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I made it to the first Saturday meetup of my local xkcd "Geohashing" event today. My "graticule" is San Bernardino, which includes my home in Upland, my colleges in Claremont, and a whole lot of desert. So it was tremendously fortunate that this first meetup wasn't in some distant, isolated location but rather smack dab in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. In fact, it was precisely at the intersection of some walking paths:
Kim and I would have gone together, but unfortunately she is spending the afternoon and evening with her friend Amber... and she was taking the car. But by another small miracle, the bike path that runs just south of our apartment also ran just a couple of blocks south of today's coordinates. There were a few issues, of course: it was about an eight mile ride to get there, it was uphill, it would be the longest ride I'd taken since high school by a factor of at least three (yes, I've been a wimp lately), and the weather forecast called for scattered thunderstorms. But, I decided, none of that should stand in the way of such an ideally located opportunity. (I'd been meaning to explore the bike path west of here anyway.)
So I watched the weather fanatically, and when it still looked sunny and clear at 3pm, I packed up and headed out. The only unforeseen snag was that the path was not in fact paved for the middle 50% of the trip (which was also the most uphill). Nevertheless, both I and my bike survived, and despite the delay I managed to reach the meetup location almost ten minutes early. Within a few minutes, another person showed up, and we chatted for a while. A third person arrived a bit after 4:00, and after taking some pictures someone mentioned that the geohashing wiki had suggested that people bring games. Happily, I had come prepared with Fluxx, so I explained the rules and the three of us enjoyed a couple of rounds.
After that, I looked at the approaching clouds and decided it was high time to head back home. I took a brief detour to stop by Amber's house to exchanged some borrowed books, and then got back on the trail for home. Apart from an unpleasant headwind, the only interesting note from the ride home came right after I crossed the bridge over Vinyard Ave. I noticed that there were a few people with their bikes laid down at the side of the path looking out at an empty field at the far side of the bridge. At first, I thought they were clustered around another bike, but as I got closer I realized that they had a rifle (or more than one) set up pointing into the field. At that point, I decided not to look any closer and just focused on pedaling faster until I rounded the next bend. (I don't think they were up to anything nefarious, but still.) All in all, a fun little trip.
Kim and I would have gone together, but unfortunately she is spending the afternoon and evening with her friend Amber... and she was taking the car. But by another small miracle, the bike path that runs just south of our apartment also ran just a couple of blocks south of today's coordinates. There were a few issues, of course: it was about an eight mile ride to get there, it was uphill, it would be the longest ride I'd taken since high school by a factor of at least three (yes, I've been a wimp lately), and the weather forecast called for scattered thunderstorms. But, I decided, none of that should stand in the way of such an ideally located opportunity. (I'd been meaning to explore the bike path west of here anyway.)
So I watched the weather fanatically, and when it still looked sunny and clear at 3pm, I packed up and headed out. The only unforeseen snag was that the path was not in fact paved for the middle 50% of the trip (which was also the most uphill). Nevertheless, both I and my bike survived, and despite the delay I managed to reach the meetup location almost ten minutes early. Within a few minutes, another person showed up, and we chatted for a while. A third person arrived a bit after 4:00, and after taking some pictures someone mentioned that the geohashing wiki had suggested that people bring games. Happily, I had come prepared with Fluxx, so I explained the rules and the three of us enjoyed a couple of rounds.
After that, I looked at the approaching clouds and decided it was high time to head back home. I took a brief detour to stop by Amber's house to exchanged some borrowed books, and then got back on the trail for home. Apart from an unpleasant headwind, the only interesting note from the ride home came right after I crossed the bridge over Vinyard Ave. I noticed that there were a few people with their bikes laid down at the side of the path looking out at an empty field at the far side of the bridge. At first, I thought they were clustered around another bike, but as I got closer I realized that they had a rifle (or more than one) set up pointing into the field. At that point, I decided not to look any closer and just focused on pedaling faster until I rounded the next bend. (I don't think they were up to anything nefarious, but still.) All in all, a fun little trip.
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What I really need for my own purposes is an algorithm guaranteed to produce something within biking distance, but that would probably have almost no chance of getting multiple people to the same place around here.