Day 6-7 Moving to Cape

Day 6-7 Moving to Cape May

The last day at Barnegat started with another chiropractor visit and it really helped Ruth
get that back and legs straightened out.
Before we headed for the “Dock” roads we travelled across the connecting bridge to Long Beach Island. It is one of those Barrier Island that house thousands of summer cottages. (Well there are some mansions, too.) At the north end (12 miles) from the bridge through solid housing, is the venerable old lighthouse "Old Barney” or the Barnegat Lighthouse. It stands majestically at 173 feet measured from the Fresnel lens on its top floor. This is a popular spot as it is accompanied by a huge beach, the only coastal forest in New Jersey (now 2 acres) and a wonderful, small but well kept museum, explaining the sands, ships and history of the area. On the way in to the light we had to detour a few times to bypass the 30 mile bike/run Biathlon that started and ended on the mainland. . We ate lunch there in the sunshine.
The rest of the day was spent in looking for more
The rest of the day was spent in looking for more “Dock” roads at the end of which was… of
course the end of the road and the Ocean. Some of
these yielded some birds but aside from the Purple Martins in many “P.M. housing colonies”
At the end of one “Dock” road we saw a huge structure that looked like a new business, restaurant or official government structure. The difference was that it was painted a burnt red. Now this building was fully 5,000 SF with at least three floors and had a particularly off shape to it with many angles and slants to the form of it.
Two men were eating lunch, one with a black beret. I suspected maybe it was an
artist’s gallery. Close! He was a retired architect from NYC who had a dream to build at the
end of one of the roads on the Ocean. Problem was he was using fiberglass as the outside
covering and the sun had begun to already wreak havoc on the material. He has hired an
“expert” from PA to bail him out and they were at lunch when we saw them.
He was born in Egypt and obtained his MA at the U of Michigan.
The last Dock Road, named Parker Run Dock Road had been renamed simply “Dock”
Road and we found that with some help, although it was less yielding of birds and we did not
linger long.
The final leg of the day was a return to Forsthye NWR to see if we could find the Eagles that were seen there earlier in the day. No luck on that. Although the wind had subsided some it was still at 20 mph, so birds did not venture out much. Ruth did get some Tern pictures.
The main businesses in this area, like many growing areas, are located not in the older
parts of town (there are no “malls” in the old sections) but near the Parkway which runs the
entire length of the NJ state. It has exits about every ten miles or so, and no facilities save the
ubiquitous service plazas which are located every 20 miles or so. There are no exits except at
those places. Being designed to traverse the Pine Barrens for the most part, it is a
good efficient system. The Parkway is parallel to the old State US #9 which also runs the
length of the state. “Old” US #9 where the town’s centers are located.
By the time we returned to the trailer that day, the temperature had reached 93 F and he
trailer, being closed up, was stifling. We opened it up and ran the fan a while to equalize
the heat. I think we got it to 83 by bed time.
By Sunday AM the temperature had already gotten above 65 F by 9 AM so we decided to get the laundry done on the way to the new site at Cape May (NJ). Wash $3.00 /load and dry $1.25 per load for 25 minutes It was just after 12:00 noon when we pulled out of the Laundromat and headed south to Seashore Camping just outside of Cape May. The drive on the Parkway was smooth, gas was $1.87 and the air was warm. There were many buses going to Atlantic City, probably to ride the roller coaster there? No? Oh, there’s a casino there Ruth tells me.
Actually when we arrived to set up camp, it was 93 F again, and eventually got to 95 F before the afternoon was over. Setting up camp this time included putting the flags out (2 US of A), placing the bird feeders where we could see them through the kitchen window, and rolling out our new awning for the first time (It still smelled of vinyl). Anyone remembers the reason we have a new awning (see last letters from the TX trip two springs ago.)?The rest of the afternoon was a relaxing time, watching some sports on TV, reading, and just enjoying the heat! Our choice for supper was pizza and we finally found Irma’s Pizza and Deli place and enjoyed the AC restaurant... We watched the “John and Abigail Adams” DVD and called it a day. Can you hear how quiet it is here? Tomorrow some warblers?