2008-10-18 49 -122

Sat 18 Oct 2008 in 49,-122: 49.0236881, -122.3062578 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

About

The hash for the Saturday meet-up was auspiciously close to the University of the Fraser Valley's Abbotsford campus. Unfortunately, the two kilometers put it in a field behind a baseball diamond...in a collection of penintentaries. Games you could play at this hash: cops n' robbers?

Expeditions

wmcduff

Still, wmcduff decided, what the heck, he'd go for a nice long walk to reward the algorythmn for providing such a close hash. He started off at 2:30, heading upstairs to borrow a digital camera for the walk. Unfortunately, no such luck, the person he'd borrow from was away somewhere.

Undeterred, he walked down to the corner for a squishee, a kilometer or so walk from the dorms, and where he'd put on the discussion page that he would meet others at three. He got there pretty early (quarter to three) and walked in. The squishee machine, while featuring banana, had not been turned on that day. Unfortunate, but there were two other squishee purveyors. He crossed the street and tried again. Strike two: they too had their squishee machine off. The last of the three was Petro-Canada branded, though, unlike the other two. Perhaps this third time, he would not be denied...and indeed he wasn't. His luck rolling, he decided to purchase an instant lotto ticket and won! No cash, unfortunately, but a ticket for the national lotto that night, so that was good. (Edited: Later, he checked his ticket and won $10. Petro-Canada for the win!)

Returning to the orginial squishee purveyor, he began to wait outside, GPS in hand, the remaining ten minutes for three o'clock to roll around...no luck this time. With Robyn up on the Alaska Highway somewhere, he wasn't all that surprised. GPS in pocket, he began to walk down King Road, heading to the entrance to the penintenary. Watching his GPS, he noted when the longitude was getting close. A fence appeared to the south, and the main entrance. A small sign warned that people not in vehicles would be searched. As wmcduff suspected they probably wouldn't search just his coat, and said searching might involve latex gloves, he decided to stay outside the fence and on the road, seeing how close he would get, as at the closest, he was still about 800 meters away from hash point walking along the sidewalk outside the north fence.

Finding a sturdy fast food bag as he walked, he picked up a bit of garbage as he turned south, taking special note of bags and cups with codes he could redeem for assorted points. It was quite a walk, this 'block' being in farm country. Matching up the longitute, wmcduff was pleased to note he was closer here; a mere 660m away from the point. Continuing his way around, he found a garage with a blue bin, dumping his gargbage, and walked back east, soon coming to the south edge of the prison. The No Tresspassing signs were out in force here and unfortunately it was further away from the hash, a bit over 700m directly north of the road.

He waited around a bit, as it was ten minutes to four. He tried to use a rock to scratch xkcd on the pavement of the road, with limited success. After five minutes, however, he gave up and began to walk home. As he was walking, not yet clear of the border of the prison, a car began to slow down, pulling over. Could it be another geohasher? No, it was merely a lost Korean family, looking for some place called Willowdale farm. Not knowing of it himself, he sent them on and headed the rest of the way home, wondering about the wisdom of stopping your car to ask for directions of the person walking outside a prison.

This user earned the No trespassing consolation prize by almost reaching the (49, -122) geohash on 2008-10-18.