2010-11-07 25 -80

Location

In the middle of the road, in the Everglades.

Participants

Plans

Rhonda has to work, then wants to see the airshow at Homestead AFB (blue angels!), then has to get out of the airshow parking lot somehow, then will go to the hashpoint. Probably sunset-ish. Will update later. -- Rhonda 12:21, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Rhonda is still at work, won't make it to the airshow at all, and will probably be here more than an hour longer. How much more than an hour remains to be seen. --Rhonda 19:54, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Finally off work at 4:30. That was a spectacular fail at a short easy workday. It'll take me an hour to get to the hashpoint. --Rhonda 21:38, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Expedition

Rhonda

I encountered unexpected difficulties at work and thus didn't get to see the airshow as I had been hoping, but did get to see the edges of the Blue Angels' performance as they appeared and disappeared from the other side of the biggest hill in south florida: the dump. Don't I get to work in the best places?

Plans of a sunset geohash were, however, still attainable, as sunset was an hour after leaving work, and it took an hour to drive from work to the hashpoint. After a failed attempt to have the GPS on the dash and take a picture of it while driving, I pulled into the first left I could see, which was a place with a restaurant, bait and tackle sales, and airboat rides. They turned the big sign off while I was sitting there in the parking lot trying to phone Million zillion. After getting his voicemail several times in a row, I was about ready to call it a night, with one last shot at getting a photo while driving. Not ideal, but if it came to safety I would drop the photo.

I was just about back at 177th when Million zillion phoned me back. I had just enough time to safely get into the left turn bay when he said he would be there shortly. I told him about the restaurant parking lot, pulled a (legal!) U-turn, and crossed the hashpoint a third time to go wait for him. The speed racer might have decent evidence after all!

Million zillion

I got the voice mail from Rhonda's first call (about the time she headed out around 4:42pm) a few minutes after she left it, and set out on the highway as soon as I could manage. I had to stop for gas on I-95 (taking two attempts, since apparently Weston commuters at Royal Palm Blvd. have no need of gas stations), which delayed me a few more minutes.

I hadn't received any further calls from Rhonda, probably because my "smart" phone can't handle incoming phone calls reliably while also updating its GPS map. I would complain to the manufacturer, except that they happen to be my employer... Anyway, while heading west on SW 8th St., I called Rhonda back and told her about my impending (but belated) arrival. She informed me about the little restaurant/bait shop/tourist trap just past the hashpoint, and we decided to meet up there.

Out by the hashpoint, SW 8th is basically a two-lane blacktop with Everglades on both sides, some ongoing road construction, and very little else. In particular, there are no street lamps out there. In the dark, I overshot the meet-up spot and had to drive about a mile further west to find a place on the road to execute a reasonably safe (although not necessarily legal >_>) three-point turn, return to the meet-up, and park next to Rhonda.

Speed racer

Because Rhonda had the better GPS and a camera to record the result, Million zillion volunteered to act as chauffeur (or perhaps, as Spritle and Chim-Chim) for the Speed Racer run. We matched the speed limit (45 mph in the construction zone) as we passed through, and Rhonda successfully captured the result. We drove back to 177th for a (legal!) U-turn, and set back for our improvised base camp, where we had left Rhonda's car.

On the way back, we matched speed again for one of the automated speed-checking signs around the construction so that Rhonda could photograph that as well.

Once back at base, we agreed that this was a good time to get some dinner - in a place that was open and which did not also sell bait - so we headed away from the alligators and back towards civilization (such as could be found, in west Miami).

Deja Vu

As the hash point was directly on the road, there's a good chance Million Zillion has the deja vu achievement but may not have proof.

Rhonda, however, does have proof! Exactly one week earlier, she had gone to the Shark Valley centre in the Everglades National Park, which is a bit west on that same road. The only road in the area, so there are no alternate ways to get there from Miami.

Tracklog

45mph (construction zone speed limit) is 72.4km/h; that light blue section is about 73km/h.

I trimmed the tracklog down to get it fairly tight, unfortunately a runner's GPS isn't designed for speeds like this, so it takes points fairly far apart in time (every 10s in this tracklog). There are only 5 points (4 segments) each with an estimated speed.

For the hashpoint marker I copied the co-ords from peeron into the visualizer's form.