Thursday, August 7th, 2008
LCXN
39.915033 -75.034333
This is a hunt I have really enjoyed. Prior to Shirley and John archiving it, I attempted a few times to get the money shot. This is a lot more difficult than initially thought. I put it away for awhile. I am now organized a bit better and am able to take photographs while driving better than I have in the past. Still, I have been stymied.
A couple weeks ago I thought I had some good shots taken at night. I figured the red and blue lights would be easy to pick out from the darkness. I didn’t like my shots. I have others that are too distant to really count.
All day long Ken kept saying we could turn around to get ourselves in front of the police. We saw a parked cruiser he said we could use. He even said we could get in touch with some of the local officers he knows and stage something. I kept saying that I would eventually get the shot.
Sure enough I did. With Ken driving it was easy. I had the camera out. I think this was the second event today. I missed on the first. :( It’s a fair shot.
I didn’t take the GPS shot afterwards. I was able to mark the location immediately so felt no need to.
Thanks Shirley and John. I liked this one a lot. You guys are missed. The tasks aren’t going over as well with the current crop of players.
Posted in GPS Games, New Jersey, TerraCaching | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
LCZN
39.42895 -75.040083
It’s interesting, I thought this would an easy scavenger hunt. It didn’t turn out to be.
First off, the limitation of armor trucks to Brinks almost put this on the back burner. While I see plenty of armor trucks, apparently few of them are Brinks. Wawa doesn’t use them. Neither does K-mart. I saw one here or there, but never at a convenient spot.
On my way to Tuckerton I saw on in a shopping plaza, but I was dropping off and picking up, and children in tow. By the time I caught up to the truck it was moving and I had lost interest.
That happened another time near Vineland. I banged a U-y and chased, but the truck didn’t stop. I could just see the police pulling me over and asking why I was tailing a Brinks truck.
Well, out and about and I spotted this one. It wasn’t making a delivery, but I thought flagged down by the police was unusual. I took a shot and missed. Driving on I contemplated. What the hell. I pulled into the Pathmark plaza and pulled back out to Delsea Drive. I pulled up alongside and took two shots. Stupid me forgot to get the GPS in the frame. Sigh . . .
There was so much traffic that it took forever to pull into the mall. I decided to bag it and go out Burns Avenue to head home. Then I decided to pull up to the old Cumberland Mafunzalow geocache and walk up for the photograph. But I saw an opening in the traffic and decided to keep going. The light turned red and I had all the time I needed to get my shots. Sometimes patience does pay off.
One interesting thing is that this took place in both Vineland and Millville as the Brinks truck was at the sign welcoming one to Vineland heading north, but not only the engine made it in. Millville Police responded.
I wrote Chickmunk about this to see if it would have qualified. Indeed it would! She said something to the effect the idea is to have fun and see something unusual; this is exactly what this was.
Lots of fun.
(more…)
Posted in GPS Games, New Jersey, TerraCaching | No Comments »
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Someone posted that he had received a parking ticket while caching for an expired meter and wondered about others who had similar misfortunes. While geocaching, I have none. But it did remind me of two other tickets I have been involved in.
When I first moved to Boston I had a series of bad luck including a couple of tickets. One of them was interesting.
I drove along Newbury Street looking for a place to park. As I came down the street a second time, I noticed an empty spot on a cross street. I think it was Gloucester. I backed into the spot from Newbury. I went and ran my errand. It was a matter of minutes.
Sure enough, when I returned to my car there was a bright orange ticket on the windshield. I looked at it. Apparently I parked in a space that was to be cleared as of 4:00 p.m. to help with traffic flow. That is certainly understandable. The problem is that I never saw a sign prohibiting me from parking there.
Upon looking around, there was one. It was behind me at the parking spot behind where I parked. As you recall, I never passed that sign. I backed into the spot from the perpendicular street. I cannot believe backing into a space is illegal. How was I supposed to have known I could not park here? Grrrr . . .
Even more galling is a ticket that was issued to a friend of mine back in 1986. I was in Lancaster, PA for my Matt’s wedding. He had purchased a house in the old part of town. The day before the wedding we decided to go out and buy some more beer. We took Matt’s car. I got into the passenger’s seat. I was already in the car with the door closed as Matt sat in the driver’s seat. He reached for the car door to pull it shut. Just then another car came by, hit the door, kept going, and about 100 feet later applied the brakes. Matt’s door was wrapped around the hood of the car. We were shocked.
Everyone poured out of the houses and eventually the police arrived to take the statements. The street we were on is residential and narrow, like many older Pennsylvanian towns. The guy who hit the car had a child in the car without being strapped in. I kept pointing out the car was going too fast for this neighborhood and the little girl was standing in the back seat. That seemed to not matter at all.
At the end of the ordeal, Matt was ticketed. I (and he) was dumbfounded. How could he be at fault for this? Well, it turns out in Lancaster there is some silly law that one cannot have his car door fully extended. The reason for this, we were told, was to prevent just this kind of accident. The streets are so narrow that car doors become a problem. Unbelievable, ain’t it?
Matt went to court over this. He asked me to write my version and have it notarized. I did. I have forgotten the outcome, but I suspect he lost.
I am all for law and order. It seems like laws should be reasonable. Neither of these situations appear that reason was applied.
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Hey, Tweet Clouds is operational. Here is my tweet cloud . . . The local rag had a nice article today on geocaching. Congrats to Audrey and Evil Chicken for their profiles . . . It’s hard to argue against sound reasoning . . .The NJ budget battle is heating up. Rural v. urban in this round as state police charges are once again rolled out . . . LBI passes a law unkind to surfers and bikini watchers . . . Received a wild George the other day. That has rekindled interest in WG. Of course, I am having a heck of a time remembering my account information . . .
Posted in GPS Games, Geocaching, New Jersey, Politics, Twitter | No Comments »
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
If I told you all that went down it would burn off both your ears
Sigh . . . I have been geocaching for six and a half years. Until today, I have never had an issue. Today that changed. I was attacked on my way in to a cache this morning.
There is a small WMA that has a cache in it. It is an old campground nestled next to a stream and someone’s home. I pulled in off the main road. I did not believe the road would go too far back when I drove in and there was a fairly large puddle so I stopped and pulled over to the side. I got out and began heading in to the cache.
There was a bunch of dogs at the house barking. It wasn’t long before two of them jumped a stream and chased after me. I grew up with dogs and am used to dogs barking and following. It quickly became apparent, however, that the dogs were not just going to be following. Both boxers came on me and began nipping. Then they were jumping up and trying to bite me.
Then these dogs attacked. It wasn’t long before I was on the ground and they were doing their best to get me. I got to my feet and as the larger one came at me again, I kicked her. She was not happy. She came back. A couple times the dogs were able to split and get me between them. I tried like the dickens not to have this happen, but I was running out of steam.
I eventually pick up a log to use as a weapon. More they came at me. I began yelling for help. Prior to this I used to say I have been scared just once in my life. That instance was just circumstances; more prejudices than anything and nothing happen. Reason could have always prevailed. There was no reason with the dogs. They kept attacking.
I tried moving back toward the truck. It was slow going and I continued to call for help. Eventually the lady who owns the dogs came. She kept saying everything was all right. Yet the dogs were still advancing on me. Funny how it was all right in her book. She did get them leashed. I felt better then. I began to take inventory of my wounds.
She indicated I wasn’t supposed to have driven there. I asked if this was public and she agreed. She said there was a sign. There is a sign, but it does not forbid entry or vehicles; it states it is public land.
She took the dogs in and came out with some juice. I refused. She said I looked pale. No kidding. She stated she had called the state police and then said they take forever to show up. She went in again to check on her ailing husband. I called the state police at that point. As I told the woman, I thought it was important to have a record of what happened just in case something were to occur. They arrived within 10 minutes out of Cowtown.
The lady indicated her dogs were wrong and this all happened on public land. That was good. She wanted to make a todo out of me hitting one of the dogs with a log. I corrected her that it was my foot, not a log. The officers quelled this by stating that I was being attacked and any reasonable person would defend himself. So, for all of you who think otherwise, I have now been deemed reasonable. 
I’m okay, I think. My right foot hurts. That is where the dogs got me, but I think the tightness is from either kicking or stumbling on something. It doesn’t feel like an infection. I refused medical help at the scene.
Looking back it seems somewhat comical, but I know I was very afraid for a couple minutes. Dogs should be leashed.
Like all travesties, caches should still be found despite the intervening circumstances. After all the commotion and the state police leaving, I hiked out to find the cache.
Posted in GPS Games, Geocaching | 2 Comments »
