CLUE #49 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Dylan Bartley (& friend) for finding Dinosaur #49!

The above is an article from the Gilroy Dispatch back in 1995, when my high school art class painted a mural on the side of the Fifth Street Coffee Roasting Company, now called Sue's Coffee Roasting Company. Here's the full article without the pieces blurred out: 

 

 

'Adam Davis, 17, thinks he'll enjoy cruising through town years from now and seeing his work a permanent fixture at the corner. "If it's not all graffitied up, or the building torn down, or new outlets get built"' Always the optimist.

I mainly used the mural as an excuse to cut classes. We were given passes to leave campus to work on it, and 9 out of 10 times I was leaving campus to "work on the mural", I was just playing hooky. I was never really happy with how it turned out, and thankfully, the mural has since been covered up with a new mural of a train.

This clue led to Christmas Hill park. When I was a kid, Christmas Hill park had the best playground around. There was a multiple level play area, built all around a huge tree, with at least three different slides coming off of it, and a tunnel behind the structure. I really wanted to incorporate this, but the entire thing (including the tunnel, which had to have been excavated) has since been removed. It has been replaced with a crummy sanitized playground that I can't imagine is nearly as fun for kids to play on. 

At the entrance to the park, hung in a tree, was a blow-up globe with dinosaurs all over it. on the north american side of the globe, written on the T-Rex:

"Meet Economuo at Amphitheater"

At the far end of the park, the Amphitheater bears a plaque commemorating "William N. Economuo". above that plaque, snugly tucked into an alcove, was the painting!

CLUE #45 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Mary Whalen for finding Dinosaur #45! 

Here's a run-down of the hunt straight from Mary:

When I saw the clue I knew immediately that it referred to a sculpture on Embarcadero but when it was posted I was at work and couldn’t leave. On the next day it still hadn’t been found. So when I finished a meeting at SF state early and had some time to kill before I gave my boyfriend and fellow dino hunter Eric a ride to the airport, I decided that I should go dino hunting. I’d had some bad luck in the past with not getting to the clue fast enough and I hoped 4th times the charm! Unfortunately I decided to park in the parking structure at the Metreon so I had a bit of a walk. Good thing it was a nice day. I decided to go down Market since I couldn’t remember where the statue was exactly. Once I got closer I saw it. . .should of gone down Mission...oh well. 

I wandered around the rocket looking to see if there was any marking on it, and then I saw this info thing that had some stickers on it:

When I looked closer I saw it, clue #2:

The clue was a little hard to take a picture of since it was so long. I decided to try to write it down and I wrote on an old receipt I found in my bag. My phone was being incredibly slow and loosing battery power fast so I called Eric to see if he could help out. He was trying to get work done and couldn’t really help right then. But that did the trick because my phone started working. I was able to figure out that the alphabet was shifted by 12 places and then spelled out “And in the veil of the light the city drifts anchorless upon the ocean”

This stumped me some. I sat there for a little while googling the passage and SF and anything else I could think of. All it came up with though was info about the poem. I figured pier 14 wouldn’t be on there and underlined if there wasn’t something to do with it so I decided to start walking out to the end of the pier. A little ways down I noticed that there were plaques close to the ground along the railing with passages written on them. Then I noticed further down that they were passages from the poem so I looked for the one that was in the clue and that’s where I found it, clue #3:

 

I pulled on the string and it seemed like something was tied to it. I didn’t think it was the painting though, too light. Once I got to the end I saw this: 

I knew I had seen a statue like that before, but couldn’t quite remember where. While I thought about it I decided that since it was such a nice day I should take some pictures and enjoy the view while I walked back down the pier. (Thanks Adam!)

I texted Eric again to see if he had any ideas. He hadn’t seen it before but suggested it was in a park near by. I figured it was in one of 2 directions and tried to google it but again my phone was not cooperating. I could see it come up on the google image search but that was as far as my phone would take me. So I started walking, the 2 areas it could be weren’t that far from each other so I could always walk back. As I was walking I thought I might ask someone. They told me where I could find the visitor center but not the statue. Then Eric texted me saying that it was across from the ferry building. Awesome, that was the direction I was headed! Then I saw it! But I didn’t see any obvious clue. I looked at the ground in between the heads and walked around them but didn’t see anything. 

  

I figured I better look closer before I gave up. The one on the left didn’t have any markings or anything on it but when I looked at the one on the left I fount it. At the base of the head was a little tag tied with a rubber band:

 

“Walk ~27 steps to the christmas tree”. I looked around and luckily there was only one tree that looked like a christmas tree. I ran to it. I hoped this was the last clue and that the painting would still be there!  And there it was! Hanging among some ornaments! YAY!

I love my new dino!

And it even matched my shirt!

Welcome to the #Dinohunt!

I'd like to welcome anyone who is now following the hunt as a result of my promotion at the SF Zine Fest a few weeks back. Here's hoping you find yourself a free dinosaur painting, and have some fun along the way!

Just want to give a few tips before I post the next couple of hunts:

• Follow me on twitter. I like to give a little notice before I post each clue so that you can get ready. Also, if you get stuck on a hunt, or you think a clue might have gone missing, its the fastest way to get my attention. 
• Once you've followed me on the twitters, you can use the hashtag #dinohunt to let me know you'd like me to get on the ball and post a new hunt. I'm a brand new father, so I can't always get away to scheme new hunts. Knowing that you're out there waiting really motivates me! 
• If you find a painting, congratulations! Please wait at least 8-10 clues before hunting down another one, although if you want to help a friend find one, more power to you! Actually, PLEASE tell your friends, and encourage them to hunt these down. I want to spead the dino-love around.
• Remember that this is a totally DIY (or DIWO) production, made possible with funding from The Awesome Foundation. I don't get clearance to hide almost any of these clues, so the security guards / owners of the businesses where a clue might be hidden probably don't know I hid something there. They might not be to stoked on my shenanigans, so DO NOT approach these folks asking about dinosaur paintings. They most likely will have no idea what you are talking about.
• Things you might need on your hunt: comfortable shoes (I try to keep all the hunts walk-able, though with my long legs, my definition of walk-able may differ from yours), a flashlight, a smart phone (I try to keep all the hunts solvable without one, but they do help), a camera (to take pictures of the clues. If you find the painting, I really like to see your pictures of the clues afterward), paper and pencil, your wits.

Thanks! Be on the lookout for new clues shortly!

CLUE #30 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Traci & Cole for finding Dinosaur #30!

Traci posted another synopsis of the hunt on her blog, but since it's not nearly as long as her previous post, I will post it here:

Yesterday I caught my second dinosaur. It was an unexpected find: When the first clue to the dino’s whereabouts was posted on Tuesday, May 31, I was out of town, three hours east back home in Angels Camp. In fact, I’m at my friend Barbara’s bon voyage party when my mother, who has recently become as fascinated by dinosaur hunting as I am, calls and in an excited voice tells me, “I know you’re here, but there’s another clue posted and I figured it out! It’s at 333 Fremont Street! It’s an empty lot; there was supposed to be a big building project there a few years ago but it was abandoned! 333 Fremont Street!”

I text my friends in the Bay Area, hoping that one of them would capitalize on my mother’s genius, but both of them say they’re busy that day, and I give up hope of finding a second dinosaur. Instead, I play Settlers of Catan, eat, drink, be merry, and let all thoughts of dinosaur hunting go.

Yesterday, however, I come back to San Francisco, and I’m supposed to meet Cole for a movie at the Landmark Theatre Embarcadero Center. I’m in a skirt and heels. I have none of the proper attire or equipment for dinosaur hunting except for my wits, my phone, and whatever pens or scraps of paper I can dig out of my purse. Still, I hike from the Embarcadero BART station down Fremont Street hoping to find that vacant lot.

I call my mom: “Where’s this thing supposed to be? There are like three different construction projects going on on Fremont Street!”

She repeats the address to me and I hike another block down Fremont to Harrison Street, where, as she had said, there’s an enormous vacant lot, and attached to the chain link fence, a clue:

There are three sheets of laminated hot-pink paper: One with a grid of letters, one with what seems like a key to a code, and one with the date of the day that the first clue had been posted, 5/31/2011. I snap photos with my camera phone and scribble down the grid and the key on the back of a crossword and a stray bookmark, and while I send them to Cole and my mother, I head back down Fremont to a café where I can sit and puzzle the thing out while waiting for Cole.

I call my mom, who’s at work, and because she can’t receive images through text messages, proceed to recite everything to her: “The fourth row is jester, dog, see-saw, dog, yodel, dog, Peter Pan!” But she’s at work and after half an hour of Googling can’t help me figure it out.

Let’s fast-forward a few hours: I wrack my brains for an hour and a half trying to figure out how to decode the grid. Cole is late to the movies so we miss the showing. We dejectedly head back home, where we look up all sorts of ciphers and codes on the internet, where we find information that should be helpful, but isn’t. The ten alphabets on the key seem to shift one letter every time, making it seem like a Caesar cipher, and the whole array like atabula recta. But why the numbers? Were we supposed to turn the grid into a series of numbers, which we could also have to decode?

Fast forward again: We’ve eaten dinner. We’ve eaten dessert. We’ve watched the Giants play ten innings against the Cardinals. We’ve seen them come from behind twice. And then Cole asks me what was written on the third piece of paper.

“Just the date,” I say. “5/31/2011. That’s the day the first clue was posted.”

“Maybe the top row is five,” he says, pointing, “and then the second row is three…”

“Maybe…” I say. But while he decodes in rows, I begin decoding in columns. There are, after all, seven columns, and seven numbers in that date. The first column, which I suspect corresponds to the alphabet on row five of the key, doesn’t give me any Xs or Qs, so I have hope. The second, which corresponds to row three, doesn’t either. A Z shows up in the third, row one, and I start to feel like maybe we’re never going to figure this clue out, but I persevere, because if this isn’t it then I’m going to make damn sure it isn’t. By the fourth column, row two on the key, I’ve spelled “HOPE” across the top line and I know I’m on to something. “It’s in columns!” I tell Cole. “Do the last two! They’re both on row one!”

While I finish the fourth column and the fifth, Cole quickly decodes the last letters and reads them off to me, and here’s what we get:

HOPEFULLY YOU ARE STILL NEARBY COLLECT YOUR PRIZE AT ZENO PLACE

Nearby? We’re in the Outer Sunset, as close to the beach as you can get, and Zeno Place, we discover, is around the corner from Fremont and Folsom, all the way back across the city, near the bay. But we’ve spent hours trying to figure out this puzzle. And at ten o’clock, as the Giants head into the top of the 11th inning against St. Louis, we grab the dog and the camera, hop in the car, and head out in search of that elusive dinosaur.

We get to Zeno Place half an hour later there it is. The dino sticker and the plastic-wrapped package we were sure someone would get before us.

Everyone, meet Hutch the Heavy Dinosaur.  He's a triceratops!

We have to thank my mother, who gave us the location of the second clue, the internet, and AdamD for doing such an amazing job arranging the dino hunt. We’re making a concession, however: Although we love dinosaur hunting and solving puzzles, we’ve got to bow out for the next ten rounds. There are only 70 dinosaurs left now and we want other people to share the thrill of dinosaur hunting! (Please don’t leave one un-hunted for a week, though, because then we might not be able to help ourselves!) Go get 'em, world! There's dinos to be hunted!

(REMINDER)

 

-Tomorrow I will be hiding five (5) dinosaur paintings at the end point.

-If you complete the hunt, please only take one (1) painting. 

-Have you already found a dinosaur(s) painting? Maybe let someone else complete this hunt, or tell a friend to go do it!

-Tomorrow's hunt is in San Francisco, and will probably be the only SF hunt for the next six weeks (during this time I will be hiding paintings in the East Bay, and elsewhere...)

-Wear comfortable shoes.

CLUE #24 - FOUND!

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Congratulations to Kelly Nabours for finding another dinosaur painting!

Here's a breakdown of the hunt from Kelly:

So, sent the clue through a binary-text converter.  We got a paragraph describing a public rooftop.  Corrissa did a google search, and voila, that entire paragraph is online discussing the rooftop patio at 150 California St.

So, showed up there.  I did show up around noon, and there were quite a few people eating their lunches.  So, trying to look nonchalant, searched for quite some time, not seeing anything.  Our illustrious artist, with his mad ninja skills, managed to see me searching while remaining unobserved. 

I finally noticed the dinosaur sticker on the base of one of the tables. (I was actually sitting at this table when he arrived, and decided I needed to leave, otherwise he probably wouldn't check the table for the next clue)

Looking under the table, taped to the underside was a manila envelope with another clue!  This one a crossword puzzle.

I didn't bring a pen, and had some slight difficulty.  Nonetheless, trying to keep it in my head, went out searching for the next spot. Quickly got to the corner of Sacramento and Davis to look for the Dinosaur Painting Underneath the Shoe Shoe Stand. (It mentioned the answer to #5 twice, it took me a little bit to realize this was 5-across and then 5-down.).  So finally finding the Shoe Shine Stand marked with Sweet Memory signs.

This nice fellow was running the stand, and there beneath it was this well-wrapped package.  I couldn't get it open, so brought it back to the office for scissors.  And there we are.

CLUE #23 - FOUND!

*Blogger went down yesterday and erased this post with it. I'm re-adding it, as the painting has still not been recovered*

Congratulations to Casey Caston for findind Dinosaur #23, hidden beneath the pinball machine at Dinosaurs, the banh mi sandwich shop in the Castro!

A big thank you to Chris Nguyen (the owner of Dinosaurs) for letting me stop by and hide a dinosaur painting in his shop!