2018-08-07 41 -71

Tue 7 Aug 2018 in 41,-71: 41.7976631, -71.4088174 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The edge of a parking lot at a public school complex off Ocean Street, Providence, RI, USA

Participants

Vbob (talk)

Plans

I work in Providence, and this location seems fairly accessible for a quick jaunt after work. As it happens, my great-great-great-grandfather Zacharias Wennerbäck built his home in RI a block north on Ocean Street after immigrating [illegally] from Sweden in 1837. Since the GPS accuracy was much lower in the 1800's, I'm tempted to claim this as ancestral retrohash, and maybe even couch potato.

Expedition

I found my way to the parking lot, and did the geohash dance until I got pretty close - and a woman came out of the school building and asked me to leave, saying it was private property. I said I thought it was a public school, just wanted to take a picture, and waved my "I'm from the internet poster" - this did not satisfy her - apparently it was a day care center and they had some reason to be concerned about strange men from the internet. I left quietly, and snapped a single photo through the parking lot fence. Then I drove a block north to where my great-great-great-grandfather Zacharias Wennerbäck had built his first home in the new world. I introduced myself to a neighbor watering his garden so I wouldn't seem suspicious, and was soon offered a cerveza and encouraged to come back anytime. Since Zacharias and his sons built several houses in this neighborhood over the 50 years he lived here, I'm claiming ancestral retro-geohash.

Photos

• 

  pretty damn close

• 

  a parting shot

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  ancestral home nearby

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  ancestral home in 1930

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  ancestral foolish grin™