Wandering Where We’ll Be

After the Tuckerton campground alluded to in the last blog, we continued on to…????? 
The adventure begins benignly.  We drove through the rest of New Jersey BUT we ran into rush hour traffic near New York.  It wasn’t bumper to bumper; stop and slow…yet.  We continued on and bypassed many highways nearer to New York.  We stayed on the Garden State Pkwy to avoid the worst of the traffic.  This was the plan all along.  It worked.  We drove through a bit of New York.  We could tell the driving habits of some in this area were a little “cut-throat”.  There were swerves, swoops, jockeying for position, fingers I’m sure were in there too, cut-offs, etc. 

It wasn’t until we made it to Connecticut that the FUN really began.  We had just made it to I-95 in lower Connecticut and the rush hour (which is unbelievably long with all the traffic here) was in full swing away from New York.  Now it was bumper to bumper, stop, wait, and go for 13 miles.  Tim was driving.  It was awful.  We had set our sights on Hammonasset Beach State Park to camp at and getting there was taking a long time.  We decided to keep heading there since it had all the amenities.  We got there finally and guess what?  The gates were closed because they close them at sunset WHICH WAS ABOUT 12 MINUTES AGO!!!!  THERE WAS STILL LOTS OF LIGHT IN THE SKY!!!  DENIED!!.  We went in search of another campsite which was nearby.  Signs led us there at first.  Looked like a good area for camping, all woodsy and such.  We got there and it was RV infested.  Not only that, it was $35 DOLLARS A NIGHT!!  We could stay 3 nights somewhere else for that price.  They didn’t have any campsites without electric hookup.  We left.  It was now getting dark.  We looked at our maps and info and decided to try to go to a campsite near Cockaponsett State Forest.  We didn’t know at the time it was next to it.  We traveled in the dark on a back road (kind of, this near to New York, any “back road” is going to be used a lot).  It was pretty along this route because people’s yards were lit.  It seemed very New Englandish.  We then turned on another back road.  We couldn’t find the campground which had several primitive walk in sites for free.  It was too dark to find this place so we stopped outside an eating area in Chester and asked a lady where this camping place could be.  She told us it is (she was guessing because she hadn’t been to this campsite) it would be near Cockaponsett.  She also said when we get there it would be very dark.  There are no lights in that area.  Great (sarcastic).  So we followed her directions and made it to Cockaponsett.  We were looking for a specific road called Filleys.  The roads in this area were very backwater, not paved, no lights, no people, pure woods lost (I would think it was werewolf country if such a place existed).  We slowly drove on these roads and we would see rocks and trails but no campsites but “youth sites, reservations required”.  It was very late now and we still hadn’t even seen…”Wait, on that upright log stuck in the ground, carved into it, FILLEYS ROAD”.  We went on it and it was more of the same, no campsites.  We eventually found a grassy “parking lot” and camped there FOR FREE!!  $35 dollars a campsite, gimme a break! We woke the next morning to Jake wanting attention and trying to crawl into our sleeping bags.  I didn’t tell you yet, there are many ticks in this area.  Tim found a tick on/in his knee later on this same day.  We found others not “in” us yet.  We left early and found a private campsite for $19.95 a night.  Nice place.  We then ate and took a nap.  We later drove to the beach, nice but colder.  We had a drink at a beach bar called The Pavilion.  We then drove back to Chester for dinner since it was the epitome of New England village.  It was a wine and artist night there (to our surprise).  We ate at a local place.  We saw some art.  Then we went to Middletown and saw a free concert at Wesleyan University.  A choir and orchestra were singing/playing.  At first, it was a combo of both.  Then it was the orchestra.  It was really good.  We then drove to our campsite and went to sleep.  Today’s journey is to Hartford, Connecticut. 

Write you all later,

Dan

Hello all!  OK, a quick entry to get caught up…

Monday night we found a state park (named First Landing) near Virginia Beach.  We got in just as the sun was setting, so we wanted to get going on setting the tent up.  As we were getting out of the truck to unload our gear, a short woman with long, black hair walks up to us and says, in a New York/New Jersey? (I can’t tell the difference, yet.) dialect, “You can walk around to the empty sites for firewood if you want.  And, yea, you’re better off up here.  I’m down on the ocean side, and it’s windier than a mother-f’er.  But, I don’t know if you want this site.  It’s too hard.  And, did I tell you, you can just walk around and pick up downed wood for your fire… like that one right over there.  But, you’ll want to get it started pretty soon.”

And, I’m thinking, “Well, first we’d like to set our tent up.  And, we’d love to chat, but unless you’d like to help us, you’re kind of keeping us from that task.”

But without much of a response from us beyond nods and “yea, you’re probably right,” she looks us both over and asks (mostly to me), “Are you Jewish?”

“No.”
“Really?  Ya know, I had a couple Jewish doctors, and they were just excellent.”  She went on to elaborate on some procedure she had done by one of said doctors, but I honestly wasn’t listening too closely.  Somehow, it came up that we were from Minnesota.

“Culpepper!” she exclaimed.  “You shoulda kept Culpepper.”  She continued on about some other Vikings football players (or former)… I heard the names Moss, Moon…  Neither Dan nor I really keep up on NFL football.  Then, she dropped several other names of players in other teams, all of which might as well have fallen on deaf ears.  Dan tried to engage her with the little he had heard of the players: their run-ins with the law.  But, I tried to move out of her focus toward the truck to signal that we really wanted to start unloading our gear.  It didn’t work.

She looked at Jake, and we got all the usual questions.  “What’s your dog’s name?” “What kind is he?”  In my explaining that we’re unsure of his breed because we found him when he was – the vet guessed – about 8 months old, I mentioned that he was now about 8 years old.  She explained that she used to be a Vet Tech.  She began giving us suggestions about the various blood tests we should have done on Jake when he gets to be a certain age.  “Because he’s getting up in age.  He must be about, what, 8 years old?”  We kind of lost her in the Vet jargon, and Dan finally interrupted, “Wait, wait.  I hate to interrupt, but we need to get started on our tent if we’re going to get it set up before dark.”

“Oh, OK, but he should really get that blood test, and that collar is too big.  You really need a smaller one.  And, remember, there’s wood for your fire all around the campground.  You just need to walk around and find it.”

“OK, thanks.  Nice talking to you.”  OK, on to the tent.

The next morning, I got up, let Jake out and, then, back in the tent, and went to shower and shave – yes, I shaved for the first time since before we left – about 2 ½ weeks.  It was nice NOT shaving during that time, but it’s also nice to be clean-shaven now.  I probably won’t let it go that long again, but who knows.

I made banana wheat pancakes for breakfast; they turned out well.

We broke camp, and got on the road.  Almost immediately, we crossed Chesapeake Bay via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel – actually, tunnels; there are two of them.  The eastern shore of Virginia is very pretty, and we noticed some houses/farms that looked like they had been plantations – with rows of big, old trees leading to a large house.

We were going to go to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge/Assateague Island National Seashore, but we learned at the entrance that pets are not allowed – not even in your vehicle.  We continued up U.S. 13 into Maryland and, then, Delaware.  We stopped for the night at Killens Pond State Park, south of Dover, DE.  We stayed in the “primitive” section of the campground, which was cheaper and required a short walk to our site (about a half block).

Wednesday, we got the oil changed in the truck and continued on to Atlantic City, NJ.  Mostly, we just wanted to see the place; neither of us are gamblers and we had Jake with us.  We found “Lucy,” the giant “elephant,” walked through “her” gift shop, and took a picture, just for the cheesy factor.  Then, we found a cheap place to park near the Hilton, and walked – with Jake – down the boardwalk between the casinos/shops and the beach/ocean.  We went down quite a ways, past Trump Plaza, and, then, back again.  Then, it was time to find a campground.  After running into problems with restrictions on dogs (no dogs) at New Jersey State Parks and State Forests, we ended up at a small, private campground near Tuckerton, NJ.

More later…

Tim