2009-04-02 32 -90

About

I (Uglystick) was on the phone with my brother, who has yet to post his first expedition report, when I realized that the Dow had long since opened and I hadn't checked the day's geohash point. It wasn't close but it wasn't very far, either (about 20 km) plus it appeared to be very easy to reach... right on someone's looong driveway in an small neighborhood. Maybe a chance to earn the Ambassador achievement?

Expedition

I left work at around 17:30 local time and made my way down the I-20 interstate to the Bovina exit and then northeast to the hash point. I had printed out the Ambassador letter to give to the homeowner if they were home since I'd clearly have to be on their land to hash the point. As luck would have it, the homeowner was in his large front yard hitting golf balls on his own private single-hole golf course that also doubled as a pasture for his horse. As I pulled up and stopped right in front of his yard, he was curious as to my business there. I gave him my best brief explanation of the where, why, and how of geohashing and asked if it was alright for me to be on his property for a few minutes to properly hash the point. He readily agreed as he was in a jovial mood but, since I explained that the chances of the point being on his land were less than 1 in a 1,000,000, he joking asked what one gets for such an honor, "a pot of gold??", he asked. "Sure!" I replied. I told him I'd leave it at the point. I gave him the Ambassador letter and he on in to his home, evidently done with golf for the day.

The point was just to the west of a long driveway under the shade of an evergreen tree. I hashed the point and set up for some pictures. There just happened to be several fallen sticks nearby that I used to spell out a cryptic message at the point, as you can see in the images below. While I was doing that, a young boy from the house next door came over with his mother - curious as to what I was doing. After I explained geohashing to her as well, she then wanted to know if I was doing a newspaper story about this being the geohash point for the day. I guess I made it sound a touch too significant. I guess I could have told her that it would be written up on the internet, tho. Given the state of newspapers in the US these days, having it on this site might just be more impressive than in print - at least it might get read more, anyway.

Pictures complete, I got my gear back in the car and drove the 20 minutes back home. A nice, easy but rewarding geohash - and a fun way to end a regular work day!