Jul 02, 2008 Hypercross Puzzle

You might need to do a little sleuth-work ;-), but easily done if you find the right tool. It's not necessarily one of those one-stop lookups on Wikipedia!

Uh oh...

Okay, three people have already solved this? Obviously there IS a list out there somewhere. Perhaps they might share?

Or at least a hint towards the right tool?

[3],[4] Not a list, but if looking for places, what tool might you use. As [1] states...I wouldn't look for directions at Wikipedia.

[5] I have an idea on the tool I might use...but not how...yet.

Curious... once you know what category each answer is, its not too hard to find the right mix of answers just from a list of them. Once you play around, only one answer could be multiple values and that was easily tried with both values.

I haven't been able to find a place that is a list of possible cities, rivers,hills, roadside attractions, or one of several hundred other possibilities. The only clue is it is in the united states

Well I got it it was the first of my hundred choices

Not as hard as it first looks..

Well, I thought I had the right idea. But I've hit a wall and have no idea which way to turn.

don't forget to look at the title of the puzzle...

Maybe I just don't understand how the title and the answers fit together. I got it done. But I'm sitting here scratching my head saying....what the heck do the answers have to do with that?

Edit: OK, so I see how they fit together. But if you can't use google maps, it's near impossible to find these places. Unless, of course, you know where they are already. Googling just the town name doesn't give you the town at all, unless you add the state. And that's the Catch-22.

Well, I've been informed that doing a search in Google Maps with just the town name will yield only one place in most instances. But since I'm on dialup, I can't use Google Maps (unless I want to wait 30 to 50 minutes for each map to load.)

Both 4 and 5 have multiple answers...(Edited below for clarity)

The above was meant to indicate that there are two state names that will fit with the across and/or down answers which intersect with the answers to 4 and 5 - in each case, only one of the two state names is correct. This was not meant to imply that there is more than one CORRECT answer.

I apologize if my ambiguity left that impression.

[13] backsolve using the number of letters in each clue...

Only 50 possible answers for each one...

And were those places named because someone was interrupted while they were counting? Sheesh!

[13] On a different map site, you can enter just the town name, and the site will give you a suggestion for where it could be. (It's before you get to the actual maps, so no big images to load.) I know this doesn't help you right now, but maybe it'll help someone else... (It would've helped me if I'd remembered this BEFORE I solved! LOL)

[14] I sent you a Tangagram - I'm interested in what you found for 4 & 5 since 2 different databases I used gave single answers...?

I've been looking at this for hours and I still have no idea what's going on here.

[18] see above and my reply to your Tangagram.

[19] I believe that you are in the state of Confusion. Perhaps if you contemplate the previous sentence, you may find your way to other states.

I finished the puzzle by putting into the blank the answer that fit. Outside of that, I have no idea why these are the correct answers. Since I'm done, can anyone tangagram me with the correct theme since I couldn't get one to fit?

No clue

Ok. I get that each answer is a state name, I don't think that's really that hard to figure out. But I have no idea how the numbers apply. My first guess was that they were route numbers, but that doesn't seem to fit. I'm lost.

[24] Being lost is the right place to start. If you need directions, where would you go?

But, at this point, let's be blatant. They are apparently just what the title says they are, names. However, I could never find the correct site to use that would match the names with that states for most of them.

[25] If you go to (the site where you quest for a map) and enter a name in the "city" field, but nothing in the "state" one, you get an error message that says "We did not find an exact match for your search, but we found a similar location." Then, in tiny letters below, it suggests the "similar location," which is usually the answer.

(Wish I'd remembered this when I needed it...!)

I solved this puzzle essentially by brute force. I have no idea how I was supposed to solve it. The numbers mean absolutely nothing to me, even after reading comments 25 and 26. If someone is bored, I would appreciate a TG explaining the significance of the numbers, and how I was supposed to get the state names.

#1 is not texas and that is the only answer i was getting for it. i just put in the state that had the correct number of letters and it fit.

Not Getting It! Anyone Got A Hint That Will Spark Some Fire?!?!?!

Wow. I wish hypercrosses displayed the author's solution after you completed them.

This one's would be something like: "Somehow know you should go to this other website. No, not that website, the other one. Now start entering things into one of the fields on that site. No, not like that, spell it out. Okay, next one. No, spell it out with a space this time instead of a hyphen. Oh wait, that yielded the wrong answer. Delete that space and try again, there you go. Now the next one. No, don't spell this one out, just type the number this time. Good. Etc, etc."

[30] and others...

I didn't intend to create so much frustration with this puzzle!! I acknowledge that not all websites are created equal - and there's not a single one I recommend for solving this. In fact, I simply used my local MS Streets and Trips (year 2000 version) to find these [and much faster than any internet reference]. The one advantage of that program is that you don't have to be exact on the spelling - just close, then it lists all possibles.

(You could also use an old fashioned non-electric paper atlas, if they still exist!)

Fear not - no more puzzles of this theme are in the works!!!

had to visit 4 different web sources to figure this one out.

not a fan of this puzzle. but it is solvable.....there are only 50 choices of states to choose from. And there are only a few states with 4 letters in them.

And for those of you who love duplication, here's a OWW version of the puzzle:
http://tanga.com/puzzles/3545-8-22-2008

The real kicker is that for one of them typing the number in to the search field does not yield the correct answer unless you remove the space between the first part of the number and the last part. Only by process of elimination knowing that my cross was correct did I get the answer. Credit for having that particular letter cross I suppose....