2010-12-20 42 -71

Location

Near a Brookline apartment building owned by the Boston Housing Authority.

GPS readings differed as to if it was on the sidewalk or lawn.

Participants

Jim
Sara

Plans

There are plans afoot for Jim and Sara to meet in the evening, Sara arriving sans offspring.

Hopefully the hashpoint isn't too far inside of the building so we can reach it from the outside.

The plans are to meet around 6PM. Jim may attempt a Walk Geohash, though snow and timing may turn it into a Public Transport Geohash. The building appears to be the Boston Housing Authority, with Beth Israel being next door.

Expedition

Expedition One

Jim had some errands to run, so he headed out. Once he finished his errand, he had a conversation with Google Maps, which told him that it was 30 minutes walking. That didn't make sense, because it was 3 miles according to the GPS.

However, despite that and the falling snow, Jim decided to start out for the hashpoint. He started up Beacon Street, taking a few pictures of the snow.

Closer examination of the GPS once en route revealed that the GPS was still set to the Saturday's car location, not the already entered hashpoint, but not currently activated one for today. Switching to the correct point revealed a much shorter distance.

Jim arrived and found the hashpoint on the sidewalk. A few pictures later, he headed back for home to prepare to meetup with Sara.

Expedition Two

Jim set out for his second expedition hoping for a Public transport geohash achievement and a Tron achievement in addition for the hoped-for meet up. He carefully headed northeast to the T stop, planning on returning home from the northwest. He was armed with the usual GPS and Camera, but added a thermometer to the assembled tools in order to prove that the snow wasn't coming down on a balmy 70 degree day.

He waited at the far end of the platform for the train, not sure how far in it would come, and not wanting to have to backtrack on his path to get to a train door. It was a long time before a train finally arrived, prompting him to think several times if it wouldn't be simpler to walk the mile or so to the hashpoint. Eventually a train arrived, but it was completely full, even when he got to the front of the train. Luckily the next train stopped at the same point, so he didn't have to backtrack to the train entry door.

He got on and the train slowly made its way forward. A little before the meeting time he arrived at the desired street. Luckily, the platform was located before the cross-street, providing the other side of the cross-street as a path for Jim to return home. He got off, and waited at the door to a nearby coffee shop, letting Sara know where he was. She replied that she was on a soon-to-arrive T train.

And after a few minutes another link in the geohashing meetup graph was forged. But more surprises awaited at least one of the geohashers. Upon arriving, Jim discovered that the hashpoint had "drifted" by some 20 feet, onto the nearby lawn. It either was the deepening cold of the atmosphere or the much colder GPS, but Jim's unit was displaying serious hashpoint drift.

Pictures were taken, and letters drawn in the snow, and we headed off, stopping to get some coffee before heading off on the T (Sara) or walking through the snow to get home(Jim).