Wacky+Wise

Mural Madness

 It was a dark, brisk evening in downtown Asheboro. Wacky Wise planned to locate the cache using the town-planted cache, gathering the final coordinate from the painted murals. The murals each hold clues that lead to a final cache. It was her first time geocaching, so she and her boyfriend used the online guide provided on the [|geocaching website]! It gave the “final cache” coordinates as:

N 35 4 H. A V E, W 79 4 F. U N ! They jumped in their car, eager to reach downtown Asheboro and see the murals! Along the drive, the two saw some of the murals, but Wacky Wise was determined to walk to each one and make it a true adventure.

They parked the car and embarked to the first two murals closest to their car. The streetlights lit up the sidewalks and the leaves rustled beneath their feet. Arriving at the mural, the two simply stared at it, wondering what they were looking for until, “DUH!” Wacky Wise remembered she needed to look at the clues!

She scrolled through the online clues until she found the NC Zoo Mural clue. They counted the number of polar bears on it, 3, and then had to add 2, making the number for E, 2. The two quickly crossed the street and stood amazed under the large train jumping off of the side of the building, shining towards them. “Now what’s the clue for this mural, Wes?” Wacky Wise asked her boyfriend. “Um, it says: ‘the number on the train minus 3.’” “Alright, so that means this number is 9!”

The two documented the number for letter F and headed for the "Randolph Memories" mural. The 900-foot walk to the next mural felt like walking in Antarctica. The coffee in their hands felt like a warm sun between their palms.

They arrived at the huge mural, surprised at its size. The mural is 105 feet by 35 feet and was all hand-painted! They searched the mural for a date, August 21 is the one they found, and used the 1 for their coordinate. Then, they had to find the cost of a shave and haircut at the barber shop on the mural, and the cost was $.25! The 2 was needed for the coordinates.

They turned the corner and examined <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">the Coca-Cola mural. This mural was <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">much simpler than the others, but they <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">got their information and headed to the florist.

<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">With only 2 murals left to see, they tried <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">to decide if driving might be a better <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">option, but Wacky Wise was still <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">determined to finish strong, walking.

<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The florist mural is a series of summer images, <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">and the clue given instructs to look for elephants <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">in the images. Wise was confused when no <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">elephants appeared in them, then she <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">realized 0's can be in coordinates, too!

<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Finally, they reached mural 6. This mural was <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">dedicated to Asheboro's history and even included <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">the Asheboro seal. Using the seal, she found <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">the number 2, and using a clock on the mural, <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">found the number 8. <span style="display: block; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: right;">Their final coordinate was completed!

<span style="display: block; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: right;">N 35 42.125, W 79 49.028.

<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">It was time to find the geocache. The final coordinate led them to the middle of the final mural; however, after about 30 minutes of searching, no geocache was found. The online hints said “hanging” and “great container,” but after searching high and low, far and close, they could not locate anything.

<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Disappointed because they couldn’t find the geocache, Wacky Wise and Wes thawed out in the car and reflected on the journey they had just taken!

<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Although they didn’t find the geocache, they enjoyed bracing the cold and exploring downtown Asheboro! <span style="color: #cc26cf; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">Lesson Plan