Anomaly in Salt Lake City

We are off on another adventure and, as usual, are still amazed by the places Ingress takes us.   By the way, for those of you who might be new to our blog the top portion details our traveling adventures and the many things we see and the places we visit.

The second part, under the heading INGRESS, details what we have done for our Ingress team, the Enlightened.  It is the game of Ingress that determines where we stop and for how long.  This trip will keep us away from home until well into December.  On the agenda are the following: Ingress Anomaly, “Aegis Nova”, in Salt Lake City on June 25th;  Ohio for Linda’s 50th High School Reunion in mid-July;  Florida is the end of the line for the eastern section for our annual stay with son Mike and his family; and finally we will make our way back to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving and my 70th birthday with my twin sister Susan – it’s her birthday, too!  Then home before Christmas (no early snow in Snohomish County, please.)

Departing Granite Falls on Friday, June 17, 2016 our first stop was in Stanfield, Oregon just across the Columbia River.  After driving all day we wanted to at least be in a different state when we stopped for the night.  We set up the RV and the next day we drove into Kennewick, WA to do a mosaic banner mission (shown in the Ingress section)  of their beautiful suspension bridge.

Next was on to Idaho.  We have stopped in Hagerman  before, but had never spent any time visiting the area.  The photos in the slide show are from the Thousand Springs State Park Malad Gorge unit on I-84 in Idaho.  The 250 ft deep canyon runs for miles.   In the  park there are spots to pull over and peer into the gorge at the Malad River below.  Viewpoints from a bridge and along the road leave you in awe of the forces of nature.  There is a 60 ft waterfall under the foot bridge which would be a big surprise for any uninformed rafters.   

 We visited this particular park because it had an Ingress portal there with a link that had to go.  More on that in the Ingress section below.  Once again I marvel at all the wonderful and surprising places our Ingress game has taken us.

Salt Lake City and the Aegis Nova Anomaly are next.  Arriving Tuesday, the 21st.  We will be in SLC for a full week.

INGRESS

During this trip we have decided to always stay at our stops for at least two overnights.  That gives us a full day to play.  Linda is still big on mosaic banner missions.  She has her Onyx SpecOps badge but that hasn’t stopped her.  I, on the other hand, have inclinations toward fielding.  We have reached an informal agreement that we do missions for a day and field for a day.  So far that plan seems to be working, but some of our stops will require at least two days.

On Saturday morning we awoke in Idaho then drove back across the Columbia into  Kennington, Washington.    Primary objective was the mosaic banner of the bridge.  Those 18 missions were in the bag in under 3 hours. There was a long driving L8R farm in town that we had planned to BIOBID, but after reaching inventory cap we started blowing things up.  It defeated the purpose of getting enough gear needed for the anomaly and then using it all to blow up the farm.  After a few battles we headed back across the river to our home on wheels.

Next stop was Hagerman, Idaho and my day to field.  Couple hours drive East to farm keys at an anchor, 3 hours west to second anchor and back to Hagerman for the spine, clearing as we drive.  15 layers, about 75K MU and the total stood for 3 checks.  The west side stood for another 2.  It put Linda and I as #1 and #2 in the regional stats, but that was not a surprise since the Res average was only 3K in this region (and there isn’t much MU).  Thank goodness for Pokemon to ease the pain of time spent farming keys.

Salt Lake City Anomaly does not look promising.  Maybe I’m a pessimist, but the entire area is pervasively blue and there is a Res BAF that has been over the entire city for like 20+ checks.  I contacted my team lead and said I would drive out into the desert to bring down the anchor if they would coordinate blockers to prevent a re-throw.  I was told they were burned out.  So it is still there!

This is not going to be a fun Anomaly if we get trounced by the Res because the Enlightened of SLC are “burned out”, but I am still determined to do the best we can and to keep my mouth shut.