# Day 8: Haunted Wasteland ## Part One You're still riding a camel across Desert Island when you spot a sandstorm quickly approaching. When you turn to warn the Elf, she disappears before your eyes! To be fair, she had just finished warning you about ghosts a few minutes ago. One of the camel's pouches is labeled "maps" - sure enough, it's full of documents (your puzzle input) about how to navigate the desert. At least, you're pretty sure that's what they are; one of the documents contains a list of left/right instructions, and the rest of the documents seem to describe some kind of network of labeled nodes. It seems like you're meant to use the left/right instructions to navigate the network. Perhaps if you have the camel follow the same instructions, you can escape the haunted wasteland! After examining the maps for a bit, two nodes stick out: AAA and ZZZ. You feel like AAA is where you are now, and you have to follow the left/right instructions until you reach ZZZ. This format defines each node of the network individually. For example: ``` RL AAA = (BBB, CCC) BBB = (DDD, EEE) CCC = (ZZZ, GGG) DDD = (DDD, DDD) EEE = (EEE, EEE) GGG = (GGG, GGG) ZZZ = (ZZZ, ZZZ) ``` Starting with AAA, you need to look up the next element based on the next left/right instruction in your input. In this example, start with AAA and go right (R) by choosing the right element of AAA, CCC. Then, L means to choose the left element of CCC, ZZZ. By following the left/right instructions, you reach ZZZ in 2 steps. Of course, you might not find ZZZ right away. If you run out of left/right instructions, repeat the whole sequence of instructions as necessary: RL really means RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL... and so on. For example, here is a situation that takes 6 steps to reach ZZZ: ``` LLR AAA = (BBB, BBB) BBB = (AAA, ZZZ) ZZZ = (ZZZ, ZZZ) ``` Starting at AAA, follow the left/right instructions. How many steps are required to reach ZZZ?