2012-03-31 39 -77
| Sat 31 Mar 2012 in 39,-77: 39.6109790, -77.7068086 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
The hash looked to be in a residential area of Funkstown, MD, just inside a stone wall. With a name like Funkstown, and a distance under an hour, I had to go. Would the kids want to come along? A resounding "YES" was heard and we piled into the car.
Participants
Greg Anne Andrew
Plans
I pulled out the laptop with the kids eating breakfast. The youngsters needed to understand what this was all about. First we discussed what hashing is and what it is used for. Then I had to explain what the Dow Jones Industrial Average means. Once we had those under our belt we began the very delicate calculations. Alas! They had not learned the wonders of the hexidecimal system. A short tutorial later we were set to generate our full coordinates. After verifying with an online calculator we zoomed in as far as possible on Google maps to find that the location was just inside what appeared to be a stone wall. In the back appeared to be a parking lot so it seemed like this might be a business of some sort. I grabbed my phone, iPod Touch, Mifi, camera, and some drinks for the kids and headed for the car.
Expedition
After a stop for car fuel and kid fuel (Wendy's) we were heading north. We had to make a slight detour in Funkstown because Google Maps wanted us to go down a one way street. A simple loop around the back and we were right next to the spot. Sure enough, a nice stone wall greeted us. Rather than trespass, we hovered our map pin at the spot and smiled.
Heading back toward the car, I wondered if there was a Geocache nearby. We had never done that either so why not check. Sure enough, the Kitakima invades Funkstown cache was reported to be less than 400ft away. Now the kids really had a treasure hunt on their hands. We read the rules of Geocaching and went for a sweep of the neighborhood. We eventually found the very cleverly placed cache and left Darth Vader behind for the next person. Two awesome finds, and we listened to the Star Wars sound track on the way back home.
Photos
On the scene
Even the Skywalkers Made It
Achievements
Not sure if the above photos are sufficient proof for the Land Geohash achievement. I did drag my kids along, but they were willing participants.
