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

Earlier this week I received an email letting me know that two of my photos on my Flickr site have been short-listed for inclusion in the Schmap New York Guide, to be published in late March.  I wouldn’t receive royalties or anything like that, but my photos, if selected, would be credited to me.  Kind of cool, huh?

 The Schmap guides appear to be really cool.  One can download the various city guides at no charge, and they’re very interactive with tons of information.

Here are the two photos of mine that they selected.  The first is a shot of the Ed Sullivan Theater, current home of the Late Show with David Letterman, and the second is a shot taken while we were waiting to take the Staten Island Ferry over to — guess where — Staten Island!  Critiquing my own photos based on framing, lighting, interest, etc., these are not photos that I would have picked, but if they work for Schmap.com’s purposes, that would be fine with me!  (Although, I do kind of like how I caught the scrolling “welcome” message board at the terminal even if you can’t see all of the word, welcome.)