Showing posts with label NEW JERSEY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NEW JERSEY. Show all posts

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE NORTHEAST (NJ)

WEDNESDAY - Our final night in New Jersey will be at a Walmart location.

I've already called ahead to verify that overnight RV parking is permitted at their location, but if things change by the time we arrive our backup plan is to stay at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant just a couple miles away.

We prefer Walmart parking lots over Cracker Barrel parking lots because they are typically much larger and easier to maneuver our 50' long truck and trailer combo around in.

Today we will be moving south from the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in New Jersey to a Walmart location also in New Jersey. By throwing in a "short detour" we will also be crossing over 3 sets of state borders along our route today.

This is the Commodore Barry Bridge over the Delaware River outside of Philadelphia, PA.
We paid $15 to cross over the bridge with ROVER and THE POD.

The first crossing, indicated by the #1 on the above map, is the crossing between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We have done this crossing several times over the last 6+ years so it's nothing new to us.

Crossings #2 and #3 however are new to us, and happen to be the only border crossings we haven't done on this side of Texas. Crossing #2 is between the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware and we'll be traveling south on Interstate 95 when this occurs.

Just like the sign says "last exit before bridge" or you'll find yourself in New Jersey.

This is the Delaware Memorial Bridge and just like the Commodore Barry Bridge
it's currently in the process of being deleaded and receiving a new unleaded paint job.

When we're off this bridge we'll be in New Jersey and completed the DE2NJ border crossing.

Crossing #3 is between Delaware and New Jersey and it will happen just a short while later when we cross over the Delaware River back into New Jersey.

Now we could have just continued south on Interstate 295 in New Jersey and avoided the bridge toll and the three border crossings, but what fun would that have been?

FYI - Regarding all the bridges over the Delaware River south of Philadelphia, whether they're crossing between Pennsylvania and Jersey, or Delaware and Jersey, only have a toll if you're leaving New Jersey (i.e. heading west).

It's FREE to arrive in Jersey, but they want some money from you before they'll let you leave.

Our 7:00AM view of the Walmart parking lot.

Just 6½-miles into New Jersey we found the Walmart store we were looking for. After we settled into a semi-level spot in the parking lot we headed into the store to purchase some groceries.

You all know we keep very detailed and accurate records of our travels, so I can say with complete confidence that tonight will be our 36th overnight in a Walmart parking lot, but it's the first Walmart that doesn't hold the designation of being a Supercenter.

What I've since been made painfully aware of is that means the grocery section in the store is about ¼ the size of what we've found in the other 35 Walmart Supercenter locations we've overnighted at.

I was planning on making some of my Key West Chili this week, but where a Supercenter would have 4-5 variations of Rotel Tomatoes to choose from, this store hand only 2 and neither would work in my recipe.

So I changed directions and started looking for the ingredients for my Green and White Chili, but again where a Supercenter would have 3 different choices of Bush's Chili beans, this store had none. I can't make my Green and White Chili without any beans!

LESSON LEARNED - Don't plan on restocking our pantry or filling our refrigerator with the groceries we are used to buying from a regular Walmart store, but they are just fine for overnight parking.

Also we almost exclusively use Walmart's water vending machines to refill our 3-gallon drinking water bottles, but no such machine exists at this regular Walmart store.

When we were at the cashier checking out we inquired if there was a water vending machine somewhere in the store, in case we just didn't see it in the usual places. Nope, she informed us we would have to go five miles up the street to the ACME Market to refill our bottles. Maybe they'll have Rotel Tomatoes and Bush's Beans there too!

We'll find out tomorrow morning after we leave Walmart!

THURSDAY - This morning we'll be "offically" leaving the Northeastern United States after only being here since September 11th when we entered Pennsylvania on our way to Niagara Falls.

For the remainder of the year we'll be heading in a southernly direction while visiting areas we haven't been near since our first nomadic summer of 2018.

We've still got a dozen or so new locations to visit and new parks to explore. As usual, we'll be sharing them right here on this blog. SO STAY TUNED!

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BRENDAN T BYRNE STATE FOREST (NJ) ★

MONDAY - Sometimes we get surprised by the places we pass along our travel route. Intersesting things occur when you tell your GPS to avoid toll roads and highways.

Such was the case today when our trusted Garmin GPS routed us through the town of Princeton, NJ. We drove right through the sprawling campus of Princeton University, including all the centuries old buildings with manicured lawns and flowering gardens. We had no idea it was on our route, so we weren't prepared and didn't get any photos to share.

One of the benefits, at least in my eyes, of writing these blogposts is I learn something new each time I research the topic I'm writing about.

Everyone is probably aware of the fact that Princeton University (NJ) is one of the eight Ivy League schools in the United States. The other seven are Brown University (RI), Columbia University (NY), Cornell University (NY), Dartmouth College (NH), Harvard University (MA), University of Pennsylvania (PA) and Yale University (CT). They are all located in the northeastern United States.

Seven of the eight schools were founded between 1636 (Harvard) and 1769 (Dartmouth). Only Cornell University came nearly 100-years later in 1865.

Princeton ranks as the most prestigious of the Ivy League schools, thanks to the fact it has produced Rhodes scholars, U.S. presidents, Olympic medalists, Supreme Court justices, and Nobel Prize winners. It is also ranked as the prettiest campus, which we saw a small portion of as we drove by today.

The average acceptance rate at these universities is around 5%, with Harvard being the lowest at 3.4% and Cornell the highest at 8.7%. What would the odds be of a person being accepted at all 8 Ivy League schools? I don't know, but it doesn't happen as often as you would think. In recent years, there has been anywhere from 0 to 4 students achieving this remarkable feat.

Anyway, that's what I learned today! ...and now you too!

We are spending just 2-nights here in the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in south Jersey. With nothing really planned to do here we are just going to "chill out" in THE POD for two days. As a matter of fact, we didn't even unhitch THE POD from ROVER to save a little set up and break down time.

With 0% chance of rain, highs each day at 70°F and lows in the mid-40°s, it is very comfortable weather to be inside with all the windows and door open.

TUESDAY - Since we have no sightseeing activities to share with you, I'm going to write about something from our previous stop that I didn't mention before.

While Tricia was climbing all those stairs to the top of the New Jersey Veterans Memorial, I was outside at the base of the tower looking at all the large "bugs" on the concrete platform. I was so captivated by the appearance of the bugs I did something I rarely do, I grabbed my cellphone and took this picture.

Meet the Spotted Lanternfly
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect, indigenous to parts of China and Vietnam.

It first spread to South Korea (2006) and Japan (2009), but since 2014 it has been reported in most of the Northeastern United States.

The first reported sighting was outside of Philadelphia, PA and currently have been found in 16 states.

Although they don't pose any direct danger to humans through biting or stinging, they are very devastating to crops like soybean and grapes, and pose a moderate threat to young sappy soft wood trees.

As adults they'll swarm an individual tree and chew on the leaves and then leave a sappy excrement which also is harmful to the leaves. They have a 1-year lifespan, laying eggpacks of 30-50 eggs just before winter and then the eggs hatch in the early spring.

Canada has been mostly spared the invasion of the species, because the temperatures are so cold during the winter. Speculation is and studies show that temperatures below -15°F kill the eggs before they have a chance to hatch.

In their native habitat of China there is a wasp species that feeds on lanternfly eggs, keeping their population in check, but here in the United States no such predator exists.

Unlike the common house fly, these lanternflies are not very quick to react when a human tries to dispose of them.

Judging by the fact that September/October is not typically the end of their adult life cycle, plus all the dead spotted laternflies I saw that day seemed to have been "squished", my guess is that there was a visit from a local 4th grade elementary school class and the students were given permission to "stomp on sight".

The fact that these adult lanternflies are big (easily the size of a quarter) and don't really fly that well (they move more like grasshoppers) makes them easy targets.

I'm not suggesting this as a real solution to the problem, but it is a fun and entertaining start.

WEDNESDAY - Check out time here in the forest isn't until NOON, so we'll get on the road right after lunch.

We've got less than 80-miles to travel today, so there's no good reason to get up early and hit the road.

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HIGH POINT STATE PARK (NJ) ★

THURSDAY - At just over 100-miles we had a relatively easy travel day.

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.

Wilkes-Barré is the only originally named city in the United States to be hyphenated!

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.

The New Jersey Veterans' Memorial (zoomed in with Tricia's cellphone from 10-miles away)

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.

Our campsite was plenty deep enough for ROVER and THE POD to fit into.

With a little extra effort we were able to "wiggle" THE POD all the way to the back of the site...

...where there was still plenty of room left over.

FRIDAY - High Point State Park's Sawmill Lake Campground has more of the "feel" of a Forest Service campground.

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.

The 20-acre Sawmill Lake is the result of this simple dam erected on the southern shore.

The southern edge of Sawmill Lake is wide open and has benches and picnic tables.

Our campsite view of Sawmill Lake, as seen from standing on the top of our picnic table.

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.

SATURDAY - Today's the day we've been waiting for! It's time to go out and do some sightseeing!

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.

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.

SUNDAY - We first visited New Jersey in April of 2019 when we stayed at Cheesequake State Park for 7-nights and used it as a base station for visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, plus all the sights in nearby Philadelphia.

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.

A few more morning photos from around Sawmill Lake Campground in High Point Park.

Down in the dark shallow gully just below the dam on Sawmill Lake.

Someone is hoping for a fresh fish breakfast this morning.

We are seeing perfectly highlighted full fall-color right behind THE POD's rear window.

Looking for our Visited States Map and Data?
How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List?
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