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!

Just some quick hits and cleaning of things I had been wanting to post. Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s night (and that you can all function today!) Another year and hopefully, as always, it’s better than the last.

On with the news and notes, however.

Event

An event was held in our area Dec. 20 with an interesting concept. The idea was for each cacher to bring a Christmas ornament and then names were drawn and cachers went up and selected one of the others etc. It was pretty cool. Some of the ornaments were geocaching related, others were normal.

Then there was a raffle for a few things that people donated. I picked up an unactivated travel bug, which is pretty cool. I’ve also recently released a couple new travel bugs, but more on that later.

The event was held at the local Holiday Inn’s restaurant, so we all also had a chance to grab breakfast and mingle, which was nice.

The group:

It was a nice event to end the year with. I’m looking at possibly trying to hit another event or two in the coming months, so we’ll see there. Also, I’m always hoping we’ll have a local gathering and the events are quite fun around here.

Cache-a-maniacs

For those of you who don’t know what Cache-a-maniacs is, it’s a podcast about a geocacher. The duo of DarrylW4 and Firefly03 do a weekly show where they interview a cacher and then produce the podcast. Very cool stuff.

Anyway, I bring it up because when I was interviewed a couple of weeks ago and it was posted today. You can get it through iTunes or visit their site directly. Visit the interview page.

I also highly encourage you to visit their site and check out past interviews. They are very well done and are quite interesting. Also, if you have drive time to work, they almost fit perfectly on a small commute. I can usually listen to one show each way as each show sits at about 20-35 minutes. Good timing.

In the coming months, I am going to try and do some other posts on podcaches and possibly try and do a few “articles” on them as well. I am still working on my 2009 master plan for this blog in trying to have a few different features as the year rolls on.

First to Find

After getting back from Philadelphia, I noticed a new cache had been placed in our area and somebody had already DNF’d it. I had to be in that area Christmas Eve, so decided to give it the ol’ college try.

I should have prepared better.

OK, here’s the story. I had jeans and sneakers on. In our area, there had been a lot more snow. I knew this had to be off the beaten path, but still went with the sneaks. Smart move. Or not.

Got to parking and saw I was within 100+ feet and set out through the snow. I passed a tree that I thought would have been a good spot, but the GPS said I was still 80 feet or so away, so I continued on. Twenty-plus minutes later, I decided to give up and worked my way back toward my car.

Then I saw that tree again.

I decided to follow my geosenses and sure enough, there was the cache. The coords were way off and I noted that in the log. Either way, I pulled the cache out and scored the first to find and replaced the cache. Rain in the area recently will have wiped all my footprints, too, which is good.

Considering it had been out for a few days, it was nice to get the FTF.

Travel bugs

I’ve recently prepared and have two travel bugs going out. One in the mail, one in a cache.

The first is an entry in the Great Travel Bug Race and can be seen here. This one has a kicker, however. Besides being in the race, it’s a cancer awareness bug and I’m offering to donate $5 for every 500 miles it goes toward a cancer organization. I know it’s not a lot of money, but with the economy as it is, I am offering as much as I can. Plus, every dollar helps.

My second is a bottle opening wrench (Pop a top!) I set out when visiting New Jersey over the past few days. I purchased the wrench at the Cooperstown Brewing Company and decided to set it out to see if it can get photos near ball fields, breweries or wherever else. I’d like to see this one take flight!

Some news on other travel bugs.

The quilt out there in my father’s memory (Chief’s bag tag) has recently been picked up near Erie, Pa. The poster said they’ll be moving it to Kuwait, so that’s some mileage. Hopefully it won’t get lost in the shuffle overseas and it will keep moving.

My Champion quilt, which is in the HooHaa Race, isn’t doing too well. Especially with two others already in the thousands. John’s bug has jumped the pond from Japan to California and Trip’s has gone from the mainland to Hawaii and someone has already picked it up and will apparently be moving it back to the lower 48. The rest of us need some help — or some pong jumping — to stand a chance.

I also received three unactivated travel bugs for Christmas, so I’m trying to think what I want to make into something that will travel. Thoughts and ideas are always appreciated. Drop me a comment here if you have any ides!

On that note, it’s time to go. I have to return to work today as my vacation is officially over. I’ll have more posts soon about some recent caching adventures and looking back on 2008.

More later!

To all the people who read A ‘lil Hoohaa, have a safe night and Happy New Year! Here’s to 2009 being better than 2008.

I’ll have more in the coming days with some updates, a caching couple of days and my look back at 2008 in caching and other things.

Have fun tonight, be safe and don’t do anything silly (like get behind the wheel after boozing).

More later!

As promised, here’s the post about my trip down to Philadelphia (along with the caching exploits and such).

Anyway, I’m on vacation until Jan. 1. With that in mind, I didn’t have much planned. There was a caching event Dec. 20 (I’ll have something separate on that one later) and outside of the holidays, I was quite free.

So Darren had to do some work in Philadelphia and asked if I wanted to tag along for a few days. Maybe do some photography, do some caching and all that. I figured it would be a nice (free) way to get away from the area for a few days and hopefully pile up a few caches, even if a bunch had to be done at night.

Darren picked me up Sunday morning and we were on our way. In a snowstorm. The ride was slow for the first part of the trip, but as we got away from our area and into New Jersey, the snow started to go away slowly but surely. As we got closer to Philly, the snow became nothing. However, I’ll note, the whole trip was cold as can be!

Sunday’s count: 16 caches. We hit four on the way down in rest areas and quick hits off an exit. The one I really wanted to hit was a letterbox hybrid (little did I know this would become a theme for the weekend). It was hidden like some others out there in the end of a guardrail, but it was a decent-sized cache where I could drop a signature item etc.

Oh, allow me to also share this piece of information. I have found a new way to cache. Darren has a laptop holder in his truck and has nationwide wireless through Verizon. Nice. So the whole way down, we’re online. That came in handy all weekend — but first with our fourth cache of the trip.

We were coming to a rest area and I didn’t have it in my lists as I didn’t realize when planning the route that we’d be that far on the highway. So I just basically looked it up, discovered a cache there and we stopped to make the grab. Glad we did, too, because I got the chance to swap a signature item (wood coin, which is great as I collect the signature items).

After that, we headed into the city and checked into the hotel. After that, we went and ate dinner (at a Chickie and Pete’s — and had the chance to see a lot of Eagles fans groan as they lost the game and said goodbye to the playoffs… good times). We went back to the hotel and plotted a bunch of caches we could do that night, mainly quick grabs on the strip near the hotel (who knew this strip would keep us occupied for two nights?)

We ended up grabbing 12 that night. The best of which might have been one called FDR’s Cache (GC19XGC) — one that had been DNFd two times before. We almost DNFd it, too, except Darren opted to look a final time and well, we had found the original spot. He just “forced” the spot more and got it unstuck, reached in and grabbed. So it was still there, thankfully, and we got the grab.

A good way to start the trip.

Monday came and thankfully, I got to sleep in some as I was the one on vacation. When Darren got done working around noon or so, we started to plot the day ahead. And caching, of course, was on the docket (as well as a surprise visit to my aunt and uncles and a free dinner). What we decided was we were going to head into New Jersey and hit this one park where there were 12 caches — 10 letterboxes as well as a virtual.

When we first hit Jersey, we went to a small area where we tackled a micro and a letterbox, then headed to this park.

It was downright cold that day, too. Thankfully, with the trees, the wind wasn’t as bad as when we were at the first two caches. Brrrrrr!Anyway, this part was littered with those letterboxes. Everything was pretty cool in regard to how they were setup. Not too much by way of buschwhacking and pretty easy finds. Being it was cold, it was nice to keep moving for the most part. There were, however, a lot of prickers in this park, so had to be careful out there.

This is the park:

The two caches that are marked unavailable were actually able to be found because other cachers had helped out the owner by replacing the caches with temporary ones. I’m quite happy about that as I’m not sure if I’d ever make it back here and to be able to get the whole loop was fun. What we did was start on the left and hit the first six letterbox caches before breaking off for the regular cache. We then did the final four and the virtual and were freezing when all said and done.

We left the park and decided to do one more letterbox hybrid nearby before heading back into Philly. This was well worth the stop. It was a quick park-and-grab hybrid, but the stamp was more than worth it. For those who do the letterbox hybrids and have stamps, mine isn’t anything special. I have a softball/baseball then sign my name. One day, if I find out how, I might decide to make my own. Anyway, the one we got to have from this spot was awesome. I don’t always stamp my book with the stamp in the cache, but this one I did:

We then headed into the city and went to visit some of my relatives. After that, back to the hotel and prepping for the next leg of our day — some caches and some steaks.

We did a bunch of park-and-grabs and a few other interesting ones that eventually gave us 25 for the day. Not bad for a broken-up afternoon and evening. One good thing, however, was that we completed six micro finds, which allowed us to figure the coordinates for a mystery cache finale. We did that Tuesday before leaving. That is an interesting story as well.

We also ended up in South Philly to do some night photographs of Geno’s Steaks. I had this photo on my photo blog late last week. After grabbing a steak (of course), we opted to try one small cache in a park and as we walked toward it, got an odd feeling as someone drove by us, so we skipped that one and did a few more on the strip heading back to the hotel.

As Tuesday came, we had a couple of things we wanted to do before leaving. Go back to Geno’s for some steaks and conversation (I’m related to the owner), grab some caches in the city and head out to finish what Darren had to do for work. So we went into the city and hung out at Geno’s for a bit and then did two nearby virtual caches.

Before we hit the virtuals, there was a cache near Geno’s. Well, it’s listed between Geno’s and Pat’s. However, there had been several DNFs on it over the past few months. Would be nice for the owner to check it. Anyway, we gave it a try — looking everywhere:

We looked all over and spent a bit checking in, around and under spots. Alas, we finally had to throw in the towel and call it a DNF so we could move on.
From there, we went to this small little garden-type park (which I’m sure looks WAY better in the summer):

What was cool about this place was the murals on the wall as well as being able to find an ammo can in the city. Swapped out TBs and signed the log as we moved on. One of the murals:

We hit two more in the main city. One at a Korean War Memorial, which was really nice. Then we went to Fishtown — where my father grew up. Had to go to this park (though I’m not even sure if it’s near where the heck he grew up), but it was in that section of the city, so I wanted to do it. It was a quick micro, but still pretty cool.

One of the sites in the park:

After that, we went back toward the hotel we stayed in because we wanted to get that mystery cache and possibly one more bigger one so we could drop off a TB or two.

This is where it gets interesting.

We figure a spot we can park for the mystery cache, so we set off on a small walk through paved trails. About 6-7 minutes later, we get to within 150 feet, but we have to go up a small hill. No biggie, off we go. We go past a hole in the ground with some smoldering wood. Interesting. Maybe some kids partying or something? Looks like it had burned out over the course of the night, so who knows.

Darren goes one way, I go another. He ends up finding the cache, so I wander up to him. The cache top has ice in it, so he smacks it on the log and gets the ice free. About that time I look up and about 50-60 feet away (maybe a little more) is a lump near a tree.

Oh no.

It’s a person. A homeless person is snoozing. So at this point, caching becomes a little freaky. First, you don’t want to compromise the cache (which is why we didn’t leave any travel bugs there) and you also don’t want a confrontation of any sort (I had my camera and GPS).

So, we start to speed up and the homeless guy starts to move and sit up. He peeks at us, but not much. Within seconds, he’s standing and bolting up the hill away from us. Apparently, he was as spooked as we were. We signed the log, actually left a couple of signature tokens and hid the cache a little to the left, but in the same area.

It also woke us up a little. Seriously. We have a country spending billions on bailouts and we all enjoy these games and here’s a guy — two days before Christmas — sleeping in the cold. Sad things. I wish our country would worry more about that then helping billionaires celebrate with big parties because they’ve been bailed out. I’m not into politics, however, so enough of that.

If the guy had sat up, watched us and stayed there, I might have gone and given him a fiver or something because of the time of the season. Alas, he took off too quickly.

After that, we went to one last cache to drop off a TB I wanted to release in Philly. We found a spot to park and as we were signing, another cacher came in. He had already found the spot, but was sropping a TB. He ended up giving me one to take to New York as well. Always interesting to meet people on the trail.

Then, we were out of there.

We had to DNF a cache at a rest area (argh!), but got one more in Jersey on our way home and finished with eight for the day.

Final tally for the weekend: 49 finds; 13 letterbox hybrids; 3 virtuals; 1 multi.

It’s a good area and I hope to be able to do more down there. I wanted to hit a few Earthcaches, but we never got to them. Maybe down the line. I’ll be back soon with some quick-hits, a first-to-find and some other notes.

More later!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone.

I’ll be back in the next day or so with some reports on the Philly trip.

Hope everyone enjoys today!

More later!

Will have some caching stories soon. I’m in Philly for a couple of days with a friend and we did some caching on the way down and then down here. Will do more tomorrow and Tuesday on the way home.

Hoping to add at least Delaware to my states list. Maybe a couple more, pending. It’s all up in the air.

Some Earthcaches around here, too. I’d like to get those. And I have some travel bugs and coins to place, so I want to find some caches to put all those in.

Picked up a couple of signature items today, which is always nice. One day I’ll have to figure out what to do with them all to display them!

Bought myself a Christmas stocking through geoswag and I’ll share those contents in the next update.

Anyway, update will be coming in a day or two. Maybe even with photos! Off to bed now though!

More later!

So, it’s been a bit. Yikes. No caching, not much of other things. Had some personal things that I’ve been attending to, so that’s snapped some of my free time.

Things are getting back to normal now. Hopefully.

One day left of work before my vacation. I’m heading in early Friday to finish a lot of things before I walk out for the night.

That and to beat this snow storm that’s coming.

Caching event and a softball team Christmas party Saturday.

Heading to Philly for a few days Sunday — hopefully to cache and do some photography.

Hope everything well with everyone. I’m hoping to visit a lot of regular and photo blogs on this vacation!

More later!

OK, first things first…

I love geocaching. It’s a blast and I really enjoy getting out there to find treasures and see what I can come up with. It can get a little competive at times, but outside of that, it’s a great time.

That being said, I think for a while there, I got a bit obsessed. I think a lot of people do with geocaching.

Don’t get too far ahead — this isn’t some sort of “I’m giving up the hobby!” post!

That being said, it seems since I really got into caching (ie: hitting events, planning caching trips etc.) other things have taken a backseat. Namely my other two major hobbies: photography and baseball cards. Now the baseball cards thing isn’t a big deal as I don’t really have the coin for it. But photography… well, that’s a different story.

I realized this over the past week or so. I finished my yearly photo book (once Christmas passes and eveyone who is receiving it as a gift, I’ll make it public and will post the link here) and then got into looking at a lot of work on Flickr and got really inspired. I started going through some older stuff. I peeked at some photo blogs I’ve been neglecting.

It made me realize I needed to get into it again. I miss taking photos. I know I’m not some incredible photographer, but I think I’m pretty damn good (be your own judge — visit my photo blog and see) when it comes to certain things (sports mainly). So, I need to get back into it and “share” the hobbies.

First thing I need to do is get another decent point-and-shoot to take when caching. I just haven’t found a way where I like carrying the good equipment when out caching. Mainly because you can only take so many woods shots etc. That being said, I’ve missed some good opportunities for killer shots with caching.

Second, I need to get into taking photos of whatever again. I know a bunch of you out there have Flickr accounts (I think I’m following some of you). I’m thinking of doing a Flickr project, where in the end I’ll create a book with everyone’s photos (everyone can purchase the book at cost, there’s to be no profit — I just think it would be cool to have a project done together). I’d make a group, obviously, and everyone can post to it. I just need to get the idea in my head.

Would that even interest any of you out there? (Obviously there will be more details, eventually, I just wonder thoughts on the “idea” of the project).

I’m supposed to be going to Philly at the end of next weekend. I’m really hoping it happens. If so, there will be some caching, for sure. But there’s going to be some photography, too. A day or so of urban photography and possibly having the chance to meet up with some relatives to say hi and maybe even shoot some images would be fun, too.

It’s incredible how much you realize you love something when you don’t do it for a while. I miss my camera. I need to get it in the rotation more often!

(But the tales of caching will always be here, just hopefully with some more talk of photography and maybe even some baseball card talk!)

More later!

Not sure how many of you are into Western movies or if you’ve seen Lonesome Dove.

One of the stations was showing Lonesome Dove over two weekends — Parts one and two this past weekend and then the final two parts will be shown this weekend.

I own it on DVD, however, so I decided to watch the final parts on my own and I finished it earlier tonight.

If you like Western movies and haven’t seen Lonesome Dove, I would highly suggest you see it. Originally a miniseries on TV, it’s about 6 hours and change long. But, if you break it up a little, it’s a great watch.

The book, by Larry McMurtry, is well worth a read, too.

What I really dig about this movie is that I originally read the book in college and then watched the series for the first time with my father. It’s one thing I shared with him a bunch of times, so it’s nice to sit back and watch the move.

If you all have the chance to watch it — do so. It’s worth it.

Watching now

As a Jim Carrey fan, I had yet to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’m about 35-40 minutes into the flick and I have to say, it’s pretty wild. I’m going to enjoy the rest of this for sure.

Snow

Apparently there’s a winter storm coming this way tomorrow. Thankfully, I have the day off, so I won’t have to worry about driving in it (if it does arrive).

The weather is showing 4-8 inches is possible. Well, I’ll get a workout with shoveling. Maybe I’ll go take a walk during the day and try and do some photography, if indeed the snow does come. I could use some good photos for the photo blog.

Caching stuff

So I’m planning some caching trips (I hope anyway).

Pending the weather, I’m hoping to go somewhere this Saturday and do some caching. Not looking for a number day, but wouldn’t mind getting a bunch of hits. We’ll see how the weather pattern goes.

The following weekend, Dec. 20, there’s a caching event in my area in the morning. Later that day, we’re attempting to plan our softball team party. Hopefully I can finalize some of those things Thursday.

That Sunday (21st), I’m supposed to head to Philly with Darren for a couple of days. He needs to hit there for work, but will have free time, so I’m going to go along for the ride, hopefully take some photos and do some geocaching.

In between Christmas and New Year’s, me and my brother are going to Jersey to visit our aunt and uncle and hopefully get some caching done there, too.

I also have a travel bug I want to release when in Philly. I also have to finalize one and send it Trip so he has it in time for his Travel Bug race, for which I’m entering.

What else is going on?

Well, the yearly book has been done for a bit. Can’t wait to see it. Went smaller this year and had to cut photos, but I like how it turned out. Didn’t lean on sports photos, either, which is always good.

I need to figure my Christmas shopping, too. I don’t have to buy a lot this year (and can’t really afford a ton), but I have to do the shopping I need to get done. Still want to see if I can do it online, but I have to see what people want before I can do so.

As much as I like the holidays, getting prepared for them is tough!

Anyway, that’s about it for now.

More later!

I come back to the audience about yesterday’s post.

If I’m going to undertake this project, I need to get some thoughts. If you were going to read these geocaching articles once a week (and hopefully comment on them!), what do you want to see? What do you want to know about the people I’d try and e-mail interview? Who would you be interested in?

Caching bloggers?

Newbies?

People with thousands of finds?

Techies?

Pod casters?

It’s endless, but if I’m going to do one a week only, I’ll have to be somewhat selective, but at the same time, be open to just about anyone.

So once we get through that stuff — how about this: What kind of questions would you like asked? What would you want to know about these people?

Don’t get me wrong — things won’t be scripted by any means, but I’m probably going to come up with a base idea of questions and then go from there through a e-mail exchange etc.

I’m starting to plot how I’d like to do things, but wouldn’t mind some specific-type feedback from people on what would make this a strong project.

More later!