Back Again

And isn't it highly inconvienient with the holiday in the MIDDLE of the week?

We went to the Jersey Shore again. I'm getting kind of fond of the place. The idea of having buttered rolls offered as a breakfast food is less odd than it was, "how YOU dooin?" is an appropriate greeting, and big hair is just the way it is. The traffic, however, is an entirely different matter. This whole business of a jug handle turn (because you don't make a left turn across traffic - ever) just strikes me as a colossal waste of time. HOWEVER.

This time we stayed in a campground near Tom's River. Which is about 12 miles (or 40 minutes on a Saturday afternoon) from the beach. It's a great wooded campground, tucked back in suburbia. There were lots of RV's there, but the management is a class act. There's a big common area, with grills and picnic tables, special events galore, and the cleanest bathrooms I've ever encountered in a campground. We camped on an island, which is connected to the main campground by a footbridge, is for tents only, and you pack in all your stuff.

I had my 'puss face' on when we first got there, as it seemed weedy, buggy, and generally unsavory. The first spot we looked at had remnants of plastic caution tape still on the trees. We moved upriver, because that was too much like a crime scene. We eventually set up camp at the end of the island, near the stream (which was the color of Coca-Cola, Obbie says the water is very high in iron. Looks like Coke to me!)

I spent a half hour trying to fix the tent poles. After 15 years, the shock cord in the pole finally broke, so I tried to thread the goddamn thing up again with new shock cord. Bah. Long story short, we went to Walmart (Yeah, yeah, fuckin' Walmart-in Jersey on a Saturday afternoon, just shoot me) and bought a new tent. Which looks kind of odd, but worked out fine. Except when we took it down this morning, the shock cord in the one pole broke. Siigh. Thats Obbie's fun job this week-to redo all the cords in the tent poles.

After all the set up fun, we got big sub sammiches and went to the beach. It was just nice sitting on the beach observing all the people, and taking in the surf, sun and sand. Thats my favorite thing in the world. We were there til about 6:30. We got showered and changed at the bath house, and went down to the boardwalk, where we had a couple beers, a slice of pizza, and indulged in some serious people watching.

We always get up early, and today was no exception. After coffee, we started breaking camp, and as I was putting stuff away, I felt like I was being watched. I turned around, and strolling up the bank was a flock of a dozen Canadian geese, coming right up to me. They seemed to feel that I was providing them brunch, so I obliged, giving them what we had - a few Tostitos and a hard roll. The biggest and boldest let me feed him from my hand, and pinched my fingers for me kindness. After proving there was nothing else for them to have, they all waddled back to the stream and swam off. It was most bizarre, but not out of the ordinary.

We left shortly thereafter, and after a quick trip to the local bakery for the best crumb cake EVER, we rolled out of town. Obbie missed the turn off to the PA turnpike, so we ended up going the extremely round about way thru Newark, and then back thru New Hope. I'd always heard about New Hope, but never had been there. Once it was a beautiful artists colony, and now it's a touristy trap sort of place, with boutiques (booty-q's) and fudge shoppes. Gag me. I'm glad we were passing thru, and not stopping awhile. It was just weird.

Finally we were home, and I'm now steeling myself to go BACK to work, for a week that I predict is going to SUCK. Obbie, however, worked his last day on Friday, and will start at least a week hiatus tomorrow. He resigned his position because of a multitude of things, none of which will I go into here. Let's just say he's better off not working than working in that kind of environment.

And tomorrow (or Tuesday) there will be a big surprise here. HA. Wait and see!