 | eCachecommentary from down jersey |
39.980967 -75.066433
The Delair Bridge is a steel lift bridge. It is constructed with three permanent trusses and a through-truss swing drawbridge. It was built in 1896 and its total length is 4396 feet. This is a rail bridge that connects Pennsauken, NJ to Philadelphia. It carries New Jersey Transit Atlantic City and Conrail lines at present.
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39.8037 -75.029983
This was an educational hunt! I am unfamiliar with these pub quizzes. It’s been a few years since I’ve been active in the bar scene.
I did some research and this stuff seems to be rather popular. Of course, I live in a black hole of an area where little of the cutting edge stuff happens. So, I took off to the closest spot I could find that hosted a pub quiz. It turned out to be an hour away. 
According to The Stone Grille’s web site the gig began at 7:00. I got there just a minute or two before as I had several stops to make along the way. When I walked in it was obvious nothing was going on. Sigh . . . the restaurant people thought the guy would be in around 8:00. Ah, I remember this kind of thing from having worked in the industry. The quiz guy was an outside source and the restaurant (really a bar) knew little about it. Grrr . . .
So I perched myself at the bar. I figured I’d eat while I waited. I ordered a Yuengling. I needed to wait for the keg to be changed. Nope, no more Yuengling draught. I took a bottle. I asked for a menu. All the pages stuck together. It was a bigger menu than I expected. Entrees ran $25. WTF? This is a bar. As a matter of fact, all the tables in this joint were booths. There was not a real table anywhere. On top of that this place had 20 flat screen televisions showing sports. Where do they get off charging $25 for their food? I found the sandwiches in the back and ordered a Cuban sandwich. I suspect sandwiches is all anyone eats here.
The food was served some time later. The request for ketchup for the french fries took half the meal. After a couple earlier frustrating things in the day, I was working really hard to remain calm.
I kept scouting the area where they said the quizmaster would set up. There were some booths there, but it didn’t seem like a lot of people were present and it seemed unlikely we were going to migrate back there. I wondered how forming teams was going to work. Eventually the quizmaster arrived. I asked how all this worked when he came around. He explained it and said I would be fine as a one-player team. I explained to him and the bartender my presence. They both thought it interesting. Later when the quizmaster came around to collect the team names he suggested On the Hunt for me. That worked.
We got started with a random round.
Round One Questions:
I thought I had done pretty well with these answers. I kept thinking the cherry blossom question was a trick but kept it to spring. Of course, I picked the wrong answer for Thelma. After I turned in my card I realized I was wrong. I do not agree with the answer to the birthstone question. While pearl is a fine answer, so is diamond. Diamonds are made from organic material. And all of a sudden I was transported back to school where the expected answers rarely included my take on things and thus I had to argue my case. I kept quiet tonight for it wasn’t worth the trouble. The spectacle of College Bowl popped into my head. And had you been there 20 years ago arguing over Joules you would have understood the flashback that was occurring.
The second round was a picture round. All pictures from various Batman movies and television shows. Most of those here were young. I am certain I and the old folks sitting behind me were the only ones to get Cesar Romero. Of course, I didn’t know Aaron Eckhart.
And so it went. I did well on the sports round. I was in third place after the third round. We had I think nine teams. I was the only solo player so I thought that was pretty good.
Then came music in a Name That Tune style. I suck at that and true to form, I sucked. Sure, Mr.. Tambourine Man and You Can’t Always Get What You Want were easy. I recognized the Blind Melon song but couldn’t put a name to it. The rest I hadn’t a clue. The bartender came over and asked how it was going. I explained I had never heard this song before. Someone named Fergie she told me and actually mentioned the song name. I didn’t write it for I knew I didn’t know. I am old.
I rebounded in the geography/history round only to stumble again in entertainment. I guess I just don’t follow these things. Another Batman question: What were the last two words spoken in the current movie? You’re dead was not correct. Do you know the answer?
The final round was a general knowledge round. The final question was to name the 10 movies AFI listed as the top gangster movies of all time. I did not do as well with that as I thought I would have.
In the end team On the Hunt came in third. For my efforts I was given a Captain Morgan T-shirt and drink cooler.
Thanks for the fun.
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39.94625 -75.13975
39.944117 -75.132583
This hunt has been more than a year in the making. In June 2007 we headed to Philly for a day of caching. The King Tut series was in full action then and I went up there to tour the city and pick up those caches. One of the caches in the series was in Camden, NJ. The easy way would have been to have driven to it either on the way up or the way back, but the fun way was to take the ferry.
The RiverLink ferry connects Philadelphia and Camden. We boarded at Penns Landing and got off at the Waterfront in Camden. As this is primarily a sight-seeing vessel, a circuitous path was taken that took us close to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The ferry does run shuttles for the concerts held at the amphitheater too.
The caching team that day was Beetle, flowers22, Grammy, and myself. We had a blast and Beetle was quite the ham dancing about on deck of Freedom.
I uploaded the track log to EveryTrail. It can be downloaded as a GPX.
Anyhow, when I arrived home and began preparing to log this, I noted I had no photograph of me with my GPS. D’oh! Each time I have gone to Philly since has not afforded me the opportunity to stop by Penns Landing until the other day. I snapped a couple shots of me and Freedom, but obviously I was on land at that point. Mike is very considerate and told me to log this as is. flowers22 also sent me a photograph of her GPS from that same ferry ride. Thanks!
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Gert sent me out to run a couple errands for her this evening. It was a good thing she did for I had forgotten I needed a few things for tomorrow myself. I work with mostly women. They have showers all the time. Early in my career I shunned these things, now I welcome them. There are always good eats at them.
Anyhow, I ended up in our too small Walmart because wat Gert wanted would cost less there and it was on the easy side of the road. I went down an aisle that turned out to be the clearance aisle. I didn’t know Walmart had these. Recently I spotted one at Target. Good trade items (although I rarely trade stuff in geocaches these days) can be found in such places. Lo and behold, Walmart is selling nylon blaze orange vests for $.50 apiece. These are not as nice as the vest I purchased a few years ago, but what a neat trade item . . . or at least I think so. (Note to local cachers: there are plenty there, if you are interested.) I picked up several.
I waited in line to pay. The girl rang the items. Then she looked at me and said:
Are you going to Camden?
That caught me completely off guard. Who would have thought I would chortle in Millville’s Walmart?
I am not much on government interfering with citizens’ rights, however, I recognize there are times when a curfew can (and should) be imposed.
While in times of riots and general mass confusion, a state would certainly be the ruling body of such a decision. More times than not, however, I suspect it would be the municipality who would be imposing the curfew.
While Camden is a mess, I cannot speak to its current issue and why city government wants to impose a curfew. I trust (and that may be a huge leap of faith given Camden’s past issues) government to make the best decisions for its municipality.
That is why I am perplexed as to why state law prohibits Camden from setting curfew at 9:00 p.m. for a limited time.
the earliest possible curfew in New Jersey is 10 p.m.
Why? Why should Trenton decide what is best for Camden (unless it is going to run the local government)? If Camden sees fit to impose a 9:00 p.m. curfew, why should representatives from my district have a say in it?
This is another example of government overstepping its purview.
