 MONDAY |
TRAVEL DAY |
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Today was a much longer than normal drive. We started this morning in Rhode Island, drove across the entire width of the state of Connecticut, cut across a sizeable piece of New York, nipped the corner of Pennsylvania, before landing at our final destination in New Jersey.
About halfway through the drive we pulled into a rest area in New York, the exact same one we blew a tire in back in April, to well..... take a rest, and use our own private bathroom. As a matter of fact, about half the route today was the exact same route we took back in April, except this time we're heading southwest instead of northeast.
For a point of reference the top of this diagram is North.
If you approach the interchange traveling East or North everything is normal. But let's just say you're heading South on I-395, like we were, and wanting to go West on SR2, like we did. What do you have to do to accomplish that? I'll give you a minute to think about that.
That's right! You have to go around three of the four cloverleaf loops to change your direction. Same thing happens if you're heading West and want to go North. What were they thinking!
Those on you unfamiliar with the area probably don't know the Delaware River is want creates the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We will be starting from our campground and drive some 28 miles north along the banks of the Delaware River on the New Jersey side, traveling along the Historic Old Mine Road.
It seems that while New Jersey has managed to preserve the history of The Gap better, because most of the historic sites are on their side of the river, Pennsylvania sure did inherit the scenic views, especially when it comes to The Gap itself.
Just like most people agree that the view of Niagara Falls is better from the Canadian side (rather than the United States side) I'm sure most would agree the view of the Delaware Water Gap is better from the Pennsylvania side.
DELAWARE WATER GAP NRA
A husband and wife team, plus a few very appreciated voluteers, operate this preserve and open it to public tours several times a week as a means to generate income and educate people to the plight the wolves are facing.
The tours haven't been running since the COVID pandemic erupted back in March, but just a few weeks ago they reopened at a very limited capacity and we were fortunate enough to pick up a last minute cancelation they had for this morning's tour. Guess it pays to finally be in the right place at the right time.
They currently have 17 wolves in the preserve (they are only permitted to house 20), along with a pair of lynx cats and three foxes. Don't worry each species is in a separate enclosure and today we learned all about each one of them.
Lost River Caverns is in Hellertown, PA and will be our 28th cavern tour since we started living full-time on the road just a short 28 months ago. So far every cave tour has been worth the price of admission, as each one has some unique feature or story to share with us.
Lost River Caverns gets it's name from the fact that no one has even been able to determine where the river of water that flows through the cave comes from or where it goes. They have located where the water enters and leaves the cave and in the 1980s attempts were made using ping pong balls with phone numbers written on them asking people to call if found, no calls have ever been received.
Later more modern methods were used using biodegradable dyes to try and trace the path of the water with no success. I guess it will always be known as Lost River Caverns.
Tomorrow we will be leaving New Jersey and planning a 15-day visit all around the state of Pennsylvania. Coming attractions include two more cave tours, a World Heritage Site home tour and possibly a National Memorial Site, so stay tuned!
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