2012-06-17 41 -88

Location

About a hundred feet off a paved road inside Morton Arboretum.

Participants

Plans

Haberdasher

I've been looking for an excuse to go to the Morton Arboretum for a while now, and I think I finally found one. My family has a membership to it, which helps. It's on Father's Day, but since my father enjoys running on the arboretum paths and we have been wanting to go as a family for a while, he's willing to go along with it.

RocketMac

I was going to be driving from Milwaukee to St. Louis for work, so a trip through Naperville to visit my father on Father's Day wasn't that much of a detour. My parents have family passes to the arboretum anyway, so they were willing to come along!

Expedition

Haberdasher

Getting to the arboretum was easy enough, but it turns out our membership only covers two people, so the achievement changed from Restricted Area to Admit One. Close enough. And the arboretum forbid many usual geohashing activities- tree-climbing, kite-flying, use of novelty flying discs- but I made do.

It took a bit of driving around to get close to the hash, and I had to try three times before finding the closest place to the hash. My parents kept making jokes about the masses of other geohashers which were surely on their way to the hashpoint. Getting to the hash from there wasn't too tough, although I got a little scratched by what greenery I couldn't avoid. And the hash was in the sun, so it was even warmer than in the shade (not a record-breaker, but certainly in the 90s), and the sun's glare made the GPS picture a little hard to read, though not unsaveable as I first thought. At least it was in a field rather than in a wooded area- dodging the tall grasses was tough enough, dodging trees would've gotten me a ton of scratches (although at least then I would've been in the shade).

After that, we had less time than I expected, so my father didn't go running. Instead, I got a hashcard at the gift shop (sadly they didn't have any with a map of the arboretum so I could mark where the hash was, so I picked one with a field similar to the hashpoint), and then my parents sat in the shade and listened to an old-time mandolin band while I took a few more pictures. We ran a few errands on the way home, including dropping the hashcard off. A good time was had by all, despite the heat.

RocketMac

I made it down to Naperville just about on time. With their pass, we had debated meeting there or at home, separate cars or together, and all the usual complications that turn a simple outing into a family outing.

My thought was to park and walk the .7 miles (as the crow files) the spot. My mom was up for it, but dad wanted to drive. So we did. There were two times I should have followed my instinct (and my GPS) but dad pointed me the other way, so it took a bit longer than it should have.

Just after passing the intersection with the hashpoint, there was a parking place, so we parked and walked back. There was a brief discussion about the permission of walking into the grass to the point, but my dad was sure it was okay and started walking despite not having the GPS. My mom was staying put.

My phone is my camera and GPS as well. Mom was going to take a picture, but I needed the GPS and she didn't have her phone. Dad handed over his, but it's... complicated. We were at the spot and mom was making gestures. She had accidentally hit a button and couldn't get back to the camera. I ran back to her and fixed it and ran back to dad. In retrospect, I should have handed her my phone once I ran back since she had the same phone and could use it.

In the end we got some pictures, and I got to see my parents (especially my dad) on Father's Day before continuing on to St. Louis.

My GPX trail will show a stop in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois where I made another pass at a multi-stage puzzle geocache full of ciphers and fun.

Oh, and Haberdasher? Now you can tell your mom that there was at least one other geohasher looking for a parking spot!