Morton Fox's journal

Cloudy, 60-65°F. I woke up early Saturday morning for a trip to Long Island. I'd already packed two days before so it was just a matter of loading the stuff (otter fursuit, overnight bag, two boxes with extra clothes and sleeping bag, and that's just for a two-day trip! :) ) onto the car. It sure was cold in the morning! I got two quick geocaches on the way to NY state. Once I got to Elmont though, the serious geocaching began. I'd not been to Long Island in about a year and Nassau County was chock-full of new geocaches. In the short stretch from Elmont to East Meadow, I found 30 geocaches and most of them were rather quick roadside or street corner park-and-grabs.

In the evening, I headed over to jbadger's place, where I would spend the night. We went out for a hibachi dinner at Hotoke in Smithtown. Sometimes I think that living on my own for so long has made my tastes rather out of sync with everyone else's. Hibachi is a good example of that. I do not regret going to Hotoke because that's the only way I could find out that the hibachi experience isn't for me. It's just a bit disappointing when I'm the only one at the table not having a good time. Anyway, here's what I thought. The place is noisy and the locals are loud. A hibachi table seats about two dozen people so unless your group is that big, you'll have to share it with other groups and some people, well many people, don't watch their language and don't use their indoor voices. Also, I wasn't terribly amused by the chef's antics. He dropped a utensil while trying to juggle and some of the food he flung ended up on the floor. I didn't like the prices either. $20 for portions that aren't filling? $2.75 extra charge for fried rice? I didn't order the fried rice but I noticed that charge on other receipts. The only difference between steamed rice (no extra chargee) and fried rice ($2.75) is the chef stirred the latter around on the hibachi for a minute or two. Maybe it picked up $2.75 worth of magic hibachi dust. :) As I mentioned above, I don't regret going the first time but I'm not going again.

The next day, JBadger and I got up early and went to the Wantagh LIRR station to pick up freakylynx and rapidtrabbit for the mascot gig at Walk Now for Autism Speaks in Jones Beach. This was a big event with a crowd of 27,000. We entertained the crowd in the field area and also took a short walk out on the boardwalk and back. Got stopped for hugs and photo-ops probably hundreds of times and I never saw the same family twice. I thought the (still unnamed!) otter fursuit would be appropriate for a beach event. Most people guessed he was some kind of big cat or cougar. A few people did know he's an otter right away. Other guesses I heard were chipmunk, squirrel, and muskrat. I got lots of compliments on the fursuit sandals that I made because those looked like beach flip-flops. One nice thing about this fursuit is the head is large enough for me to wear glasses inside. I had some homemade anti-fog solution. (1% dish detergent solution) There was still some fogging but I only had to wait a bit for the temperature to equalize and then I had crystal-clear vision.

After the mascot gig, we went to East Bay Diner in Seaford. Rather confusingly, there's another East Bay Diner on the same road, two miles to the west in Bellmore. I had bison burger deluxe. Before ordering, I wanted to know whether the bison burger was good. I didn't realize until I checked my online photos later that I'd already tried it myself a year ago! Yes, it's really that unmemorable. :) After lunch, JBadger and I did a little geocaching. Then we went back to his place to hang out a bit and pick up my stuff. And finally, I took the long drive home, bagging one last geocache on the way at a NJ Turnpike rest area.

( The caches... )

Sunny day, approaching 80°F in the afternoon. Went geocaching on Long Island because I felt like it. I noticed that a few of the new geocaches were placed by aviary.com employees. This company is headquartered on Long Island. I have a user account on aviary.com but I haven't been using this online graphics suite. I should take another look at it.

There was a boy peeing mere feet away from where I subsequently found "DWD with a view". He was having a wild time peeing in an open area and swinging his stream all over the place. No shame at all. I had to wait for him to finish before I could look for the cache. When I found it, it was damp but I hope that wasn't because of pee. Ugh. Long Island, I am disgusted!

I finished the caches on my list a bit early but I couldn't resist getting another cache at Flushing Promenade before dinner since it's not far from Flushing Center. As usual, the Mets had taken over the closest parking lot so I had to park at the marina and take a half-mile walk to the cache site. Once I was done with that, I went to Flushing Center. I had prawn mee and roti canai at Curry Leaves. That was the flattest roti canai ever. Just one big sheet.

( The caches... )

Started Saturday morning with a small breakfast at IKEA in Paramus. It was free this weekend but the cafe was really crowded, which may be the biggest downside to this deal. It's only 99 cents at other times anyway.

Then I headed out to Western NJ. Got a flat tire on I-80 in the Parsippany area going at highway speed, which is not a good time for a tire to deflate. I got it safely to the emergency lane after rolling along a bit. The second problem was the emergency lane at that location was narrow and highway traffic was whizzing by pretty close. (If the flat had occurred just a mile ahead, I would have had plenty of room to work in.) So I thought it was worth calling AAA to send a professional to do this. 15 minutes later, the flatbed tow-truck arrived. The guy knew exactly what to do and I was on my way again within half an hour from the time the flat occurred. (Conveniently, I already have a service appointment on Tuesday and I can buy a tire at that time.)

After that, I knew this wasn't going to be a picture-perfect day but I played through anyway. It turned out to be interesting in a way. I met Mag-man and daughter at two cache sites, "Hope's lost" and "jenny's micro". The latter was really difficult to find so teamwork helped. I also met ECSAR at "A Societal Relic". He saw me at the abandoned payphone and stopped to say hello. I'd actually just been to his cache at an abandoned milking station. (There are apparently lots of abandoned structures near Blairstown.)

( Sunday... )

( The caches... )

Cloudy. 63-70°F. It looked like it was going to rain all day long but it didn't rain until the evening, and even then, the rain didn't last long. I went out to Long Island to find all the new geocaches placed within the last few weeks. I headed out eastwards on the northern half first, turned around, and came back along the southern half. Most of the caches were pretty standard hides. "I lost my marbles" was a little strange because it was less than 100 feet from the final stage of an older cache. I saw the older cache first and it looked like someone signed that log book by mistake.

Someone ran a red light in downtown Oyster Bay. Good thing I was slow to enter the intersection. A collision would've ruined the day, no doubt.

Went to Flushing Center in the evening for dinner. I had curry mee with stuffed vegetables and roti canai with egg at Curry Leaves. I think the former is their best dish. I came to that conclusion after trying most of the items on their menu. It's tough to beat something that has curry, crispy fried bean curd, and fish. On this trip, I also did a bit of shopping on Roosevelt Avenue and got a bulk discount from the sweet bean curd lady.

( The caches... )

Saturday: Went to Central Jersey to finish a few groups of geocaches in Passaic River Park, Glenhurst Meadows, and Duke Island Park. That last group was placed for the Duke Island Safari geocaching event earlier this month. I missed the event but caches placed for the event are still in the park so I got that part of the event experience at least. I did a lot of hiking in muddy flood plain areas on Saturday so it's a good thing I had boots. Dinner was at Fuddruckers in Parsippany, where I had chicken nachos and tomatoes with cheese. It felt weird going to Fuddruckers when there wasn't a geocaching event. I kept expecting to sign the event log or trade travel bugs at any time.

Sunday: Long Island trip. I started late so I didn't think I would have that much time but I still was able to get nearly all the new geocaches up to Moriches. Dinner was at Curry Leaves in Flushing Center. I had curry mee with chicken and roti canai. I'm pretty sure I've tried those before but when in doubt, go for the curry.

Monday: Went to Western NJ (Washington, Hampton, Bloomsbury, etc) via Route 57. I don't think it was that long since I was last there but there were quite a number of new geocaches. I was at the peak of my ability that day. All the geocaches, even the difficult ones, were a snap to find. For dinner, I did a Google search on my cell phone for a conveniently-located Ruby Tuesday and found one in Bridgewater. I had Ruby Minis with salad bar.

On Saturday evening, my phone malfunctioned to the point where it was totally unusable. The screen came up blank. Nice of it to do that at the end of the day when it would cause the least inconvenience. Fortunately, I already had a spare phone from eBay, so that night, I activated it, transferred the contacts, and installed the Opera Mini software. I've done that a few times before so it was easy. (Who needs the Sprint Store anyway? :) ) It's the same phone model except red in color instead of gray. Since both colors are around the same price on eBay, I figured I might as well get a non-drab one.

( The caches... )

Two hot and sunny days this weekend: 80°F and over on Saturday, up to 93°F on Sunday. On Saturday, I headed out to Long Island to attend the Metro NY Geocaching "Snack-Luck" Gathering picnic event at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. There was picnic food, of course, and then we went out in groups to find all the new geocaches in the park. After that, I went off on my own and by chance, ran into Mmacgown, Sakiman, and Dog & Bear at "WRR-4K Parkway Lawns". So we did the next few geocaches together.

At the end of the day, I went to Flushing Chinatown as I usually do on Long Island trips. Since it was a Saturday, I thought I would have to pay for parking, but I noticed that all the parking meters on 39th Avenue were out of service. So I took advantage of the free parking. There were five new geocaches, the "Flushing Freedom Mile Tour" set, in the neighborhood, so I took a walk around and found all five before going to Curry Leaves for dinner. I had E-fu Noodles with Triple Delight and Chendol. The E-fu Noodles were okay but not uniquely Malaysian. Some Chinese restaurants offer that too. Chendol is a shaved ice dessert with coconut milk, red beans, and green noodles. I'd been saving this for a warm day.

( Sunday, mascot gig... )

( The caches... )

Sunny and 57°F. Not as windy as the day before. I went geocaching on Long Island but I started a bit to the west so the first few geocaches were in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. "By the sea" was in a particularly strange area of the Rockaways. There was a set of abandoned roads with potholes and dangerous open manholes. The buildings had long since been torn down. I was surprised to find unused land like this in New York City because if developed, this could turn into some pretty expensive waterfront property. I asked an old-timer what this area was and he told me there used to be houses. Of course, just because the land is abandoned, it doesn't mean that no one is using it. People were walking around. There was a group of people training beagles in the vicinity. (They hadn't gotten the "trained" part down yet so the beagles were running around all the bushes.)

Then I headed over to Suffolk County. Hiked and cached at Hedges Creek, Post Morrow, and Terrell River. In the evening, I went to Flushing Chinatown. Since I went geocaching right up to dusk, it was past 9pm by the time I got back to Flushing. I've been going to Flushing on Sundays because parking is free on that day, but I think from now until the fall, I don't need to be concerned about that. They only charge for parking until 10pm, so if I get there at 9pm or later, it won't cost more than a dollar. For dinner, I went to Curry Leaves and had asam laksa and rojak. Asam laksa is noodles, onions, and pineapple in a hot and sour fish soup. It packs a punch but I'm somewhat used to it so I don't find it terribly hot or sour any more. Rojak is a mix of stuff (mango, jicama, crackers, squid, cucumber, crushed peanuts) in a special sweet sauce. The menu says it is a spicy dish but it didn't seem hot at all to me.

( The caches... )

Saturday was sunny and 40-55°F. Went to Orange County and then Pike County. I finally got the two geocaches, "the old power source" and "hatching cache", that I couldn't do the last time because the hay bales in the field were on fire. The geocaches were on the rail trail, not in the field, but I didn't want to park my car anywhere near there and disrupt the work of emergency personnel. Did all the geocaches pretty quickly. It still wasn't sunset when I reached Milford so I continued heading west and finding more geocaches until I ran out of daylight. The last cache was at a public library in the middle of nowhere, 8 miles outside of Milford. For dinner, I finally got to use the Chili's coupon. I went to Chili's in Middletown and had Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers and chips and queso. That was quite a lot of food so I took some of the chips home.

Sunday was cloudy and 55°F. Went to Long Island to do some new geocaches in the northern half of the island. Also went to the Kiss Me I Think I'm Irish geocaching event. I hadn't planned on going when I did but by the 8th geocache, I was tired and dragging around so I decided to stop early and see some friends. It was a nice event, albeit very crowded because the meeting room at the back of Panera Bread in West Babylon was small. I brought the netbook so I could log the travel bugs that I'd just picked up that day before leaving them at the event. I find that the size of the laptop computer matters a lot when it comes to deciding whether I'll bring it or not. I probably wouldn't have brought the bigger laptop along. Aside from cupcakes, conversation, and travel bug exchanges, there was also a raffle. I won a small geocache container that I should probably hang in a pine tree somewhere. :)

After that, I went to Flushing Chinatown for dinner. This time, I went to Box 5 Buffet on 40th Road. This restaurant is right next to Curry Leaves so I must've passed it at least half a dozen times since its grand opening. What made me decide to go in? Well, this time, there was a sign outside saying "10% discount". Works for me! :) So the deal was I got 4 items plus rice and soup for $4.50. The food was okay, not spectacular, but the price was right. And what counts is it was satisfying. I also had some egg custards at Vanilla Cafe.

( The caches... )

40°F. Rained most of the day. Found geocaches in 3 distinct areas. First, I did 2 geocaches that I didn't have time for during the week in the eastern part of Bergen County. Then I went for 4 geocaches in the northern part of Nassau County. 3 of those involved a bit of a hike so I probably should not have done those in the rain. "Shu Swamp Seed" was in a swamp but the trail wasn't too waterlogged in spite of the rain. Finally, I got 6 geocaches in Mastic and Shirley.

Ran into one of Tha Twinz at "Osprey Park". She was checking on the cache after someone noted that it might be missing. Nope. It's just hidden very well. I also had the wrong idea on the type of cache hide so it's a good thing the cache owner was there to provide some guidance.

Decided to forgo a side trip in Queens for one more cache so I went directly to Flushing Chinatown for dinner and shopping. I had kueh teow thong (flat rice noodles in soup) and squid with watercress. The former was obviously not authentic because back in the old country, it doesn't come with so many ingredients. (Sometimes, the non-authentic version is an improvement.) The latter dish was also somewhat different from the what I had back in the old country. However, memory is failing me so I'll have to check with my parents on what the original ingredients were. The complimentary dessert this time was sweet potato and ginger soup.

( The caches... )

45-62°F. Sunny with a short period of rain. Because of today's unseasonably warm weather, I went to Long Island to tackle some geocaches that I'd put off because it was too cold on previous trips. In the case of "Nicoll Point", that was because the walk was too long to do in subfreezing temperatures. In the case of "HKB-2 Hundreds to Find", that was because it sounded like something that would take too long. I finished both today. Later in the day, I headed further east to Shirley and Mastic. I hadn't been to that area for a long time so there were lots of geocaches to do and enough left over for another trip. Maybe next week.

My only disappointment today was that the Green area parking lot geocache had already gone missing. It was in my usual parking area in Flushing Chinatown so I figured it would be convenient to get that just before dinner, but alas, that was not to be. This one had been out for only two weeks and probably didn't survive long beyond its first week. Flushing Chinatown has a track record of devouring geocaches. I remember another one at the busy Main-Roosevelt intersection that didn't last long either.

Dinner was at Curry Leaves in Flushing. I had satay tofu and ginger duck noodles. The duck noodles at Curry Leaves, while inexpensive, aren't as good as the duck noodles at Penang in Edison. The herbs make all the difference. I also thought it was annoying the way they chopped up the duck so that bone fragments got into the soup. In a way, it's a relief to find something where Curry Leaves falls short of the standard because I was starting to think that I could never go anywhere else again. So I'll still go to Penang for duck noodles.

After that, I did my usual shopping along Roosevelt Avenue. I noticed that the vendors at Roosevelt Food Court had posted food pictures and English translations of their menus. My guess is they got tired of explaining to people like me who can't read Chinese because it's so damn hard.

( The caches... )