I believe I said in my last update that we were looking forward to going over the Geo. Washington Bridge and seeing the sights of New York....I'll get to that!
After having a longer nap than planned, we left the rest area at Branford, CT around 9:15 p.m., and headed south. The rain had passed by this time and roads and visibility were excellent. An uneventful drive for the first hour and then traffic started to back up...then stop. Hmmmm...what have we got ourselves in for? Bumper to bumper; lots of semi's disabled on roadways, that were also blocking traffic, just constant stop and go. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to go about 5-7 miles. Turns out evening road construction was the major culprit. 5-6 lanes of traffic merging into one lane just before the G.W. Bridge and then a detour just passed that. Once we got thru, the traffic picked up and no further problems.
On the plus side, the road signs/directions all the way through New York and Newark, N.J. were excellent and we had no problems going in the right direction. That area is so heavily populated and seems to be built on freeways. Not my cup of tea and, maybe it is my imagination, but you can taste the pollution.
We continued on until we got to Cranbury and pulled into a rest area (service areas they call them here and they are very large and can accomodate lots and lots of vehicles of all sizes). This was about 12:45 a.m., but by now we're wide awake and weary. So, watched a little TV to unwind and then to bed to listen to the sounds of reefers going on and off and trucks coming and going. In other words, not a restful night. After a breakfast at Dick Clark's (a fair variety of restaurants, shopping in these service areas)we hit the road again.
At this point we decided to head to Atlantic City, "New Joisey" as we had allowed ourselves an extra day to explore before going to Patricia'. So turned off I-95 on SR168 and then onto the Atlantic City Expressway.. On this part of the journey we hit toll roads that cost us: $30.50; $7.00 and the best was 75 cents. A little expensive! We pulled into Harrah's but couldn't find the assigned parking lot and wound up back on the highway!!!! So, after a brief tour of the city, a phone call to Harrah's Security we got the directions (we were supposed to go in the "do not enter" area!!!) and got ourselves settled in good time.
Went over to Harrah's for a light snack, explored the casino for awhile then back to the bus. We were both very tired so decided to have nap and then go back to the casino for dinner. Well, Dale slept right through and I didn't have the heart to wake him (he also has the sniffles so figured he needed the rest), and at 8:45 I went to bed as well.
Thursday, we explored downtown Atlantic City...definitely not the second Las Vegas. It is an old city that they have tried to revitalize with casinos etc and from the looks of things, it is not working. That, plus the economy must be playing havoc as there are not many people about. Maybe on a bright summer day it may be attractive, but rather doubt it. The advantage is that it is on the Atlantic and the views/seas are beautiful and the boardwalk would be wonderful place to explore. We didn't do the boardwalk because of the wind/mist coming off the water. Yes, we are in another storm!!!
Shopped the "Atlantic City Walk" Outlet Malls, then in the shopping area of the Tropicana Hotel, where we also enjoyed a delightful lunch. Of course, we always find things we didn't know we needed! Dale had been a great sport in doing all this shopping/walking but his knees were now starting to act up so time to get our feet up. He had new Rockport Walking shoes on and they certainly made a difference, but a couple of hours or more of pounding pavement does take its toll (and I must admit my legs were getting tired as well!)
We spent the evening on the bus; had had enough of casinos and bright lights for one day. That plus the wind was picking up and the rains had started. We are in direct line of the tropical storm coming up the east coast. Overnight it hit and fortunately the wind was coming from behind so the bus wasn't rocked as much as previous times, but with the wind was the rain and it did come down!! (make that, is coming down as it hasn't stopped.) Not as bad as Willington tho; where 21 inches of rain have fallen over the last few days and they have terrible flooding.
We're going to go directly to Patricia's today...it is about a 2 hour drive, might be a bit slower with all the rain. We are plotting our course so we can skirt Baltimore, keep east of the city and then go south to Pasadena.
A new day, a new adventure....till next time
No comments:
Post a Comment