Morton Fox's journal

This weekend, I was in Connecticut for Furpocalypse. From all appearances though, it might as well have been FurFright Redux 2014. Same hotel, same events, same charity... heck, even some of the prizes and goodies from the games and contests still say "FurFright"! For their first year, it's fine to ride on FurFright's momentum but I hope they'll eventually try new things and remake the con in their own vision. For the most part, I had a good time, which is hard to explain since it's pretty much the same con as last year. It could be that a slight change in the mood made all the difference. Last year, I had the impression that folks were a tad cold and distant but there was none of that this year. The only real issue I encountered this year was one of the hotel guests (not a con attendee) was very rude but I never saw him again after Thursday, so good riddance.

- Friday evening, I got back from dinner in time to join the ice cream and trivia hour. I was surprised that my group won this time. One of the prizes was the quizmaster's fake hair, which I used later at the dance.
- I was at the Saturday Morning Cartoons panel when the fire alarm started, so everyone had to wait outside in the cold. I was wearing my fleece bat pajamas at the time, so it wasn't too bad. Also, at least the alarm wasn't at 4am like FurFright 2 years ago.
- Fursuit parade on Saturday was indoors with the final photoshoot in the ballroom instead of outside, because of the rain.
- Since I enjoyed the sewing panel at FAU, I attended one again at Furpocalypse. This time, I made a squeaky toy.
- Went to the Big Gulp Party on Saturday evening. Thanks to dalesql for hosting.
- Fursuit games on Sunday: First game was a relay race where we went in pairs and one fursuiter would push the other around the course on a dolly. Second game was charades. And the last game was the figure-eight musical chairs. (a FurFright original) I was on the red team (Team Ebola) and we got second place.
- I skipped the closing ceremony in favor of a little geocaching spree around Newington followed by dinner. (Goldburger at Goldburgers) I returned in time for the dead dog party and a bit of pizza. Originally, there was a second fursuit parade scheduled for Sunday night but it had been canceled by the con. We got a bunch of fursuiters together and paraded anyway, which was hilarious since no one expected it.

Also, there was geocaching. Connecticut does not have as high a cache density as the Philly area but I still found quite a number. I focused on the Milford, West Haven and Prospect Beach areas (Date Night, WOOF Series) on the way to the con. During the con, I dashed out for mini caching sprees in Berlin and Newington. On the way home, since I had an errand to run in Middletown, I got a few there and a bunch more in Trumbull (America's Pastime series) on the way home. There was some good hiking, although I think fall colors were already past the peak by that time.

( The caches... )

To be honest, after some not-so-good experiences at Furfright 2011, I considered skipping this year. However, I discussed my concerns with kgraleopard last year and seeing as how this is the tenth Furfright, I decided to give it another chance. I'm glad I did! I see a number of changes to the way the con was run that made all the difference. Just about the only problem I saw this time was the fire alarm at 4am on Sunday, which was the fault of a prankster, not the con. I thought the dances were good this year. I liked the retro sock hop, which I also enjoyed at FAU previously. Saturday night had some good music and a fun crowd too. I also enjoyed the Thriller Crash Course on Saturday morning, even though I wasn't very good at that. I was also at the Saturday Morning Cartoons party, both fursuit parades, and the fursuit games, and got to chat with many of my friends who I only get to see at this con.

As usual, I starting driving late Wednesday night so I could get to Connecticut by daybreak for geocaching. There weren't very many new geocaches since last year, so I decided to do something a bit more challenging. I went to Giuffrida Park in Meriden to hike up to Lamentation Mountain. I don't think it was a very high mountain but there were a few steep sections and it was a round trip of over 3 miles for 8 geocaches. There were good views of Crescent Lake (from the base of the mountain) and the valley. (from the peak)

Getting home on Monday was quite an adventure because of Hurricane Sandy. First, I had to leave Connecticut by 1pm because of a state-wide highway closure. I figured it was a better idea to cut across Westchester County and cross the Tappan Zee Bridge instead of going through New York City. That route also let me stop at Palisades Center Mall for lunch and to use the wi-fi internet. It's a familiar place because I used to live in the area. (And I'm glad the mall has not collapsed from ground subsidence issues.) After that, I saw that the NJ Turnpike was closed south of exit 9, so I detoured to US-1, used the bridge in Trenton to cross over to the Pennsylvania side, and returned home via I-95, which seemed fine aside from some speed restrictions. Later, I found out that the NJ Turnpike was closed only between exits 7 and 8A, so the electronic sign I saw was incorrect, but they were probably still sorting out their info at the time.

( The caches... )

After returning from the geocaching dinner event, I took care of a few things at home and left home again shortly after midnight. If I'd driven straight to Cromwell, it'd take about 4 hours, or so the GPS claimed. I stretched that out a bit by doing a few 24/7 geocaches at night, so that I'd reach North Haven at daybreak. Then I started the caching spree. Well, I started with North Haven and that turned into an attempt to finish all the geocaches in Wallingford, a town that seems to be packed more densely with geocaches than most areas in CT. Quite a number of today's geocaches were in the TTMTD series, which is someone's attempt to cache every single Dunkin Donuts in CT. I'm not sure how many Dunkin Donuts there are but there are already over 100 geocaches in this series! It got repetitive after a while so I mixed it up with other geocaches in the area and only did the TTMTDs if any of those were nearby.

At around 2pm, I decided to stop my assault on Wallingford and go to the Crowne Plaza to check in. After I did that and moved my stuff into the room, I had lunch (Well, anything looks good when I've been up all night and not eaten anything substantial since dinner.) and continued the geocaching spree with 6 more caches near the hotel and around Cromwell/Berlin. "No Ca$h Cache" is on the Wal-Mart Nature Trail. I thought that was rather unusual. Wal-Mart must have either built the trail or sponsored the trail upkeep.

When I returned in the evening, a lot more Furfright attendees had arrived and the hotel lobby looked quite busy. I joined the pre-reg line to get my badge and conbook. Chatted with some friends I hadn't seen since either last year or Anthrocon. And that brings this journal up to the present time. I guess I should get some sleep since I've been awake for 36 hours.

( 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... )

I did a mascot gig with Hi-4 for Maple Sugar Sunday at Stamford Museum. The weather forecast was rather dire on the amount of snow expected on Sunday but I figured there was a good enough chance that the snow wouldn't amount to much, so I didn't opt out of this gig. I began to doubt my hunch when snow started coming down while I went for the Beware of the Dog! and Purchase Pipe geocaches in Westchester on my way to Stamford. Well, guess what? The snow slowed to a few flakes here and there and none of it stuck. So it wasn't a bad day after all.

Our group this time was jbadger, jimwolf24, Damian, and I. Our changing area was in the children's activity center building. We took turns going out two at a time in costume. It wasn't a terribly big event but there were still many people who took a chance on the snow and attended the event. There was a paved path all the way around the farm area so I took a walk in costume there and interacted with people and kids along the way. On my second time out, I stayed mostly near the center part of the nature center grounds because the path was wet from ice melt. On my break, I changed out of costume and toured the area as a regular visitor, sampling some popcorn and maple donuts and watching the maple sugaring demonstration. I also took some photos and video.

Our post-gig dinner plans fell through because the Thai restaurant in Greenwich apparently disappeared without a trace some time during the last few years. So we split up. I went with jbadger to Flushing Chinatown to try some eateries from this New York Times article. I had Hand-pulled Noodles with Mutton at Lanzhou Handmade Noodle at Golden Mall Food Court. This food court, hidden away in the basement of Golden Shopping Mall at the corner of 41st Road and Main St, was an incredibly cramped space subdivided into a dozen or so food vendors. I had to change seats because someone needed to push a stack of boxes down the narrow aisle. I thought the mutton and noodles were okay. The soup had more spices in it than anything you'd find in any run-of-the-mill Chinese place. For dessert, I had cheesecake at Sun Mary Bakery, another place mentioned in the NYT article.

Started my trip to FurFright in Waterbury, CT, this morning and soon hit rush hour traffic on I-287. I should've started half an hour later but I didn't expect that traffic delay to last until 10am. As usual, I did a bunch of geocaches along the way, turning a 90-minute trip into an 8-hour tour of the Connecticut countryside. However, with the Fall colors almost in full effect, I do think it's the best time of the year for that. I visited some Southbury Land Trust areas, as well as Hop Brook Lake Park and the Larkin Bridle Trail. Arrived at the hotel a little after 5pm.

Dinner was at Hometown Buffet near the Brass Mill Mall in Waterbury. While in the parking lot, someone came to me saying that his red Chevy Blazer was out of gas. Now I know that there is a 99.44% chance it is a scam and he was trying to bum a few dollars from a bunch of people. I wasn't going to give him any money but I was curious as to what AAA would say about this, so I called them. They said they would send a tow truck out with a gallon of gas. I went into Hometown Buffet to have dinner and when the truck came, I went out to the parking lot again to confirm my request. Afterwards, the guy who was out of gas thanked me profusely and drove away. I still suspect it could be a scam but at least I found out how AAA handles gas requests.

Got back to the hotel and hung around a little meeting up with some friends. Then the pre-reg line started so I took care of con registration. And that's about it for today.

( 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... )

I thought it was going to rain today but the weather turned sunny in the afternoon. I went to Southwestern Connecticut, to Greenwich and Stamford. I hadn't gone geocaching in Connecticut since the winter, so there were lots and lots of new geocaches, so many that I didn't get past Stamford before sunset came and I had to stop.

I did two series of geocaches: The "Rosa Hartman" series at Rosa Hartman Park and the "Are you smarter than a...?" series at Treetops State Park. What's nice is I could park in one place and find all the caches in each series in one loop hike. Of course, after hitting Lehigh Valley and assorted flatlands for several weeks, the hilly terrain in Connecticut was tough but I could deal with that.

Dinner was going to be a footlong at Subway in Stamford but the guy behind the counter didn't seem interested in taking my order so I just returned home. Home was only about 45 minutes away and rather than put up with lackluster customer service, I might as well take advantage of my own well-stocked fridge.

( The caches... )

Saturday: In honor of the all new higher gas prices, I went to Orange County. It was a warm day, sunny and over 80°F. I hadn't been to Orange Co. in a while, so there were many new geocaches. The only disconcerting thing happened when I was in the Wallkill Area. I saw a wild turkey crossing the road. I saw that it had gotten across safely. Then I heard a thump and a bunch of feathers flew up. Huh? Based on the dead lump on the road, I figured that there was a second wild turkey and it walked right into my car. Egads! Dinner was at Arby's in Middletown. (No, I did not have turkey!)

Sunday: Woke up early in the morning to head out to Norton Park in Plainville, CT, for a mascot gig at Earthstock. Also on the roster were coyoty, wally_wabbit, wildw0lf, freakylynx, sunookitsune, rapidtrabbit, Damian K, runswithwolves9, and Max the Husky. It was a smallish event with a vendor fair and some entertainment. We had a critter parade and then just wandered around until we figured it was time to stop. Good thing it wasn't as hot a day as the day before. The temperature was 60-70°F and turned from cloudy to sunny.

After the gig, I left the group and went off on my own. I found both caches in Norton Park, of course, and also 11 more in Bristol, Southington, and Plainville. In the course of my travels, I saw an LJS-Taco Bell co-branded restaurant, so I had to stop there for lunch, just for the novelty of having fried fish and burrito together!

( The caches... )

Friday was my last day in northern Delaware. After having the complimentary breakfast and checking out of the hotel, I went for one last round of geocaching. Since the weather was good, I threw in a bunch of geocaches that involved a bit of a walk. Nothing terribly unusual except for the bright pink ammo can at "Pretty In Pink". After the 12th cache of the day, I started getting tired so I finished up with a few easy ones and then headed over to the Arby's in Wilmington that I saw on my first evening here to have a Pick 5 before the long drive home. Also made a stop at Wawa in Swedesboro to stock up on chocolate milk.

The next day was a trip to Connecticut for a fursuit bowling event put together by wally_wabbit. I'd already packed what I needed for that trip before heading out to Delaware, so it was just a matter of swapping one set of luggage in the car for another set. Did a bunch of geocaches along the way, of course. While I was in Delaware, the northeast apparently got some snow. A few inches to half a foot maybe. However, I did get lucky poking at the snow with my hiking pole. I found two caches right away even though they were completed covered by snow. I also took a brief look at Holy Land, an abandoned tourist attraction that I missed on my previous visit to Waterbury. There is now a cache just downhill from that place, so I figured why not take a few minutes to see what it looks like? I didn't think it was legal to enter though so I only went up to the gate.

After that, I went to Highland Bowl in Cheshire. I was actually the first one there, so I waited inside for the group. Our bowling time was scheduled for 3pm, so we had time for a brief visit to the Barker Cartoon Museum, just across the road. Of the items on display, I thought the jelly glasses were interesting because I collected those myself and still have them. Also good to know they're worth a few dollars each, which, while not much, is better than the zero I thought they were worth.

Went back to the bowling alley and it was time to change into costume. That was when I discovered that our changing area was the restroom, which presented some difficulties because it was a tight space. After thinking it over for a bit, my solution was to drive to the rear parking lot, change there, leave my stuff in the car, and walk back to the front in costume. Changing in 30-degree weather was certainly a novel experience! (and cold too!)

Returned to the bowling alley and got into the game. Also playing were wally_wabbit, foxwell, rapidtrabbit, coyoty, wildw0lf, and a few others. My bowling ability is lousy, worse still in costume, although I did get all 10 pins once. Still, it was fun to do whether or not I hit anything. We had pizza and soda from the bowling alley's cafe. During the game, we got roped into a kid's birthday party at the other end of the bowling alley for pictures and giggles. It was a neat surprise for them because they thought it was just going to be a regular bowling alley birthday party. :)

After the bowling event, I took a walk back to the rear parking lot and changed there. (COLD!) The rest of the group had after-event plans, but I opted not to follow them. Instead, I went for a few geocaches in Wallingford and then had dinner at American Steakhouse in West Haven. (a quiet evening with their super salad bar :) )

( Some photos from the bowling event )

( The caches... )