Monday, 10 December 2018
By about 5:30 this morning, we'd run out of propane and, therefore, heat. The campground office doesn't open until 9:00, so I spent some online time trying to find another propane source anywhere in the vicinity, to no avail. Well below freezing outside so, after awhile, it got pretty cold inside. When I finally noticed both my puppies sitting in front of the heater, looking up at me telling me to start it up, I caved. I started the engine and ran the regular engine heat for a half hour until the inside temp got close to 70°, and everybody started acting like themselves again.
We were waiting at the propane tank at 9:00 and they filled us up with 9.7 gallons, the most I've ever needed before, and I hope it's the last time (though doubt it). The tank holds 12.8 gallons but can't be filled full as the propane needs room to expand in the tank (though I'm not clear on the process it goes through). I just know it was empty because the heater wouldn't heat any more, which seemed pretty decisive.
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| today's route |
The road down to Atlantic City - on the other side of the state, as you can see - showed me more farmland and horses all along. Multiple wineries. Bonesaw Brewery.
The road went by Rowan University in Glassboro. It seemed pretty big so I looked it up. It was started in 1923 as a normal school for training teachers and is now a highly ranked regional university. Reminded me of the evolution of Southwest Texas State Teacher College in San Marcos, where I went to school for a bit.
I passed a tree farm. This whole part of New Jersey has pine trees everywhere - easy to see, now that there aren't leaves on the trees any more.
In Hammonton I came across the Atlantic Blueberry Co. and, since I didn't know this was blueberry-growing area, I looked it up. It was started in 1935 by a batch of 2nd generation Italian brothers, who planted a bunch of blueberries - and now it's one of the world's largest suppliers of high-bush blueberries. Shows what immigrants can do for their new homeland.
Everywhere I've been driving I see frost on the roads and patches of snow in the shaded areas. It's just not getting warm enough in the daytime for it to disappear. There's still some at my campsite, actually.
Coming into Atlantic City I passed an enormous Jewish cemetery. Huge.
I passed a large sign proclaiming: "Julia, World Renowned Spiritualist." Almost tempted to stop off and check it out.
As I got close to the city, I passed dozens of cheap motels, reminding me of seaside towns everywhere. Corpus Christi, for instance, has the same array. But Atlantic City has such a casino-type reputation I tend to forget it's on the Atlantic Ocean.
When we got into town, we found this temple-type thing, and I have no idea what it's about.
As you can see, Ventnor Ave. is one of the streets at this intersection, inescapably reminding me of our old Monopoly board. In fact, that board kept hitting me in the face. I saw St. James Place, Pennsylvania Ave., Tennessee Ave., New York and Kentucky and Indiana and North Carolina and Connecticut Avenues. Pacific and Atlantic Avenues. They're all right downtown.
I remember coming through town back in the mid-1980s with my husband and step-daughter and thinking it's no wonder Baltic Ave. was so cheap in the game, because it seemed practically a slum area in real life. Well, I didn't see it this time, but the town seems to have done a rethink about its ambiance.
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| Pacific Ave. today |
As you can see in this photo, lots of the old buildings have been knocked down, replaced with parking lots. But some are clearly still there and it's not hard to see what grandeur was once here.
When we got to town, I accidentally drove straight onto the Boardwalk. One thing I noticed all day was that this town obviously doesn't expect anybody from out of town to drive in it because there were no helpful signs for motorists. No "dead end" signs (I found, to my inconvenience). No sign that would have told me not to drive on the boardwalk. I didn't know the road ended. It looked like it just went over this little hill and kept on going, so I did - or tried to. Some outraged pedestrians kept staring at me as I tried to turn around, wondering how much weight the thing could stand.
We parked nearby and I walked the dogs twice and we had some lunch. Very strong wind coming off the Atlantic, but it was sunny so nice out of the wind.
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| Step #2 - off the boardwalk onto the beach path |
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| Step #1 - the boardwalk & buffer zone |
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| Step #3 - greet the Atlantic Ocean |
The dogs do love the beach. They sniffed and rolled and ran (pulling me behind them) and had a great time, not noticing the wind. (But I did.)
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| looking along the beach to the casinos |
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| the boardwalk |
Take a look at that little hotel in the boardwalk photo. Actually, it's not a hotel - it's now condominiums. But to me it's like a neon sign saying "1960s!" It's right next to what was once a Hilton (the sign's been removed) and as soon as I saw it I thought of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack entertaining at Atlantic City.
Casinos everywhere, of course - Bally's, Tropicana, Caesar's Palace, Hard Rock, Harrah's. Even a place called Oh St. Joseph Resort Club. (Huh?) But my favorite building was a restaurant.
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| Knife and Fork Inn, established 1912 |
Pretty neat looking, huh? I saw it coming near that round columned structure and took this photo out the cab window. Those are little crossed knives and forks on the sides.
We took some different roads on the way back and passed a flock of sheep.
I saw people outside their homes either decorating for Christmas or raking leaves - lots of both.
Odd kind of trip - felt as much like time-travel as anything else, though most of that was done in my mind.
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