Morton Fox's journal

Saturday was another South Jersey Munzee spree, this time to Washington Township and Mount Laurel. I placed some of my own too at the Cross Keys Shopping Center to see if the local munzers will go get those.

Sunday's trip was to the Munzee 6th Birthday Celebration event at Fuddruckers in Annapolis. There were presents and special Munzee badges, and after the event, everyone went out to capture the special event munzees that were deployed all around the restaurant and nearby retail/hotel complex. It's good to go to an event once in a while, not just for the game bonuses, but also to get to know other munzers in the area.

( The munzees... )

I had the day off on Monday, so it was a 3-day weekend. Saturday's trip was to Atlantic City and Brigantine, with a stop in Berlin on the way to dinner. The trouble with the casino area in Atlantic City is there's no free parking. Even Harrah's, which isn't in the downtown area, now charges for parking, even though they didn't just a few years ago. So I mostly went for munzees and geocaches off the beaten path. Still, there was a lot to see. I went to the Absecon Lighthouse and the aquarium. Also saw a bench on a fragment of a pier out in the water. I thought that was sad and strange at the same time.

Sunday's trip was somewhat shorter because of the rain. Just a dash down to Sandy Point State Park to capture about 500 munzees and then back again.

Monday's trip was to Dover, Bridgeville, Seaford, and Laurel in Southern Delaware. It was mostly for Munzee but I stopped for a bunch of new geocaches along the way. Horsey Pond was the most scenic area of the day. The weird item of the day was an Angry Birds porta-potty in Seaford. It looked like character merchandising gone wrong.

( The caches... )

On Saturday, I went to the "Plainsboro Preserve 2017 Geotrail Launch" geocaching event in (where else?) Plainsboro Preserve. The event itself was in the nature center building, where there was an European Starling that perched by the heat lamp for a while before taking a bird bath. I didn't stay for the geotrail caches since I had other caches to go for in Rocky Hill, Montgomery, Belle Mead, and Somerville. Followed those with a Munzee grab around the Bridgewater Commons Mall before dinner.

Sunday's trip was more Munzee-focused because the main goal was to capture more than 1000 of those in Sandy Point State Park on the Chesapeake Bay. However, it turned out that there were a lot of geocaches as well in the Glen Burnie area on the B&A Trail and around the shopping centers along Gov Ritchie Highway. After that I hit the Munzee gardens at Arundel Mills Mall. There were two of those, one that looked like a Christmas tree and one that was in the shape of a giant Munzee pin. (I think) I also visited the top of the casino parking garage, although the only thing the view from there showed was how difficult it was to find a parking space.

( The caches... )

The main goal for Saturday was to use my birthday coupon at Chevys Fresh Mex. This tex-mex restaurant chain has closed a number of locations so the closest one to me is now at Arundel Mills on the far side of Baltimore. Of course, it's not worth going all that way just for a free dinner entree, so I made a day of geocaching out of it. This time, I decided to go down through Eastern Shore Maryland, getting some geocaches in Sudlersville, Church Hill and Kent Island before crossing the Bay Bridge into Anne Arundel County. That seemed like a nicer way to go until we actually got into Anne Arundel County and traffic madness in that area pretty much forced me to stick to caches in one direction up through Severna Park and Glen Burnie. On the plus side, there were some neat locations in Severna Park like a lovely garden at Hatton Regester Green and a former train station with only the pillars remaining. There was even an interesting geocache at Arundel Mills. "Do You Feel Lucky?" is in the multi-level casino parking garage. Fortunately, the cache page told me which floor to park on and I figured it out from there. As an aside, it was tough finding parking at Arundel Mills on Saturday. This mall has grown significantly in popularity since they added the casino, a fancy new movie theater, and more restaurants. But eventually, I found a parking space a bit of a walk away and got my Super Cinco.

Sunday's trip was around to the other side of Baltimore, into Reisterstown, Finksburg, and Westminster. And the goal was to use another birthday coupon at Red Robin, although this didn't actually start out being the goal. There just happened to be a Red Robin on the way out of that area. I actually hadn't been very deep into Carroll County until this trip. Westminster was a bit bigger than I expected. There's a lot of countryside in that county, so it was a surprise to see a moderate-sized city in the middle of that. We took a look at The Cow, a well-known local ice cream establishment, although that was the one geocache we had to pass on because the place was too busy. And finally, in the evening, I got my guacamole bacon burger at Red Robin in Owings Mills.

Monday's excursion was up through West Goshen, Exton, Phoenixville, Collegeville, and then Skippack, Schwenksville and East Greenville, on the west side of I-476. Interesting geocaches and cache sites of the day were the lizard geocache in Exton, the log bridge walk in Upper Providence, and the covered bridge with a sign saying "Walk your horses or pay two dollars fine" in Skippack. No birthday coupon for Monday evening but crab cakes and salad at Ruby Tuesday in Lansdale hit the spot.

( The caches... )