2024-09-15 27 -81

Location

Next to a tree at the end of residential Trace Pl, south of Lakeland, FL

Participants

Expedition

I'm a little surprised I pulled this off given the circumstances, but hey, I did it.

Having found this location out on Friday, I've anticipated going here, because out of the 3 days this seemed to be the most reasonable point. However, I've never actually been to Lakeland before; probably bypassed it on the numerous occasions I went to Orlando, but not there for any specific reason. I was anxiously waiting to head off all day; someone took the crossover (our only vehicle) out to a party the previous night, and didn't come back until 7 pm. A bit scary to me because at any rate beyond 10 miles, it means I arrive home by dark or nearly, and this was probably the first time I've been alone in the dark. I didn't want to prepare for this reason also; I would've used a camcorder to record the trip, but I wanted to get to, get from as soon as possible.

On to the journey: I rolled the crossover out of the garage and went on my way. First, it was out of the suburbs, then onto Lithia Pinecrest Road, which turned into CR 640; I've never been there, and a few days ago I nearly went but decided to stop at the bounds of familiar territory, which is basically still Lithia Pinecrest. CR 640 was the longest, but there isn't much I can say about it; noteworthy only is that a semi truck pulled in front of me, and not long later was a railroad crossing. A full stop is what it means. Otherwise, I had the cruise control set faster than normal to make sure I didn't arrive home at 21:30, and CR 640 reminds me of the Midwest; it might as well be.

Upon FL-37, left there, where sooner than I thought a town popped up; now I knew I was getting close to Lakeland proper. Then more fast highway until right onto Carter Road, which contains the road the hashpoint is located on; Trace Pl. (it's "Place", by the way, or at least OSM reads that)

Approaching the point, it was a bit unreal knowing I was looking at the same thing I've looked at on Street View the whole day. Stress had built up at this point, but a short minute was all it took to begin the approach. I wanted to leave the car's headlights on, but I figured to turn the car off because taking the key while running makes the keyless crossover start complaining out loud; the headlights, as expected, turned off after a bit. The dark now.

I didn't prepare for the photos either; I set my ZS70 to manual focus and didn't bother to adjust because I didn't want the nearby house's lights to brighten up severely, so the photos are blurry, sorry :( However, checking my iPhone's Compass, the DMS was close to what it read on Google Earth, so I think I achieved it; otherwise I might've crossed the uncertainly circle anyway.

Knowing this, I immediately headed home. Much the same as the forward trip, except I passed a pickup on CR 640; quite risky, but I figured to do it because there weren't any bright lights uncomfortably approaching. When I got back to familiar territory, I slowed down because cutting 2 minutes to home wasn't really necessary at this point.

~~Back at home, my relatives were wondering why I went to Lakeland. They know about geohashing (in fact one of them introduced me to it), but they seem to have completely forgotten about it.~~ (later edit: the key had a tracker, and they noticed me at the point; they withdrew from telling me they knew I was geohashing, probably just because lol)

Now, at this stage, I could be a regular passerby and quit this whole thing entirely; one expedition is good enough for most people, I've noticed. Having gotten a taste of it, however... it compels me to do more. =)