2012-06-08 28 -82

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Expedition

The Plan

In an empty lot just off Norvell Bryant Highway. We're already heading down to Palm Harbor, so why not try to hit a few hashes on the way down?

The Geohashers

Geoff
Erica

The Adventure

After a few misfires for starting, I was so angry after our misfires that I intentionally tried to jinx ourselves, saying that the map showed an empty lot but there would totally be a house now, mark my words. We headed out our usual way, southwest out of Jacksonville and through Middleburg and Keystone Heights, which we have nicknamed Church Row for having about seventeen churches in rapid succession. Close enough to the bible belt that it's not terribly surprising or dense, as far as others have told me. Our first deviation off the path was to get on I-75 around Ocala, then get back off within ten miles at FL-200.

Around here it starting raining heavily. It wasn't buckets and buckets worth every second, but it was enough to slow us down from a 5:40 arrival to 6:00. The entire time, we were preparing to get our long coats out of the car in anticipation of a clearly obvious drowned rat achievement. On the way, we saw a sign saying "Eternity in hell is a long time!" On the other side, a wonderful graffiti artist changed it to "Eternity in hell is a fabulous time!" God bless.

By the time we got to the hashpoint itself? The rain in the area had stopped to a slight drizzle. Hooray, no drowned rat! And despite my best efforts to jinx it, the lot was still vacant, allowing us to get our hashpoint between two framing trees. We placed the Eight of Hearts, then left the area. We got a picture of our favorite graffiti sign, then continued on our way to the second planned hash of the day.