New Jersey - Day 23 - Higher Education

Clarksboro KOA
Sunday, 23 December 2018
Our early morning walk today was more eventful than usual: both dogs scented or sensed or saw some deer, which I didn't see until the dogs got so agitated they scared the deer into running, at which point I saw several white tails and a batch of scrambling spindly legs.  There were at least 3 of them, feeding calmly by some of the RVs until our stumbling on them.  Sorry to disturb them and hard to calm the dogs down after that.

route

today's

These maps don't seem to want to line up for some reason.  The one on the left is the southern part of the route, and the one on the right picks up from its northern end.

My aim today was several institutes of higher learning.  First I set off for Rutgers at the main campus in New Brunswick.  All along the way I saw hundreds of Canada Geese - not just hundreds in the aggregate but hundreds at one spot and then at another and then at another.  There are so many of them they seem to have stopped flying south and are digging in for the winter.

New Brunswick
Rutgers University is the only state university in the US that doesn't include the name of its state.  I learned that factoid playing Trivial Pursuit many years ago with someone from New Jersey on our team.  You never know what information will come in handy in life.  It's an attractive school with many buildings reflecting its age - chartered in 1766 - and many others that show it's still a growing institution.

Old Queen's Building

(It's taken me at least 10 minutes to get this photo arrangement and I'm ready to throw this thing out of the window.)

The Old Queen's Building was the original building for what was then called Queen's College.  The name was changed to Rutgers in 1825 in honor or memory of one of its main benefactors.  The top plaque on the right above tells more about the building and is on the right of the building's door.  The lower plaque is on the left of the door and has interesting information about New Jersey's slave-holding days.

These buildings were on either side of Old Queen's and appear to be similar in age.  The one on the right, though, wasn't built until 1872 to house the physics, military science and geology departments.  Until recently there was a museum in there including a mastodon tusk that was discovered by a Rutgers alumnus.  (This info is on a plaque by the door which, as you might be able to see, is under renovation.)

As I drove out of New Brunswick, which is a pretty decent-sized city, I kept thinking about Emily Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey.  She's the main character in a series of mysteries by Dorothy Gilman.  Mrs. Pollifax got depressed by simply being a 60-something-year-old widow and growing geraniums and doing volunteer work (enough to depress almost anyone), and one day branched out to volunteer to be a CIA spy.  I still find the earlier novels in the series delightful and somewhat inspiring.

Princeton
My first stop wasn't at the university but at Learning Ally.  This is the new name for what used to be Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, where my momma volunteered for 25+ years.

About 15 years ago, I came here as Momma's guest when she came as a guest herself.  She'd been selected Volunteer of the Year and, along with others around the country, got an all-expense-paid trip for 2 to come to headquarters for a thank-you shindig.

We had a tour of the building here - back then they still used reel-to-reel recording equipment - I still remember all the reels on shelves.  And they gave a gala banquet in New York City with actor Danny Glover as the guest speaker.  Danny Glover himself has dyslexia and told us he had to memorize his parts because he certainly couldn't read them like everybody else could.  (It reminds me of James Earl Jones being a stutterer.)  Anyway, it was a nice trip and I was glad Momma got the recognition.

I went from there to the Princeton campus, but they're quite a bit stuffier there than Rutgers: I couldn't drive onto campus.  A guard at the entrance gate turned me away.  I guess if I knew the campus better I'd know another way in, but in my ignorance, I had to turn away. 

The only building I saw was labeled Princeton University Cogeneration Facility.  That seemed interesting to me, because it sounded like maybe a gym or something that several generations of families could use.  Uh-huh.  Turns out to be the building that generates power for the campus using several sources of power. 

I was a little miffed at not being able to see anything, so you can look up your own photos of the campus if you're interested.  I didn't bother.

Miscellaneous
I stopped off at a mall down the road because I needed to visit the PetsMart I knew was there.  However, that PetsMart shared a parking lot with Walmart, Best Buy and a half dozen other businesses, and I ended up parking almost a half mile away.

And when I got to the checkout, they told me the pills I got for Gracie cost $52.99.  I nearly choked and said WHAT??  Because I was expecting something closer to $30.  So the very nice clerk checked their online price and discovered it should have been priced $25.74, and she sold them to me for that price, saving me $27.25.  Very nice of her but we'd have never known if I hadn't said something.  What on earth are they thinking to put a markup like that on them.  It's just this store - I've bought them at other stores for the right price, so I know.

And then I got on the highway to go back to the campground and discovered that everybody in New Jersey must have been at a mall shopping, because the road was almost empty.  Nothing like going for a drive 2 days before Christmas.

So today was a little hit-or-miss.  Home run on Rutgers and Learning Ally.  Strike out at Princeton.  Foul ball at PetsMart.  (Heh heh.)

I decided I complained so much about the effects of the shutdown on my activities that I should write to my Congressional representatives, so I've done that.  Told Congressman Sam Johnson and Senators Cornyn and Cruz that I don't agree with the shutdown and, by the way, haven't they ever heard of tunnels? and also, Pres. Trump seems to have lived almost exclusively in apartments so has never had a dog tunnel under a backyard fence so wouldn't know this wall won't work, and also they should switch funding to tracking visa overstays, which is where the real illegal immigration problem is.  Don't expect they'll listen but had to try anyway.

I vowed I wouldn't get political on this trip, and I hope I don't offend anyone else's views, but I'm really irritated about the effects this shutdown is having on my life and, as I explain above, think it's for a reason that's a useless waste of money, so when I get irritated I spout off.  Ignore it if you want.