Sunny and 29°F. It was a brutally cold day, more because of the 30mph winds than the temperature. Made a quick stop at the Wonder Bakery Outlet in Cheswold to refresh our bread supply. Then we went geocaching in downtown Dover, then West Dover, then South Dover, and finished up in Camden. It was slow going at first but the last 6 geocaches took only about an hour.

Stopped at Target in Dover after that to check what they still had in their after-Christmas clearance sale. There wasn't much left. However, there were good deals on peanut butter and laptop sleeves.

( The caches... )

Sunny and 48°F. Went geocaching northwards into West Chester and then westwards to East Bradford and West Bradford. I haven't been to West Chester in years. The last time I found a large bunch of geocaches in this area was back when Anthrocon was in King of Prussia. After the con, I headed west on US-202 to West Chester and then on US-1 to Kennett Square, where I witnessed an auto accident while I was sitting in my car having dinner. But that's an old story. I don't think very much has changed except there are more geocaches now. What's nice about this area though is one can actually find regular-sized geocaches in the middle of town, where normally, one would only expect micros. In particular, I was surprised that "The Golden Ram", on the West Chester University campus, has not been vandalized or stolen since I was able to see it from some distance away. "Fame-ous Cache" is another nice regular-sized urban cache. I went to the location and asked for "the box" and someone from the firehouse pointed me to it.

In the evening, we went to Target in Brandywine to take a look at the after-Christmas sales. The 50%-off items were travel games, a small selection of plush toys, ornaments, and candy -- lots and lots of candy! I thought some of those chocolates were worth buying. I didn't need the rest of the clearance items. We may go down to the other Target store in Dover later this week to see if anything else is on clearance.

( The caches... )

Sunny and 34°F. The goal of the day was to go to the Tanger outlet malls in Rehoboth Beach. Of course, there's no reason why I couldn't find a bunch of caches along the way since the outlet stores would be open for at least 5 hours after dusk. I cherry-picked geocaches that I thought would be findable even with snow on the ground. That's not always easy to determine beforehand though. Two geocaches I had doubts about turned out to be easy because those were in spots that happened to be sheltered from snow. The most unusual thing I saw today was a Futuro house at "Tomorrow's House from Yesterday - 2". I've seen another one like this at Mill Creek Park in Beverly, NJ.

The Tanger outlet stores are split into 3 locations: 2 outlet malls in Rehoboth Beach roughly across the road from each other and another outlet mall 1.8 miles away. That made shopping a bit tricky. I had to get a store directory to find out which stores are in which outlet mall and plan accordingly. I have to say though that outlet shopping isn't all it's cut out to be. Most of the deals aren't that great. In some cases, I noticed that I could get the same item for less in a regular store if I used coupons or waited for store specials. Anyway, we got what we went there for and just spent the rest of the time browsing.

( The caches... )

The way errands work around here now is I think of something I need to do. Then I add something else that's along the way, and something else, and something else, until it's practically a full day. The initial errand was a recycling run, which I decided to do at the Route 1 & 273 Park and Ride because it's Tuesday and I could add a late Taco Tuesday lunch at Don Pablos near the Christiana Mall. Then I had a MySurvey check to deposit. Then I also had a 10%-off Staples coupon to use. And then there was also a geocache I could visit between the bank and shopping. So you can see how my itinerary formed.

The geocache in question was Cursed of the FTF #4 (DE Edition). It's at a boat ramp on the Christina River. The boat ramp was covered in snow and ice. The parking area wasn't much better but I didn't have too much of a problem driving on the snow. I've been to this location before but couldn't do the cache because the police was right there. Well, guess what? The county police was parked there this afternoon too. May even be the same fellow. We went ahead and grabbed the cache anyway, figuring that it'd be easier to explain what we were doing than to come again yet another time. Police officer didn't say anything. He wasn't even watching. So that was fine. It has occurred to me that I don't really know what police in this area think of this activity. I've read lots of geocaching logs for caches in this area and I can only recall one bad confrontation and that happened because the ice cream store had a robbery shortly before someone went to look for the cache in the woods behind it.

After the geocache and some shopping (had to deal with some shopping traffic, especially in the last half mile to the mall), it was time for Taco Tuesday. I had 14 tacos this time, 2 more than my previous record. I could finish those tacos comfortably but that 14th taco did prevent me from finishing the rice and refried beans. Next time, I'll stop at 13.

I planned on attending the Santa LOVES PIZZA!!! geocaching event, but since it's in Dover, I figured I might as well make a day of it. The first stop was to drop off yard waste from the past two days of yardwork at the mid-county yard waste drop-off site. No charge for disposal so it's a good place to bring all the tree branches from the backyard. Then we stopped at the Wonder/Hostess Bakery Outlet in Cheswold.

After that, we started on the geocaches for the day. Didn't do too many in Dover. The first few were south of Dover. Then there were a bunch in Magnolia and a bunch more in Milford, including one Sussex County geocache I needed for the Delaware Counties Challenge. (really easy because there are only 3 counties in Delaware :) ) The physical cache for the counties challenge turned out to be just behind a Target store, which is convenient because I needed to get a few items from there. (Interesting how shopping and geocaching can interweave.)

Finished the day at the geocaching event, which was at Uno Chicago Grill in Dover. It was a good event. I didn't know everyone there but I knew a few people from having attended a few previous December events in Northern Delaware. We had chicken fajita pizza, buffalo chicken pizza, and nachos. The appetizer was free because of an email list coupon. I'd signed up for Uno's mailing list just a few days before the event so I could use the intro coupon at the event.

( The caches... )

Sunny and warmer than yesterday. 40-46°F. One of the first few stops of the day was to the Wonder/Hostess Bakery Outlet in Cheswold to buy a truckload of bread and baked goods. I knew where it was because there was a geocache on the premises but the store was closed on that day. Since we were passing by this bakery outlet again, we had to stop in and take advantage of the deals. The deepest discounts were on items that were close to expiration but I figure that's not going to be a problem if we refrigerate the bread as soon as we get home.

After that came a large batch of geocaches around Dover. I don't think any of today's geocaches were that tough, other than having to drive around a bit to find the best access route to some of them. Also got a few more Delaware Geotrail caches. The tourism office is out of geocoins but I thought those geocaches were still worth doing to get some stickers for my laptop and to see Sgt. Dan at the Delaware Police Museum.

( The caches... )

Sunny but cold day. 30 to 36°F. Crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge to Salem County, NJ, to return my NJ license plates at the Salem DMV. That took all of two minutes. After that, there was still time for a bunch of geocaches around Salem and Pennsville. Terrain was varied; anything from marshes to sidewalks. We didn't do any geocaches that required too long of a hike because of the cold weather but there were still more than enough to make a day of it.

( The caches... )

I solved a few puzzle caches at home yesterday and so today, I found two of them on my way to the supermarket, assuming that I intended to shop at Pathmark in Newark instead of New Castle. :) The first of the two was "OYR" Wanna Be in Newark, De. It was a pretty simple puzzle once I realized what restaurant "OYR Wanna Be" was referring to. The second one was A Few Good Books in downtown Newark. The questions in this puzzle are meant to be answered at the Newark Free Library but with some web research, I was able to find all the answers before heading out there. Only question B posed a challenge but the answer is on at least one website.

The Newark Pathmark is right across from the library so that was a good place to stop and pick up some groceries. Also went to the Chinese supermarket in downtown Newark and got, among other things, some vegetable buns. Then I took a different way home and picked up Sleep Less Cache More, a cache-and-dash style geocache.

Had the interview this morning. Only 10 miles from home. I allowed plenty of time to get there but it really wasn't necessary because other than a bit of congestion at the I-95 to Route 273 ramp, there weren't any traffic delays. The company is at a typical suburban corporate building, similar to my previous job setting. It wasn't a long interview. Started a bit after 9am and we were done by about noon. The first part was technical and the second part was a general Q&A. I thought it went okay but who knows? For what it's worth, the HR lady told me I was better in person than over the phone.

After that, I went for the FSC2009 Newark geocache near the Newark Reservoir and shopped at the Chinese supermarket in downtown Newark before heading for home. Just because my trip there was for an interview doesn't mean I can't turn it into an errand run. :)

Also, when I got home, I saw that the trash hauler finally delivered the 96-gallon garbage can. That's a good thing because the interim solution of leaving the household trash in large plastic bags by the curb didn't really look good.

Sunny but cold. 39°F. This is my first geocaching foray below the C&D Canal. Didn't stray too far from US-13 for most of the day so there are still a lot more geocaches to be found but this is a good start. Also found the Hardee's that is closest to home. It's in Middletown. I'd been looking for one of these since I stopped going to Virginia Beach.

The most unusual cache site of the day was "U-Turn", between the northbound and southbound lanes of US-13. The median was quite wide there; big enough to contain a wooded area and a small parking area.

Ended the day with a geocache in Cheswold, which is only a few miles from Dover. So the next trip south will focus on Dover. I'm planning on attending a geocaching event there anyway in about a week so it would be good to learn about the area a little.

( The caches... )

I took care of the remaining employer and recruiter calls yesterday. Then I had a bit of time after lunch to dash out for Comet's Cache 01 old stuff at Banning Park in Wilmington. The ground was soggy from the rain but it was still a good time.

Friday, I figured no one would be calling so it was time for a little caching trip. Followed US-40 to the west and grabbed a few easy caches. Then we went to Lums Pond State Park (no park fees in December) and got 3 geocaches. The hardest hike of the day was for "Retriever Dogs" in the C&D Canal area because it required climbing up and over a steep embankment.

Before leaving the Newark area, we visited Wang's Oriental Food Store in downtown Newark. slaphappybunny recommended this place. I think the selection of products here is better than at the other two Asian groceries on Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington, although it could also be that we're more accustomed to Chinese food markets than Korean food markets. (Wang's is Chinese, or at least has more products from East and Southeast Asia, while Young's and Seoul in Wilmington are Korean.) Anyway, that's where we got the ingredients for tonight's dinner.

( The caches... )

One reason I took the car in for servicing yesterday was to make sure there were no issues for the state inspection today. I didn't think there would be any problems since I'd already checked the lights and wipers myself but one can never be too sure. So I got the inspection done this morning. Went to the DMV near my house again. It was about an hour wait in the line for the inspection but the inspection process itself didn't take very long and my car passed with no safety issues.

Armed with form MV-212 from the inspection station, I went to the DMV main building for title and registration. Here's the surprise: I was done with that in less than 10 minutes! When I got the ticket, my number was already the next one to be called. Only had to fill out the forms and pay the fees. Then the clerk handed over the new title, registration paper, and license plate. Went home and immediately went to work switching the plates on my car. Delaware only has a rear license plate so the front plate holder is now empty. I think I'll just save that in case I move to a two-plate state. Anyway, that was a significant step because changing the car title/registration was the last item in my move checklist. I'm finally done! (Well, except for the rest of the unpacking, that is. :) )

After that, I went to the bank to put the title in the safe deposit box. Then I went for the Grave Robbers geocache in the Christiana area. It's a pretty quick cache by an old cemetery next to a condo development. After a quick stop at the Christiana recycling center, it was time for Taco Tuesday at Don Pablos. I had 12 tacos this time, which is better than my previous record of 9. I think I could've had more but didn't want to get to the point where I would feel bloated. Have to save the real eating for Old Country Buffet. :)

Four days after the move and there are still lots of boxes in the living room to be unpacked but we're getting there. Didn't get the free turkey on Tuesday. The Pathmark bonus coupon was good for anything from the meat department so for ease of preparation, we got chicken instead. Thus, the first use of the gas oven was to make baked chicken thighs. We did the chicken drumsticks two days later.

It was a quiet Thanksgiving. We didn't head out early on Black Friday for the early bird sales. However, there were still plenty of interesting specials this weekend so we went out a little later. Found the Oh, Well geocache in New Castle along the way. For a cache rated 3 stars in difficulty, it actually wasn't that hard. But I still didn't see it the first time. In 46-degree weather though, I was glad it didn't take too long to find.

After the cache, we went to Walmart in Wilmington, Young's Oriental Grocery in Wilmington, Target in Brandywine, and Pathmark in New Castle. (had to stock up on groceries too) Also made a quick stop at Concord Mall just to check it out but there wasn't anything spectacular about that mall. Contrary to what one might expect, the shopping crowd wasn't really that bad. Sale items, at least the ones we were looking for, were still available and there was no wait to checkout at any of those stores.

Saturday: Did more unpacking and put more items in their correct places in the house. The dining table and living room lamps are now in place. Also wrapped some gifts and gathered up some toy donations for tomorrow's SJG event in Deptford.

Sunny day and around 60°F so I decided to hit some local geocaches before returning to the endless work of packing and dejunking. The first one was Bridges of Rockland County in Sloatsburg. It's a scenic area with an old wooden bridge alongside the road bridge. There weren't many places at that street corner to hide a regular-sized cache but I must have been seriously off my game there because it took a while before I had an epiphany and found this tricky cache.

The next one was Sitting a'round' at a small park in valley Cottage. This too was a difficult cache. Checked a number of wrong spots. My epiphany this time came from watching some people who were passing through the park. I saw them looking at an object that was related in some way to the cache hiding spot and all of a sudden, I knew what to look for. Maybe this should be my new geocaching style. Forget about searching. Just observe random things until the right idea pops into my head.

After that, I stopped briefly at Palisades Center to run an errand. It's my last trip to this mall and I probably won't miss the bumpy parking garage. Then I went to the neighborhood TD Bank to get some singles for Where's George. Well, surprise! It was apparently Free Bag Day and they gave me a dark green TD Bank bag. So now I have both a Commerce Bank bag and a TD Bank bag. If this bank changes its name again, I'll be sure to stick around for another bag. :)

Did yard work this morning. Raked leaves and used the electric lawnmower on the front yard. Started heading back to Northern NJ after a late lunch. The plan was to hit the Third Tuesday geocaching event on the way back but there was plenty of time so we tackled a few geocaches, Corral and Villa, along the way. The last cache we did before the event was Rt.18 Pedestrian Bridge just a mile south of Fuddruckers in New Brunswick. This was a tough one so it was a good thing we were joined in the search by jo.b and JimmyG.

Got to Fuddruckers in time for the start of the event, more or less. In truth, I hadn't expected to be able to make it to this event. It just happened to be the way my travel schedule worked out, making the event a convenient dinner stop. I had nachos with chicken as usual.

And now I'm back in Northern NJ for my last week here. If all goes well, I should be 100% moved into Delaware by next week. (just in time to claim the free Pathmark turkey and roast it in my new and as yet unused gas oven. I can hardly wait!)

Another sunny day. Temperature was in the 60s. After bagging a few geocaches on in Newport and Wilmington, we went north to Chadds Ford, just past the PA-DE state line. I had actually never been there before so there were lots of geocaches to do within a short distance of each other. I'll work my way towards West Chester another time.

Stopped at Best Buy near Concord Mall (on the tax-free side of the state line, of course) to see their selection of LCD monitors because I won't be moving the big, bulky 20" CRT. I also had a Best Buy 10%-off movers special coupon but when I got to the checkout, they said that this coupon does not apply to LCD monitors. So I decided to not buy one at that time. I think I can get a better deal elsewhere. We'll see.

( The caches... )

Nice weather on Sunday. Temperature was a bit over 70°F in the afternoon. Went out with my parents along US-40 towards Maryland. Found 15 geocaches on both sides of the state line from Bear to Elkton and had a pretty good day, all in all. Ran into some really nice people in the Glasgow area. One lady in particular started up a conversation with us and offered tips on places to go when she found out that we were moving to the area. She even invited us to her home, which was near the park, for tea, but we declined because we had to continue onwards to Elkton. I'm not accustomed to such hospitality but it's certainly different from Northern NJ.

Found two of the Maryland Municipal League Geotrail caches. I don't think I'll be traveling all over Maryland to qualify for the special geocoin just yet so I'll do these caches as individual caches whenever I come across them.

( The caches... )

Wednesday: Took a load of stuff I didn't need over to Goodwill in Nanuet. I would've just thrown it out but it seemed a shame to waste. Then back home for more packing.

Thursday: Rainy day. Headed to Delaware again with another bunch of stuff and also the laundry. There's a washing machine in the house. Might as well use it. :) Stopped in Florence-Roebling along the way and did 4 quick geocaches in the rain: Whos Playing baseball?, Cache of the Secret Place, Under the trees, Florence Soccer. It was my father's birthday, so after leaving the stuff at the house, we went to Pinang in Newark. I had java mee. Also found the Cursed of the FTF #5 (DE Edition) geocache behind the strip mall where the restaurant was. It was before-dinner entertainment. :)

Friday: Another rainy day. I went to the DMV (which was only a mile from home!) to swap my NJ driver's license for a DE driver's license. I'd done the research beforehand so I had all the documentation I needed. (Not much. 2 utility bills, SS card) It took just under 2 hours. Most of that time was spent waiting for my turn and once I got to the counter and photo booth, it wasn't long before I had a new plastic card for my wallet. Now, all I need to do is switch the car title/registration over to DE. No need to hurry though. I have 60 days. Also, I'll look into getting a New Castle County library card soon. (I'm now a property tax paying resident. Might as well benefit from that. :) )