Letter 10 New Jersey

Harrington Travels East 2009
Letter 10 New Jersey
Tuesday, May 5 We started the day with a
ferry ride from Lewes Delaware to Cape May New Jersey, then a hop skip and jump up the coast to Atlantic City. That’s us next to the large dump truck. With great difficulty driving in this city due to bad signage at Harrah’s, we finally arrived at Harrah’s so Fred could play poker again. This Harrah’s has a different setup. The old fashion way, real dealer, real chips, real people. The last time it was computer with real players. Fred played for over 8 hours and really enjoyed it. He had very little success, winning only a few dollars. At least he didn’t lose. While Fred played Olivia restrung Muddie’s squash blossom turquoise necklace. She thought it would be easy, but when she started stringing she realized these hand made silver beads were hollow. It wasn’t hard to put the wire into the bead, but getting it out the other side was. To make it even worse the start and end were double strung. After supper she called Patti and they had a lengthy phone conversation.

We parked free on Harrahs’ lot, with their approval, for about 20 hours.

Wednesday, May 6 we drove inland for the first time since South Carolina, to Wharton State Forest and another dry camp (no hookups).

As we leave the coast for now, its time for some reflection. We missed the Choptank River basin area of the Eastern Shore. Michner used that area as his setting for most of Chesapeake. We regret that, but we saw similar areas and could picture Michner’s descriptions as we drove the back roads. Fred was surprised at the entire coastal area, except for some coastal swamps, is forested. It has all been petty and very inviting.

Our camp in Wharton Forest at Atsion is on a little lake and had cabins and the campground. Across the lake was a swimming park, with a sand beach. In the woods Fred found wild blueberries in full bloom. They look a lot like their family member huckleberries, except these are a lot easier to find and had many more blooms.

Later we drove back to Hammonton and Batsto looking for strawberries. We didn’t find them (about 3 weeks too early) but did find purple asparagus and miles and acres of cultivated blueberries. See the car coming around the bend of the highway. Hammonton is the self- proclaimed world blueberry capitol. We believed it. We saw at least a thousand of acres of blueberries without trying. Sure wish they were ready instead of just blooming. We couldn't resist taking a picture of this quaint grocery store in Hammonton.
Thursday, May 7 Blaire and Fred’s birthday! Happy Birthday Blaire! Fred says it is neat to have a granddaughter with the same birthday. We drove back into Atlantic City stopping at the Red Barn out of Hammonton for a blueberry pie and muffin to go. We ate the muffin and saved the pie for later. This place really had a bakery of blueberry, cranberry and apple deserts. We drove into Atlantic City so Olivia could say she had walked on the “Boardwalk at Atlantic City!” We saw the steel pier amusement park and walked through a casino because it was warmer. A cold wind was blowing.

We saw seedy areas of Atlantic City and were reminded of the reasons cited for bringing casino style gambling to the city. When trains connected AC to New York City (and Philly) in the 1800s, AC became a popular “get-a-way” destination. Thousands of very large and expensive houses were built by these wealthy vacationers. AC grew into a rather large town because it was such a convenient and appealing spot. During the 1900’s. as traveling to greater distances became possible, areas such as Ocean City, MD and Myrtle Beach, NC, with warmer climates eroded AC’s popularity. Over much of the last ten decades, Atlantic City lost many jobs and much of its reason for being such a large city. As unemployment crept higher, crime rose and it became a “bad” city. Most of the residents lived in despair. Casino style activity has change the city, maybe for the better. It hasn’t been the panacea many thought it would be. Maybe it has been saved—maybe not. Time will tell

Then we drove about 20 miles SW down the beach to Margate to see “Lucy the Elephant.” She is more than 100 years old and is on the National Historic Register, built to lure real estate investors to South Atlantic City, now Margate.

On our way back to the trailer, we stopped at the Renault Winery, Resort & Golf complex. We stopped for the wine tasting and the hostess must have really liked us or was totally bored, because she gave us samples of 13 wines! And we were able to walk out! We liked their wine, but didn’t buy because of going to Canada and they couldn’t ship to Texas. This winery is over 100 years old and they make 31 wines, white, rose’, red, sparkling and dessert wines, etc. Now they have added a hotel, fine dining and golf. go to http://www.renaultwinery.com/ for a better description. They anticipate and were preparing for 1600 for Mother’s Day brunch, lunch and dinner in their multiple restaurants. We recommend this for our more sophisticated traveling friends, that are looking for an out of the ordinary gourmet retreat. It started raining while we were there and our picture is full of raindrops, so go to their web site.

After the rain, the sun came out and our lake was a beautiful mirror. And just at sunset a small but loud steamboat passed by and whistled at us—see over Fred’s head.

Friday, May 8 we bit the bullet and headed north through the population of Washington DC to New York. We chose Trenton, NJ for our crossing, just like George Washington, but at little different place. In fact we didn’t cross the Delaware River. All the freeways go from DC to NY. And we were going crosswise. All good roads lead to NY and we weren’t going there! We were crossing them. And our circle around NY wasn’t big enough. Most of our route was two lane roads through some of the prettiest little towns with absolutely no place to stop. Finally found a shopping center north of Princeton to take a pit stop. Princeton was a nice surprise, except for their traffic. There were many large estates hidden behind antique brick walls. We only saw one Princeton school. What we saw of the town was gorgeous. Large brown stone houses, huge trees, Dogwoods, huge and many garden centers and well kept pricy homes. Some we called estates because of their size.

Finally we arrived in the Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, Morris county park, with 18 spots with electricity and water too far to connect. We bought another 25’ hose and with 75’ we could reach water. We were dwarfed by the tall trees and loved the privacy of the park. All the trees are hardwoods—mostly elms, oak and maple. Here like other parks we have watched the tall trees dance and when the wind is really blowing they kiss. We wonder at God’s work to make this happen without breaking their limbs.

NJ needs Grady Smithey, the Texas Road Warrior, to improve their highways. 206 is federal! It is in awful shape!
Fred can’t decide which state has the worst roads, California or NJ. Lots of potholes and seams that go bump, bump, bump! Every time we stop we wonder what might have jarred loose and this time was the worst. Two doors came open and the usual broom falling over. It’s a wonder it wasn’t worse.

Saturday, May 9 we debated about taking a train into NY to see the World Trade Center site and Statue of Liberty or going to see the Delaware River Water Gap through the Appalachian mountains. As we thought about going from here to New York City, we discovered there is regular train service (NJ Transit) from this area into the big city. Our travel time would have been about 2 hours direct to the World Trade Center. There are 3 stops further out than the one we would take. We are about 50 miles from Pennsylvania. New York City has influence over a very large part of the area surrounding it. We opted for the scenic drive.
As we started the trip we went through Blairstown and just had to take pictures of the sign and town for our granddaughter Blaire. We know they left the “e” out, but we thought of her anyway. Sorry the little church with steeple didn’t get into the picture.

The Delaware River borders the west side of New Jersey and the NW part of the state is called the Delaware River Gap National Recreation Park. We stopped at the information center at the

actual gap. where the river cuts through the Appalachian Mountains and saw a beautiful river with swimmers training for a triathlon, kayakers and drift fishing canoers. Then we took the old mine road to follow the river all the way to New York Stae and the highest point of New Jersey. It was a beautiful drive with questionable roads. The history behind this federal park is interesting. Initially, the Corps of Engineers purchased the land so a large lake could be built. After the land was acquired in a long and bitter fight, it was concluded the native soil wasn’t able to “hold” such a large dam. So it was decided to make a large National Park . It seems to have been a very good decision.

Sunday, May 10 we attended the

First United Methodist Church of Sparta, NJ. They celebrated Mother’s Day with a moving service and even had a beautiful baptism with a precious baby girl with a ringlet of white roses on her head. She was a perfect lady for the whole ceremony. They had some nice features and Olivia gathered up copies and mailed to our church for ideas. One of the ladies suggested we drive into the community of Lake Mohawk to see their boardwalk and we enjoyed seeing the houses on the waters edge. It was a beautiful Mother’s Day.

Monday, May 11 was an exhausting day. We worked! First we cleaned the trailer. Remember the pine pollen we talked about earlier? We attempted to get it all out of the trailer. We wiped down all the walls, and surfaces, in addition to regular cleaning. Then we drove to a Laundromat and spent 2.5 hours and $20 getting all our laundry done. Usually it takes about an hour and $10-12. It was most frustrating. Fred found a new friend who lived in the area and they did enjoy visiting during the wait. He served in Nam and he visited Iraq as a private citizen shortly after the start of the war, and he escorted the Bush protester, the woman who’s son was killed in Iraq, to Crawford and joined her in protest. He says he must be on some “bad” state department list because it takes an extended time for him to get clearance for foreign travel. He previously worked in NYC then he retired to his country cabin in the woods of the area. He said there is NO ONE within one mile of his place. He usually spends the winter in Brazil or Vietnam, but this past year he was here. He said he was very glad he liked to read. He was a very interesting man.

This is it for New Jersey, tomorrow we move to southern New York, close to West Point.

Comments are invited and welcome to olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com