Use these three rhymes to figure out what National Park Mystery Spot 14 is.
Two prongs that meet at Doubletop
Form a river that doesn't stop
Until it dumps its flow
Into a larger river below.
and
My vacuum cleaner cannot speak,
And yet it shouts a clue.
If you could read what's on it,
You would hear it too.
and
An outdoorsy four-letter word
That you have often heard
Is an adjective, verb, or noun
Whether in forest, field, or town.
and
It isn't a White House, or a red or a green house,
It doesn't have clapboards of blue.
It's a Brown House, you see,
And preservationists agree,
That brown will just have to do.
Additional hint, no extra charge: This place is in one of the 58 National Park-designated NPS units.
Be sure to check back with Traveler tomorrow for the answer and an explanation of the clues.
- By Bob Janiskee - October 31st, 2011 8:48am
Comments
Rapidan Camp (Brown House; President Hoover) located in Shenandoah National Park
Congrats to Connie, who was the first to identify this mystery spot.
Camp Hoover in Shenandoah NP.
I'm curious how many correct answers came in before my attempt; I'd bet quite a few.
Also, this was an easy one to google (I checked my answer):
doubletop brownhouse "national park"
gave the answer as the second hit (your post was the #1 hit).
I agree with tomp as well, only it's called Rapidan, not Camp Hoover (gave tours there so I'm a little picky)
I do have to say that living in a different time zone makes it hard to get the answer in first. The eastern time zone people always beat me!
@ Tomp: Connie's comment (which provided the correct answer) was the only comment we received prior to yours. As for the Google approach to getting the correct answer, well, it's always available if you want to use it. As you've pointed out, I didn't try very hard to make this one Google-proof. @ Rangerlady,thanks for underling the fact that this complex is now named Rapidan Camp (though it was named Camp Hoover for a while).
RangerLady is right -- it's really hard for us westerners to beat those doggoned easterners unless we want to get up before breakfast.
How about holding off on handing out the answer until the next day?
It's impractical to hold off on the answer until the next day, Lee, but there might be a way to give RangerLady and the the other Left Coast folks a fighting chance. I could schedule the release of the Mystery Spot and Mystery Plant puzzlers for, say, 11:00 a.m. eastern time. That would be 8:00 a.m. on the Left Coast. Wadda think?
Hmmmmm. Might just work.
Those things are really fun, but it's frustrating as heck to get into it and discover that you've already been skunked.
RangerLady -- what thinks ye?
That would work for me as long as we're not creating any hardships for Bob. Goodness knows you have a lot to do. But I'm at work by that time, which is the only place I get internet.
No extra work is involved, RangerLady. However, a question that crops up is if the time is set for 11 a.m. Eastern, will East Coast folks who glance at the Traveler before they head to work and don't look at it again until after work then be coming into the quiz after it's solved?
Time zones are a perplexing problem with this story of posting.
Honestly, either way works for me. I love the quizzes and never look at the answer until I think I have it figured out. I'm just terribly competitive. So what ever is easiest on everyone is fine with me. No sense changing the way things are done for one little competitive complainer =)
All things considered, it's probably best to leave things pretty much the way they are. I will normally schedule the mystery plant and mystery spot puzzles for release at about 6:15 eastern time. We'll try to embargo the correct answers for a decent interval while readers in other time zones take a crack at the puzzles. As in the past, Wednesday will be quiz/puzzle day.