2012-10-12 43 -89

Fri 12 Oct 2012 in 43,-89: 43.1332032, -89.4555498 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Farmland northwest of Lake Mendota, near Governor Nelson State Park

Participants

SwensonJ

Plans

SwensonJ is driving to Madison for a 3:00 appointment. He'll try to swing by the hash on the way there, sometime in the early afternoon.

Expedition

This was a vacation day at our school, but I was on the road to give a presentation at Madison College. The hashpoint is about a 15-minute drive from the campus, which is over an hour from home, so a visit to the hash was definitely in order.

It was a beautiful day to drive; the temperature was about (50 F / 10 C), and the trees were changing colors. After a quick shopping detour, I headed north around Lake Mendota. The farmers were out in the field; they clearly thought I was an idiot, but a harmless one, and gave me permission to walk across their land for a few minutes.

Luckily, the camera batteries died only after I'd gotten the GPS proof photo. There were extras in the car, but I was in a hurry by this time. I got back on the road about 2:15 p.m., and headed for my appointment. My route took me right past the entrance to Governor Nelson State Park -- and then past a gas station. I stopped to change into clean jeans -- and they had squishies! The gas station was Trader Gus, at (43.150941, -89.414291), a distance of just under 4km from the hash. The brand name was Alligator Ice: I got blue raspberry flavor.

I got to Madison College at about 3 p.m. and gave my talk. If anyone happens to like puzzles, I talked about properties of sequences like (3, 13, 1113, 3113, 132113, 1113122113, ...), and they made a video: it is, or will someday be, available here.

Photos

• 

  The tractor driver gave me permission to journey on

• 

  View from parking place across the hashpoint

• 

  I got there!

• 

  A hash one mile to the east would have been more fun (and earned the Admit One Geohash achievement)

• 

  Cheers!

• 

  Madison College, main entrance

Achievements

SwensonJ earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (43, -89) geohash on 2012-10-12.

SwensonJ earned the First Sip GeoSquishy Achievement by enjoying a slushy carbonated beverage at the (43, -89) geohash on 2012-10-12.

SwensonJ earned 2 GeoSquishy stars by enjoying a slushy carbonated beverage near the (43, -89) geohash on 2012-10-12.

SwensonJ achieved level 3 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Dubuque, Iowa and 3 of the surrounding graticules.