Campsite

Obligatory photo of the campsite, particularly if at Wal Mart.

All for tonight

That's all for tonight.

Hopefully I can get caught up with the uploads tomorrow. After that we can get into more real-time updates which I'm sure you are sitting on the edge of your seats for!

We went to some really neat places today including some I never anticipated going to, much less driving a truck camper to. Plus the story of the dual rear wheels...

Barnegat Lighthouse and laundry time

After stopping at the Barnegat lighthouse we found a laundromat. Since it was past dinner time we decided to clean some clothes and make dinner. Perfect it was with herb baked chicken, potatoes, and corn. Afterwards we headed inland to get away from the excessive wind on the coastline. We went about 5 miles inland and found a Wal Mart to camp at. Still windy, humid, and a little on the warm side, but it is pretty peaceful for Wal Mart camping. Since this trip is around big cities and has little public land I'm sure this won't be the last Wal Mart campsite.

Atlantic City and Monopoly

Not wanting to spend too much time in NJ, but wanting to at least get a taste we decided to pick out a few lighthouses to stop at. One was in Atlantic City which was a very exciting place to be at 5pm on a workday. The casinos were huge and everywhere, but naturally most of the streets we were on were places you didn't really want to be. The Garmin Nuvi took us by a gay strip club, the homeless shelter, a park with 200+ homeless, plenty of drug dealers, and all the other fun stuff you get to see in large cities.

After a few minutes I noticed the street names were Monopoly property names. I'd forgotten that the properties from Monopoly were named after streets in Atlantic City. We finally found the lighthouse and the gates were closed so we found a place to stop and snap a few photos without getting shot. Bullet-free we got the photos and off we went.

I must mention how good people drive in NJ. People were polite and gave me plenty of room on the narrow streets in Atlantic City. On the Garden State Parkway people were courteous. After all I'd heard about drivers in NJ I must say it is much easier and more pleasurable than driving in NC. I've driven in most states now and NC drivers are by far the worst. Also, I must mention how friendly people have been in NJ. I'm really surprised.

Cape May Lighthouse and Bullseye Lens

Of all the lighthouses I've seen I don't recall ever seeing one with a directional bullseye lens. Instead of the traditional rotating beam these shoot a beam the captain lines up with another directional beam light to follow the channel. I think we have this method of navigation with day markers in NC, but not with lights.

More Cape May, Nature

There is lots of interesting stuff at Cape May. The small museum? had some great exhibits. Little did I know what I've always called a sand dollar is really a keyhole urchin. Notice the multiple holes vs one hole?

I've always wondered what the long shells we find are. They are Jackson Clams.

The largest frog I've ever seen. It was 1.5 times the size of a softball.

Final Cape May and the wind of Tropical Storm Nicole

With the tropical storm coming we had decided to get a spot in a campground with hookups so we could use the A/C with the expected humidity. We did so, but on Thursday when we got up we found the storm moved inland and it wasn't even raining though it was very windy. Then we had to decide whether to stay until Friday when epic hawk migrations were expected or move on northward. The weather has been poor for hawk migrations for about a week and conditions were expected to be perfect on Friday with winds from the northwest. Since Cape May is within driving distance for a long weekend trip we decided to move on northward. Before we did we went back to Cape May Point, the site of the hawk watch, to confirm nothing exciting was happening. nadda. Then we went to Cape May Bird Observatory which Pete Dunn is behind. That was a mistake as they have a large used book section. Loaded down with new to me books we headed northward.

We drove by the Cape May beaches and the houses were unreal. Also, noticed the flags on the top of the motel. That'll give ya some indication of windspeed today.

Did I mention how windy it was? Luckily we missed the rain on Thursday, but we got an ample supply of wind. Driving the big box would have been impossible on a single wheel truck, but luckily we now have a dual-rear wheel truck so it was much more manageable. Unfortunately that extra set of wheels is going to cost us later, literally.

Delaney's Bath

While we were walking the weims on the beach Delaney thought it might be fun to roll on a dead fish. I don't think I need to tell you how that smelled when she returned to the camper so she got a wash, rinse, wash, rinse bath in the camper. Fortunately all the smell came out. Lets face it, the camper isn't big enough for dead fish smell.

Cape May, NJ Hawk Watch and Bunker

We stopped at Cape May, NJ at the hawk watch site. This is the largest hawk watch site in the US. Every year hawk counters man the site during autumn migration and count the number of hawks that pass overhead. The counts have been going on since the 1970's. Unfortunately the weather had most of the birds on the ground. It was neat to see how it works and the people were really friendly which was surprising. In Texas many of the birders are elitists and all think they are cool with their Swarovski binos. At Cape May I didn't see a single pair of Swarovski's, but rather many different styles of binos. One of the chief counters was even using a pair of binos that looked to be of 1970's vintage.
http://www.birdcapemay.org/hawkwatch.shtml

We'll be back for more of this.

Lewes - Cape May Ferry

In our journey along the coastline we needed to get from Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ. Not overly excited about NJ, but it was in the path so off we went on the Cape May Lewes Ferry. This ferry is much larger than NC ferries holding about 100 cars and 800 people. We arrived without a reservation and easily made it on the ferry. Unfortunately it costs $52 one way! The ferry had 3 decks including the auto deck so there was plenty of room to roam about. With the tropical storm coming the seas were at the fun stage.
http://www.capemaylewesferry.com/

Sibley

Through most of the journey so far we've all four ridden in the front seat. In this shot Sibley was riding on Lisa's lap. Since he A/C was on he asked for his blanket.

Willis Wharf

We stayed at a neat little old fishing village on Wednesday night called Willis Wharf. The town, small as it was, even had on old style Western Auto which is more like a Sears or general store. We stayed at the county docks where there was maybe two dozen Carolina Skiffs among other larger boats. After reading some we found the fisherman grow clams on land then "plant" them in the estuary to be later harvested after they grow. I watched several fisherman come in loaded down with clams after only a couple hours of fishing. The clam traps were interesting too. They had big holes in the top. I guess clams are unlikely to jump, or climb out.
http://www.uap.vt.edu/cdrom/cases/willis.htm

There were also thousands of fiddler crabs when the tide went out. They appeared to have big swings in the tides.

dinner

Late, hungry, and tired we opted to have dinner prepared for us at El Maguey mexican restraint in Exmore, VA. EXCELLENT food, this place would shut down all the greasy mexican places in Burlington. However they could probably use a bit of interior designing. Not two tables or chairs matched each other in the whole 15 table restraint. Did I mention how good the HUGE fried ice cream was?

More CBBT and wildlife areas

At the north end of the CBBT there was a lot of wildlife refuge land and tons of birds. Unfortunately we needed to move on plus daylight was fading. At the rest area on the north side a 18 wheeler pulled up behind the truck to ask about the truck camper. We chatted with him for 20+ minutes. He was on the way back from MA with half a load of cranberry sauce (Thanksgiving) destined for his home state of Florida. The people you meet on a journey are always interesting and this guy was no different.