Jan 05 2009
New Jersey and you … working great together!
It’s funny. Growing up and visiting relatives in New Jersey or Philly — and even here in New York — there used to be an old commercial (I believe for the tourism) where I think the Governor used to end it by saying “New Jersey and You…. working great together!” in a South Jersey/Philly accent. So whenever I see Jersey or am in the state I always think of that commercial.
Jersey and I worked great together at the end of my vacation.
Me and my brother went down on a Monday and I did some caching when we got down there, then spent the afternoon Tuesday (after getting away from the family for a bit!) with a local cacher there to get some more, and then before leaving New Year’s Eve, I hit a couple more and then one at a rest area on the way home.
Not too bad.
I also think I got my cousin hooked. She went with me the first day and then the last day for a couple. She signed up on the geocaching site and hopefully will get into it soon.
The first day was cool because there was a close park where I wanted to grab a handful. In the end, I found four in there. Had a couple laughs, too. Me and my brother went down, but he opted to stay behind and take a snooze. My mother was down visiting as well, so she tagged along as well as my aunt and uncle (they wanted to see what this was about) and my cousin.
We did two quickly, which was good. Explained everything and such. We tried to do a mystery one, but had a problem figuring out the first part. The hint has the coordinates for the final part in it, but there’s an extra number and it put us 11 miles away, so I knew something was wrong. Filed a DNF and went to do the final two that I had planned in the park.
We somewhat split up here, however. My cousin had to go. My aunt and uncle decided they’d meet us at the other parking area. So it was me and my mother searching for this one. Turned out to be quite funny, too. After going through a small set of woods and wandering around a bit more than needed (oh, and it was really quite cold!), we got to the area. After the cache was found, I had to try and figure out how to open it.
It was a camoed PVC-type container.
In the end the top portion has a small twist off, but I was trying to unscrew it. To which my mom was like ‘boom’ trying to make a funny about something else being in there considering it was so hard to get off. It was quite funny at the time, actually. After finally figuring out how easy it was, I signed the log and we made the jaunt for the next one.
That one turned out to be quite easy. We made the score and met my uncle at the parking area. Well, when we met him, anyway. We somehow crossed paths with him. He and I then went and checked one that had already been DNFd a ton. Couldn’t find it, so called it a day there.
The next day, I had the chance to meet up with a local cacher Nik, who gave me a small tour of the area for some caches and history lessons. I got some photos, too, as we checked out two light houses and where they filmed a lot of the movie Clerks.
We hit a handful that day, but it was nice to cache with someone who knows the area and the history of where we were. The lighthouses, the Clerks spot (we even hit up Kevin Smiths’ comic book shop, too!) and some help for a couple of caches that were head-scratching!
This spot ruled, however:
If you are a fan of Clerks, this spot was awesome. First, there’s a virtual cache there. Second, it was just neat to walk in there. I also took a couple of images inside and will have them on the photo blog. It’s just like in the flick. The workers, well, not so much. But they allowed me to take some photos of the front half!
I got to drop a bunch of travel bugs (and grabbed a few others) and swapped out like three signature items, which always pumps me up when I can walk away with a few of those! Always nice to drop mine in a new area, too!
Of the ones we hit that day, there were three virtuals, a puzzle/mystery cache and a webcam. In the end, a wild day and I’m happy I could sneak away. Another person had originally though of meeting, but with the times and other plans, it didn’t happen. That one will hopefully occur next time I’m caching in Philly!
One really cool one we hit was one called Red Bank NanoVision. Check out the webpage for the description. If you are ever in that area, check it out, it’s pretty wild.
On the final day, I hit two in a park near my aunt and uncles place and, again, took my cousin. Found both, swapped sig items again and got ready to leave. I first helped her sign up and log those two caches, so she’s official and hopefully she’ll be taking off soon, too. There’s some nice spots by my aunt and uncles as well as it looks like there’s some good ones where she lives, too.
The final grab of 2008 came at a rest area in Jersey. A quick grab as we continued home.
Not a bad first year of caching. I started March 1 and ended the year with 686 finds. I haven’t found any in 2009 yet, but hopefully this weekend.
My stats for 2008:
686 finds.
Of those finds, 572 were traditional, 24 were multis, 20 letterbox hybrids, 19 Earthcaches, 18 unknown (mystery) caches, 16 virtuals, 9 events, 5 webcams and one each of a CITO event, GPS Adventure Exhibit and Whereigo.
I also, including one event I hosted, placed 10 caches.
Of those, seven were traditional and one each of a multi, unknown (mystery) and event.
I got the opportunity to meet a lot of cool people through this hobby this year and I look forward to a lot of fun in 2009. Hopefully there will be some more states and countries added to my list as well as a lot of caches and a lot of stories and photos.
I’ll likely be a little lax the few days as I have to have an outpatient surgical procedure done Monday. I’ll explain that more in an upcoming post, but hopefully it shouldn’t hamper me for more than a few days. I had planned to cache Wednesday, but that’s pretty likely out. Supposed to head to Watertown on Saturday to cache, hit an event and likely go into Canada to grab a few caches, too, so hopefully that will still be on the docket.
More on that after the procedure tomorrow — and when I actually understand more! And as long as I’m not too loopy!
More later!







