The first 30-miles we spent traveling the rural 2-lane backroads in Pennsylvania. We would travel up and then down the hilly terrain until we reached Interstate 81 in the town of Wilkes-Barré.
AND THEN THERE WERE TWO: In 1913 the towns of Winston and Salem in North Carolina were officially merged into one to become Winston-Salem.
From Wilkes-Barré we traveled 15-miles north to the much larger town of Scranton, PA where we switched over to Interstate 84. This is when things "took a turn for the worse".
Less than a mile after entering Interstate 84 the traffic came to a standstill. It would take us 45-minutes to travel the next 5-miles. The reason for the backup? We never saw anything wrong, no construction, no accidents, no nothing.
Have I ever mentioned how much I've grown to dislike big cities since hitting the road?
50-miles later we were cruising along on Interstate 84 in Pennsylvania when we spotted our destination high up on a hill in New Jersey. We were still 10-miles away, and will have to take Exit 1 off Interstate 84 in New York, before quickly crossing the border into New Jersey, but the end of our drive was in sight.
We were headed for the aptly named High Point State Park. Located inside of the park is the New Jersey Veterans' Memorial at the summit of the Kittatinny Ridge, which rises 1,803 feet above sea level, the highest elevation in the entire state of New Jersey.
It's the reason we're here, but we'll have to wait until Saturday or Sunday to visit when the interior of the monument is open to the public. The 220' tall monument was completed in 1930 and it has been said that on a clear day you can see three states from the top deck. That sounds pretty impressive until you realize the point where Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey meet is only 3-miles away as the crow flys.
That location is where the Tri States Monument is found. It's under the Interstate 84 bridge over the Delaware River, which we crossed over today when leaving Pennsylvania. We may take time to go back and visit it also.
There are no utilities on the campsites themselves, but there are bathrooms with flush toilets spread around the camground loop. The campsites are located ¾ of the way around the banks of Sawmill Lake along a 1-lane tight and twisting road. Most of the time when a campground sets an RV size limit it has more to do with the access to the campsites and not the size of the campsites themselves.
That is exactly the situation you'll find here. If there had been a car parked in the campsite on the opposite side of the road from ours I'm not sure we'd have been able to back THE POD into our driveway. At the very least it would have made the task infintely more difficult.
Tricia went out for her early morning walk and snapped a few photos for us.
After Tricia's walk and breakfast this morning we headed out to take care of a few necessary chores. For Tricia it was laundry time again and for me is was time for ROVER's 120,000 mile oil change. As always, I took it to a local FORD Dealership to have the job done so that if it ever becomes an issue with our FORD extended warranty covering a repair, there is an internal record of the services performed.
The New Jersey Veterans' Memorial is open from 8AM - 8PM on Saturdays and Sundays this time of year. We waited for the morning fog to burn off and left THE POD at around 10AM to drive the 3¼-miles over to the monument.
I don't know why but I had the impression there was an elevator that takes you to the top of the monument, there wasn't! What there was is a tight spiral staircase you climb to the top of the tower where you can take photos out of 3 tiny windows. The fee to climb the tower? $1.00 !
NEW JERSEY VETERANS' MEMORIAL
IN HIGH POINT STATE PARK
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This photo was taken at the lake across from the (closed) state park's beach.
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This is the view from the lower parking lot. The monument is an uphill walk from here.
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The stairs start out as a sprial staircase but half way up turn into a more square spiral.
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One of the 3 small semi-translucent 100-year-old windows you can peer out of to take photos.
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From the north window you can see ROVER front and center in the parking lot below.
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From the south window you can see the lake, the beach and Kittatinny Ridge.
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The view from the upper handicap accessible parking lot.
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Back in the parking lot we watched as the local sports car club arrived.
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On the way out we drove the Scenic Drive around the "backside" of the lake and beach.
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It was a narrow 1-way road about a mile long.|
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After checking out the New Jersey Veterans' Memorial we decided to go see the Tri States Monument, the location where New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania all intersect. I had looked up directions on Google Maps earlier this morning while on my laptop.
Now while here in the truck, I used my iPhone to look up directions in Apple Maps and blindly took off and followed the route as instructed. I'll bet you already know where this story is headed!
I knew the monument was accessed from the New York shoreline of the Delaware River. But Apple Maps was instructing me to take the entrance ramp on I-84 Westbound. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway, there was too much traffic behind me and nowhere to pull over and check Google Maps on my phone.
Getting on I-84 Westbound here takes us over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, where I was instructed to take the first exit and then reenter I-84 Eastbound which takes me back over the bridge into New York. I'm not joking when I tell you the next instruction came when we were halfway over the bridge. It said to turn left and we would arrive at our destination. Technically it would be correct, except that our destination was at least 60' below the bridge.
I was so aggravated that Apple Maps had taken us on a Wild Goose Chase that I abandoned the idea of visiting the monument and headed to McDonald's for lunch.
As we headed back into the campground we stopped and took this photo of Sawmill Lake. It looks a lot different when it's not hidden by the early morning fog. If you look real close you can even makeout the Veterans' Memorial peeking out above the treeline just to the right of center.
Tricia was still working part-time then and we didn't get out sightseeing as much as we would have liked.
Our second visit to New Jersey would be in September of 2020 when things still weren't back to anything close to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. We spent 8-nights at a private campground that had a 10-acre wolf preserve in the park. It was unnerving hearing wolves howling during the night and again early in the mornings.
Now in October of 2024 we've begun another 7-night visit in New Jersey. We started with 4-nights here at High Point State Park to see the Veteran's Memorial. We've got 3 more nights planned at 2 locations before we exit the state for the third (but not final) time.
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