23 More Lame Museums

Chapter 23 MORE LAME MUSEUMS "Oh no, not another one!" Coke said underwater, the bubbles pouring out of his mouth. MOOVRETTHTOGO. What could that possibly mean? Coke showed his sister the letters at the bottom of the pool and quickly memorized them. As soon as they climbed out of the water and toweled off, Pep wrote the cipher down on a blank page in her notebook and got to work. MOOVRETTHTOGO. She figured that before anything else, she would try out the same strategy that had worked on the last cipher. She reversed the first two letters, and then reversed the third and fourth letters.

OM OV. OMOV Well, that didn't mean anything. This would require a bit more thought. Pep resolved to work on it more seriously later. If they hadn't decided to go swimming, it occurred to Coke, they would have never seen the message left for them at the bottom of the pool. How was it, he wondered, that Evil Elvis was able to send them these messages so easily? He had to know exactly where they were going to go and when they were going to be there. Then he had to get to that location first, plant the cipher, and leave. Coke scratched his head and remembered … the computer chip. Way back in California, when they had first joined The Genius Files program, GPS devices had been implanted into both of their scalps. Their every move could be tracked. And there was no way to remove the computer chips. How Evil Elvis managed to write letters on the bottom of a pool filled with water was anybody's guess.

"We've got to tell Mom and Dad what's going on," Pep told her brother as they headed back to the RV. "Honesty is the best policy." "Don't you remember what Dr. Warsaw told us after the wedding?" Coke replied. "He said if we say one word about any of this to our parents, he'll kill them both." "Oh yeah." Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions. In the A box, type Travelers Rest SC. In the B box, type Hartwell GA. Click Get Directions. Despite everything that had happened in South Carolina, the twins somehow managed to have a

relaxing dinner and get a good night's sleep. In the morning, the McDonalds pulled out of Valley Park Resort around nine o'clock and made their way to I-85 South. The Blue Ridge Mountains appeared hazily in the distance. It wasn't long before the McDonalds started to see a lot of water out the windows on both sides, as well as people fishing, boating, and water skiing. It was enormous Lake Hartwell, which has 962 miles of shoreline. The lake was named after Nancy Hart, a woman who almost singlehandedly captured six British soldiers in the Revolutionary War. They were going over a long bridge when a sign came into view....

Welcome We're Glad Georgia's On Your Mind Georgia-site Of The 1996 Olympic Games "Woo-hoo!" Coke shouted. "The Goober State!" "Why are peanuts called goobers, anyway?" Mrs. McDonald asked, figuring one of them might know the answer. "It's one of those mysteries of life," replied Dr. McDonald, "like what happened to Amelia Earhart. Hey, maybe I should write a biography about her." "Actually," Coke said, "the word goober was an African term that was brought to America by slaves before the Civil War." "Thank you, Mr. Know-It-All," said Pep, rubbing her eyes.

"Aren't you going to regale us with some obscure trivia about the state of Georgia, honey?" asked his mother. Coke had to search his memory for a moment before he was able to come up with anything. "Georgia is the nation's number one producer of the three Ps," he finally said, recalling a copy of the Weekly Reader from second grade. "Peanuts, pecans, and peaches." "Everybody knows that, bonehead," Pep said with a snort. "Don't call your brother a bonehead." "Oh yeah?" Coke replied. "Well, the Georgia state seashell is the knobbed whelk." "That's more like it, Son!" said his father. Pep rolled her eyes in disgust. By the age of thirteen, many kids take an active interest in where they go on a family vacation and even help their parents plan out the trip. But Coke and Pep were still pretty much content to let their parents take care of these