Morton Fox's journal

Sunny, cold day. 45-50°F. Repacking my stuff didn't take very long, comparatively. Although I still needed 3 trips to load everything into my car, I was able to use the secret shortcut stairway to the parking garage because my luggage cart can go down the stairs just fine. Said my goodbyes to some friends who were still at the hotel on Monday morning. Then I checked out and left.

First, I went to Wethersfield to finish the "Spew pew pew" power trail. Then I went to Glastonbury. There was a bunch of geocaches in the town park remaining from an event earlier this year, so I did the ones near the front of the park. From Glastonbury, I continued geocaching northwards into East Hartford, where I came across a Cabela's store. (There are two geocaches in the store parking lot: "SMK-133 Salebac Rev.1" and "Hook & Bullet".) This outdoor store is huge! I was reminded of the time I saw the Shady Maple Smorgasbord, which is also an absurdly huge building with a stadium-sized parking lot in the middle of nowhere. I've heard people describe this store as a mecca for geocachers, but now that I've seen their goods, I'm not so sure because a bit over half the store is devoted to hunting. I did find one thing I needed that I haven't been able to get locally though and that is a roll of camo duct tape. It was interesting to see the Connecticut River Valley Wildlife Museum at the back of the store and the island of stuffed animals, although I'm not talking about plush toys there.

After leaving East Hartford, I found a few more geocaches on and near the highway. For dinner, I had a seafood platter at American Steakhouse. Like Ruby Tuesday, this is another chain restaurant where the all-you-can-eat salad bar is more interesting than the entrees, but I do enjoy a steakhouse that serves decent fried fish.

( The caches... )

I'd moved everything I packed to the car the night before so in the morning, all I needed to do was toss in a few last-minute items and leave. It wasn't that great a day for travel. The temperature was around 40°F and it was raining. Then when I got to Danbury, CT, the rain turned into a rain/snow mix. Nevertheless, I did find a bunch of quick geocaches in Danbury and Newtown along the way. The only odd one was "Newtown War Memorial". The cache listing had been archived by the cache owner because he couldn't find his own cache. I went to the cache site and started looking, and there it was! Go figure.

Arrived at Holiday Inn in Waterbury. There was a geocache right in the parking lot, so I just had to do that before checking in. After check-in, I was soon joined at my room by jbadger, my roommate. We went out in the snow and got the other geocache by the Costco behind the hotel and did a little shopping at BJ's Wholesale to pick up something that both of us had forgotten to bring. Then we returned to the hotel for a quick round of fursuiting before dinner at American Steakhouse. Both of us had T-bone steaks because of a 2-for-$17.99 special.

Returned to the hotel. I got my con badge just before registration closed. Then JBadger and I did another round of fursuiting until the hotel turned the atrium lights off at midnight. I didn't know they did that. I guess it's because I didn't stay up late enough on Thursday last year.

( The caches... )

Nice weather after yesterday's rain. Sunny. 75-80°F. I went to SW Connecticut again to find more of this year's new geocaches. This time, I got all the way to Orange and Milford before it got late and I had to stop. Only the last two were done after dark. Downtown Milford was quiet on Sunday night and it was the perfect time to examine the evergreen.

I've had a pretty easy time in Connecticut so far. The only problems I encountered today were parks with residents-only parking restrictions. The town of Stratford had the worst restrictions. When I arrived at the entrance to Roosevelt Forest, I saw a sign saying that there is a $1,000 fine for out-of-town cars. Furthermore, the sign stated that even town residents will be charged if they don't have a parking permit displayed, although the fee then drops to $300. When I read that, I decided to forget about Stratford and the half dozen or so geocaches in Roosevelt Forest, and continued onwards to the next town. Many towns are willing to share their public parks, so why bother with the few that want to shut out outsiders?

Dinner was at American Steakhouse in West Haven, which is much better (both in ambience and in salad bar selections) than their Norwalk location. Once again, I had the seafood platter because I like the fried fish and scallops.

( The caches... )

Sunday morning, I got up a bit earlier and went to shy_matsi's breakfast social, which I do appreciate a lot because there wasn't time to go out for breakfast this morning. Then I went in fursuit to the ballroom to take part the Fursuit Games. We had a scooter race, a ball toss, a tandem relay race (fursuiters pair up and each pair has to carry a ball between bellies, without using hands, to the end of the ballroom and back), charades, and musical chairs. For charades, I got "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", which I thought would be pretty difficult. However, despite my clumsy attempt at miming a chainsaw and then miming lopping off the cameraman's head, someone from the audience actually guessed the exact phrase within a few seconds. That was amazing!

After the Fursuit Games, jbadger went to the Charity Auction, while I headed over to the Dealer's Room to get two costuming items that I'd only recently heard were available there. Then we went out for a late lunch at Blackie's, a hot dog and burger place just down the road from the hotel. There was actually quite a crowd there from the convention. After lunch, we went to the Cheshire/Southington area for more geocaches. I got two geocaches. However, I also drove jbadger over to a few other geocaches that I'd already found on Thursday because I knew those would be quick.

Returned to the hotel for Closing Ceremonies. Then we got into fursuit again to join the second Fursuit Parade. This one was shorter than the first parade. We did the same route from the ballroom to the atrium and then around the atrium. This time, we didn't end the parade outside. Instead, we just went back to the ballroom, where the post-con party was already in progress.

We didn't stay at the party though. After the photoshoot, we headed out for one last geocache and then dinner at 99 Restaurant in the Wal-Mart strip mall at Wolcott and Stillson. After dinner, jbadger went home while I went back to the hotel since I had the room until Monday morning. I thought about going to a party for which I had received an invitation card but I never made it there. I felt like lying down for a little while and the next thing I knew, it was morning. Oh well.

( Monday, the journey home... )