2009-03-09 49 -123

Today's Vancouver location is in the third parking space next to the door of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce branch on the north side of Kingsway, just east of Knight Street. It follows close on the heels of another of the rare accessible Vancouver geohash location, and we are stoked.

Participants

Robyn with her bike and trailer and T-Rex.
Arbron at his very first geohash.
MylSh set his alarm for a.m. instead of p.m. but still managed to arrive by bus.
thepiguy arrived by bus with MylSh after his quantum mechanics class.

Planning

It's not difficult to plan a geohash that coincides with a numbered square in a parking lot. Survival supplies, topographical maps, and passports are not required. It was snowing, so some consideration was required for transportation and equipment.

Translink (bus company) says it takes 45 minutes, but it may be longer with the snow. We probably won't be able to stay for long though. Thepiguy 18:08, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
Thepiguy should dress more warmly than at his last geohash.
Geoflashing is probably not a good idea.

Meghan a new geohasher in Edmonton expressed her jealousy at Vancouver's reasonable weather and good geohashing fortunes lately, so out of sympathy for her stormy housebound state we will build Snowmeghans in her honour.

Expeditions

Three separate expeditions reached the geohash coordinates. In order of arrival ...

Robyn

I hooked up my bicycle trailer and threw T-Rex, my geohashing supplies and my grocery bags into it, then noticed the tires on the trailers were flat. The floor pump was missing from the garage, so I just biked down the street to the garage to inflate them. The reason I mention this part is to show you the reading comprehension test at my local gas station. Can you pass the test and find out how to use the air pump without paying a dollar?

With the tires inflated it was a simple glide down the hill. I went by the geohash, arriving about 4:30, and realized there was no snow in the parking lot. I went over to a nearby lawn and rolled myself a small snowman base, then carried it to a curb near the geohash where it wouldn't be in the way, nor too close to the heat of the building. The snow was just the right consistency for rolling, and I rolled myself a snowman middle which I plonked on top of the base. The base split in half. I pushed it back together and fetched some fresh snow with which to sculpt it somewhat, before adding the head and the arms of my Snowmeghan. In January I blamed my poor snowmanship on the wrong sort of snow, but today the snow is good, so I have to admit I'm just not very good at building snowmen. I trust that the real Meghan has better structural integrity than her surrogate.

Many passers by commented on Snowmeghan. She should know that she was called "cute," "beautiful," and "the smallest snowman I ever saw." She was also counted in French as "le deuxième bonhomme de neige, et avec un dinosaur!" by a couple out walking with a baby.

I placed a card in Snowmeghan's hand advising that I would return at 17:45 and went off to do my grocery shopping. She remained safely in place when I returned with a trailerful of food. I waited next to Snowmeghan for a while, wondering how the buses could be late when there was so little snow left, when I saw someone walking along the sidewalk in a characteristic pose. "Don't be silly, Robyn," I told myself, "That's not Pi or MylSh. It's a guy with an iPod." But I told myself back, "You don't be silly. He has no earphones."

I asked him "Is that a GPS?" and "Are you from the Internet?" The answer was affirmative to each. I love that moment of waiting to find out if someone else is a geohasher, but I can never bear the suspense long enough to let them come and ask me. I'm waiting to find out what this was like from his perspective ...

Arbron

It all began as a normal day slugging through the snow to hang some lights, that is until I decided to check the Geohashing app on my iPhone during lunch. I as astonished when the map of the hash finally loaded and showed it on a major road, a major road in Vancouver none-the-less. Finally, after months of waiting, the time had come for me to venture out to a hash.

When I finished up for the day around 17:30, I checked my route to the hash. I hopped on the 41 to get to Knight, and then used the 22 to travel up to Kingsway. Excitement was buzzing in the air, questions raced through my mind. Would anyone else show up? Could screenshots of my iPhone GPS app count as sufficient evidence of my visit? How should I fend off the inevitable raptor attack? Soon all of these questions would be answered.

After departing the bus, I rounded the corner onto 22nd, hoping to glimpse my first sight of the hash, only to see a curious individual standing in front of what appeared to be a small snowman and a dinosaur.

It had begun.

As I approached this woman turned towards me and after a short time inquired as to my origins. I confirmed that I was indeed from the internets, and much rejoicing was had by all. We talked about the sport, I tried in vain to get a good lock on the location with my iPhone, and we played a game of Velcro catch. After waiting a bit, two additional hashers arrived at the location. What could their tale bring?

thepiguy and MylSh

thepiguy and mylSh were going to meet on campus at 1700 and then proceed to the coordinated via transit. Around a quarter to, thepiguy decided he was bored of listening to his quantum mechanics lecture and decided to leave early. "Surely MylSh will already be waiting! He's not the type of person to be late!" thought thepiguy as he noisily exited class. Once outside, however, MylSh was nowhere in sight! So he waited. And waited. And waited some more. Thirty minutes later he received a panicked message that said something about an alarm being set for am instead of pm. Success! MylSh was finally awake and on his way!

Once finally united, thepiguy and MylSh headed to the bus loop and caught the #25: the geohash express. While on the bus they sampled the geohash's chosen refreshments and had lively discussions about animal characters in D&D.

Once the annoying computerized voice announced their stop they began finding their way to the coordinates. When they rounded the corner into what should be the location they spotted a lone cyclist standing about. "I see a T-Rex!" exclaimed MylSh, "Robyn!" exclaimed thepiguy.

As pleasantries were being exchanged, theypiguy and MylSh were shocked to be informed of a third geohasher! Pictures were taken, snowmeghan were built, games of velcroized catch were played (and certain geohashers also came close to being hit by certain fast moving motorized vehicles!)

Together at the Geohash

Arbron and Robyn introduced themselves, photographed each other, and then played Nerd Catch, a throwing and catching game with a tennis ball, where you need no coordination whatsoever to catch the ball, because you wear a velcro paddle on your catching hand. You need slightly more coordination than normal to throw the ball, however, because you have a paddle on your catching hand, which for most people is their best throwing hand, too. Also if you play the game in a parking lot and adjacent road you need to be careful not to get run over by cars. No one was, but we didn't play long.

Then it was decided that while one Snowmeghan was a good thing, four Snowmeghans would be even better, so Pi, MylSh and Arbron each added his own Snowmeghan to the collection. We all went for a quick dinner at White Spot and then went our separate ways.

Успех parked at the coordinates.
Bus drops Arbron off near the hash.
Snowmeghan in front of the CIBC.
Robyn and Snowmeghan.
Arbron, T-Rex and Snowmeghan near the coordinates.
Robyn photographing Arbron.
Fun and games!
Pi & MylSh get the hash.
Geohashers unite!
Don't worry, we're from the internet.
The usual geohashing snacks are joined by a new friend.
Snowmeghans!
At this temperature, Snowmeghan's life expectancy is not great.
Slightly blurry gps shot.
Another slightly blurry gps shot.
A totally not blurry iPhone screenshot.
Dinner at White Spot!
Robyn returned at 8:30 to claim the frozen geohash achievement and to see if Snowmeghan was likely to survive the night.


Mon 9 Mar 2009 in Vancouver: 49.2501798, -123.0751560 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox