2016-09-22 global

Location

In the Talladega National Forest, Alabama graticule, west of Montgomery and southwest of Selma.

This hashpoint was off to the side of a county road between two homes in a rural area.

Participants

Expeditions

Million zillion

This expedition represents quite a few firsts for me - in particular, I have now:

Achieved a globalhash
Travelled over 100 miles to achieve a geohash
Achieved two geohashes in one day (in non-adjacent graticules, no less)
Combined geohashing with another hobby, origami (and with a resulting hashcot)

NWoodruff and I planned the trip the day before - he was renting a car for the drive, and I would meet him at his home in Norcross in the morning. We had a time limit on the trip, since he needed to return the car by 6pm. NWoodruff would drive and I would assist with navigation and traffic checks when necessary.

We left at about 8:30am, a little behind schedule, but not too much so. We escaped the worst of the Atlanta morning rush hour by avoiding inbound I-85 and taking the I-285 perimeter clockwise (south and then west) to I-85 outbound, headed SW. From there, it was a long, straight drive on I-85 West to Montgomery, AL.

After 9:30am, I checked the day's regular geohashes in the graticules along our route. The most interesting prospect was the one in our destination graticule, Talladega National Forest, since it was also a virgin graticule. However, the hashpoint was a good 43 miles out of our way and the satellite view showed that it was in a field on active farmland - we would likely be trespassing. Instead, we prepared for what looked like an easier option in the Auburn graticule. It was only about 12-15 miles out of our way and in a field that didn't look like a farm. We decided to try for that on the way back from the globalhash, if it looked like time permitted.

In Montgomery, we transferred to I-65 South and took a gas-and-restroom break. Then quickly on to US-80, which took us into Selma, a city of historical importance to the U.S. Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. In fact, this part of our route was a reverse of the route used by the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, including the Edmund Pettus bridge, the site of Bloody Sunday.

Within Selma, we turned onto AL-22 for the last leg of the trip. While on the road, I pulled a packet of origami paper out my bag and started folding a traditional crane. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it - it just seemed like a good occasion for it. When it was done, I decided that it would be a good hashcot for the trip.

After an hour, we turned onto a couple of small county roads and found the hashpoint. NWoodruff soon maneuvered the car so that we were within the radius for the hashpoint, and then pulled a little further away so we could approach on foot. We did the usual hashdance to find the exact spot, and took the usual pictures which you may enjoy below. We also found a humorously worded (we hoped!) "No trespassing" sign in front of one of the nearby houses, which fortunately did not block our access to the hashpoint at all. Then we drove a short distance down the road, made a U-turn, and passed through the hashpoint again for a (slowish) Speed Racer achievement.

On the way back, we stopped in Selma for a quick lunch. That took us far enough north within the city that our route back to Montgomery was a bit different than how we had arrived - we crossed the Alabama River at a different point (on US-80 instead of US-80 Business). We stopped again in Montgomery for gas, and proceeded to plan our approach to the Auburn hashpoint. The story will continue there...

Gallery

Million zillion

NWoodruff at the global hashpoint, making some sort of gang sign O_o
Million zillion at the global hashpoint, with an improvised hashcot
An origami crane hashcot, made en route to the globalhash
Jets mounted in front of the Alabama Air National Guard base at the Montgomery Regional Airport