New Jersey - Day 19 - Pine Barrens

Clarksboro KOA
Wednesday, 19 December 2018

today's route

I wanted the dogs to have another day of day care, which meant I'd need to find a route that wasn't too far from there so I could pick up the dogs before I started to lose daylight.  Ever since I first heard of the Pine Barrens, I've wondered what on earth that meant, so today I went to find out.

I was a little nervous about driving at first - especially over bridges - because it was about 25° this morning, the ground was a beautiful silver from all the frost, and most standing water was completely frozen.  But the sun was trying hard, though the wind never allowed it to get truly warm - but at least the frost didn't affect the roadways when I was out there.

Part of the drive was along Route 55, the road I took to Cape May.  A home along the road has lifesize cutouts of Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby in "White Christmas" attire - makes me smile to see them.  I love that movie.

All over the state are branches of a business called Wawa, and I finally looked it up.  It's from a family that started a dairy in 1902 in Pennsylvania, opened a Food Market in 1964, then expanded to New Jersey (1968) and Delaware (1969), opened a store in Orlando, FL (2012), started selling gasoline somewhere along the way, and now has more than 500 stores.  It's partly employee owned, considered a convenience store, and has an in-store bakery and deli.  Apparently, customers are in love with their coffee.

It was an actual news item on TV a few mornings ago that Wawa was opening a new store in downtown Philadelphia with no parking attached, intended for walk-in customers, apparently.  People were wildly excited and waiting outside the door to be among the first.  I guess sometime I'll have to stop and check it out - but coffee?  A convenience store?  Guess I'll have to see for myself.  By the way, I have no idea at all where the name came from - no clue from their website - nothing like the name of the original dairy owner.  A mystery.

Hammonton is a sizeable town near the Pine Barrens and calls itself the Blueberry Capital of the World.  And I can say from personal observation that there are fields of blueberry plants for miles around.

a sea of red flowing into the distance

Small businesses and farms all around this area.  One of them is Little Buck Organics with a website that makes me think schooling wasn't a priority in this family.  But I'm sure their blueberries are as tasty as they claim.  littlebuckorganics.com/ 

On down the (state) Pine Barrens Byway to Batsto Village, a restored historic village located in Wharton State Forest, part of the Pine Barrens.

My most pressing question at Batsto was where on earth did the name "Pine Barrens" come from?  Did the word barren mean something different 300 years ago than it does now?  And I got my answer before I even got inside the visitor center.

Apparently, barren meant exactly what I thought it meant, even 300 years ago.  The first settlers thought the land was too sandy and boggy to farm.  That was before they thought about farming blueberries, which are native to the area and thrive in this soil.

This land sits on top of the Cohansey Aquifer, as deep as 300' in some places, with a water table that is just inches below ground.  Great for some plants and animals, lousy for others.  There's a Pine Barrens Tree Frog, that lives here exclusively.  There are still vast forests of pitch pine and post oak that cover a large part of New Jersey.  Take another look at the map of today's route and you'll see what I mean.

This area was once used by the Leni Lenape (pronounce all 5 syllables) tribe, who sold some of the land to European settlers.  The name Batsto has been used for this area even before a village was founded here.  The name may have derived from the Swedes, who settled here in 1640 and use the word "badstu" to mean "bathing place."  Or it may have come from the Leni Lenape themselves, who lived here since about 1000 BC and use a similar-sounding word that also means "bathing place." 

What Batsto Village and museum are commemorating is basically a company town.  The Batsto Ironworks was established in 1766, which was the beginning of recorded history for the area.  The family that started it also built a company village for the workers.  By the 1840s, the iron ore got scarce, but silica was plentiful so the company switched focus to glassmaking until poor management caused it to close in 1867.

There are many of these little villages all over the state that no longer exist, but the State of New Jersey has made attempts to salvage some of them, which is where Batsto Village came from.

among the many buildings still standing at the village

I skipped over most of the family history which the museum was full of, but was very impressed with some family artifacts.

quilt made by the Stewarts

hand-made lace bonnet, 1840s

Robert Stewart was the manager for the company for many years, and his wife Margaret was an entrepreneur herself.  Together they made this Rising Sun quilt, which was rescued from a house fire in 1874.  Mrs. Stewart made the lace bonnet, which I hadn't even noticed until I tried to get a closer view of the quilt for my friend Deb and suddenly saw it in my viewer.  Gorgeous work.

Interesting little museum.

New Jersey doesn't seem to have a public radio network of its own, probably because it's almost smack on top of WHYY/Philadelphia, which can broadcast all over this small state.  But it does produce some its own shows during the day and, in one of them, I learned about that billboard I saw the other day about how 30-something NJ municipalities had banned the use of marijuana. 

Actually, what I learned is that the state of New Jersey is considering legalizing recreational marijuana, with its use to be decided by each local governing body.  Apparently these places were taking preemptive action.  Sounds to me like it'll be a mess when they start implementing such a law, but it also sounds like they're having trouble getting this bill through the legislature and local control was a compromise position.  It'll be interesting.

I was the beneficiary of semi-modern technology today: my insurance agent, who I'd been exchanging emails with about an upcoming RV insurance deadline, called me to say today is the day to pay.  Not trusting online payments, and knowing my VISA account would reject a $2,100 charge (the price shot up for being a live-aboard), I paid her by check over the phone.  Amazing what can be done these days.

On my drive back to Glassboro and Pitman I passed a sign telling me the Trump National Golf Club entrance was this-a-way.  So I looked it up and, sure enough, there are 3 Trump National Golf Clubs in New Jersey and the one I passed is the one in Philadelphia, except it's about a half hour drive away from the city limits but - hey- so what.

And I was very fortunate to see Santa Claus - yes, all dressed in red and white - loading up a white SUV.  Really.  I couldn't believe that was what I was seeing but I was.  Hopeful, somehow.

Dexter did very well in day care today, but what with the holidays there's only one more day they'll be able to go before we leave the state.  Well, at least we had this much.