2010-12-23 41 -90

Thu 23 Dec 2010 in 41,-90: 41.5311194, -90.5170151 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The verge between two roads in Bettendorf, Iowa

Participants

• Dvdllr
• Near-at-hand: Rachel and Marvin

Plans

The first leg of my family's Christmastime travels was from 40,-89 to 42,-91, and in advance of this drive, I checked the geohash locations for the five graticules we'd intersect. Happenstance was that in the Quad Cities grat, specifically the Bettendorf portion, the hashpoint was just off of Interstate 74, which made for an easy grab. I simply planned to take this minor detour while passing through.

Expedition

The expedition went off without a hitch. The two roads that the hashpoint lay between were a kind of busy road, not conducive to stopping alongside, and a residential road, very conducive to stopping alongside. Our GPS guided me to the residential road, and I parked where I thought I was orthagonal to the hashpoint. I ended up being a little too far down the road from where I needed to be, but it was still fine. The verge was a bit of a slope, and given the snowy conditions, slippery. I managed not to wipe out, so that was positive. I was pleased to find that I could get my GPS to line up its coordinates with the destination relatively accurately, so when I was standing in the right spot, I did a little snow art to mark the location. I wrote "xkcd" in the snow (with my hand), and attempted to make a tiny snowman. It ended up being two snowballs stacked atop each other, with eye and nose holes poked into the top one. I was rather limited in my equipment to make something better, since there weren't any rocks or sticks to avail me.

Like the last time I claimed the Frozen Geohash award, I didn't have a thermometer with me. But like last time, I can see from here that the high for the day was -2.8°C, so it was most decidedly below freezing while I was there.

Photos

• 

  Looking for where to be

• 

  Coming back down for the camera

• 

  Got it

• 

  Geohashing partners

• 

  Geohasher

• 

  xkcd

• 

  Miniature snowman

• 

  Impaled with a flag

• 

  Canine geohasher

Achievements

Dvdllr earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (41, -90) geohash on 2010-12-23.

Dvdllr earned the Snowman Geohash Achievement by building a snowman at the (41, -90) geohash on 2010-12-23.

Dvdllr earned the Frozen Geohash Achievement by reaching the (41, -90) geohash on 2010-12-23 while the temperature was below the freezing point of water.

Dvdllr earned the XKCD-100 Honorable Mention Achievement by voyaging 106 miles to reach the (41, -90) geohash on 2010-12-23. Alas it was not a Saturday.

Dvdllr issued a challenge for the Tale of Two Hashes achievement by geohashing in a place named Bettendorf from the (41, -90) geohash on 2010-12-23.