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

Oops, I got caught up playing Dungeon Siege 2, so I forgot to post up the solution. I gotta go to sleep so I’ll just list the comments. An easy one… and many people also found “dopplegangers” of the original bullseye which is some sort of military targeting thingy. Ok, see you next week!

Solution to “Bullseye Triangle”

Ol:

I’d seen it before. Got there without solving the clue.

Bernd:

easy one…10 minutes…

Pete B:

easy to find, it’s on googlesightseeing.com

Shawn D:

Pretty easy. About 5 minutes. Welcome back.

Mark L wrote:

That was a “direct hit” for me, but I saw it before. I knew it was in NV, north of Vegas. About 5 min to find it again.

Jon G:

Took me roughly 10 min. A google search led me to the desert north of Vegas, and after searching a few high-res desert areas, I found it. It was fun to roogle again though, I’m so glad you’re back!

Vic Waggoner:

Bombing target.

Judy B

I had actually gotten sidetracked and was just looking around at a bunch of other weird stuff in the desert and found it. So, probably a couple of hours, but I was goofing off at the same time.

Richard K:

I found two. The second one is here

Tim J:

I’d seen this one before, knew right where it was.

Jason C:

Took about 20 mins off and on. Found 2 others that were close but not exactly right.

Mortified_Penguin wrote:

Yeah, Scavengeroogles back! Found Las Vegas in under two minutes after quick google search on the easy word clue. Took me about twenty minutes the find it on the map. Much higher and to the left than I originally thought.

Astro Tumbler:

It took me far, far too long. I figured out corn creek really easily, but passed over this soooo many times. Eventually I googled for “google maps triangle circle” which lead me to the museum of hoaxes, which had a whole discussion about this thing.

Gah!! There’s another one! I just noticed that the first one I found had a different background.

Jose:

It took me almost an hour… I don’t think that’s to bad for my first time…. at least I hope not… jeje

Chris:

Figured out where it was real quick, but finding it on the map was another story all together. Took me about 20 minutes.

Katie N:

This took me about 10 minutes. It only took a second to figure out the general area, but it took some searching to find it.

Thanks for posting clues when you have the time. It’s a nice break from grad school!

Hey Katie, glad to hear you’re playing at grad school. If they had this when I was in grad school, maybe I wouldn’t have flunked out! =)

Solution to “Bullseye Triangle”

Wow. Yes I’m writing here again. Scavengeroogle is back, at least for now. I bet you all thought that I’d hiked into the Sierra Nevadas never to return.

Truthfully, the combination of a vacation in Mammoth and a refrigerator at home that decided to stop working over that vacation conspired to stop me from working on Scavengeroogle for the past two weeks or so. Have you ever had to figure out what to do with 15 pounds of rotten meat? Fun. Anyhow, I finally got a fridge (I’ve discovered that it’s very, very difficult to live without a fridge!) yesterday so I can continue putting out clues now. I dunno if anyone is still checking this site, but if you are… hello!

I’m fairly certain that this geometric shape of what looks like a bullseye inside of a triangle has already been found on any number of googlemap sites, but I decided to post it up anyhow. Might be good to ease back into Rooglin’ with an easier clue. This one comes from Jan and she (he?) had also sent in a whole bunch of word hints along with it. Guess what? I’m not using any of them. Because I’m just idiotic about word hints as usual. The bullseye triangle is visible at 14/18, this thing is quite large. For hints:

“Corn Creek”

Shouldn’t be too bad. This’ll be a two day clue again as I struggle to get back into the swing of things. Oh, I forgot to mention that I went fishing in a snow blizzard near Yosemite. Quite fun, if you forget about the frostbite…

[Edit: 10:16 am Tues - I knew this one would be easy and that I had seen it elsewhere (as had many of you), and that seems to be the case judging on the write-ins. But anyhow, thank you all again for playing! I’m still a bit amazed that people are patient enough to check in with the site every so often after being inactive for 2 weeks.]

Clue Name : “Bullseye Triangle”
Submitted by: Jan
Status : Solved (17)
Duration: Tues 10/25/05 - Wed 10/26/05

Solved By: Ol, Bernd, Pete B, Shawn D, Mark L, Jon G, Vic W, Judy B, Richard K, Tim J, Jason C, Mortified P, Astro T, Jose, Mike B, Chris, Katie N

Word Hints : “Corn Creek”
Magnification Needed: 14/18

SOLUTION TO “Bullseye Triangle”

So this was pretty easy to find for so many. Dan M’s original hints had a double music clue in them:

This building is called River City. As far as a clue, how about “We Got Trouble in my Sweet Home.” Yep, sweet home will draw a bunch to Alabama until they remember the Blues Brothers doing “Sweet Home Chicago.” “We Got Trouble” will spit out River City
pretty quickly and, added to Alabama, they’ll be searching Decatur, AL for a minute or two till they see that most of it is in lo-res. They’re going to have to make the Chicago connection or hunt a lot to find which River City.

I thought having two parts of the clue related to music might be too difficult… I mean I knew NEITHER of those 2 clues myself. So I decided to keep “We Got Trouble” and then add a reference to Chicago. Which was extremely difficult, mainly because I know nothing about Chicago. (By the way, for anyone sending hints in for clues from Chicago, don’t send in “City Of Big Shoulders”… I think there have been about 5-6 people who have already tried sending that in.)

So I ended up going with the O’Leary reference from the Great Chicago Fire. There was this entire show on Discovery Channel(?) some time ago that tried to prove how the fire really started actually… I think they even did a re-enactment of it.

Solution to “Backwards S”

And now: some commentary from Rooglers, all having to do with fire:

Cheese melted in flames:

The Cheese stands alone. About 45 seconds - really.

Indeed… indeed.

Heather G blazed:

Took me no time at all. Literally seconds. I am a history dork, so I immediately thought of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and the great Chicago fire. Went to Chicago, saw the river on the left, and followed the right bank until I saw the backwards S. Very obscure though!

Hm… I think they actually talked about whether it was the cow or not in that documentary.

Richard K fired:

Got it in 3 Clicks.

Too fast! Katie N smoldered:

This one took me a couple of minutes. I googled ‘O’Leary’ and found a site about the great Chicago fire. Then I searched the areas of Chicago where the river was in the right orientation.

I was actually going to put “Leary” instead of “O’Leary” just for kicks, but I thought too many people might try Denis Leary. Or Timothy Leary.

Tim J nearly ignited in Iowa:

Hmm, finally stumbled on this while searching Chicago, which I tried because of the “O’Leary” reference. I spent quite awhile in Iowa, however, maybe 30 minutes, because the first part of the clue, “We got trouble”, made me think of “The Music Man” and River City, Iowa. I chalk this one up to pure luck!

Luck is severely underrated. Especially for the peeps who won 90 million dollars at the 7-11 around the corner from my house…

Jason Y scorched:

How Long: About five minutes. I started with George O’Leary, the football coach at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. But Orlando doesn’t have a river, so I went with Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, and Chicago paid off.

Paul H caught on fire:

This one took me approximately 5 mins. I had just finished playing sim city, and i remembered something about a cow starting a fire in chicago. i googled mrs. oleary and got the address of her house and went east a bit and there it was. I believe the building is called river city

Bernd, well he burned:

not too long…. no idea what your hint means, but a google search for “s-shaped buliding” works miracles here

Jerry R used tindersticks:

1 minute (easy)

Mike B sizzled for a few seconds:

Way too easy ;-( About 20 seconds. Mrs O’Leary ->famous cow owner->Chicago

Mike M had a quick steam:

Took about a minute. After a quick google search of O’Leary decided to go to Chicago (the site of the great fire). Same color and the river was flowing straight down, real easy to spot.

That is cool how a lot of people used the color and the river direction.

Shawn D charbroiled the clue:

About 15 minutes. Pretty easy. I think I like them better when they are more convoluted. It’s frustrating at the time, but more gratifying if you get one. I’m not complaining. Just my $.02.

Keep up the good work. Thanks

Thanks for playing as well. I do try to make them harder rather than easier, but once in awhile I slip in an easier one just to make my numbers look better. =)

Jon G incinerated it:

Took me about 5 min. Googled “O’Leary” and one of the first few leads was the Great Chicago Fire. Saw that there was a river next to it which made it pretty easy to find.

Wilmore heated up his love life:

finally someplace I recognize!! I am no longer a virgin!!

Judy B carried a torch:

Got it right away, but didn’t see the new clue posted until this morning so I’m glad it’s a multiple day clue.

Mike H set off sparks quickly:

Fastest clue I’ve ever solved here. About 10 seconds. I guessed O’Leary was Mrs O’Leary’s cow, called up Chicago, switched to Satellite, and saw the Backward S at the first river spot I looked at. This makes up for all those ones I speant hours searching for in vain.

Mark L roogles with matches:

Wow…. didn’t even know a clue was up….. that’s what I get for not checking.

Pretty fast…… just did a Wikipedia on O’Leary, which led me to the Chicago Fire.

Citizen put out fumes:

Yeah, about 5 minutes. Got Chicago right away, but never used “We Got Trouble” beyond the idea of the fire. I used the vertical segment of river for reference.

Bryant erupted like a volcano:

Wasn’t it Miss O’Leary who took her lantern to the shed? That’s all I got, and it took me to Chicago. The river was the real give away. “There’ll be a hot time in the ol’ town tonight!”

and David H simply smoked the clue:

Took three or four minutes. After a quick detour looking at the possibility that it was a Music Man reference “Well, ya got trouble right here in River City,” I looked in Chicago and found it by following the water.

DAMN. That was useless. That took about 1 hour to write. I couldn’t think of anymore synonyms for “fire”. Ugh. In general though, you are all too darn smart and quick! I mean it. Well, I guess I will see you Rooglers later next week since I’ll be up in Mammoth. I’m hoping it won’t snow too hard, because I’m going to try get some fishing in. Laters…

Solution to “Backwards S”

I have been slacking when it comes to clues and bounties, sorry. I decided to launch this one now rather than wait until tomorrow, so this’ll be a day and half long clue.

This interesting looking building is shaped just like a “Backwards S”. Or if you’re feeling imaginative it could be a worm or caterpillar. This is the point in the story where I tell you all about my friend in high school who had a rather disturbing experience regarding worms and a certain Mr. Goodbar. Oh, The Horror - I’ll stop right there.

The Backwards S was submitted by Dan M quite awhile back but I decided not to use it now. It’s quite visible at 15/18. Dan had some word hints that I thought were OK but they seemed sort of difficult as you had to make numerous connections. So I’ve modified them. It is interesting to me how people come up with word hints; I have had these truly amazing hints submitted for clues that I haven’t used because no matter how wonderful and convoluted they are, there’s no way that most people would be able to solve it.

It’s sort of weird, when coming up with word hints you really have to think “how MOST people will think” with a big emphasis on the word MOST. We’re shooting for averages here, and having only 1 person solve it is pretty much no good (and actually should be reserved for bounties). On the other hand, making it too easy and having 50 solutions will get boring really quick. It’s darn difficult, and in fact for me it’s definitely the most difficult part of the game. And on the flip side, I often tend to make the clues WORSE by trying to fix them. I just can’t seem to leave well enough alone. At the end of the day, though, I guess it’s just a game…

Well, enough chitchat. The word hints are:

“We Got Trouble with O’Leary”

See you soon…

[Edit: 11:15 pm PDT Tue - Whoops sorry, I just realized I hadn’t updated here all day. I have taken up playing tennis at night, yep the real kind where you physically run around and hit the ball. I decided I needed more exercise. So far, it is rough going especially with me being only 5 foot 4 inches tall. I need to learn how to spin serve, I think, or whatever that is called. Oh, so we are doing OK with this clue for now so I won’t drop a region for now…]

[Edit: 9:30 am PDT Wed - Hello fellows. And fellowettes. Good number of solutions coming in, with most Rooglers getting it in less than 5 minutes. By the way, I’m going to be out on a mini-vacation, if you could call it that. How can I afford this? Well, the parents are footing the bill. Heading up to Mammoth/Yosemite area this Friday for about 4 days. So I may not get a daily clue up next week until Thursday or Friday…]

Clue Name : “Backwards S”
Submitted by: Dan M
Status : Solved (20)
Duration: Tues 10/11/05 - Wed 10/12/05

Solved By: Cheese, Heather G, Richard K, Katie N, Tim J, Jason Y, Paul H, Bernd, Jerry R, Mike B, Mike M, Shawn D, Jon G, Wilmore, Judy B, Mike H, Mark L, Citizen, Bryant, David H

Word Hints : “We Got Trouble with O’Leary”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Backwards S”

Heyy roogle kids… sorry I’ve been less than eloquent in the solutions lately. I’ve just been posting up the feedback, formatted but not much commentary. Anyhow, I gotta run again, but here is the solution, and what y’all said. Oh, quickly - many rooglers got Magic Crunchy Bonus Points for telling me what exactly the turtle is: apparently it is Novi Middle School or Deerfield Elementary School… haven’t confirmed exactly which yet. Ok:

Solution to “Turquoise Turtle”

Mike M speeded it up a notch:

Very easy clue, took a couple of minutes to finally find.

Dan M noted multiple herrings:

Of course there is both a Lyon and a Lyons Michigan! Finding Lyons, MI in lo-res immediately threw me off. After hunting every other Lyons (lots and LOTS of them) Oh Mi made me look at Lyons Ohio, near the Oh-Mi border. That led to Detroit (Tigers?) Duh. About 20 minutes!

Shawn D wants to watch the World Series:

About thirty seconds. Easy, if your a baseball fan at all. Thanks. Keep up the good work.

Jon G found “Lyons” first … ugh, sorry for that ripe herring:

Took me about 15 min. Immediately found several cities in Ohio and Michigan named Lyons, but no high-res there. Saw a city named Lyon in Michigan, but it looked too grayed out and so I started searching nearby high-res places. Gave up and went back to the grayed-out area near Lyon just for kicks and found it a few minutes later.

Ol briefly:

time take: seconds

Jason Y was in the vicinity:

Two minutes of searching east of South Lyon. It helps to live nearby.

Vic W persisted:

Took about an hour.

Mike B did the Tour de France somewhat:

Great Clue! Lyons (Lions) and Tigers and MI lead to Detroit area. Found Lyons, MI. About 30 minutes with detours through Lyons, KS and Lyons, OH, not to mention Lyon, France;-)

Heather G sang do re mi:

Yay, I found it! For once the clue was easy. “mi” immediately made me think of Michigan…found Lyon, MI right away, near Detroit (the Tigers connection)…Took me me about 5 minutes, and most of that was looking at dreary Michigan scenery to try and spot some turquoise

Sara D used the color connection:

prolly about 15 minutes, the washed out colour kinda helped a bit… i think the buildings are Deerfield Elementary School (26500 Wixom Rd, Novi, MI)

Mark L attacked the lyons and tigers:

That one for me was a killer….. Oh for Ohio? Mi for Michigan? Lions and Tigers play in Detroit….. hmmm let’s see, but it’s spelled (spelt?) “Lyons” that must mean something?….. Nope “Lyons” MI was low res…. could it be “Lyons” OH? ….. nope low res again. This was herring soup, chock full of herring bones for me….. finally found it just meandering around the Detroit area. Better part of the day on and off.

Not sure if the link works, but it looks like nothing more than “Novi Middle School”

Tim J totally found the turtle:

I picked up on the MI = Michigan clue, googled Lyon+michigan, that lead to South Lyon, MI. Took about 10 minutes of scanning to find it though, because I scanned straight across, then down, then finally up to find it. Good one, really does look like a turtle!

And Justin was playing hooky from homework. Right on, bro:

This took about an hour. Some hindrances to my search were:
1. The “Oh Mi” part of the clue led me to believe the clue was on the Ohio-Michigan border.
2. The town of Lyons, OH is on the border of Ohio and Michigan.
3. There is a town called Lyons in Michigan.
4. It took me too long to use the “Tigers” part of the clue to search the Detroit area. Sure enough, there was Lyon, MI. I might have given up on this a long time ago, but I had homework that I wanted to put off.

Dang, it’s video game time!! See ya next week…

Solution to “Turquoise Turtle”

Gabba gabba hey. And all of that jazz. You are, of course, looking for this week’s daily clue. Ah yeah, I find it kind of funny that I’ve given them the name “Daily clue” when they are not every day an as of a little while ago take two days instead of one. Oh wells.

But anyhow, here you have a Turquoise Turtle clue for your Roogling pleasure. The mysteriously named Artvandalay was the person who sent in this clue… isn’t that some sort of Seinfeld reference? All I know is my friend who loved Seinfeld used to sign into instant messenger with that handle. The turtle has his head to the southwest and is composed of what looks like a cluster of blue buildings. Hm… I guess Super Magic Crunchy Bonus Points are in effect - what exactly are those buildings? They are available at 15/18, by the way.

Ok, off you go on your scavenger hunt. Oh wait, the word hints. Uh, uhm…

“Lyons and Tigers, Oh Mi”

I have completely stitched up the word hints in the usual evil herringbone way. This is a 2 day clue again, so I’ll check in from time to time… probably drop hints along the way.

Say, anyone know good non-prescription drug remedies for better sleep? Like Kava-Kava and that kinda stuff. I have been having problems getting continuous sleep lately but I don’t want to take anything that’ll put me out of commission the next day. Also, I didn’t want to drink any al-key-hol - though I know that definitely works on me! =)

[Edit: 10:03 am PDT Wed - Good morning everyone (or afternoon for some). Seem to be doing OK with this clue for now. I will just say that there are herrings to be waded through for this clue, but you are probably on the right track if you press on and go through all of them.]

[Edit: 11:00 pm PDT Wed - Hi there, or good evening. There were a good amount of solutions. However, I know quite a few rooglers were tearing their hair out at the multiplicity of herrings so I thusly will attempt to eliminate a few. In lieu of a region hint, here is a negative-region hint: Not in Ohio. I knew that some would try there because of “Oh”. That is correct, the turtle is not in Ohio. Hope that helps, see you tomorrow!]

[Edit: 1:45 pm PDT Thu - Not much to report today. Except this - I just discovered that last week a 90 million dollar California lottery ticket was purchased at a 7-11 that I go to some of the time, very close to my house. *Kicks Self For Not Buying Lottery Ticket This Past Week*]

Clue Name : “Turquoise Turtle”
Submitted by: Artvandalay
Status : Solved (13)
Duration: Wed 10/5/05 - Thurs 10/6/05

Solved By: Mike M, Dan M, Shawn D, Jon G, Ol, Jason Y, Vic W, Mike B, Heather G, Sara D, Mark L, Tim J, Justin

Word Hints : “Lyons and Tigers, Oh Mi”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Turquoise Turtle”