2025-01-09 43 -92

Rejected Autobots be like—

Thu 9 Jan 2025 in Austin: 43.8343160, -92.1658143 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a lot beside a fiberglass manufacturing plant in Chatfield, MN.

Participants

Kyrkazakh (talk)

Plans

Kyrkazakh (talk): Wake up and get moving a bit earlier to make it down to this highly-doable hash.

Expedition

Kyrkazakh (talk): Success! Got moving more slowly than planned but still had time before lunch with a family member, so I took Highway 52 to Chatfield. If you've read some of my November hash reports you probably can imagine what I encountered: beauty in the rural American landscape (horses covered in pastel-colored coats for the winter weather) contrasted with transitioning economies (thrift stores, wedding venues, pet vacation areas) contrasted again with the strangehold the far right has on the majority of folks here. Although I did see one sign reading MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. U TOO, DEMOCRATS which made me chuckle. God, I hope some kind of class consciousness can emerge from all this.

Anyways, I pulled into the factory parking area next to the empty grassy lot where the hash was. Turns out this was the site of one of Strongwell's manufacturing centers; they make specialized fiberglass products that end up in lots of construction and decorative stuff, I guess. Their sign said "ISO 9001 Certified" which I foolishly thought might be the name of a union's local chapter, but then remembered that ISO do international standards for products and management practices. No union strong here. Sigh.

The walk to the hash was short but brought into sight quite a few pieces of litter, which I grabbed on the return trip. Nothing too interesting except an old Minnesota license plate I'm keeping. In geocaching they have events called "Cache In, Trash Out" or CITO events, I propose we do equivalents that are "Hash In, Trash Out" or HITO.

The hash site itself was just a few meters from some inactive commercial lawn mowing equipment (at least that's what I think those machines are?) and some... ISO containers, whaddaya know. Oh! Also I could see a certain flag at half-mast from the hash site. Anyways, I got photos and proof, returned back to my car, and went on my way. Overall happy with how things went and I learned a bit more about international standardization practices so... hooray?

Photos

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  Standard proof.

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  Smiley face, now with mascara!

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  Any proposed Transformers names for these guys?

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  No points for guessing what this flag is.

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  View northwest towards the fiberglass factory.

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  Litter pickup.

Achievements

Kyrkazakh earned the GeoTrash Geohash Achievement by cleaning up the (43, -92) geohash on 2025-01-09.

Kyrkazakh earned the Vexillology achievement by spotting the flag of the United States of America while at the (43, -92) geohash on 2025-01-09.