Cape May Weekend

Friday.  Staying the weekend at Holly Shores Campground.

Nice place and the people are so friendly! There's a pool and a jacuzzi (I'll be in THAT sometime this weekend!)  The girl behind the counter was so sweet, could see I was frazzled and said "Just go and relax, we can take care of the paperwork later!"  This nice gentlemen with a long white beard parked the RV (had to be backed in again) for me.  As I was getting stuff out of the jeep, a friendly couple, Ann and Tim, zoomed up in a golf cart.  They got their RV at the same show we did at the Hershey convention center.  Theirs is even longer than ours!  38 feet!  It's their first too, and just like us, they figured, hey, if you don't do the trip now...it may never happen!  Picked up Greg at 8:30pm at the Cape May Lighthouse.  (We got a bit of a late start today!) 
It will be nice to stay put for the weekend... 

Saturday.  Cape May town. 

Had breakfast at Uncle Bill's Pancake House - a favorite for us - for me, especially 'cause I have an Uncle Bill - many a family gathering he has had us in stitches - such a funny guy!  

Loved the Spatula Hall of Fame - famous chefs who cooked at Uncle Bill's!


Cape May is such a breath of fresh air.  Here we can kick back and take a breather.  We spent the day meandering through town.

 

In Stewarts - Greg had a rootbeer float - had a taste - yummy!  They are playing 40's music, we're sitting on stools like in an old-fashioned ice cream shoppe.  So cool. 

                                                                    The neatest little "car" outside Stewarts!  

It was such a nice warm day, we decided to go back to the campground and hit the pool and jacuzzi!!  SO happy!  And toasted.

We knew we had to make arrangements for the Cape May - Lewes ferry to get to Delaware.  So on Monday, I'm driving the "rig" onto this huge boat!!  The pic doesn't do it justice...it's really, really big!  As my friend Madeline would say, "Lord have mercy!"

Sunday.  Visited Cape Community Church in the town of Cape May Court House.   

Awesome church!  Same beliefs as our church and we knew all the songs!!  How Great is our God, The Solid Rock, Revelation Song, Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty and Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus!  That was just the best!  And the first Bible verse quoted by the pastor in his sermon....wait for it...."Let not your hearts be troubled" from John 14:1. There were so many churches in the area and yet this is the one we went to.  How cool is that!

Oops!!

Sorry!  Somehow put Day Four in front of Day Five!  I will get the hang of this eventually!!

June 19, 2013 - Day Four

The Sugar Ladies

Wednesday, June 19 - Our friends cant get out!  The rangers changed the code at the gate and didnt tell us! Greg found a neighboring camper and got the code so they (and we) could leave!!

To track Greg - go to www.butterick.net/bike.html - Select OpenAPRS (blue lettering) - there may be a square Welcome Box..close that ❌- type in KD2DPJ in the space for "Track a Station" - it will then pull up another rectangle box with a Gold Star next to the KD2DPJ - select that and it will take you to wherever Greg is!  

Took some pics of Turkey Swamp - was sorry we didnt get to enjoy it like we did when we came here years ago with our truck camper. 

If you want to see beautiful fall colors and go canoeing or row a boat, you should visit this place...(some pics from October 2006)

Today was an awesome day though.  It was so beautiful out, warm sunny.  We both were in awe how beautiful New Jersey is.  Personally, I only thought NJ was oil refineries, route 95, Great Adventure, Atlantic City, Garden St parkway and Cape May!  But it is so rural!  Trees, farms, fields, parts reminded me of the farms on Long Island's north fork.  Passed cranberry bogs.  The GPS took me through very desolate areas that ONLY trucks seem to travel on.

But they had a quiet serenity about them... Just a small road with trees on either sides, sometimes branches meeting in the middle...thats when I discovered "the system".  If you saw a vehicle coming from the other direction, you slow down and stop to the side and let the other truck pass, and keep to the middle when there's no oncoming traffic.  I learned the hard way and hit some, er, branches...

Our next stop, Wading Pines, wasn't as rustic as Turkey, but they had a store (love campground stores) and great showers!!  We walked around at night - huge place, seasonal campers riding around in their golf carts, picket fences, Christmas lights wrapped around trees, watched the Wading River reflected in the moonlight, campfires crackling, a father & child laughing and having fun together.  Miss my kids.  

June 20, 2013 - Day Five

Well this day was a fine how do you do!  

GPS couldnt find the next campsite so Greg "stopped by" and we had to put in latitude and longitude...mind you I never even knew which was which when I was supposed to understand them in school!  Early on in the travel today there was a detour so I couldn't go down the road I was supposed to and had to figure out how to turn around and go another way and figure out how to put that on the GPS!  The highlight of the morning...a friend..

So I'm rambling down the road, life is good.  

 
And then the GPS tells me to go on Garden State Parkway!  Stopped in my tracks, traffic backing up, afraid to get on (because of low overhead bridges on parkways), I choose to go down this other road thinking, eh, I can turn around SOMEwhere.  Unbeknownst to me it was a dead end with a building and water, with no ample room to turn around (found it on the map - Amasa Landing Road in Tuckerton).  

I start to pull around and realize I'm jackknifing the jeep.  Back it up just a little ways and realize I'm making it worse!  I sit, cry, and then see a young man ready to help.  And then another gentleman.  The highlight of the afternoon - my Good Samaritans.  Since the jeep was jackknifed, we couldn't get the tow pins out.  So the one young man had some tools and started working at it and got the tow bar free from the Jeep.  I moved the jeep, then proceeded to back up and reposition the RV...with their help.  They're reconnecting everything while I try to figure out the instructions as to how to put the Jeep in the right gears for towing - very confusing!   Also they told me there are some places where large vehicles can use Garden State.  I do a check of everything, hug them both and head up the road onto GS.  It's a short bit on there, then I'm onto the country roads again.  Whew!  

Lol...then, here we go again... back onto GS (dang detours!) - this time for longer - 22 miles!!  Stress level is high now...and looming in the distance is a low overpass...I pull over, sit, cry.  But then I see large trucks and RVs  going underneath it, so I take a chance, going slowly and make it through. (I think Jesus had the right idea about walking or boating everywhere)  Getting close to the campsite, which I still haven't heard from yet, to see if they have a site open, the GPS says its on the left, and so there I go, passing it on the right.  After a mile or so I make a u-turn on a three-way intersection, say a prayer of thanks and drive to the destination.  As I was about to turn in, they call and say they have one spot open!  Yay!

I park.  They only accept  cash. I have ten dollars.  Unhook the jeep...only problem is I can't get the transfer case out of neutral, the guy who worked there helped me but had to really force it to get it free..not a good sign.  Btw, we can only back into the site, so they let me leave the RV where it was until Greg arrives (he's awesome at backing the RV up) Off I go to an ATM.   After getting some cash, start up the jeep, see the word oil flash quickly, don't know what else it says.  I may have done serious damage to the jeep (praying and texting and emailing friends asking for prayer commences).  Head towards what I think is a shopping area, get lost.  No gas stations anywhere.  Wind up heading back to camp.  See a market.  They have oil!  I look at the manuals. Call Greg. Have to wait for the jeep to cool down to check the oil, so in I go to the market and get some junk food (yeah yeah I know) and sit in the jeep.  Check the oil, doesn't seem low.   Go back in to get the oil, just in case, and they don't have the one I need!  Off I go back to the camp, driving slowly and heat on high burning my feet (to pull heat out of the engine so I don't overheat the jeep). So here i sit. No more crying though!  And I wait for Greg.  What day is it? Where am I?.....

Great food, great service!

End result, Greg drove the jeep - he thinks it's fine.  He had a rough ride - wind, heat, detours, length.  We decided, yeah, we're going out to eat.  The highlight of the evening - mussels for him, lobster bisque soup for me and two salmon entrees. 

So another day, we survived, plenty of lessons learned...

June 18, 2013 - Day Three

Water! Can't live with it...can't live without it!  

Getting a late start today, checking Weatherbug and Weather.com repeatedly as a storm is a comin'!  Greg is bogged down with work.  We're hoping things will smooth out soon. Been spending the time trying to organize things a bit better (at the end there, before we left, we were just flinging stuff into the RV!)   It got later and later and finally when his work was slowing down the storm picked up. We decided to stay put.  

Funky water...we talked to Thor, the manufacturer of the RV.  Apparently our water tanks are filled with bacteria.  We called 5 authorized service centers in the area and they are all booked until July!  So we're going to Home Depot!  Yay!  Greg got a water pump and he spent the next few hours getting drenched in the rain, flushing out the tanks, then adding bleach & water from the campsite to sit for 12 hours.  It wasn't a banner day...so far.

I had passed out around 7pm or so.  Greg had gone to the store.  I woke a little while later hunting for food and heard a loud knock to the sound of "shave and a haircut, two bits!"  A voice says "ya got any sugar?"  I'm thinking, what?  What time 
is it?  I shout "hold on" as I frantically look for sugar wondering "Do I open the door?  Is this some nut? I'm here alone!".   I decide to discreetly pull up the shade and see what I was up against, and standing there are two of my dear friends waving!  I lost it, hysterical laughing and welcomed them in.  Wow, did that change around the day!  We all talked and laughed for hours!  I had texted one of them in the morning, saying we were heading to Wading Pines but never gave her the update...so...they drove halfway down the state in search of us! Met a nice lady there, Kathy, who drove them all over the campsite - but we were no where to be found!  They then called "just to say hi" and found out we were still at Turkey Swamp!  They agreed to stay the night (they did a lot of driving - more than us!) and go home early the next day...our first visitors!!  I literally fell asleep that night with a smile on my face.  We are blessed to have such good friends...

June 17, 2013 - Day Two

Today was one of those "listen to that inner voice" kind of days.  Since we went straight to Turkey Swamp (don't laugh - it's beautiful here!) campgrounds last night, Greg wanted to back track and start where he would have, if the ferries were running Sunday - in Belford Harbor NJ.    Left "Bessy" and took the jeep...

When we were at the harbor, Greg said there was some extra gear he could have brought, so after he took off, I returned to camp, picked up the stuff and began the "Search for Greg".  I am very happy there are technological devices to aid us in life, but when batteries run low.....

I was running a program called GPS HD MotionX which shows where I am and where he is (it's very cool), so I could follow the routes to get to him.  Unfortunately, it requires a lot of battery power to run.  I started out with 100% at Turkey that morning, and was down to 3%.  I plug it into the adaptor to charge it...and then, it died and panic began to set in!  

Driving in local New Jersey is an experience - with their no turn on left rule.  That added to my level of stress!  I look down...the cable is unplugged from the iPad (common problem among non-techies).  I plug it in and the inner voice kicks in...write down the directions on PAPER just..in..case. Thank goodness because it died again.  The power adaptor wasn't working.  Finally met up with Greg - the highlight of the day!   Greg found a Verizon store and I went directly there to get a new adapter.  Mine was so old the sales guys said "Whoa - they don't make them like THAT anymore!"   

I saw there was a Homegoods store in the same area.  The inner voice kicked in again. I'd  been to the stores near home, looking for a fourth glass for my daughter, to round out a set of only 3 given to her last year.  "Just check it out, youre here" - and voila!  They had one!! 

Spent the entire afternoon in Starbucks trying to do JUST ONE POST of DAY ONE in the blog.  If it wasn't for my daughter (who had the patience of a saint) helping me, I would still be in limbo!  I was actually getting tired of SB (bite your tongue Karen!)  I didn't leave there until 6pm - Greg beat me home!

June 16, 2013 HERE WE GO!!!

I thought of my Dad and how he would always say, the moment of absolute certainty never arises.  Since the days before our original departure date of May 1st, Greg and I have posed the question, "Should we go now, or later or now or later or...?"  So we finally decided, that there will always be reasons to postpone (some very important ones as has been the case with us) and then 2 days ago, it was decided, we just have to get up and git!

With that said, we are finally on our way, starting around 7:30 this morning, family in tow - my mom, Greg's brother, my daughter and son and my son's girlfriend, to NYC!  Some of us went up to the Empire State Building observation tower (Sunday is a GREAT time to go btw - we were up there within 10 minutes!)

After some tears, laughter and a zillion photos, Greg began his 4000 mile ride across America!!

And while he was winding his way through Manhattan, I drove back home to pick up "Bessy".  More tears, laughter and photos, and then I too began my RV trek across America.



Day One has already proved to be an example for us - be flexible!  Expect the unexpected!  After all, what would an adventure be without twists and turns in it?!!   So traffic, tire pressure mayhem, alternate routes, cabinet doors flinging open (and subsequent contents flying!), minor skirmishes with wildebeests, and foul water coming out of the fresh water tank, is all part of that "roll with the punches" mentality!

But hands down it was an incredibly uplifting, exciting day - having our loving family and friends there to celebrate this new beginning, sunny warm weather, and I got an added bonus...as I drove away from the house, my mom, Greg's brother and friends cheering and waving...my daughter following me in her  truck letting me know I was doing okay and encouraging me...then I see hands waving from a car as I drive north to pick up the main road and there were two of our friends again who decided to go for a drive and stay with me all the way onto the expressway!  Life is good.

Could it be, yes it could....somethings coming, something good!