Morton Fox's journal

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... )

According to the weather forecast, there was a 90% chance of rain on Saturday. So I planned on doing a bunch of easy geocaches in Westchester. Well, surprise! The day was sunny and 60°F. I still did those easy geocaches but I threw in some bike trail walks and a few hikes in the woods. Park and grabs are fine for quick gratification but those don't really nourish the soul. I had a $5 coupon from my last visit to Johnny Rockets, so I returned to Palisades Center in the evening to have dinner at Johnny Rockets again. This time, I had #12 and fries and a chocolate peanut butter shake. Also had a refill of the fries. I think if they had unlimited garlic fries, that would make them an even match to Red Robin.

Sunday was a rainy day. It was 46°F to 54°F most of the day. There was a geocaching event in Manhattan in the morning, but I decided to skip it because I started a little late and I'd have to rush over to make it in time. One thing about driving in Manhattan is you can't be in a hurry. There is too much traffic and too many traffic lights, and I would think the rain makes it worse. So I just skipped ahead to the Long Island part of my plans for the day. Didn't get to do too many caches after all. I tackled a few walks in the woods, as far as I could go before getting too wet. Of course, there were a few quick ones too.

For dinner, I went to Flushing Chinatown and had nasi lemak and stuffed vegetables Malaysian style. I think this is a repeat of what I had the first time I went to Curry Leaves but these dishes are worth repeating. The curry really hit the spot. This restaurant is family owned and operated, and I still think it is interesting the way they use the dining area as their family living room. They watch TV there, the kids play there, and this evening, they disciplined their kids there. Okay, perhaps doing that in front of customers was a bit over the line. Another observation: Because the sun sets later now and because I tend to geocache all the way to sunset and because it takes an hour and a half to go from East Moriches to Queens, I arrived at Flushing Chinatown at around 9pm. I noticed that many restaurants and stores close at 9pm on Sunday so that will cut down on my choices until Daylight Saving Time ends in the Fall. Two of my usual places are open after 9pm but I'm going to miss the sweet bean curd.

( The caches... )

Cloudy with a slight drizzle. 34-37°F. It snowed the night before so I was wondering if I would have any difficulty finding geocaches in Westchester but the snow cover turned out to be only an inch thick at most and even that was melting away as the day went on. Today's set was a mixed bag: a few walks in the woods and some urban cache hides. I made reasonable progress although I hit some bad traffic in New Rochelle and so I did the last two after dusk.

Came back to Park Ridge to do some errands and use a Burger King coupon for dinner. I was wondering why Burger King was the only busy restaurant in town while all the other eateries were quiet when I realized that I was likely not the only person taking advantage of the discounts. In this economy, BK is about as fancy a restaurant as people would go to.

( The caches... )

On Saturday, I went to WWFM IV Rising at the Kensico Dam, a geocaching flash mob event at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla, NY. It was raining, so it wasn't a good day for an outdoor event, but 42 people showed up anyway! The event lasted for 15 minutes and then we went our separate ways. As for the word "Rising" in the event name, that's the name of this 9/11 memorial sculpture. If you stand in the middle of the sculpture and look upwards, you'll see this interesting pattern.

After the event, I went around Southern Westchester, geocaching in the rain. Because of the rain, I picked mostly quick geocaches so I wouldn't get too wet. Got the last cache after dusk but I'll have to get used to searching in the dark, now that the sun sets so early.

( The caches... )

There was a thunderstorm this morning so I stayed home and caught up with a few things. The sun came out in the afternoon. So, after lunch, I headed out to do a few quick errands. By that time, it wasn't worth going very far for geocaches so I just went to Westchester. Got a bunch of those, mostly in Yonkers.

The last geocache of the day was in City Island in the Bronx. So I decided to see whether the fish fry place at the end of City Island that I last visited years ago was still there. Indeed, it was there and still very much as dingy and crowded as I remember. I had fried whiting.

( The caches... )

Sunny and 46°F. There were actually two geocaching events in the Philadelphia area I could've attended today but I just couldn't be bothered. So instead, I went to Westchester and the Bronx.

The reason why I hadn't been going geocaching in the Bronx is I assumed it would be congested and parking would be tough. The irony is Westchester, especially around Ardsley and Scarsdale, was the one with the traffic delays this afternoon. I also didn't have nearly as much trouble parking in the Bronx as I thought I would have. At no time did parking availability add more than 750 feet to my walk. I also practiced parallel parking twice on Bronx streets. (You can tell I don't have to do much of that in northern New Jersey or anywhere else, for that matter.) The first time, I did that perfectly. The second time, one wheel was on the curb. It was a very low curb so I didn't know it happened until I got out of the car to take a look.

Anyway, I got 4 geocaches in lower Westchester (Ardsley, Scarsdale, New Rochelle) and 9 geocaches in northern Bronx. (Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, and Van Cortlandt Park) I figured Palisades Center would be crowded on a Saturday evening, so for dinner, I had BK Big Fish sandwiches at Burger King in Park Ridge. (They'd been sending out coupons specific to that restaurant through the regional coupon mailer.)

( The caches... )

It was snowing this morning and snowing harder in the early afternoon. So I did some laundry (most notably, the mudhole-contaminated pants that have been sitting there since last weekend!) and cleaned up the kitchen. But then I ended up with half a dozen bags of waste paper, so I needed to go out anyway to take those to the town recycling center. So I headed out while it was still snowing.

After dropping off the paper, I went over to Westchester. By the time I got going, snow had turned to rain. Fortunately, the rain stopped long enough for me to get to "Jay's Hunting Lodge", which was a 1.2-mile walk at the Marshlands Conservancy in Rye. From then onwards, everything was just damp, although it started raining again towards the evening.

Didn't go to Palisades Center on my way back from Westchester because I figured it would be impossible to find underground (i.e. out of the rain) parking this evening. So I just came back to Park Ridge to use another Burger King coupon from Shoppers' Hotline. I love these. So far, no one has refused to accept these online coupons.

( The caches... )

Oil change this morning. 65,743 miles. UPS was supposed to deliver a package today (From Hong Kong to New Jersey in just two days! Impressive.) but the carrier arrived while I was out doing the oil change. So I called them to arrange for an evening pickup.

After a quick lunch I headed out to Rye and North Castle in Westchester for a bunch of new geocaches. It was an overcast day but it didn't rain until I was at the last cache. The only one that was a little tricky was "Y?" After looking in all the wrong places for a while, it dawned on me where that cache could be hidden and that was exactly it.

( The caches... )

In the evening, I went to the UPS warehouse in Saddle Brook to pick up the package. They have a one-hour slot from 8pm to 9pm for package pickup. It's a good thing I remembered where the warehouse was because I didn't see a sign out by the road. It bothered me a little that they weren't ready to serve anyone for more than 10 minutes after the counter was supposed to open. However, once they got going, they handed out packages at a reasonable speed.

Took the day off since it was my birthday. Slept in and had a leisurely breakfast since it was bathrobe-and-fuzzy-slippers weather this morning.

In the afternoon, I went out to the Parsippany area (and also Morris Plains, Denville, Whippany, Florham Park, and Boonton) to do a bunch of geocaches. Most of them were easy. "Florham Park Footbridge" was tiny and harder to see, so it took a bit of staring at the hiding spot. At "Duf's 266", there was a police car in the parking area. I thought the police officer would question me for going under the railroad bridge and looking around for the geocache but he just sat in his car the whole time. I guess I wasn't suspicious enough.

Then, in the evening, I ended the day by attending the "Hungary Hungry Buffalo" geocaching event. The event was at Buffalo Wild Wings in Port Chester. First, I had Honey BBQ Wings. Those were supposed to be a "medium" (according to the menu) but they really weren't anything to write home about. For my second helping, I had Hot BBQ Wings. Now, that was more like it! Rather hot at first but I actually got used to the heat and then it was good eating.

( The caches... )