2015-06-07 40 -89

Location

On the side of Lincoln Trail Road, northwest of Petersburg, IL

Participants

Plans

Drive there after Mystrsyko got out of work at 5pm

Expedition

Rookiek13 taking pictures out the window

Severe thunderstorms just off to the north

View south of the hash

Mystrsyko's sister, Rookiek13 was visiting for the weekend, and among the many other adventures that were being had, geohashing was the one most anticipated. It just so happened that the hash for today fell in the southern part of the graticule, within a reasonable drive from Springfield. So, around 6:30pm, the three of us packed our gear and the full entourage of hashscots for maximum silliness, and began the 26 mile drive to the hash.

There was a number of severe thunderstorms passing through the area to the north of the hash, which made us a bit nervous as to whether or not we would be stuck in the car once we arrived. The point being directly on the side of a road, it was possible that we might be within the margin of error if that should happen, but Mystrsyko was confident that the storms would all stay off to the north of the point. Still, the horizon continued to look gloomier and gloomier, with all of us drawing comparisons to scenes from the movie Twister. Dolphintreasure wished aloud that we had the soundtrack for the movie to listen to, prompting Mystrsyko to pull it up on his phone. It turns out that little can beat the excitement of driving directly towards large thunderstorms in the American plains with the Twister theme playing.

As we neared the storms, we made our last turn onto Lincoln Trail Road, a narrow, twisting, one-lane road that probably served only to link the owner of the fields it bisected to the main road. Slowly, Dolphintreasure pulled the car up beside the hash near the crest of a hill. Beside us, a steep incline up to the crops, and ahead, ominous dark clouds barely visible through heavy rain. Mystrsyko estimated the storms to be no more than 5 or 6 miles away, which he would later determine to be very accurate. He was the first out of the car, and within a few mostly vertical steps, had found the hash point!

Dolphintreasure and Rookiek13 soon joined him and the three posed for pictures with their hashscots. Fearful of potential lightning (although none had been seen yet), we decided not to stay long. Rookiek13 even "fell" trying to get back down to the road, and by fell we mean "slid into an upright sitting position" on the steep bank. The hash was not ready for us to leave though. As we set off, Rookiek13 noticed that some of the tall grass had been closed in the door of the car which she found great amusemtent in playing with.

As we left the hash in our rear view mirror, we celebrated our successful expedition, our first in the Peoria graticule, and listened to the Twister theme as we escaped the storms to the safety of home.

Photos

Severe thunderstorms just 6 miles away
Rookiek13 & Dolphintreasure preparing the hashscots
Mystrsyko & Collin the Hashfox
Rookiek13 has "fallen" on the steep bank
Rookiek13 playing with some hashgrass
Makes driving through thunderstorms far more awesome
Proof!
Weather radar at the time we reached the point. White dot is the approxamate location of the hash
Mystrsyko is excited
Victory!
All together