Morton Fox's journal

Sunny, 50-60°F. I thought I'd go somewhere a bit different on the last day of 2011. Well, it's different for me anywhere since I rarely go to the Baltimore area. (That was only my second time there in 2011.) That $6 toll before the Susquehanna makes me think twice before going past Cecil County, but I digress. I started the day at the "Anchors Aweigh!" geocaching event at Nautilus Diner in Timonium. I didn't feel like having actual breakfast food so I ordered gyro with fried onions. Since I hadn't been going to geocaching events in Maryland, I didn't know anyone there. Funny thing is though, geocaching seems to be pretty much the same anywhere. I heard quite a bit of intriguing geo-drama listening in on the conversations, but it's not so different from what I've heard at geocaching events in Lancaster, Bucks County, New Jersey, and Long Island. It's the usual cases of people cheating to get FTFs, signing each other in, and stealing geocaches.

After the geocaching event, I went and found geocaches in Lutherville-Timonium, Towson, Northwood, and Pikesville. I didn't actually do all the geocaches I could've done because it was time for dinner. When I went to the White Marsh area for dinner though, I didn't count on most restaurants shutting down early for New Year's Eve. Denny's in Nottingham was still open, however, so I had a Holiday Turkey Melt. After that, I did two more geocaches in White Marsh / Rossville before going home. The last one I did was "Finds for Each Day of the Year Challenge-4 Seasons", a challenge cache with the prerequisite of finding at least one geocache on each of the 366 days of the year. I qualified a long time ago, so it was a snap but I thought it was a good one to close the year on.

( The caches... )

Sunny, 90°F. I woke up early for a 90-minute drive to Denny's in Allentown for the LVGC Breakfast in the Valley IV geocaching event. Since I enjoyed the last LVGC breakfast event in early June, I thought I'd do it again. This was a good event too. Only real problem was Denny's couldn't handle our crowd so the food was a bit slow in coming out, but I didn't mind too much. I had the Ultimate Skillet.

After that, we (Wizard1626, SAJSKI1, Catching Caches, ST.FU68, Linda.Cache, and I) went as a group to the Saucon Rail Trail to hit a new series of geocaches. It was a 3-mile hike. We left a few cars at one end of the trail and car-pooled to the other end of the trail so we wouldn't have to walk back on the return trip. It was a fun group activity. Some of the geocaches were easy and some were difficult but we found them all and everyone in the group was the first to spot at least one of the caches. After the hike, we went to Rita's in Hellertown for a water ice break. I had a cantaloupe Italian ice. Then we did a multicache, "Saucon Creek Multi", in Hellertown before going our separate ways.

I met Pino at the LVGC breakfast event. I hadn't seen him in years but I actually knew him from Where's George way back when and I used to go to his pizza place whenever I was in Lehigh Valley. What's interesting is I told him about geocaching years ago but he didn't try it back then. Somehow, something clicked in the past year and he suddenly became quite active in geocaching. I found some of his geocaches this afternoon in Hellertown, Bethlehem, and Fountain Hill. On the other hand, he has stopped doing Where's George, so I guess it's a case of shifting preferences. In the evening, I visited Antonio's Pizza in Easton to see him again and have two slices of pizza. Just like old times. (I also found the two geocaches, one in front of and one behind the pizza place, of course.)

( The caches... )

First stop of the day was to Denny's to get my free birthday Grand Slam. In the "Build Your Own Grand Slam" menu item, you get to pick four items from their list of breakfast foods. I got pancakes, eggs, bacon, and whole wheat toast. It was a leisurely affair. I didn't get there really early to begin with, so "breakfast" ended at 1pm.

After that, I went for some geocaches that were not too far away. "Child's Play" is an old cache in the Claymont area that I'd been meaning to do for a while but never bothered to take the exit off of I-495 until this afternoon. The other 3 geocaches are recently-placed ones. "Dude Man Yo's #1" is in a weird location at the door of a converted warehouse building. I suspect the cache owner either works at or has some connection with the design studio whose door that is.

In the afternoon, I discovered that the grass seed patch closer to my back door had germinated into tiny blades of grass that stood straight up. Really cute. No idea what's happening to the other patch though. I guess it's easier to grow grass in the shaded area because that part of the yard doesn't get quite as dry. Also did some weeding since I was out there looking. Yes, I know. Doing work on my birthday...

In the evening, I went to Delaware Furbowl XX. It was the same itinerary as the previous DE Furbowl: dinner at East King Buffet followed by bowling at AMF Price Lanes. This time, I wasted no time getting what I wanted, hence sushi and ice cream on the same plate! (I added peanuts and an egg custard for nutrition. :) ) At the bowling portion of the event, I wore the Kinzer coyote fursuit. Still not so good at bowling but I did get two strikes, one spare, and a bunch of 7s and 8s.

( The caches... )