Morton Fox's journal

I was at the Hanover Marriott in Northern New Jersey from Friday to Monday for FA United 5. Shared a hotel room with jbadger again, just like last year. Now because I've heard a few complaints about this con, I have to say that we ought to set our expectations a bit lower since it's a smaller con than Anthrocon and Furfright and it has less programming. Given that, I thought I had a pretty good time overall. Not every con needs to be a rush of activity and I liked having the time to do what I wanted to do, to talk to people, and to let spontaneous things happen. It was slow at times but never actually dull.

The new hotel had more than enough space for our group. The common areas never seemed packed or congested at any time during the con, so it could probably accommodate a con two or three times the size. The only space that seemed a bit small was the con suite (especially at dinner time, when the line spilled out into the hallway) but the room is the size it is, so I don't think we can do much about that. Housekeeping was probably a bit understaffed that weekend; I noticed they weren't done with the rooms until the evening on Saturday.

As I mentioned earlier, there wasn't a lot of programming but I enjoyed the events that I did attend. The Sock Hop (oldies music dance) on Friday evening was fun and actually quite danceable in fursuit. The Miracle Fruit Tasting Party was the most unusual panel I've ever been to. Miracle fruit is a berry containing a chemical that makes sour foods taste sweet. So in this panel, we ate miracle fruit in pill form and then tried various kinds of food and juices. That was certainly a different experience! On Saturday night, we made our own spontaneous event, tearing around the lobby doing various funny stuff in fursuit. (Hope we didn't annoy the hotel folks too much!)

The day after the con, I returned to Bridgewater for the Triple Tuesday Pints & Patties - 2012 geocaching event. This monthly Central Jersey geocaching event has been going on for quite a number of years. It's the third Tuesday of every month. It used to be in New Brunswick but switched around to a few other places and then moved to Fuddruckers in Bridgewater after the New Brunswick Fuddruckers went out of business. I can't attend as often as I used to because I'm now further away but I figured I might as well extend my vacation by one day and do it this month. It was a comparatively small gathering this time, but I got to meet up with some of the regulars plus a few folks I haven't seen before. I noticed that the next Third Tuesday falls on my birthday, which makes attending this event again a tempting proposition if I take that day off from work.

( The caches... )

Sunny, 75-80°F. This is funny but my main motivation for going to this evening's Third Tuesday geocaching event at Fuddruckers in New Brunswick was to use my Fuddruckers birthday coupon to get a free burger. Never mind that it's a 190-mile round trip. :)

Of course, since I was heading into NJ anyway, I might as well find some geocaches. I started in Glendora and stopped in Magnolia, Somerdale, Hi-Nella, Gibbsboro, and Springdale. Not sure which was the most difficult geocache of the day. It's probably a tie between "Faux Bark" and "I see you!" "Faux Bark" was actually findable in a minute or two, but I needed to leave the cache site and think about this evil hide a little. The most amusing cache of the day was "Squirrely Butt". The placement was simply peculiar -- the plastic squirrel figurine was hanging upside-down in a tree hollow and presenting the bison tube.

In the evening, I arrived at Fuddruckers for the Third Tuesday event. The usual Central Jersey group was already there. After chatting a while, I ordered the burger. Waited for it but they never called my name. So I went to the order counter to check. It turned out that they had forgotten my order. Oy! Once I reminded them, it took only a few minutes and they brought the burger and fries to my table. Then I topped it with a ton of fixings. I think I used enough melted cheese this time. :)

After the event, I went to Edison and did two quick geocaches at night before heading for home. "Grand Opening" is in a location that was of interest to me. I'd been wondering what happened after they tore down the Ford Assembly Plant on US-1 a few years ago. Well, wonder no more. That cache took me to the middle of the former assembly plant site, which is now a Sam's Club with a huge parking lot. Because we're not done until US-1 is strip malls from end to end.

( The caches... )

Did yard work this morning. Raked leaves and used the electric lawnmower on the front yard. Started heading back to Northern NJ after a late lunch. The plan was to hit the Third Tuesday geocaching event on the way back but there was plenty of time so we tackled a few geocaches, Corral and Villa, along the way. The last cache we did before the event was Rt.18 Pedestrian Bridge just a mile south of Fuddruckers in New Brunswick. This was a tough one so it was a good thing we were joined in the search by jo.b and JimmyG.

Got to Fuddruckers in time for the start of the event, more or less. In truth, I hadn't expected to be able to make it to this event. It just happened to be the way my travel schedule worked out, making the event a convenient dinner stop. I had nachos with chicken as usual.

And now I'm back in Northern NJ for my last week here. If all goes well, I should be 100% moved into Delaware by next week. (just in time to claim the free Pathmark turkey and roast it in my new and as yet unused gas oven. I can hardly wait!)

Tuesday: Sunny and around 70°F. This was a Sue & Barry day. Most of the geocaches I found were placed by that team. What's great about their caches is each one is stocked with buttons or other small trinkets that fit the cache theme. So I took a long hike in South Mountain Reservation and collected a bunch of buttons. (When I got home, these buttons promptly went into a small box of memorabilia that I'll move to the new place.)

In the evening, I went to the Third Tuesday Beer and Burgers - 2009 Edition monthly geocaching event at Fuddruckers in New Brunswick. I only stayed long enough to trade travel bugs and say hello to the event regulars though. Since I had a birthday coupon, I went to On The Border, just across US-1, instead for dinner. I had pork tamale and chicken enchilada and the dip trio.

Wednesday: Cloudy with a 50% chance of rain, or so said the weather forecast. It didn't actually start raining until very late in the afternoon. The nice part about that is the temperature was around 60°F the whole day. Because of weather uncertainty, I went to Western NJ and did mostly quick geocaches, the R.I.P. (cemetery) series and the Route 31 series. For dinner, I used another birthday coupon from the stack of coupons. I went to Ruby Tuesday in Hackettstown and had blackened fish burger with salad bar.

About birthday coupons: Most restaurant chains have mailing lists for deals and specials these days. Birthday coupons are a marketing tactic, of course, but some of those are genuine freebies. If you sign up for those mailing lists, create a new email address and use that instead so that their periodic mailings don't spam your regular email.

( The caches... )

Auto service in the morning. Odometer was at 112,367 miles. Also replaced the busted tire. After that, it was raining heavily but I stopped at Please Don't Feed the Wildlife on the way home. I knew it would be quick because it was at the Parkway rest stop near home. Had a leisurely lunch at home while waiting for the rain to stop, which it didn't. Headed out again and found PipsPackage, which was also not that far from home and in a familiar location because there used to be another cache by this part of the Saddle River. I got FTF on this and picked up one of the two FTF prizes, an LED flashlight. Second finder can have the Starbucks card because I don't normally go to that establishment myself.

After that, I went down the Parkway and endured the traffic delays to get to Laurence Harbor. There, I did all the geocaches that had been placed for the geocaching event on Sunday that I opted not to attend. The 7 geocaches took only 2 hours and at least I got the flavor of the area even if I didn't go to the event. Wish it wasn't raining the whole time though.

It was 8pm by the time I finished those geocaches but I thought I would swing by the Third Tuesday Beer and Burgers - 2009 Edition geocaching event at Fuddruckers in New Brunswick. There was a reporter at the event interviewing everyone for an article on geocaching in the Asbury Park Press. I don't have that newspaper up here so I'll just check their website in a week or so. I had nachos with chicken.

I left the event just before 11pm. While traveling up the Parkway, I had an idea. T_apeworm (New Jersey) is located in Newark and I hadn't been to this cache because I thought parking would be difficult there. However, I figured it wouldn't be a problem late at night and that turned out to be correct. A quick detour from the Parkway later, I saw that I had the whole block of parking spaces at my disposal and the cache was a quick find. It's on the Rutgers University campus, not an especially dangerous part of Newark. The Tapeworm project mentioned in the cache description is interesting too. Their goal is to tag unused/dead urban spaces with stickers. However, I don't like the idea because if it gets out of control, it would be as bad as graffiti.

( The caches... )