We are back from Fredericksburg with the cache and a bunch of peaches.
Here's the whole story, from top to bottom:
We got to the book store and I asked if they had a package for Casper Ebersbach. The lady gave me a package with his name on it in a Genuine German envelope!
We then proceeded to spend an hour in the car leafing through the pages and finding absolutely nothing. NOTHING. I kept going back into the store and asking if they had books for any name I could find in this thread, in Dan's blog, on Violette's dream, etc. (I ended up using 60% of my battery life on the phone's GPRS connection. No Edge!) No dice.
We got frustrated and decided to go to Der Lindenbaum for dinner. Only they're not open on Tuesdays. Doh!
So we went to the brewery. *hic*
After a beer and a strudel and many checkings of Twitter, forums, etc., MrToasty told me to check page 49 since it had been mentioned in the same solve as Caspar Ebersbach. There was a name on that page, so we went back to the book store and asked if they had a package for Henry Schultz (or whoever it was). The guy said no, but the problem was they did have a package for _someone_ but they had orders not to give it to anyone but them.
So basically, I needed to go in and say, "Hi, my name is so-and-so. Do you have a package for me?"
So I looked real cute with my list of names, going through them one by one. I even tried, "I'm... Ron... Burgundy?" But when I got to, "My parents had a sense of humor and named me Peter Hayder," the store owners turned to each other and nodded. That was it! Hooray! Daylight was fading fast, and so were my children.
I grabbed the package, thanked the owners, and went back to the car. Where we spent another long time leafing through the book. Zero, zilch, nada. It was the kids' bedtime and we still had an hour and a half back home. We decided to cut our losses and hope for inspiration at a later date.
On the way, I wondered if I had ended up bypassing the trail, as Dan did mention that it was labyrinthine, but circular. Did I force the store owner's hand and end up with the first and last pieces? But still, there was no inkling of where to go next. Remembering the UV light mention about that French cache MrToasty told me about, I hauled out the blacklight from my closet and checked the first book on page 49. The page number was circled. I checked the second book. There's an address in Fredericksburg with a notation:
In the other book, there was a notation saying:
"Attic #1
Page #48"
And another saying:
"If all is safe, follow instructions to find me. P.E."
Stay tuned for part 2...
