One Lap

Date: 10/28/2013

Day: 32

Location: Lewes, DEL

Miles Today: 180

Total Miles: 7057

On the Road. Grover’s Mill, New Jersey; Atlantic City, Cape May, Ferry Ride! Seen on the Road

On the Road

Due east through the piney woods to the Atlantic, in fact to Atlantic city, mini Las Vegas of the seaboard. Funny small pine trees.

Grover's Mill

It is possible, just barely possible, that someone reading this might not immediately associate Grover’s Mill with American popular history. It is the place, of course, where H. G. Wells located the epicenter of the Martian invasion in his War of the Worlds. It is the place that became instantly famous 75 years ago next Thursday (on Halloween, again “of course,”) when Orson Wells broadcast his Mercury Players radio play based on Wells book.

One Lap has been pointing in this direction for some days, the process complicated by dawdling at museums and the fact that, strictly speaking there is no such place. It is a township, not an incorporated town and you will not find it in any gazetteer. It is located about 20 minutes from Princeton, New Jersey in gentleman farmer country, somewhat like Marin County without the hills. They do grow some pears here commercially, but the Colonel thinks they mostly grow tax write offs.

If the Colonel were looking for a place not too far from New York to land interplanetary vessels, these open fields would fit the bill.

It is beautiful, a classy bedroom community for university types.

Nice house with red door.

The flame is kept alive at Grover’s Mill Coffee, a pedestrian coffee emporium in a strip mall, with memorabilia of the great event. Actually, they do pour a good cuppa.

And they do have an interesting if small collection of WOTW memorabilia. The memorabilia front is complicated because there is the book, the radio program and two movies to memorialize.

If you look long enough and ask enough questions of people who mostly have no idea what you are talking about, you find the marker:

This stele marks the actual spot where the Martians landed during the Wells broadcast. Of course it does.

Allentown?

Yes, in addition to Fort Dix, the road to Atlantic city passes through Allentown. No monument to Ruby Keillor or 42nd Street was seen. Maybe it is a different Allentown.

Atlantic City

In order to get to the coast from pretty much the middle of New Jersey, it was necessary to pass through the piney woods (and Fort Dix) to Atlantic City, a once in a lifetime chance to check out the Boardwalk and environs.

5 HRS for .50!!

First thing you need to know about Atlantic city: the Colonel got five hours of parking for fifty cents. If you look closely, you will see a hand written note inside the meter (classy) that says 15 minutes for 25 cents.

Now:

It could be that the meter is broken.

Or it could be that the city fathers want the Colonel to feel lucky so he will head for the tables. If so, it didn't work,

Scenes from the Boardwalk in late October:

Old guys

The Colonel is not sure what mojo is, but there are a lot of his peers here who seem to have lost theirs. Maybe they are old and ill. Maybe they are Russian Mafiosi keeping their heads down. Maybe they are in the witness protection program. But there are lots of guys not moving much. Everyone needs a One Lap. For some, it is once around the world alone in a small boat, for others it might be walking the length of the Boardwalk. But just sitting there? Bum way to go. Do a lap guys, you pick the lap.

Mr. Atlantic City

Boardwalk boards. Nicely done -- probably redone after the last hurricane

The message seems to be that if you drink this rum you will not be able to see the sea even though it is only a few hundred feet away. The two bill boards side by side is cute, thought.

Tee shirt humor:

There is a bit more to Atlantic City than the casinos and the Boardwalk

The Colonel does not know and does not want to know what they serve here, but it does involve a Hello Kitty with articulated waving arm.

Ocean Therapy is another mystery. There is no indication of the service offered, but whatever it is, there are TWO video cameras focused on the front door. Best remain another mystery.

Nice building, though. Really like the moldy turquoise and black around the upper windows. Always ignore the first, commercial, story. Those change every ten years. The upper stories sometimes retain character for a century. It looks like the HI-FIVE phone store building was once something interesting.

Of course you knew that the streets names on the Monopoly board are all from Atlantic City. Of course you did.

Cape May

Our journey was constructed to take us across the Delaware Bay by ferry. The very bottom tippy end of New Jersey is Cape May. From here a ferry does the hour and a half crossing to Lewes, Delaware. The Colonel, paying attention to no scheudles on this trip, missed the 2:30 ferry by about 20 minutes and had three and a half hours to kill as a result. The nice ferry ticket lady (that will be $37.00, please.) suggested he spend the time in the city of Cape May, which turned out to be a high class beach town and fun to compare e to the boardwalk.

There are some very nice buildings from ca 1880 in Cape May:

And a nice RC church. What's the name?

Check it out Joyceans.

The BVM herself.

And a nice fountain. They don't have that in Atlantic city.

Ferry Ride!

Gotta love ferry rides, longer is better.

And this one has a waiting area with free miniature golf! Never seen that before.

Cape Henlopen is the Delaware landing.

The Colonel does not want to be a home boy, but...

This is the Atlantic ocean? Seriously? Yup; the next parish is Our Lady Star of the Sea in Dublin. It can kill you if you sail on it. It can kill you if you swim in it. It can come up on the beach and kill you on land during a hurricane. But today it looked like lake Tahoe on a calm day.