Scavengeroogle: A Google Maps Scavenger Hunt To Waste More Of Your Time On

I had reservations about putting up this clue as I was writing it down. For one, it didn’t really look like a dragonfly… as Steve M said it sort of looked like a string of firecrackers. And I didn’t have a clue as to the word clue. Anything leading straight to Des Moines would have been too easy, I thought. So I decided to try to go to a different language and say “French Monk” which I thought would lead everyone to Des Moines. On Wikipedia it says: “from French Rivière des Moines, i.e. ‘River of the Monks’ “.

This wasn’t enough though, because a lot of people looked for actual French monks. I anticipated that as herrings sort of, but didn’t know it would be that bad. In addition, there is some controversy as to if that is the actual origin of the city’s name; I think some people have connected it to Indian tribes around area, and in fact one funny explanation says it means “excrement faces” in an old Indian dialect. Supposedly, anyway.

Ok, so anyhow a few people still got the clue.

Mark L wrote:

Found it by a fluke…… needle in a haystack approch…… 5 seconds

and Judy B said:

Took about 5-10 minutes and a huge bit of luck! (:

Nothing like a little Friday luck! Moose says:

I never really understood the word clue. I just waited for the location drop, and noticed that there weren’t many high-res images for iowa. Took me about 30 mins search time between calls at work.

I DID bank on the fact that the hi-res squares weren’t that numerous in Iowa. Can you imagine, though, what’s going to happen when google starts to fill in those missing areas of hi-res? It may get a lot tougher.

Jeremy R got it, though it was a big timesuck:

That was ridiculous…I was all over the map, from Canada to Texas to Minnesota, and even a brief stop in a completely different part of Iowa. Even after the region drop I had trouble because I was convinced it had to be near the river (French monk “runs”). So much for being productive today!

Katie N did try to find an actual French Monk:

This was a hard clue. I originally thought the french monk had something to do with Dom Perignon (since he was a french monk), so I kept looking around Champagne, IL. With the Iowa clue, I immediately searched around Des Moines, and it only took a few minutes to find.

Steve M said:

I came in a little late on this one but it took me 1min after the clue drop. I vote to keep the Scavengeroogle alive i look forward to every clue. Still not Bored of it. Keep it alive

I shall most certainly try to keep up the clues. And Jon G said:

Took about 10 min. but I joined after 2 clues, so that made it easier. Have a good weekend!

My sentiments exactly… have a good weekend and I will see you on Monday at 9!

Solution to “Dragonfly”