NJ and You...Getting somewhere!

You know… I have to say this about New Jersey…. It may be a small, congested state, densely populated with high property taxes and brimming with people who aren’t sophisticated like Philadelphians or New Yorkers, but at least when you hit the road you get somewhere. Just driving on secondary roads one can crisscross the state within a few hours. Get on a major highway like the Turnpike and NJ becomes a corridor state, a blur. There’s a lot to see here in the Garden State and you would be wise to take your time and explore it. Farmlands, mountains, the ocean , rivers and lakes, rural and urban scenes make it a diversified state. But of course there’s a lot to see everywhere. It would be foolish to think that NJ is the only place to visit, but at least in my home state I can visit it without it being a dreadfully long, arduous trek.

The other day my son and I drove up to Ricketts Glen. Readers of this blog should remember that Janet and I had camped up there just two weeks ago. Well, she’s away this week and so I figured I should do some bonding with my son, not that it’s a necessary thing, like I’m trying to make up for lost time with my growing boy, who’ll turn 20 in November and who has been as tall as me for awhile now. No, my boy and I do a lot of things together and a return trip to Ricketts Glen was a natural thing for us to do for this particular father and son team.

We used to go “exploring” when he was younger. With a set of binoculars we’d get in the car and go for drives. Sometimes the drive would last a half hour or so and we would “explore” what was in the immediately vicinity of our little town. Our whims would lead us to turn here or there, before it was time to go home for dinner. Sometimes our trips would go for hours; we’d meander along roads farther afield, but then we’d “get somewhere,” some destination. We’d spend half a day or an entire day out in the nether regions of the Garden State, but come back without a lot of hard miles on the car. Relative to our trip to Ricketts Glen the other day, the length and breadth of our exploring excursions were a walk in the park.

There’s nothing remotely similar to Ricketts Glen in New Jersey. There are beautiful vistas, there are waterfalls, there are trails, there are lakes, but the Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen is unique and a must destination for all of you out there in blog land, wherever that may be. GO!
Ricketts Glen is roughly 130 miles from the house, at least according to “Greg’s Way.” If you’ve ever read any of my previous blogs you’re familiar with my method of traveling. Avoiding major highways as often as possible, I like to travel secondary routes. Usually such routes meander and tack on miles and take a long time; that is if you're in a hurry. The route I had mapped out from Lambertville to Ricketts Glen (a day trip destination for some people by the way) had me going along some small roads and through some very small towns. Google had me on the Northeast Extention. Truthfully, I would much prefer to drive through Shickshinny than to hurtle along the Northeast Extension even if it was quicker.

I've been doing this sort of travel for along time, through many states, including Hawaii as well as a couple of European countries. I've even read books about such a meandering way of traveling. William Least Heat Moon wrote a travelogue called "Blue Highways". He drove around the continental U.S. in an old van and avoided highways and major cities. The secondary routes he took were often inked in blue on old maps and he visited small towns. Just the thing I like to do. My son also enjoys this sort of traveling. He has already expressed an interest in traveling around the country...hopefully he won't get on route 80. I've even whipped Janet into shape about this method of seeing the world. Last year we saw a lot of very rural southern Louisiana and barely got on a major highway.

So, given my interest in taking "Blue Highways," why am I complaining in this particular blog entry about the great distance needed to travel to Ricketts Glen? You may write to me and say, “Greg, you are meandering too much here, like one of your trips!” You may think I’m a whiner and you’re only interested in reading about some new place, that Ricketts Glen is so, so two weeks ago and that the Vacation From Home Team is much more interesting when Janet is involved! A solo Greg is pathetic you may be muttering to yourself right now.

(You’re right.) But, that being admitted, I only wanted to point out that despite the vast beauty of Pennsylvania, from Doylestown to Quakertown to Allentown to Tamaqua to Hazelton to Shickshinny to Red Rock to Ricketts Glen, it is a long F***** way. And truthfully town after town after town after town after town, it all is Pennsyltucky (or if you prefer Pennsylbama). After the, uhm, let’s see 30th burg you start hoping you’ll see a Northeast Extension sign. The “Bear Crossing” signs are only humorous once and I’m sorry to be disrespectful here but I don’t need to drive nearly 100 miles from home to see Hazelton. Camden is a relative hop down route 130 and even quicker on 295. I can cross NJ on a bad travel day in less than two hours on small roads and pass through some gorgeous communities and at least be at the beach. Two hours into my trip the other day I’m impatiently tapping my foot at a traffic light in Tamaqua wondering if I should find a gin mill and throw back a few. It is interesting to see coal mining towns; my mom’s family still has deep roots in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area (just 27 miles from Ricketts Glen); but after awhile they all look alike. If I did not reset my odometer for the return trip the other day I would have thought I was in Mocanaqua and not just outside of Doylestown. One hundred miles in the trip I could have been anywhere, and nowhere, in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Anyway, not to give the actual day of hiking short shrift, but as expected my boy liked it a lot. He said he may return some day to camp as well. His favorite falls were the Sheldon Reynolds waterfall at 36 feet. After hiking we had a dinner at the Penny Lounge at the Jamison City Hotel. I know, I know, I am supposed to write here that the highlight of my day was seeing my boy clamoring onto a log to get a different view of the Harrison Wright falls… see the new video posted with this entry, but it was WINGS and TACOS night at the Jamison City Hotel! They were good wings. Hot, but not goopy and the tacos were brimming with meat. Again, it was very cheap for me. $11.45 bought us a dozen wings, a taco each and two beers for me, although my 19 year old probably would have been served easily enough. I just wish they didn’t have to place Ricketts Glen so far away!
Love to all.
greg