2012-06-06 41 -88

Location

On a grassy stretch of land in an industrial park in Carol Stream.

Participants

Haberdasher

Haberdasher's grandmother and cousins

Expedition

For a while now it's seemed like all the reasonable hashpoints have been on days when I have no way of getting there. At first, today looked like no exception, but then I remembered that my grandmother and cousins were taking me to the movies in the afternoon. On our way to the movies, I managed to convince my grandmother to take me geohashing.

After picking up my cousins, eating lunch, and seeing Avengers (my third time seeing it), it was time to go to the hashpoint... except that the GPS kept restarting itself. Before the movie, it had refused to turn on no matter how much I tried, and perhaps the two were connected. Anyhow, after a few cycles, the GPS stayed on, and we found that the point was inside an industrial park only about 5 miles out of our way.

The point itself was on a grassy stretch, and I presume trespassing there was not an issue, but parking was not so simple. The nearest parking lot was for some shipping thing, and the next-closest had a warning about unauthorized cars being towed, so I tried to steer us away from that one as well. But, when Grandma stayed in the car, the cousins found my concerns about misuse of the parking lot funny ("They're gonna tow the car? With Grandma in there?"), and I didn't bother arguing with them once I realized that they couldn't be swayed.

After a little GPS dancing, I found the hashpoint, which was under a tree's branches. Although it was a sunny day, the shade from the tree meant that the GPS glare wasn't enough to obscure the screen this time, luckily. I got out a Twister board that I had brought with for the occasion, and my youngest cousin and I played, the older cousin taking pictures. The ground was uneven, so the spinner seemed to favor right foot (and, for some reason, the color green as well). I think I removed my hand accidentally in the second or so turn, but my youngest cousin gave up not long afterwards, so I guess it's a wash. I couldn't get a picture of the date, but since I'm editing this on the day of, I think that should be proof enough.

Although I managed to drag along my cousins, I doubt that either they or my grandmother will become geohashers due to the experience. My grandmother seemed confused by the whole thing, while my cousins kept joking around about worst-case scenarios (What if it was in Chernobyl? Or in somebody's backyard? "Officers, there's 50,000 people playing Twister in my backyard." Or in their bathroom?). Ah well, I had a fun time, it wasn't too far out of the way, and it feels good to be hashing again. A good time was had by all.