June 25, 2012

A total of 172 miles traveled today.  Wrong turns, a south entry, but no exit or visa versa.  Then there is Cape May.  You have to pay to park, then you pay to get on to the beach.  We did visit the lighthouse, but all in all......  We drove home via Wildwood to get a plan for tomorrow's adventure.

June 26, 2012

We're off to ride the boardwalk of the Wildwoods.  Wow, this is kid paradise.  We thought Atlantic City's boardwalk was crowded last Sunday.  Well, there are ten passenger bikes on this boardwalk and every other mode of non-motorized transportation you can think of.  The boardwalk was only two miles long, but since we forgot the camera and had to return to take photos we got in our ten miles.  Tom had a waffle ice cream sandwich and says it hasn't changed in the last 57 years since he had his last one.  We made our way up to Stone Harbor on the way home to look for Shelter Haven where brother John worked in the summers.  It has been completely torn down and is going to be rebuilt.

June 27, 2012

Off to Ocean City.  Did I mention that the Wildwood's charge $6.00 their beach.  We did get free parking and rode our bikes into the madhouse yesterday.  We also found free parking today and the boardwalk is open for bikes until noon.  They charge $5.00 to go to the beach, but the boardwalk is clean and orderly as compared to yesterday in "wildwood".  We looked for the store where Barb and I worked "back in the day", but it was no longer on the boardwalk.  Tom taste tested Brown's and Evo's donuts with Brown's earning his top rating.  Many beautiful gardens in the yards along the boardwalk.  Ocean City's boardwalk is 2 1/2 miles long.  We drove back to Atlantic City on the beach road and stopped a few places along the way.

June 28, 2012

 

The morning was taken up with cleaning car and trailer.  We're going to spend the evening in Atlantic City to see what goes on.  Basically just walked around ending up at the outlets downtown, then Tom had a cheesesteak and I had a salad at Hard Rock Cafe.  We checked our e-mail in the office (pictured above) and the headed home at 8 PM.

June 29, 2012

Fast moving thunderstorms early, but clearing off.  The "feel like temp" is predicted to be 105 degrees.  A beach day for sure.  We biked 20 miles today and then hung at the beach under our handy dandy umbrella.  It's 78 degrees here on the beach with a nice cool breeze.  By the time we got seven miles from the beach it was 98 degrees.

June 30, 2012

Scarier thunder storms last night.  No water, no electric, trees down all over the place.  We were very lucky not to have damage to us, the Tahoe or the trailer.  We are 15 miles out of the city and most of the electric is out between us and the beach.  We biked on the boardwalk and that was great, but decided to return to Egg Harbor in case something happened.  We went back into town and hung out at the Revel  as the casinos appear to have the only electric in the area.  We won't return until after dark and have decided to leave tomorrow and make our way north.  We're sure it will be some time before the electric and water are restored in Egg Harbor as there is so much damage.

July 1, 2012

We're all packed and ready to leave.  Noone seems to be around, so $20.00 refund on key deposit is questionable.  We're happy to be out of here.  The downed electric pole is still leaning into the house out front where the owners live.  We're on the Garden State Parkway and can I  say that their signage is not the best.  We did get an AAA TripTic for the trip around NYC - yep, a TripTic like the old days only this is computer-generated on 8X11 paper.  Well, today is our worst hold up ever.  A wreak on the Garden State Parkway.  So much for avoiding NYC traffic.  By the way, the temp is 111 degrees, six degrees off of last year's max temp of 117 degrees.  Another tidbit from our NJ experience - two hailstorms and a spontaneous complete stoppage on three-lane I-87 by people wanting under the bridge and out of the hailstorm.

July 2, 2012

Here we are in Mystic, Conn.  Got here last night about 6:30 PM after our fun-filled travel day.  We drove into Mystic to check things out and of course Tom needed to sample Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream.  The bridge is raised by two huge blocks of concrete.  We stopped at Old Mystic Village and looked around planning to return and stroll around the shops.

July 3, 2012

We biked over to Stonington, thru the quaint village and to Stonington Point.  Beautiful views!  Then it was back to Mystic for lunch at Latitude 41 for clam chowder and salads.  We rode about 20 miles in all by the time we returned to our camper.  It felt good.  Later we stopped at McDonalds to check e-mail and pay some bills and then stopped at the grocery.

July 4, 2012

We spend the entire day at Mystic Seaport Museum- a wonderful place devoted to the shipbuilding history of this area.  The entire morning was spent looking at the restoration of the Charles Morgan, the last whaling ship in existence.  Restoration experts are replacing board by board to return the ship to it's original state.  It goes into the water in 2013 and will sail in 2014.  We walked into Mystic for lunch at Bravo Bravo, the other recommended spot.  During the afternoon at Mystic Seaport Museum they had a parade, reading of the Declaration of Independence, a band concert and carriage and boat rides.  What a great place.

July 5, 2012

 

Biked into Mystic and strolled around until we picked up our kayak at 10:00 AM for a two hour river adventure.  A fun time was had by all.  Biked home and right into the pool to cool off and shower.  We are now at McDonalds doing e-mail and updating the blog as tomorrow morning we are off to the Cape for seventeen days.  We're hoping to park the car and not use it while we are there.