Keeping Local

Sunny, 60-65°F. It was an unusually warm day for winter. I had a very late start but fortunately, there were a bunch of new geocaches right within the county. Of the four, I'd say "Wheels on the Bus" was probably the toughest one but I was lucky and saw it within a few seconds because I happened to start the search right where it was. I met rapprapp and ripejeff as I was leaving.

Since I was not far from Elsmere (well, it's not a big county so it really isn't that far from any point within it to any other point but I think in this case, I was within three miles) and I had a lunch coupon for International Grill, I decided to break for lunch and have Chinese buffet and Mongolian BBQ. This restaurant was where the dinner portion of DE Furbowl used to be held before they moved to Cici's. However, they changed their name back from East King Buffet to International Grill. I'm not sure if there has been a management change as well but prices seem a bit lower now. Unfortunately, they got rid of the frogs' legs and ice cream sprinkles.

There was still a bit of time before sunset so I decided to try finding "Out of Bounds" at Roser Park in Hockessin. This is a tricky 3-star geocache but after looking around for a while, I figured out by elimination where it had to be. Then I saw the method of attachment when I looked really closely. The cache site is in the swampy area beyond the far edge of the soccer field. That area has become a bit of a bottle dump. Since I brought a trash bag and the trash barrel, I picked up some of the trash before I left. By the time I was done though, the barrel was so heavy that it was quite a struggle to get it back to the parking lot. (I should get a small trash cart with wheels for litter patrol.) Hopefully, that was worth doing.

( The caches... )

South Jersey - Salem and Gloucester Counties

Sunny, 48°F. Went geocaching in the near side of South Jersey today just because I thought it was time and also because there was a new geocache in Deepwater. Apparently, the newest thing since I last visited Salem County is the "0h No A Nano" series. There were a few last time but Bikehammer has added more towns to the series. These are all unincorporated villages, often just a single crossroad with a church or fire station in the countryside.

Later in the afternoon, I took a walk on the Elephant Swamp Trail in Elk Township for four geocaches. ("Further Down and Sloppy" thru "More Swamp Then Elephant", but I moved the car between the first two and the next two.) I ran into Joe 'n Sue at a cache site later in the day and they told me the legend of Elephant Swamp. The trail follows a Pennsylvania-Reading Railroad line. Back in the 19th century, a circus was traveling by train through the area and an elephant escaped into the swamp. The elephant was never found again.

The last two geocaches of the day were on the Rowan University campus, so it's a good thing I did those during winter break when the campus was deserted. Probably would be hard to even find parking once school is in session.

( The caches... )