2010-07-03 47 -122

Joannac is in the next country over. How can we not go and see her?

Sat 3 Jul 2010 in 47,-122: 47.7625283, -122.0616666 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

On a hill near Monroe, WA.

Participants

• Robyn
• thepiguy
• Wade
• joannac

Plans

Robyn, Wade and thepiguy are going to drive south and try to get there while hoping Joannac finds us. Failing that, we'll call her cellphone.

Expedition

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... go!

Oh π, where should we pick you up?

Wade & Robyn & Π

Wade and Robyn set off from home. Their spontaneous adventure generating turn-by-turn driving GPS gave 'directions' to thepiguy's house. For example, it told them to exit right onto highway 91 East, an exit that forks into highways 91 and 99, then as soon as the vehicle was established on highway 91 the GPS issued an instruction to "keep right on highway 99". GPS humour, we suppose.

Eventually we turned right on STEE-VESS-TON Highway (as the GPS called it) and thus found thepiguy's house and thepiguy. Robyn explained that we'd need gas as soon as we crossed the border (gas is much cheaper in the US). Ensemble we approached the border, but before we got there, we got to the line-up. Two hours worth of line up. A quick U-turn and twenty minutes of driving (probably fifteen had we not followed the GPS), with Robyn asking every two minutes how far to the gas station, we were at a different border crossing. "This is the border crossing where they are always mean to us!" we realized. Perhaps everyone else realized that too, because there was hardly anyone else there. We got in a line that had about three cars ahead of us, and a US border guy walked across the pavement waving his arms and yelling something about a fifty thousand dollar sign. There were more lanes open, all indicated by the expensive sign, than lines. People were happy to be only third in line and weren't seeking out the even shorter empty lines.

We stayed in our line, handed over our passports, and explained that we were going to Munroe to meet a friend who was visiting from Australia. The border guy was not at all mean. He teased Robyn for not flying to Monroe, and wanted to know what we were bringing south, forcing us to admit that we weren't bringing a present for Joanna. We're so sorry. It's true. We didn't.

We found a gas station only about 500 metres from where the GPS said it would be, and 695 kilometres from the previous fill. ("I've never gone seven hundred kilometres on one tank before!") Then we called Joannac with an ETA and she said it would take her three hours to get to Monroe from Seattle. That seemed a little weird, it being just on the outskirts, but we figured maybe traffic was bad, and the roads didn't run in that direction, and she'd probably overestimated. She'd get there not long after we would. We were in Monroe before we knew it, or at least before pi, who was stuck in the back seat, knew it, and started looking for the rendezvous restaurant, using the address on highway 2 provided by Wade's faithful GPS. Needless to say it wasn't there, but we quickly found it a couple of blocks away on Main Street, at the address given by Google.

Joannac and Jercos arrived before we'd finished eating, at which point we discovered something we should have known during the planning stage, about how J&J were travelling.

Joannac & Jercos

Hooray! How could anyone turn down a chance to meet the crazy Vancouver geohashers? They had offered to drive down to Portland, but Seattle was much closer (and lined up with a weekend).

After not hearing much more than "hey joanna, we're coming to visit", friday night brought me a cascade of panicked "where are you can we still visit?" emails. I told the Vancouverites to pick a place, and I'll be there.

Saturday morning brought a "there's a great restaurant in Monroe". Uh... where's Monroe? Fire up google maps. Put in the address of the restaurant. Put in the address of the hostel. Look at map. Hrm, that's 35 miles away.

Luckily, the US has decent public transport, which meant we could get to Monroe from downtown Seattle in just 2 bus trips. And so, having scribbled down transit directions, we headed off to the bus stop. 2 and a bit hours later, we walked into the restaurant at Monroe. Robyn was distracted and didn't notice me waving madly at her. But all was soon resolved and we sat down to some yummy food.

All Together

We ate a bit more, paid with a few slabs of boring monochrome American money, and set off for the geohash. (Joannac: "Are we going geohashing? You guys really are the most addicted.") Or at least a geohash. More on this later.

Random Unrelated Snippet of American Culture

On American TV they aren't allowed to say "blow job" on the air, but they can show footage of a bullfighter getting gored in the throat such that the bull's horn protrudes from his mouth.