2010-09-07 49 9

Location

Today's location is at the edge of a forest near Külsheim.

Country: Germany; state: Baden-Württemberg (EU:DE:BW); administrative region: Stuttgart; district: Main-Tauber-Kreis

Weather: light rain ; clouded and foggy with some raindrops ; clouded ; light rain

Expedition

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Hashiversary! I had to visit this hashpoint, so after I came home from work I soon set out. I chose a route along country roads and through small villages. I took a few wrong turns by listening to the navigation system ("turn right..." *turn* "...now" *brake* *drive backwards 5 m* *follow street for another 10 m to the next intersection*), but otherwise it went okay. At one such occasion I had to turn in front of the Bronnbach monastery (in German), so I stopped and took some pictures. At another such occasion next to the last house before the hashpoint I saw two hashdogs on the street next to my car when I turned, but they were called back to the house before I could get out and pet them. I stopped the car at the last intersection before the hashpoint, because the track got worse.

I walked the last metres towards the hashpoint when I saw a rabbit/hare running away, along the track in front of me. I followed it and found the corner of the forest with the hashpoint. It wasn't raining, but there were still raindrops falling from the trees. Soon I was doing the GPS dance until I finally was able to take a picture of the GPS receiver with the correct coordinates. Then I took pictures of Scott with the hashiversary cake. Afterwards I ate (not all of) the cake. I'm sorry, thepiguy, but I forgot you-know-what at home.

When I started to walk back to the car, shortly before I left the forest, I saw a car coming down the track. But it wasn't a geohasher (or one with bad orientation skills) and the car drove by. I drove back to Külsheim and chose a different route for the way back. My car's fuel gauge was showing "0 km range left" shortly after Külsheim, but I knew I would be able to get home. In Würzburg I stopped at the discount gas station and filled the fuel tank. When I went into the service building to pay the clerk, there were three people in front of me and the young man at the cash point was on the phone. I could hear "... it's still marked red and the customer can't pay..." "...I already restarted the system but..." and similar things. It took about 20 minutes and 4 or 5 phone calls until the customers with cash were able to pay, the ones with bank cards had to wait for the service guy. I always have enough cash with me, so I could pay and go home.

Exactly two years ago I did my first geohashing expedition (here). In the last year, my second year of geohashing, I:

visited another 39 hashpoints (out of 44 tries) in 6 new graticules, in 3 new countries
met 1 new geohasher
cycled almost 300 km, walked 30 km, used public transport for 300 km and motorized vehicles for 500 km
spent another 315 Euros for geohashing (most of that for my two GPS receivers)