to log it as I raced off to get dinner and prepare my thoughts to write. I eventually remembered, though, so all I need now is that single Event. I could go down to San Antonio over the weekend or attend one here this coming Monday. I could even wait for my own if I was so inclined. But no matter which way I opt for, I will have two new souvenirs soon enough.