2012-08-13 41 -87

Location

Today's location is in a parking lot in Calumet City.

Planning

Haberdasher is going to head there sometime today. -Haberdasher 11:40, 13 August 2012 (EDT)

Participants

Haberdasher

Expedition

Technology still hates me, and while I successfully reached the hashpoint, that's more or less the only success of this trip.

I knew I wanted to go geohashing on my birthday no matter what, and this point was the closest accessible one to me, though not terribly close even then. I suggested doing an Origin hash at the same time, but my parents didn't want to drive to Calumet City as it was, and my best friend tagging along threatened to rebel if we had to enter Indiana. So this one was the only one attempted... probably a good thing, too. It looked so simple- get to the mall, search a little while testing out my new GPS, and geohash get! What could go wrong?

Well, first off, it was raining. Not to Drowned Rat levels, but annoyingly so. At first I thought it was in the Sears store, which gave me hope that I could get the multilevel achievement thing, but the GPS wouldn't cooperate when inside and wasn't near the point outside. A lot of wandering around was done, initially with my father as companion but eventually by my own. The mall was mostly empty, and a bit sketchy-looking too, hardly the perfect place for a girl to spend her birthday. One man made a lewd comment about taking my picture while he waited for the bus, but I ignored him.

Despite my initial thoughts, the hash was not in the Sears store. I was getting frustrated with my new GPS- not only could it not work inside, but it seemed to be giving me contradictory instructions. It didn't help that the storm clouds blocked my view of the sun, leaving directionally-challenged me relying solely on the GPS to determine compass directions. My camera was refusing to turn on as well, though it had worked earlier, so I had to resort to using my cameraphone, all the while trying and failing to shield it and my new GPS from the rain. Eventually, GPS and phone all but covered in raindrops, I found the hash in a shipping area and took some pictures. The first one adequately displays my feelings about the situation at the time.

After getting a slushie at the food court and having my father pose for a picture, we went off without having really explored the mall or Calumet City. Potential for an adventure wasted...