2010-12-26 43 -87

Location

In a park on the shore of Lake Michigan in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Participants

Plans

Drive to Sheboygan, take pictures, find dinner, come home. Simple, right? If only.

Expedition

What better way to spend Boxing Day than geohashing in a park? What if the park's by Lake Michigan? In a graticule you haven't visited yet, which propels you to higher and higher levels of minesweeping?

We left around 4 and proceeded to travel up I-43 to Sheboygan. This was a pretty exciting geohash, as Dedehawk and Bassoon were going to level up their minesweep levels. The ride up was long and arduous and night soon fell. We made friends with many drivers on the road, from small cars to large vans, but our favorite had to have been the SUV whose license plate read "HEY DER". We love Wisconsin.

As we approached Sheboygan, we noticed the power plant smokestacks rising on the horizon.

"You know what would be really cool? If the hash was next to the power plant."

As we arrived in Sheboygan, we navigated our way through back roads to the park. Through some bizarre twist of fate, the park did wind up being right next to the power plant.

We pulled into the parking lot and found that we would not be allowed to park there, so we drove off to find parking on a nearby road. After we had parked, we walked back through the cold with flashlights, hats and gloves. As we entered the park, we noticed a police car slip in behind us. Oh. It was going to be one of those nights, eh?

We weren't doing anything illegal. Just something suspicious. There was a sign that said the park closed at 23:00. That's fine. It was only 17:30. As we prepared to enter the wooded dog trail section of the park, we realized that Bassoon had left the camera in the car. And it was cold. And at least a five minute walk back to the car.

So Brian and Bassoon left Jessie and Dedehawk behind in the park with the cop car, which just sat there doing nothing. As they returned, the cop car was gone, but so were Jessie and Dedehawk. Well...shit.

It was a false alarm, however! Jessie and Dedehawk had went to sit on the swings and the cop, satisfied that we weren't going to do anything illegal while they were watching, left the park. Seems like it wasn't going to be a Police Geohash tonight.

We went into the woods and wandered around the dark, as the flashlight was ridiculously dim and flickery. We tried to find the spot as best we could, and we eventually succeeded, taking the requisite photos. We then ventured down a steep hill to the shore of Lake Michigan. I wish there were better photos to show you. It was absolutely breathtaking.

After that, a mysterious car had appeared atop the hill, headlights glaring down at us. Had the cop come back? Was our night about to become more like a horror movie? As we climbed back up the hill, we joked about the mysterious car containing a serial killer, looking for more victims. Alas, they drove off.

We then went to find dinner. We wound up eating a small, family-owned Italian restaurant. We had an amazing margarita pizza and Bassoon had an awesome Irish cream soda. The ride home was a lot less interesting, but we made it back alive. What a night.

Oh yeah! Did we mention that the Milwaukee Graticule was a virgin graticule?