2010-07-17 40 -89

Location

In a soybean field near Groveland, Illinois

Participants

Dvdllr

Plans

My plans mostly included hemming and hawing over whether or not to go.

Expedition

I tend to ignore any and all geohashes around here that show up in a crop field. Today's was such a geohash; however, unlike most farms within 40,-89, this particular one was within five miles of Morton, meaning very low investment to at least check it out.

When the locations came out on Friday, I had noticed the location for 40,-89 was nearby, but because of my jaded opinion of farm geohashes, I'd looked abroad for a different location. The geohash for 40,-88 was right inside the tiny village of Anchor, Illinois, and I had decided that if I were to go on an expedition, it would probably be there. When Saturday rolled around, my schedule still allowed for the 1-1.5 hour trip to Anchor, though in the end I didn't go. It was on account of being very tired during the time that I would have departed, having been working in 35°C weather for the previous many hours (I was helping a friend who's building a house). Being sweaty and sticky kind of made me desire a shower more than going to Anchor for fifteen minutes.

Over the rest of the afternoon, I came to the decision to check out the 40,-89 geohash for a couple of reasons, despite fully expecting to not be able to reach it. For one, like mentioned, it was a minimal time investment. Second, which was probably the biggest reason, I would kick myself later if I were to find out something the satellite views in Google and Bing were all outdated, and now that field is a parking lot for a board game store or something. It was a far fetched possibility, but I went anyhow. It took only 6 minutes or so to get there. I had considered biking, but the roads to get there aren't friendly to cyclists, i.e. there's no shoulder and all the motorists around here are hostile to bikers, for some reason (not that they run you down or anything, but they pass you with about a millimeter's separation).

I did a slow-down on the road adjacent to the hashpoint. It was indeed a field, that of soybeans. Without anything else to stay for, I kept driving. On my way home I went through the little community of Groveland, which I found to be a wonderful place. On the whole, the trip itself was completely worth taking, if nothing else for the beautiful clouds in the sky. Clouds are amazing and I took lots of photos.