2009-05-26 39 -93

Tue 26 May 2009 in Marshall: 39.0329841, -93.5885297 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

About

This day's hash for this graticule was located in a (presumably corn) field.

Expedition

excellentdude: This Tuesday my travels continued from my girlfriend's house in St. Louis to my parents' house near Warrensburg, Missouri. As per usual, I checked where the day's geohash coordinates fell along my route. One happened to fall not at all far off the interstate highway I'd be using, at an exit near my parents' home that I was very familiar with, and in a field but pretty close to a road. I decided I'd give that one a shot.

On my way across the state, it rained intermittently. As I arrived in the neighborhood of the hash, the last rain clouds were moving out of the area. Whatever field this hash was in, it was likely to be a wet one. When I arrived on the nearest street to the hash, I surveyed the situation by walking along the south edge of the farm until I got the right longitude and then up the east side of the farm until I got the right longitude. That gave me the idea that the hash was a little farther into the field than I thought it would be, but still very doable. I pulled into the driveway of Mr. Alexander. When I knocked on the door, he answered, was very friendly, but told me he didn't own the land. On the bright side, he gave me great directions to the home of the people who did own the land, and told me that if I got permission from them that I was welcome to park in his driveway when I got back even though he was leaving shortly.

Following his directions, I went up the road, past the bend, and met the Aversman family. As I approached the house, two middle schoolish age sisters were playing and went inside. When I knocked at the door, their mother answered. I told them what I was up to, and not only did I get permission, but they were interested. Apparently the daughters were learning about GPS in the local 4H program, and going to Columbia, Missouri, later in the month to learn more about them. The mother explained that I was wanting to do a GPS thing in their AA farm (so named because of the highway that borders it). While no one came along, they were more than happy to grant me permission to access the point. I gave them the address of the wiki, of course promised not to step on any crops, and was on my way.

I parked back in Mr. Alexander's driveway and proceeded toward the hash. I had to walk quite a ways down the road and around the corner to enter the field due to a decent-sized drainage ditch I had to get around. At 4:45pm, with pants rolled up, I entered the field. The first few steps I took into the field, my shoes sank more and mroe into the muddy soil. Once I got going, though, that leveled off and wasn't too bad. In less than ten minutes of traversing the gooey field, I reached the hash. I took the usual pictures, plus a few to try to show how wet the field was. On my way out, I took another picture of a caged contraption with running water around it. I have no idea what it is, so if you know, please tell me. Eventually, I reached the edge of the field. Before I left it, I grabbed some old corn stalks from the previous year to try to clean my shoes with. Having a small amount of success with that, I went back to the Alexander's house for my car. By that time, Mr. Alexander had arrived home with his family. Everyone was introduced, and we had a good conversation for about ten minutes. They told me about the four different towns in all directions that could bee seen from the top of this hill their house was perched on. Sure enough, it was a great view. I tried to get a picture of one of them, but I don't think what I got quite does the view justice.

Point reached, several friendly acquaintances met, and another all around successful geohash in the books.

Achievements

excellentdude earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (39, -93) geohash on 2009-05-26.

excellentdude earned the Ambassador achievement by obtaining permission to access the (39, -93) geohash on 2009-05-26.

excellentdude earned the Graticule Unlocked Achievement by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (39, -93) graticule, here, on 2009-05-26.

Photos

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  Bad weather was moving out as I arrived

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  The hash is somewhere in this field

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  I asked at this house next to the field

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  Then I asked at this second house down the road

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  Time to enter the wet field

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  I think this is a corn field

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  Did I mention the field was wet?

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  I made it!

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  Grin!

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  Looking south from the hash

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  The hash itself

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  My muddy shoes and nerd socks

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  Looking east from the hash

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  What is this? Do you know?

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  Shoes cleaned with old corn

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  Looking back toward the hash and skyline to the southeast