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

Whew, this was one of the toughest clues we’ve ever had, no thanks to yours truly messing with word hints that shouldn’t have been messed with! For those that had a hard time with this one, apologies and please check out the following:

Solution to “Green Pacman”

Jordan’s original clues for the green pacman, which he called “Partial Circle” were the following:

‘A Circle near a Square’
‘Green park in the evergreen [state]’
‘A nice view of the local bell’

Now, I figured that either of the first two hints alone wouldn’t be enough, but that the last one might be too easy if combined with others. Looking back on it now, the 3rd clue might have been good as is, if “evergreen” could have been worked in there.

As it was, I decided to change them… I saw “Bell” and immediately thought of Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar. Don’t ask me why, I’ve only read that book once and I don’t know much about her poetry. I could have done “taco bell” or “alexander graham bell” or “bell bottoms” but know I went with the one that likely had the most herrings. Once again, I have to laugh like hell.

Anyhow, despite the toughness there were several solutions submitted. I did realize that even if you got Bell Jar, you’d be left with ‘Bell Jar View’, so I was going to put “No Jar” into the clue but I just decided not to. Anyhow, Tim J got on the board first.

After reading a bit about Sylvia Plath, I finally put it all together. Good clue.

Mike B deduced the solution in exactly the manner I had hoped:

“Sylvia Plath” -> Bell Jar + view -> Bellevue
Evergreen state -> Washington
About 10 minutes

Justin roogled his way to the answer… I was hoping indeed that at least some people might get Washington State out of “evergreen”:

Washington is the Evergreen State, and I figured the clue was there (even before the regional clue was posted). It just took awhile to place “The Bell Jar” and “view” together to get Bellevue, WA. Once I put the word clue together, it took under a minute.

Judy B just needed to know that the clue related to Plath’s book:

Well now that I see it it’s easier, but I NEVER would have gotten it (at least not intentionally). I gave up until the second hint. Then I got it right away.

Dunkfu went on a bit of a herring hunt before getting it eventually, without the help of the Bell part of the clue:

I figured out the Seattle part thanks to the clues however I couldn’t figure out what in the world poetry had to do with it other than it’s big in Seattle. I searched everywhere in Seattle but couldn’t find it, finally right before I gave up I searched outside of Seattle and found it in Bellevue which I then realized probably related to Plath’s book The Bell Jar… which I think was a stretch. In any case I would have never got this without the clues.

Matt showed extreme persistence that paid off… an awesome first time roogle attempt:

took me about an hour. First time playing though. Saw you on attack of the show thought i would stop by.

Mike H didn’t take quite as long:

Took 5 minutes after Googling Sylvia and learning about the Bell Jar + view … Bellevue

Aaron B, who I have nicknamed Cluemaster, for his uncanny clue creation abilities (there are about 7-10 Aaron B roogle clues in the queue), went for extra innings and got the answer after innumerable herrings:

GEH!

I saw the clue last night and failed. Worked on it most of today and failed and then stuff clicked. I mean literally. I took your two clues and were thinking about them. You cut out “Bell” so I figured that must be part of the name and was thinking “View Bell,” “Bell view,” “Bellevue!!!” “IT’S IN BELLEVUE!”

At which point I ran to the nearest computer lab and here I am.

I don’t WANT to get into the number of red herrings I explored. but, I do know Sylvia Plath’s life story pretty well now. I even read some poems searching for ideas…

That’s awesome that this clue caused people to actually read poetry, heh! Dan M is also probably still feeling poetic after this clue:

After the “nice view of the local bell” and the region drop it took about 5 minutes. However, I’m still scratching my head about the evergreen! I was looking at lists and reading Plath poems that included anything about firs, pines, woods, winter…try this.

My garsh… I had no idea there were so many poems of hers that might relate to “evergreen”. Herringapalooza!

Mark L showed that interesting phenomena that we’ve had in clues before where it’s possible sometimes to find it with hardly any hints at all. This always trips me out; this seems to be some sort of Zen Roogling as Moose has noted before:

I have no idea what the clues were leading to….. I got it only from the region drop. She had ties to Boston and England….. evergreen? bell? There’s a Bell harbor Washington I guess that it’s refering to her poem “The Bell Jar”? Evergreen trees? I dunno….. how some people got it early is beyond me….. I’m sure it will become clear.

Astro T got the answer… even with all the word clues and location it’s still impressive for all you solvers:

About 15 mins - but I had the advantage of coming in late, so I got both word clues and the location clue. Otherwise I might have been stuck in Boston for a while…

And Jesse P got a bit of a freebee… I was wondering if there might be anyone who lived in the area:

I knew it the second i saw it, because i live in Bellevue Washington! haha

I am watching Alton Brown right now while I type this and the show is all about Cheese. This is making me a bit hungry so I think I might go get a early night snack. Tune in for another herring filled scavengeroogle session very soon. If I don’t talk to you until next week, then have a great Labor Day weekend…

Solution to “Green Pacman”

Happy hump-day to you all. Looking forward into a long weekend, it feels very good to hit the middle of the week. I wasn’t going to put this clue up at first because it looks like a Green Pacman and if there is any one category for clues that have been oversubmitted, it’s pacmen. Just take a look in the Oklahoma Panhandle and other areas if you don’t believe me.

However, many of these pacmen, or “partial circles” as clue submitter Jordan likes to call them, are extremely large or even visible only a low res. This one is relatively small, and sort of cute. So I decided to give him a chance in the spotlight.

By the way, how many of you are old enough to remember obsessing about the “patterns” for the original standup Pacman video game? I remember they even had paperback books with patterns, like “How to Beat Video Games”, haha. I used to know a pattern but for some reason it was only good after the “2nd Apple” level so I was on my own until then.

He’s still visible at 15/18 so you can see him from decently far out. With word hints, it was very difficult to come up with some that weren’t too easy. I think I will go with a mutated variation of Jordan’s for now, hope this is not too tough:

“Sylvia Plath’s view is evergreen”

You should look forward to a few more bounties which I am planning on throwing up over the weekend which should be a bit more difficult! In any case, roogle on…

[Edit: 9:00 am PDT - Definitely a first… no solutions waiting for me when I got up this morning. I fear that I’ve botched the word hints, ugh. Let’s try for a region drop first: Northwest U.S.]

[Edit: 11:47 am PDT - Wow, I must have really messed up the word hints. Ok, getting right down to it: What did she write?]

[Edit: 2:55 pm PDT - Sorry, this is proving to be frustrating for a lot of people. I tell you what, I’ll just give one of Jordan’s original word hints. I would like to see how the difficulty would have changed. Here you go: “A nice view of the local bell”]

Clue Name : “Green Pacman”
Submitted by: Jordan
Status : Solved (12)
Duration: Wednesday 8/31/05

Solved By: Tim J, Mike B, Justin, Judy B, Dunkfu, Matt, Mike H, Aaron B, Dan M, Mark L, Astro T, Jesse P

Word Hints : “Sylvia Plath’s view is evergreen”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Green Pacman”

Hello there, this is your friendly neighborhood scavengeroogle solution here. This clue wasn’t too bad… my worst fears were that “desert” wasn’t enough information to get Arizona out of the hints. It didn’t turn out that way. Lots of new faces.

Hey, BTW I am going to start posting the link to the solution on google maps BOTH at the top and bottom of this solution page because some people don’t scroll down all the way to see it. Here you go:

Solution to “Butterfly Building”

Oh yes, and before we begin: for those new rooglers sending in submissions and solutions to clues. Make sure to grab the URL of the correct google maps page
as discussed in the FAQ. There is no automatic API in the Scavengeroogle site that will submit the google you are looking at (many people seem to think this, judging by the submissions i get).

Anyhows here is some selected quotes from what y’all had to say about the Butterfly Buildings:

Jordan: was first in:

Time: about 10 min. the clue was a good hint! Gilbert, AZ

Pete B used part of the visual clue to help out, the roads and the color. This seems to be a really good way to nail down a clue:

Took about 10 mins, nice easy clue, first place I though of for desert was Arizona, and I knew the desert in that area was the same colour. Just looked for the road on the left (curvy roads are a rarity in the states it seems).

Jerry R got herringed by Ed Sullivan first before finding it:

Took me about 6 minutes. The first thing I looked up was Ed Sullivan’s sidekick [Topo Gigio (the Italian mouse)], I figured that wouldn’d work; so, I thought of Gilbert and Sullivan…., did a google on Gilbert AZ and found it right away. The building is at the end of Civic Center Dr. in Gilbert AZ.

David H blew a few more herrings out of the sky:

Took about five minutes. I can think of two Sullivans, “Sullivan’s Travels,” the Preston Sturges film and “Gilbert and…” The second one seemed more likely. A quick search, on Mapquest actually, for a town named Gilbert and I was there.

Kyle L found out what I did the first time I did a “re-find”. Gilbert isn’t that big which means that once you know you’re looking for Gilbert you won’t be long for finding it:

Note that this was my first time ever playing. I must have been on the other side of phoenix before I realized that gilbert is rather small, and I had to have already seen it. I went back to gilbert, zoomed in on the word gilbert, switched to satellite, and, lo and behold, there it was!

Ryan F was quite quick on the draw:

Easy one this morning - only took a minute, since I guessed Arizona as the desert state first.

Senior Roogler Judy B was fast as usual:

Went off on a sultan tangent for a bit, but reread the clue and found it in another two minutes. Tricky!

As was Shawn D who is back in roogleland:

Finally I have time for Roogle again. Easy one here. If you remember your high school musicals.

Amy M showed rooglenewbies don’t necessary need long times to solve the clues:

Not sure that I’m submitting correctly… it’s my first time! But it took me about 10 minutes to solve this one - good clue. Thanks!

Bernd, however, took a bit longer:

probably an hour…couldn’t get the sullivan thing first….

But I am still amazed how good everyone is at solving these. As I always say, if it were me in your shoes I’d never find the solutions! Mike M is another quick roogler:

Took 1 minute total. Pretty easy…Gilbert & Sullivan + Gilbert, AZ = answer right in the middle of the town.

The Beamer used google smarts and roogle smarts:

Took aboot 5 minutes. I just googled “and Sullivan,” since I couldn’t think of any famous duos off the top of my head. Since everything came up as Gilbert and Sullivan, I knew I was looking for the town of Gilbert.

A quick search of Gilbert and “desert” led me to AZ. Unfortunately, everything looks the same in that city, so the building(s) took a few minutes to spot. Awesome clue.

Sara D pounded the pavement a bit before getting it:

Nice one, googled the word clue and saw Gilbert & Sullivan, then googled Gilbert + desert and hit on Gilbert, AZ… got lost in the mad urban sprawl there for a little while, then i finally saw it… maybe about 30 mins all in all…

I think Mark L needed coffee like I sure did:

Under a minute once I figured out Gilbert…… about 40 minutes to figure out Gilbert…… brain dead today.

Moose, one of the Zen Rooglers, who goes away for weeks and then comes back to write me near novels in his solutions, has the following to say:

Hello again all you ‘Rooglers! I’ve missed everybody. I’ve not been able to sit down to do a clue for a while with school starting back up and moving into a new apartment, but it’s great to be back!

I don’t know if this one today was supposed to be this easy, just to ease me back in to the game, but I solved it in about 45 seconds. I googled “sullivan’s pal,” noticed something about gilbert so I googled “gilbert.” The very first link on google is a link to the map of Gilbert, AZ. Very first thing I noticed on the screen was our little butterfly. May be my quickest solution yet. The ZenRoogler Moose has returned! I’m excited about all the new clues you’ve got for us!

Eric W took a little longer. Hey, don’t even worry about taking a long time, it’s “just for grins”. The important thing is you solved it!

Time: At least an hour. I got the clue right away, and was looking all over Gilbert, AZ forever until I found that river??, and followed that. Looking back now, I can’t figure out how I missed it right away! Hope to do better next time as this was my first.

And Katie N has narrowly escaped some serious bad weather by moving to Michigan. Also solved this pretty quickly:

This only took me a few seconds. I didn’t immediately think of Gilbert, but when I googled ’sullivan’ it popped up.

It’s good to be playing again. I just moved to Michigan from Florida, so I’ve been quite busy lately. Hopefully I’ll have time to play from now on.

Whew!! I haven’t had to wade through this many solutions, submissions, and random email chatter for quite a long time. It’s all good though. Tune in next week for another fun filled day of Scavengeroogle! Oh, and yes I will try get the darned bounties going again…

Solution to “Butterfly Building”

Er, hello again. What’s this… more than one clue launched in a week you say? The sky must be falling. Well, Scavengeroogle was recently featured on TV! They did a short 5 minute feature on G4’s Attack of the Show (Sarah’s Damn Good Websites) so I figured I should probably put up a clue today so new players coming in have something to try out. (BTW, if you are new to playing, you might want to check out the FAQ first)

Actually, I got a whole boatload of excellent clue submissions from Aaron B. the other day (who thoughtfully provided word hints with each one) and I decided to start going through them. Up on tap today: turn your head 45 degrees to the right and you’ll be able to see these Butterfly Buildings a little more easily. We seem to like insect based clues a lot (previous ones include Metal Moths and Bug Hunt).

The butterfly is available at a 14/18 magnification or so, pretty far out. As for word hints, like I said Aaron has provided some which I haven’t really altered too much. Let’s see how it goes with:

“Sullivan’s Pal in the Desert”

Whah? Yeah. I think I will drop a region clue as soon as I get up in the morning if there are no solutions in. Hey guess what, I’ve been conscripted to do some more painting at my folks’ house. Hooray… well, this means I’ll be checking in periodically only. So don’t worry if you don’t see the “Pending Solutions” incrementing. Ok, have a good weekend…

[Edit: 9:45 am PDT - Urgh, I just got up. Couldn’t go to sleep till about 4 am. Anyhow, I woke up and there was like a billion emails in my mailbox. The clue and word hints seem to be doing well (lots of fast solutions) but I think I will still give a general region for those first time players: Southwest U.S. It’s off to painting for me, see you after lunch!]

[Edit: 7:56 pm PDT - Sorry no updates all day. Just finished painting awhile back. The fumes were amazing, and not in any good way. So anyhow I’m happy to report quite a few solutions to thee butterflies. I gotta close down this one in a few hours so I can write up the solution and go to sleep. Hope to be back with some new stuff early next week…]

Clue Name : “Butterfly Building”
Submitted by: Aaron B.
Status : Solved (24)
Duration: Friday 8/26/05

Solved By: Jordan, Pete B, Jerry R, David H, Kyle L, Mike T, Ryan F, Judy B, Mike B, Shawn D, Amy M, Bernd, Mike M, Chorbansi, Tim J, Richard K, The Beamer, Sara D, Mark L, Moose, Jeff H, Brian J, Katie N, David M

Word Hints : “Sullivan’s Pal in the Desert”
Magnification Needed: 14/18

SOLUTION TO “Butterfly Building”

Whew, I am pretty tired out… so I’m just going to post today’s scavengeroogle solutions sent in straight up w/ out the usual commentary. Except, I’ll say that many people had known this area because it’s of course one of Saddam’s palaces in high-profile Iraq. Quite a few new rooglers as well…welcome!

Markus B:

Peacock Gardens. This one took me probably an hour, but half of that was due to pure carelessness. I somehow figured the Tigress meant the river Tigris in Iraq and the place looked exactly like something a rich oil baron would build for himself.

So I started scanning through the whole river area, twice. I found several, several good places where it should have been because of all the colors and other landmarks matched exactly. Finally when the river ended, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t found it. I triple checked that I had the right river on my screen and started again…

And halfway through the second scan, there it was, right in the spot I had looked at fairly carefully during my first search. Somehow I just didn’t catch the garden part of the complex.

Judy B:

Found it in about five minutes. Very cool!

David H:

Probably about ten minutes. I thought of Baghdad right away, and then it was just a matter or searching. I believe the building is Al Sijood Palace, and was actually one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Here’s a link, you can see the garden in the fifth picture down:

Chorbansi:

The blue dome and geometric landscaping made me think Middle East and Tigress was a dead giveaway, took me 5 mins. Thanks.

Mike M:

Had some time at work today, took less than 5 minutes. I immediately thought about the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Matt:

5-6 minutes. The hardest part was finding a map on the web of which river exactly was the tigris. Then just look for the curvey part.

Bryant:

Hey, I can’t believe I found one! However, around 1 in the morning last night, I roogled right by this spot twice as I tried to go up and down the curvy parts of the Tigres river. I think I was distracted by the other large monuments in the area. This morning I struggled with the clue some more, but the blue dome kept bringing me back to Baghdad. Thanks for this fun and inventive site. I look forward to more.

Trecherus:

It took about 2 minutes. I have looked at Baghdad a lot and as soon as I saw Tigress in the clue I knew it had to be one of the palaces that line the river there. al-Sijood Palace Saddam’s Presidential palace. The black rectangle building to the south west of the “peacock gardens” is gone due to bombing. The new Google Earth satellite images show the devistation.

Aaron B:

*sigh* Well, I FINALLY found it. As you said, depending on where one first looks, it can be rather annoying. See, the problem was that when I read “Curvey Tigress” I thought first of the mythological “Amazoness” which lead me to Brazil and Turkey, neither of which are useful. Then to Tigre and Buenos Aires in Argentina. I had totally forgotten there is a river called the “Tigress” …

But in anycase, once I got the region drop and stopped thinking so hard, it was pretty easy.

Mike B:

Once I picked up on “Tigress”=”Tigris” it was pretty easy.

Gitar2ech:

Finally solved one on my own. There it was off the big loop the river does in Baghdad. 2 weeks now I’ve been finding the locations from the comments after the solutions are posted so it feels good to find it myself. About 30 min.

David M:

Tigress was certaintly a huge hint as we all have become educated given the events in Iraq. It took about 15 minutes to spot. With the obvious opulence, I figured it was one of Saddam’s palaces. Yea, I finally solved one on my own!

Sara D:

whoa took a while (45 mins), but this was my first… should have been easier in retrospect - guess this is saddam’s old palace in Baghdad?

Mike H:

First one that I’ve found. yeah! Took about 5 minutes.

Jen S:

I realize there are a lot of solutions pending already, but this is the first one I’ve found before the final solution was posted! I did come in after Middle East was given, so that made things much easier.

Pete B:

Difficult at the start, then when the Middle East Clue appeared I thought of the places that had been mapped there, and immediately realised Baghdad is on the Tigris, was just a matter of hunting then, about 10 mins.

Tim J:

I was out all day and didn’t have a chance to get on the net till late. All day I was wondering if there was a new scavengeroogle posted and if I was missing it! This one was the easiest yet… three minutes.

Astro T:

About a half hour — I had a vague recollection that there was a river somewhere in the middle east that had a name that sounded something like ‘tigress’. Once I’d gotten the tigris, I just followed it down…

Solution to “Peacock Garden”

Good morning (or night for you insomniacs). I’m writing this clue up from my parents’ house right now. My PC is still on the blink which is the reason for that. Getting used to the software in our Powerbook though, in case I lose my PC again. I’ve been a bit down in the mouth for scavenger hunts out lately, but maybe I’ll get more inspired with this whole back to school thing.

Anyhow, this clue from Brian Z is of a pretty cool looking “peacock”… I think they are gardens which is why I’ve named the clue Peacock Gardens. Imaginative, to say the least. What it also reminded me of was the Spirograph drawing toy, though I don’t suppose many remember that. I had a crapload of the wheels and everything…

I have a feeling this is one of those clues where it’s either extremely simple extremely difficult depending on where you start. Wait, that’s how ALL of our clues are. But I really am at a loss to make up some word hints, so I’ll provide a variation of Brian Z’s:

“Curvy Tigress”

Yup, that’s all you get. Oh, also the peacock gardens are also viewable at 15/18. I will be dropping a region clue hopefully. I’ve been working out of my parent’s house during the day lately (would you believe I’m painting their fricken house) so I’ll try see if I can’t take some breaks to check in once in awhile.

[Edit: 9:45 am PDT - Well, looks like the clue is going OK. I am actually on the Powerbook again, probably not painting my parents house today and thus will be able to update periodically. Let me start off with a general region (which is probably apparent to a lot of people already even if they haven’t found the clue): Middle East.]

[Edit: 12:18 pm PDT - I’ll be out for about 4-5 hours but will check back around dinner. Looks like we won’t need more clues drops for today… see ya all soon.]

Clue Name : “Peacock Gardens”
Submitted by: Brian Z.
Status : Solved (21)
Duration: Wednesday 8/24/05

Solved By: Mark L, Markus B, Judy B, David H, Chorbansi, Mike M, Matt, Bryant, Trecherus, Aaron B, Mike B, Gitar2ech, David M, Charlie D, Sara D, Mike H, Jen S, Pete B, Bryce H, Tim J, Astro T

Word Hints : “Curvy Tigress”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Peacock Garden”

Citizen’s original word clues were “Port Fore Blue Jays”, Port was for Airport, Fore was for the Golf Course and Blue Jays for Toronto. I decided to change them at first because I wasn’t sure how easy it would be. So I originally had put the word “Golf” in my word hints sort of reluctantly and when Markus B. found it quick enough a few minutes after I launched it, I took that as a sign and went ahead and omitted it:

Darth Vader. Took me two minutes.

This was clearly the easiest clue ever on this site. I googled Blue Jays, got Toronto, typed it in the the Google Maps search field and it was almost right there in the middle of the city.
No idea what the Golf part of the clue means

Some of his fellow Finns (I think you are Finns, sorry if not) also solved it. Antti L said:

Took about 15 mins, I looked at the wrong golf course at first and almost quit.

and Janne Kaki notes:

I found out quite soon that blue jays was all about Toronto, though it took some time - maybe 8 minutes or so - to locate Mr. Vader, even if he wasn’t so far away from the Skydome where I started my ‘roogling.

Mike B went to a herring first that I was definitely worried about… it was the main reason I put “Golf” in the clue at first - because of Centennial College:

Wandered around Centennial College in Toronto for a while, then found Centenial Park on Google. About 10 minutes all together.

Mark L went a little astray with a different team for a bit:

Blue Jays…… thought of the Toronto baseball team…… it was the 100 years part that didn’t make sense.

So…..

Looked around John Hopkins (the Blue Jays) they’ve been around for 100 years for sure! Background looked wrong…. decided to give Totonto a shot anyway…… Viola! There it was…… about 30 minutes total time.

And Tim J also flopped around like a herring for awhile:

It took about 20 minutes, after a futile search around Baltimore, MD, home of the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays of the Centennial Conference.

Roogler Tina has returned:

Been busy with summer classes, but glad to be back. Took maybe 5 minutes. Got right to Toronto, spent a few more minutes finding him.

Yeah, I have been thinking about everyone going back to school soon… we might get a bit of a dropoff of regulars from that. I guess we will see!

Jon G roogled it through and also gives some information on the buildings themselves…

Took about 30 min. Immediately thought of Toronto from Blue Jays part of clue, but kept looking for something with century with no luck. I finally came up with centennial after seeing Centennial College, and through google found Centennial Park, and Darth Vader was lurking nearby. I believe the buildings are office buildings of TD Financial Group, parent of TD Waterhouse which a lot of people should recognize. Another side note is that TD Financial group is celebrating 150 years this year, which is known as a sesquicentennial, linking right back in to the clue.

Trecherus noted something that I had also seen originally… there is a weird pacman shaped lake or something nearby. Once I had noticed this, when i tried to attempt a refind I found it too easy because I remembered the Pacman lake… interesting.

This one took less that 5 minutes. Fastest I have ever found one. I saw Blue Jays and thought I’ll just look around Toronto while my email is downloading and maybe do some more searching at lunch time. I was just about to give up when I saw a pacman shaped lake to the northeast. After thinking to myself this would be a decent submission for a later clue, Darth Vader popped out at me. It looked like a ghost chasing pacman.

Mike K thought this one was a bit easy… I do try to mix ‘em up so we have some hard and some easier. Though often, the easy and hard clues become reversed because of weird herrings or other such rooglisms.

This was a pretty easy clue which surprised me because most of the time the clues are so obscure that I’m surprised any one solves them. In any case the clue made me think of the Toronto Blue Jays. Went to Toronto and searched for a few minutes and found it.

Bounty hunter Aaron B came away with the following sweet herring :

Interestingly enough, I saw the original clue of “100 years of golf, blue jays” which sent me off in the wrong direction totally. I saw a webpage talking all about the golf course at Essex, ON and “100 years of golf” so I was sure it was over there. However, after repeated searching and failure, I decided just to scan Toronto because the color kinda matched and there he was, staring back at me…

That is trippy because of course it wasn’t intended!

I believe Other Chris R. got the solution because he lives in the general area of the clue:

Welcome to Downtown Coolsville. Population: Us.

Dan M solved it fairly quick:

I’ve solved a bunch but thought it was about time to finally report 1! Glad you liked the Glenwood Springs clue.

I don’t know, 15 minutes? Blue Jays made it pretty easy.

and Justin did not strike out easily:

I’m a baseball fan, so I knew to look in Toronto. It took me five minutes to find this.

I don’t know a whole lot about baseball teams but find it enjoyable to watch, especially with the lack of hockey. What’s that you say? There’s going to be a hockey season next year!? Amazing, simply amazing… I am looking forward to certain lines being eliminated on the ice, hehe.

Back to roogle reality. As you may have read, my main PC went kaput today so I am powerbooking this entry. I also had my cellphone break today, and oodles of web and internet issues. Ugh! My wife says it is something about Mercury’s influence or something. In any case, I will try get clues up next week but it is looking like it won’t be until Wednesday or so… we shall see. Have a nice weekend y’all!

Solution to “Darth Vader”

Now turn your head 90 degrees clockwise and you’ll see what Citizen of Trantor sent in as a clue the other day. Yes, the prime heavy breather from the 70s himself - Darth Vader. Or, as I like to abbreviate him as - DV.

I think good ‘ol DV has donned some funny looking spectacles or something over his helmet. Maybe they’re to increase his Schwartz, haha. He also looks remarkably like an octopus with some missing tentacles.

Whatever he is, you can see him at 14/18 magnification, maybe even higher up if you’ve got eagle eyes. I have as usual, in my nefarious ways, roogle-mangled the good Citizen’s word hints to suit my own dastardly ends. And therefore you shall feel the wrath of the following:

“100 Years of Blue Jays”

That is all. A region may or may not be dropped. And if you should see Princess Leia tell her that she’s scheduled for, erm… detention in cell block SCAV-1. Rooglers, May the Schwartz be with you…

[Edit: 9:44 am PDT - We seem to be doing pretty well with Lord Vader so I’ll hold off on any more hints for now!]

[Edit: 2:35 pm PDT - Darnit. I am already half a “Mac” person but this latest “windows update” fiasco that I just had is pushing me closer and closer to abandoning PCs altogether. The computer just keeps restarting over and over and all I did was a Windows Update. It was completely 100% fine until I did the update. Sheesh. As such, expect many delays over next couple of days as I try and recover the crap off that computer.]

Clue Name : “Darth Vader”
Submitted by: Citizen of Trantor
Status : Solved (18)
Duration: Thursday 8/18/05

Solved By: Markus B, Antti L, Janne K, Jerry R, Mike B, Mark L, Tina, Jon G, Trecherus, Mike K, Steve M, Aaron B, Other Chris R, Tim R, Dan M, Justin, Tim J, Cindy B

Word Hints : “100 Years of Blue Jays”
Magnification Needed: 14/18

SOLUTION TO “Darth Vader”

Hey there Scavengeroogle Bounty Hunters. This was a weird looking series of paths or roads that have been carved into the shape of what I am going to call for lack of a more interesting term - Arrow Man.

Turn your head about 45 degrees clockwise and you’ll be able to see him better. His arms look like arrows, hence the name. His feet look sort of like the feet on the V.I.N.CENT robot from the 1979 movie “The Black Hole”. Don’t ask me how I know that, because the answer will be that I have the little robot plastic toy from 1979…

Anyhow, I’m not sure what this figure is, if it’s intended to be a man-like depiction or if it’s just a random series of paths that look like a man. Maybe one of you can tell me. This feature requires 16/18 magnification to see it which is pretty close in… the contrast is also quite light which may give some difficulty. The continent we are in is: South America.

I just got a “prize” in the mail that I sent away for, so I’m offering it up here. It is the Las Cruces, New Mexico Official 2005-2006 Visitor’s Guide. Now while a lot of people think of New Mexico as just a big desert or perhaps the home of the Trinity Atomic Test Site, there is a lot to like in this vast and complex Southwestern recreation area. I just like the wide open spaces in general which is why it appeals to me. I’ve been to the state a few times and it is pretty magnificient.

Las Cruces is located about 225 miles south of Albuquerque and near the border with Mexico. Some of the area attractions include Aguirre Springs, The Bicentennial Log Cabin, Fort Selden State Monument, White Sands National Monument, and the Historic village of Mesilla. You might also be interested in The Whole Enchilada Festival in downtown Las Cruces in Sept 23-25 where they’ll make the world’s largest enchilada. Yeah. Yum.

OK. Enough enchilada talk, get crackin on the bounty!

Bounty Name : “Arrow Man”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by: Aaron B
Time Elapsed: 5 hours, 4 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : South America
Magnification Needed: 16/18

Reward: Las Cruces, New Mexico Visitor’s Guide

Continue reading “Bounty: Arrow Man” …

Found this sort of cool configuration of buildings and swimming pools(?) that sort of look like a honeybee. Or perhaps it’s a paper wasp instead. I’m not sure, the only thing I know for sure is that this is going to be your latest bounty.

This feature requires about 14/18 magnification in order to see it. I’ll give a continent hint again: Asia.

I’ve been a little short of prizes but Judy B came to the rescue the other day with a Scavengeroogle Bounty care package. I should have some more scavenger hunt prizes coming up soon but this will definitely hold me over for awhile.

Judy’s in Indiana, specifically near Notre Dame and has thoughtfully sent over a bunch of geographic prizes from there. Unfortunately, one of the main things I’m sure that you’d all like to talk about is Notre Dame football, Fighting Irish and whatnot… but I actually know zilcho about football, so… er, anyhow. Well, I do know that Notre Dame has a pretty long history, established in 1842 according to the postcard. The first up are going to be a set of nice postcards. Postcard one is of the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore and postcard two is of Notre Dame Stadium.

I know a lot of you are in college (or work at colleges) so you probably can tell me much more interesting things about Notre Dame than I can look up on the web. Thus I’ll refrain from any long winded descriptions. All right, luck and leprechauns be with you, fighting irish and all that…

Bounty Name : “Honey Bee”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Mike M.
Time Elapsed: 13 hours, 38 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : Asia
Magnification Needed: 14/18

Reward: Notre Dame Postcards

Continue reading “Bounty: Honey Bee” …

Hey folks, sorry this is not going to be much of a solution for awhile since my goshdarned email is down again and won’t come up until after i’m asleep probably. Sigh, I don’t know why they plan downtime like this right when the solutions are due to be put up!! I’ll see you in a bit, until then here is the solution…

[Edit: got my mail back up]

Dang you are all smart rooglers! Anyhow, I’ve been plagued by downed email lately so I didn’t get a chance till today to write up the solutions. This wasn’t too hard of a clue, but what was most interesting was its multiplicity. Hm… isn’t that a movie. But seriously, I asked what the buildings were and many people wrote in to give me the 401.

I certainly did a double take when Mark L sent in the first notification of strange things afoot… apparently this clue had many “doubles” which was very interesting and unintentional:

Of course Baghdad was the obvious herring … tooled around there for awhile.
Started putting words together and changing them slightly … Leender golf course in Holland? No hi-res tiles……Leander TX?….. Yep….snuck up on it, and just as I was about to submit it……woops! I realized this clue has an evil twin.

That alone gave this hunt a special twist.

They’re elementary schools….. this builder likes to stick with the same design it appears….. if you look around you’ll see other examples of his work….. he must be quite popular down there in that neck of the woods!

He also found this red one. Judy B. solved it quickly and also noted later that there were duplicates.

You are a sneaky one! I spent a good 45 minutes looking at Baghdad, Iraq. When I revisited the clue and actually read it through a couple of times, I found it in about a minute. Very sneaky indeed!

Jon G solved and analyzed the schools thusly:

Took 30 min. Had no idea what the clue meant, thought that “der” was strange, so I started combining words in the clue until I put leander into google and came up with leander, texas. Bagdad Road was nearby. Also, at first I found the other one Mark L mentioned.

Judging by the one with no buildings around it, and the other with buildings that looked like portables by it, I guessed that they were schools. I did an in-map search for “school”, and found out one was Giddens Elem. School. So, the two “BPs” are elementary schools, the original one is Bagdad Elem. School and the one Mark L found is Giddens Elem. School. It appears that they build a lot of the elementary schools in the area like that. If you do a in-map search for “elementary”, you can also find 2 sideways BPs, one pink and one blue, plus an upside down TP in white/pink that are all elementary schools. Check out the link below for pictures verifying this, which I found through the Giddens Elem. School popup information that appears when you click on the red pushpin thing in google maps.

Leander School District

I bet Leander School District is wondering why in the world they are getting all this traffic all of the sudden, hehe.

Moose chimes in with the following:

Easy one today! I first got caught on a little bit of a herring. I got Leander and Bagdad out of the clue, but I googled Bagdad first. There is a small mining town of Bagdad in Arizona. Fortunately they didn’t have any hi-res imagery. Then I googled Leander and found the place in Texas. I found the BP, and then afterwards realized it was near Bagdad Rd. Great clue! Solve time < 5 mins.

Sorry to hear about your loss, I offer you the deepest sympathy from this ZenRoogler.

Thanks Moose. And woops you almost got herringed in Arizona… I didn’t know there were so many cities called “Bagdad” around. Must be a bit weird when someone asks you what city you live in and you say “Bagdad”…

David H fought off wayward herrings in Pennsylvania:

I couldn’t really put a time estimate on this one, much of the day, I guess. Got it quickly after the second clue (re-arrange the words). Before that, I was reasonably sure that “Dad” was a substitute for “Pa,” meaning that I should look somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Chorbansi eluded the herring police in Delaware with:

Got around to roogling a bit late in the day, so the clue drops were in, took 10
mins. Tried Dover, DE before hitting Leander, TX. The word clue was neat (N Bagdad
Rd). Thanx.

Tim J got stuck on the prime herring for this clue before solving:

5 minutes after the last hint, but wasted 20 mins this morning looking around Baghdad, Iraq

Bryce H also went to Arizona:

it took me about 10 mins. i just searched for cities with names containing bag, dad, der, and lean. i got bagdad, arizona, but there was nothing there. then i saw it said it was in texas, so i searched for bagdad texas and got nothing. But leander texas was a city i found, and the streets are a little diagonal like in the picture, so it had to be there. i found another building that looks exactly like it first, farther south on bagdad road… weird.

Aaron B’s first time with a roogle solution:

First time solving! Huzzah!

sorry to submit twice an extra message in regards to Beep Bop, but I think I discovered what the two BPs are. They are schools. According to this site

The southern one is Giddens Elementary and the Northern one is Bagdad Elementary.

Whew! This was an involved solution because I got a lot of multiple messages from people about the duplicates. Definitely one for the Scavengeroogle memory scrapbook. Thank you all for playing and for the nice words of support… see you hopefully soon with more clues and bounties!

Solution to “Beep Bop”

Hey there… haven’t heard from me for awhile right? I had an extremely tough weekend… someone fairly close to me passed away on Sunday after battling sickness for a long time. It was really tough. Anyhow, that’s why I’ve been out for awhile, I just needed a bit of time.

So, this find is by me. It is the letters BP in building-ese. I couldn’t think of a snappy title so I’ve just called it Beep Bop for now. Oh, I guess that should be Be Bop actually. I just felt like injecting some roboticism into it. Robot Jazz.

Actually, the letters BP sort of remind me of the gas station chain British Petrol. At least I think it’s called British Petrol. On some long trips in California, I remember encountering stations with those letters once in awhile. It was up there in big green letters: BP. I thought I remember they were only way out in the boonies though…

You can see the letters BP from 15/18. The “P” is actually most visible because it is a bright blue. The B is actually not visible until you get into about 16/18. The word hints are a combination of me trying to be too clever and it being really hot out and me thusly nearly fainting in the heat. It goes like this:

“Lean the Bag over Der, Dad”

Easy, right? I know it will be for some of you Zen Rooglers. But hmm… is that herring soup I smell? Well you shall have a region hint soon enough, I thinks… good luck!

[Edit: 9:30 am PDT - Hey there, I think I will drop a hint quickly to start. The region is actually in the U.S. That’s right. What’s more, I was informed by Mark L that there is a near exact DUPLICATE of the clue nearby. Amazing really… it even fits the word clues. So because of this oversight by me, I will take solutions to either one. I actually would really like to know what this (these) buildings are as well… can it be coincidence that the buildings and driveway in front look identical?]

[Edit: 2:06 pm PDT - Ok, so here’s a bit of a clue. Try and rearrange the words in the word hint…]

[Edit: 6:43 pm PDT - Last clue for tonight, a direct one: Texas. Yes, we are in Texas AGAIN…]

[Edit: 11:26 pm PDT - Darn email is down so I can’t tell exactly how many have solved, it is over 9 people though. Also, all the solutions are in the email so that post will be coming tomorrow.]

[Edit: 10:00 am PDT (next day) - OK, I got all your names down finally… solution page up soon]

Clue Name : “Beep Bop”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Solved (15)
Duration: Wednesday 8/10/05

Solved By: Judy B, Mark L, Jon G, Moose, Richard K, David H, Mike B, Chorbansi, Tim J, Bryce H, Aaron B, Vlado K, Astro T, Matty L, Trecherus

Word Hints : “Lean the Bag over Der, Dad”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Beep Bop”