satisfiedBefore I begin... 
battie (one of the Hudsonfurs, I
think) and balloonfox added me to their friends lists some
time over the weekend so I'm happy to reciprocate. Hello to both of you.
Hope to see you one day as I don't believe we've met.
And now the South Jersey trip...
There were enough new geocaches in South Jersey that I decided to make a two-day tour of the area to pick up as many as I could. It worked out splendidly as I found 14 caches on Saturday and 10 on Sunday. Total mileage was around 500 miles. (NJ is only about 150 to 180 miles long but going from one side to the other and up/down a bit would account for the balance.)
Saturday:
Went to Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Camden counties today. First stop was the Atlantic County Park (in Estell Manor) to pick up two caches by njski, one of which was Ultimate Search Engines, which I mentioned in an earlier entry. Quite an honor, and surprisingly I was the first to sign the log book. Not bad at all. Then there was one more cache by njski in the Tuckahoe WMA. (Corbin City) Then I hit 3 caches along a 15-mile stretch of Ocean Drive. (Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon) Then there were a few virtuals: one was on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, another was an unusual display along US-322, and the third was the Padre Pio shrine in Buena. After that, I hit one cache each in the Peasley WMA (Bennetts Mill) and the Bevan WMA. (Millville) By then it was dusk, so the rest were virtuals: two in the Deptford/Blackwood area and one in Stratford. (US-30 Camden County) Whew! Stayed overnight at a motel in Runnemede after dinner at the Echelon Mall in Voorhees.
The giant animatronic crab is gone! On the way to Ocean Drive, I noticed that it wasn't on top of Obadiah's Restaurant (Marmora) any more. Then again, nearly all of the shore area restaurants and stores are closed until the next summer. Boy, it must not be that great to live on the shore. For a few months, you can't get around anywhere because of all the tourists crowding the area causing traffic jams and then for the rest of the year, you have to travel way out to get anything done.
Passing through Millville, I noticed there was a fursuiter on the sidewalk. That was someone in a cow costume outside a Surf 'n' Turf on Route 49. I don't know if that drums up much business but now I know where to go to get lobster (or steak :) ) in Millville. heh.
Sunday:
On the itinerary for Sunday were Camden, Salem and Cumberland counties. First one was right in Runnemede. An easy find first thing in the morning. Next stop was the Red Bank Battlefield to get a virtual. After that came 3 caches near Salem City and then it was a trip down the bayshore in Cumberland County for 4 more caches. Among those, The Absolute End of New Jersey was easily the hardest cache to find of the 24. It was a very small jar hidden somewhere in a large pile of concrete blocks and slabs along a beach. After poking around and checking the thousands of crevices for some time, I gave up and went back to my car. But then I decided to give it a second go. That was fortunate because I found it right away when I went back. That was crazy!
Two other bayshore caches in Port Norris and Bivalve (Yes, that's the name. It's a fishing village specializing in clams. The town next to it is Shellpile, where I assume there are sometimes enormous piles of clam shells but I didn't see any this weekend.) were trivial to find. I'd been meaning to go after those caches for a long time but they were always a bit too far out of the way. But on Sunday, approaching from Salem County on Route 553 was the way to go. It was an easy drive that way and a lot less busy than Routes 47/347/55.
The last one of the day was a virtual at Winslow Junction. (yes, a 50-mile drive between caches) Then I returned to Runnemede to have dinner at the Philly Diner and headed home up the NJ Turnpike.