Morton Fox's journal

Sunny, 75-80°F. I didn't have any concrete plans for the day other than that I wanted to start geocaching in Mount Laurel to finish the "I work out!" series and end the day in Berlin so I could go to Long John Silver's for dinner. The remarkable thing about today's software is I don't need to plan any more. The Neongeo app stores all the cache info and downloads more as I go along. I just kept checking it to see what's nearby and in the right direction, and I ended the day with 40 cache finds!

I didn't exactly go in a straight line from start to end. From Mount Laurel, I went through Medford and Marlton, with a side trip to Lumberton. I hadn't been to the area in quite a while so I did clusters of geocaches where available to cut down on the driving. Two parks had 4 or more geocaches I hadn't found. I covered a variety of terrain from sidewalks to woods (with creek crossings) and open fields. There was a frog geocache ("Creek Side Croaker") today too. It's in a fishing area and the nearby fisherman thought I was looking for snakes. I told him I was looking for frogs and that somehow seemed like a credible story too. I also got to see an E-2 Hawkeye at the Air Victory Museum because the "Air Victory" geocache was nearby.

Dinner was at the Long John Silver's / Taco Bell co-branded restaurant in Berlin. I had a two-fish combo and a caramel apple empanada. (Yes, I ordered from both sides of the menu this time.) And finally, I did the last six geocaches of the night on the way from LJS to the I-295 ramp in Barrington.

( The caches... )

Cloudy, 60-65°F. I started late and the only thing I actually planned on doing was to check out the new LJS/Taco Bell co-branded restaurant in Mantua, so I was surprised that I got the number of geocaches that I did. I went to Logan Township, Swedesboro, Mullica Hill, and Pitman, the last of which was actually 5 miles beyond Mantua. Most of the geocaches were easy. There were a few high-terrain ones ("Untidaled" = 4 stars, "THAT'S THE POWER OF OXI-CLEAN" = 3.5 stars) but those turned out to not be as difficult as rated. True, there was a danger of falling into the water when I stepped out on that tree branch at the edge of the river at "Untidaled" but that tree has a lot of branches that I could hold on to.

Dinner was at LJS/Taco Bell in Mantua, as planned. It's closer to home than Lancaster LJS and I actually do like this place. Because the co-brand is Taco Bell, there is a wide selection of sauces and I tried them all. I had the fish and more. After dinner, I did a few quick geocaches on the way home.

( The caches... )

Friday was a rainy day. I hadn't been to Lehigh Valley in quite a while so there were many new geocaches that were close to parking and doable in the rain. Ran into BillyPilot at a cache site so I wasn't the only one out in the rain. I also tried my hand at some Fren-Z geocaches, knowing that I would fail to find most of those, but I got lucky at his Stockertown cache. I'd been there previously to take a look around but had not felt like turning the whole area over to look for the micro cache. This time, the first thing I picked up was where it was hidden! In the evening, I went to Welcome to . . . (Branchburg NJ) 2009 geocaching event at Moe's back in NJ. By the time I got there, it was near the end of the event but I still had about half an hour to trade travel bugs and eat. I had Billy Barou with pork. They used shredded cheese because they ran out of cheese sauce.

Saturday was a sunny day and warmer than Friday. I went to Western NJ along I-80, crossed over the Delaware River to Portland and Mount Bethel, and finished in Stroudsburg. I saw NJ's Longest Traffic Light, a 3-minute red light on Old Mine Road in the Delaware Water Gap. The traffic light has to be that long because of a stretch of one-lane road next to the mountain. The cache was near the traffic light so I didn't actually have to wait. I just turned the car around, parked, and got the cache. I also stumbled across the Lakota Wolf Preserve. It is behind the campground where the "Camp Sight" geocache is located. Dinner was at Chili's in Parsippany to use this month's coupon. I had the Oldtimer and chips and salsa.

On Sunday, I had planned on doing a mascot gig at Manhattanville College in Westchester. However, the event organizers hadn't supplied parking passes and with no pass and no credentials, I had problems with security at the gate. So I decided to skip the gig and switch to Plan B, which was to go geocaching in Westchester. Yes, it was a disappointment but not a major one because that was a fine day -- sunny and breezy -- to be outdoors. The difficult geocache of the day was supposedly "Little Green Men: Tron, Master of the Bull Ship". Once I found it, I realized the problem. It wasn't placed in a way that most geocachers would expect for that area. It was an area with rock formations but the cache wasn't in the rocks, where I saw most of the signs of searching activity. For a late lunch, I had chicken taco and chicken burrito at Taco Bell in New Rochelle. Wasn't planning on eating at Taco Bell but I used their restroom so I might as well get food. For dinner, I just came home and cooked because I wasn't that far from home.

9968 geocaches found, 32 to go.

( 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... )