I beg to differ with my good friend GerIRL that "It's
Not About The Numbers". For some of us out there, it really is
all about the numbers.
While I was out scouting locations in the Watchung Reservation
for another puzzle cache of mine, I came across a great little spot
that was just begging for a cache. While it didn't make the cut for
that other puzzle cache, I thought it would make a wonderful
location for this one. 
For the short time that I have been geocaching, I have traveled
all around the great state of New Jersey, have met a great bunch of
people, and have gotten to visit many cool and interesting places.
As I was preparing the puzzle for this cache, I started to
reminisce and reflect on some of the great caching memories that
I've accumulated over the past two years.
One cannot say enough about the contributions that
TwoCat has made to the Central Jersey
geocaching community. Their unique cache concepts have been
entertaining us for quite some time, and they are the mastermind
behind a new Central Jersey challenge series that will be coming to
a park near you. Of all the caches they have hidden, I especially
enjoyed the one they placed in Roosevelt Park on 07 May 2005.
Once I had cleared out the area around my home and work, I
started to expand my caching excursions into the outer reaches of
New York City. This is where I met my good friend
macguyeric. His caches are notorious to the Staten Island crew
and sometimes involve a bit of creative maneuvering to locate them,
especially the one he placed on 27 Mar 2006. That one was a real
adventure, let me tell you. 
Since the distance between home and work is about 33 miles, I
tend to find myself regularly caching over a rather large swath of
central Jersey. One of those areas that always seems to have new
caches popping up in it to keep me busy with after-work caching
excursions is Passaic River Park. With such wonderful hides like
the one that
Team Perrito Blanco placed on 15 Sep 2007, how could one
possibly not love this great, but often muddy park?
Another well-known cacher of the Central Jersey crew is
joescout. He doesn't have a lot of hides, but he really seems
to have a knack for those urban caches. They usually aren't all
that difficult to locate, but they can be royal pain to grab and
replace with the constant stream of muggles at GZ. The cache he
placed at the Menlo Park Mall on 21 Sep 2007 was one such cache. It
definitely brought back fond childhood memories of singing "The
wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and
round."
Two of my favorite cache hiders in North Jersey are
Sue&Barry. They always have such creative concepts and
never cease to amaze me with either the cache containers themselves
or the hilarity of the puzzle that needs to be solved to obtain the
coordinates. Over the past two years, I have enjoyed going to find
all of their caches and have amassed the largest cache button
collection in the greater NY-NJ metropolitan area. If I put all of
the buttons on one vest, I would definitely be able to get a job at
Chotchkie's with that impressive display of flair. 
I had the pleasure of meeting up with
Blue Orca for the FTF on a cache that they placed on 07 Apr 2007
in, of course, South Mountain Reservation. It was an awesome
caching experience, Barry, and that's no fish story. 
Finally, of all the types of caches that I have done, some of my
favorites are those that involve a theme or series that takes you
on a tour of the surrounding area. While most people remain tied to
this pale blue dot that we call home, I had the fortune of touring
the solar system, courtesy of
Atanas, during the very early days of my caching career.
Because it was such a long journey, I had to make a quick stop at
home to refuel before continuing on past the asteroid belt, and it
just so happened that there was a cache nearby that my tour guide
had placed on 18 Oct 2006. Imagine traveling 93 million miles and
having a cache at the exact location where you stopped. Now that's
what I call service.
