Geocaching September 2024

The month started with a quick trip up to the Philadelphia area. On the way, we stopped at Rockwood Park and Museum in Delaware which had a regular cache in the parking lot, imaginatively called Rockwood Parking Lot Cache. A multi-cache had us scavenger hunting around the park, with the final find in the woods that were part of the estate for the Shipley and Bringhurst Family Home.

Guess where the cache is!

Into the woods

We continued on to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, where the local library hosts So much more than reading. It's a multi-cache with spots in the library providing information to make the final find.

Book full of geocache

Nearby is a memorial park that has a Huey chopper from the Vietnam War. Get to the CHOPPER required some information from the helicopter and the plaques on the ground. Further into the park is Creek View in Willow Grove, hidden on a bridge over the creek.

Dramatically posed

A relaxing creek!

The next day we went up to Doylestown to visit a fabulous park. The park is also home to Space2081 [3.0/3.0] The Kessel Run, a wherigo cache that captures some Star Wars spirit. Unfortunately, the app was a little slow in loading new destinations which was a problem when some parts were timed. It was a double problem when there was a second destination to get to. I managed to finish the run then the app crashed after it gave the final coordinates. According to previous logs, the final container was broken with no log to sign, so I didn't bother re-running the Kessel Run. The flubs ate up all my time for finding other caches in the park.

I ran back and forth across this field

Back in Delaware on the way home, we stopped just north of Wilmington and crossed Swinging Footbridge over Brandywine, a fun virtual before we had lunch at a local restaurant.

On the bridge with family (my daughter hid behind me)

The Gogh Trolley Square Adventure Lab features a bunch of utility boxes in the Trolley Square neighborhood that have been painted to be more eye-catching and fun. I found the five spots in the Adventure Lab but my family was ready to go home, so I'll have to get the bonus cache another time.

Sadly, does not dispense gum balls

Back in Maryland, I found the mystery cache Picture Cross 1 by Marley Creek, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Also nearby, I put my signature on the logs of Country Club Drive, Jacob or Bob (a Marley-themed cache!), and NOT a Salamander, a cache that was full of ants so I didn't actually sign it because they kept coming out like a clowns out of a clown-car. Yikes!

Playground at the creek

Marley is the town too!

That's the container

The West Friendship Flying Toy Box is definitely an airborne find. I am amazed someone set that up, it must have been a lot of work.

Way up there!

After the visit to Delaware, I finally qualified for MD -- States That Surround It 5x5x3 Challenge. To qualify, a cacher need to find at least three caches in Maryland and its four neighbors: Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware (sorry DC, you are not a state!). Also, five different types of caches have to be represented. I had the qualifications for everything but the three Delaware caches, which are now thankfully covered.

Looking for another large container, I found Watch Your Head! which is basically the same as the flying toy box above. I took a travel bug to move on to another container.

Hidden in plain sight!

The cache and the travel bug

Also in that neighborhood, I found Any Sign of a Cache Here in Bowie?, Fibonacci Fountain @ Melford #1, Nice View for the 4th, and Not Big Enough for a Small TB.

Fibonacci Fountain

To fill more of my traditional calendar, I found Quack Sparrow and That's a Lot of Land to Skip, both with intriguing names that didn't really have explanations.

I needed to find another large container for another day, so I hit a pair in a park, Joey's Treasure Box #1 and Joey's Treasure Box 2. The bird-based travel bug from the last large container wound up in Box 2 (not sure why the number sign dropped out of the series). The cache's log book was a UPS receipt! I need to start carrying supplies with me.

Dropping the bug

Over in Virginia, I found 911 Memorial in the National Memorial Park in Falls Church. 

The memorial

It's a virtual cache, so I needed to be in the picture

I also found Virtual Lovers Challenge: 6 Countries and Happy Lunar New Year! Year of the Dragon (placed in 2024). 

Had to climb the hill of the dragon

After another Monday morning coffee cache, I went over to Virginia and found Kokopelli is Watching (don't know what that's a reference to). Back in Maryland, I did a trio in Ellicott City: There Used to be a Bridge Here!, Intrusive Granodiorite on Main Street (an earthcache), and The National Road, a two-stage multi that led onto private property with permission. The final container was very wet inside and I didn't get to sign the log. The others were fine.

Now the bridge is far away!

My rock friends and me

Cutest graffiti ever?

The wet container

After the cache owner did some fixing up, I found Random Word Letterbox Series: Dugout, Titus, Ruby &Yoda Share Plum Merlot. It's a dragon-themed adventure on the Howard County Community College campus. The story was a lot of fun.

Dragon's lake?

I went back to the Mall in Columbia and scored two more traditional caches: Plumber's Element and You Shall Not Pass. Having finished the Adventure Lab, I found the Bonus Cache for Columbia, MD, First Five Villages, which had coordinates for a nearby travel bug on a light post!

To finish out the month, I found Stop, Drop, and Roll, also by the mall. It's in the picture below but not where you think it would be.

Not where you might expect it

The month ends with 44 finds and the grand total being 1483. I am looking forward to breaking into the 1500s next month!

PA/DE Random Stuff

Pictures from our recent trip that didn't get their own posts...

On our way up to Philadelphia, we ate at Tex-Mex Burrito Mexican Grill, in Wilmington, Delaware. The portions there are amazingly huge--we should not have loaded up on the chips and salsa before our meals came!

Fun sign!

Taco and burrito lunch special

We went to the Upper Moreland Free Public Library to find a geocache and also found this awesome bear bench.

Sit if you dare!

Geocache in a book!

Doylestown, Pennsylvania, has an awesome castle playground in their Central Park. The kids loved exploring it.

Castle Playground

Trolly Square just north of Wilmington, had a project to beautify utility boxes. We saw a bunch of them.

Does not dispense gum balls, alas!

Don't let the pigeon listen to your stereo!

Flowers

Ladybugs

The town also has a swinging pedestrian bridge that was part of a geocache. The bridge was built in 1909 and still works well.

Hanging out on the bridge

Leaving the bridge

View of the Brandywine River

Train and car bridges

A small waterfall

Trolley Square also has a war memorial and lots of cool architecture. 

War memorial

A sampling of the cool houses

On the way home, we stopped at Keyes Ice Cream in Hartford, Maryland, for a treat. 

The shop

My kids did not want to pose

Banana fudge nut ice cream

Trying to escape

Cannstatter Volksfest Verein 2024

Just north of Philadelphia is Cannstatter Volksfest Verein, a German-American social club that hosts an amazing festival every September over the Labor Day weekend. This year (2024) was the 152nd Volksfest.

Sign over the parking lot entrance

Seal on the building

While it is not advertised as an Oktoberfest, it sure felt like it. One tent had a wheel of fortune, which we did not try. The prize was meat, which would have been tempting if we had been closer to home.

Waiting for more contestants

In addition to the bands playing polkas and German folk music, occasional performances like the one below entertained the crowd. They were trying to convince the old lady to go down the slide. It seemed like a comedy but the kids wanted to move on so we never found out what the final resolution was.

Seems like some very specific architecture--what's it used for the rest of the year?

Carnival rides were available. The older kids joined me on the tilt-a-whirl, then the youngest took a spin on the swings.

Slides and swings

Teacup ride

Was the tilt-a-whirl the right choice?

Caged

Caged and slanted

Swinging

Happy 

Excited

We had dinner there with plenty of German items available. My wife wanted to try the maultaschen, a meat-filled dumpling. We were late, though, and it had sold out! Among the items we bought and shared were potato pancakes (with sour cream and apple sauce), soft pretzels, bratwurst, and wiener schnitzel. 

Some of the food items

I had a Bavarian hefeweizen which was delicious.

Not a traditional Oktoberfest cup, sadly

Cotton-candy dessert

They had bands playing music but we never managed to dance. The people on the dance floor looked like they were having fun. A lot of them were dancing with beers in hand!

The festival also featured a fruit column, which was a small tower made of (or just decorated with?) fruit. We didn't get the story on it. I suppose it is a celebration of the harvest.

Fruit column

Hopefully we can convince the kids to go again next year!