{"id":11310,"date":"2012-08-05T08:28:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T13:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=11310"},"modified":"2022-08-04T06:08:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T11:08:42","slug":"crazy-geo-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/crazy-geo-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"My Craziest Geo-Oddity Adventure Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The adventure will have ended by the time you read this. I’m writing this several days ahead of time since I will be returning home when my WordPress software automatically posts this. I suspect I’ll also be dog-tired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Welcome<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

The Auction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This whole crazy thing started almost exactly a year ago. Steve Wood<\/a>, the author of the amazing Connecticut Museum Quest<\/a> — so good I read every article even though I don’t live anywhere near Connecticut — organized a charity auction to benefit the Smith-Magenis Syndrome Research Foundation<\/a>. He wanted to bounce an idea off of me. What would be the approximate value, he wondered, of an “Extreme Connecticut Geography Tour.” He would serve as a personal guide for a dawn-to-dark adventure of statewide geo-oddities accompanied by a constant stream of Connecticut trivia from someone who understands every pertinent fact worth knowing. Priceless I thought, absolutely priceless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn’t figure (seeing how I lived several states away) that I might actually bid on the item and bid rather aggressively. I did. I didn’t figure that my bid in absentia, my already outrageous prearranged maximum would be exceeded. It was, and I lost the auction fair-and-square. I’m grateful that the winning bidder allowed me to tag along on the adventure, with both of our bids going to charity. It’s a scary value that I don’t even want to contemplate although it certainly contributed towards a decent charitable deduction on my 2011 Federal income taxes. Priceless in fact does have a price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicely played Mr. Wood, nicely played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A Very Small Window<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t easy finding the perfect date for our adventure. In addition to personal summertime plans, we had to find a way to match it with the tides. No, it’s not some weird astrology thing, it’s because one portion of the journey involved a boat ride to an island that can happen only within proximity of a high tide. That’s one of the reasons why this is an extreme<\/em> geo-tour. Ordinary tourists wouldn’t care. We begged to differ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the stars aligned for Saturday, August 4th, and thus we set the date. Steve worked out an agenda and placed it on his website<\/a>, prompting someone to comment: “are you sure they weren\u2019t bidding on NOT having to do this?<\/em>” This is hardcore geo-nerd stuff, not for the faint of heart. This is like the Bizarre Foods guy except for geography. Go check out that page and weep in jealousy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n