2008-06-28 40 -74

Sat 28 Jun 2008 in Newark: 40.6581110, -74.3656342 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Jevanyn's Tale

I proposed a little geohashing adventure that Saturday. My wife, Gwynnath (nom d'internet), was cool to the idea at first. We had errands to run in the vicinity, though, and over the course of the day, Gwynnath declared idea of geohashing "midnight-worthy", so with three-year-old son in tow, we added the geohash to our itinerary.

Identifying the location solely through Google Maps, we arrived in front of the house on Brightwood Avenue at about 10PM. (No, we did not wander around lost for hours :-)) The geohash was in the generous front yard, a good 40 meters from the street, and I thought it would be kinda skeevy to take pictures of someone's property without their permission. We looked strange enough pulling up in front of the house, late at night, with a camera, when no other cars were parked on the street. The street sign on the corner, however, was fair game, so we took our photographic proof and took off when it started to drizzle.

After the photo shoot, I drove up to Sky Top Drive in Watchung Reservation, the alternate location I'd proposed on Facebook. (That would be the blue tag on the Z in Elizabeth.) I recalled a spot on the top of a hill where there was a clearing in the trees, and you could see around the reservation for miles around. As it turns out, the hilltop from my memory was not on Sky Top Drive, or if it was, it was no longer accessible to the public. There was only one turnoff, which on the satellite photos seems to lead toward an open area, but was blocked by a gate with an "authorized personnel only" sign or suchlike, so we started to head back.

Gwynnath spotted something blinking by the side of the road. I teased her for being "distracted by something shiny", but it turned out to be a marker, some kind of hand-wired LED device. She's convinced it was left by someone else who tried to make the geohash in Watchung but couldn't wait all night for us lolly-gaggers. (It was close to 11PM by now.) I'm not so sure, since no one else has claimed to be there that night. I picked it up and took it home as further proof of our adventure, and also not to leave its heavy-metal-laden batteries and wiring lying about until who-knows-when.

After all that, I took pictures around Watchung, and headed home, declaring the geohash a success.

The Galleria

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  Here I am in lovely Westfield. In the dark.

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  Hmm, looks like it's going to rain. Again.

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  Closeup of the street sign.

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  My lovely wife Gwynnath was also there.

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  Directions to the hashpoint were ridiculously simple.

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  Later we went up to Sky Top Road.

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  Here they are planning to build a mill.

Ribbons

Jevanyn earned the No trespassing consolation prize by almost reaching the (40, -74) geohash on 2008-06-28.