Allaire State Park

    Well, we finally went somewhere besides the movies and dinner. It has been kind of hectic in the RV Park as we had a whole herd of tenters come in to attend the three day Dave Matthews Concert in Atlantic City. They were a pretty good bunch, but the venue was really dusty and it took everything we could muster to keep the showers clean. Must have done pretty good, as we got several unsolicited congratulatory comments from the group. Anyway....

    Today we took a short drive northwards to the Allaire State Park and Village. This park is located in the town of Farmingdale and contains a nice picnic area, botanical gardens (with hiking trails), the “Village” is the restored Howell Iron Works Company, and the New Jersey Museum of Transportation. We spent most of our time in the Village but it is all very well manicured and interesting. On weekends and special events, the village is staffed by interpreters costumed in period garb who can relate to you the histories of the particular building that you are visiting. During the week, there is a skeleton staff and the place is largely a ghost town, but interesting nonetheless. The early development of this area included a sawmill and a forge during the late 1700’s. In 1822, James Allaire purchased the property and developed the Howell Iron Works Company. On this site there was a school, church, general store, blacksmith and tinsmith shops, a bakery and row houses for the workers. This, coupled with the large furnace and forge, made for a community of over 400 people. The source of the end product was a thing called bog iron ore. This ore formed near the surface in areas of poor drainage. It was removed from the nearby bogs and stream banks and refined (or smelted) using charcoal to fuel the furnace. They made their own charcoal from the surrounding forests. Products manufactured here included pots and pans, kettles, water pipes, stoves, sash weights, and architectural fittings. Around 1804-06, Allaire teamed with Robert Fulton and provided parts for his revolutionary new steam-powered ship (the Clermont). In 1819, Allaire cast the cylinder for the Savannah, the first American steamboat to cross the Atlantic Ocean. By 1820, Allaire was producing over 50% of all marine engines manufactured in America. Allaire enjoyed great success until the mid 1830’s when a series of events saw his empire crumble. The area stayed in the Allaire family until 1901. After a series of owners, it was turned into a state park in the 1940’s and has undergone extensive renovation since. 

    The heading photo is of one of the row houses. Here workers lived with their families. Rent was taken out of their pay. Downstairs was the kitchen and living spaces. Upstairs were the bedrooms.

    Inside the living area of one of the row homes. 

    Some had a small kitchen area in the back. Others used the fireplace in the living room for cooking. 

    Back in the bog area along the stream banks. here is where the bog iron was dug out of the earth. 

    Chunks of bog iron ore. 

    Some of the things made here. In the back center of the picture is a neat stack of what was called “pig iron”.  The molten iron was poured into molds in the sand floor and made into bars. These bars could then be shipped to manufactures for further refining and manufacturing of iron products. 

    There was a bakery where you could buy baked goods, or some of the workers could use the facilities to make their own bread for use by their families. 

    The General Store was the largest of its kind at the time. Four floors built of brick (the fourth floor can be seen on the opposite side of the building; the ground slopes and it is hidden from view in this photo). The basement or bottom floor held meats from the butcher shop that was on site. The first floor was the general store items needed for everyday life and the post office. The top two floors were for storage of items for later sale. Interesting to note, the building was made of brick. In order to keep the walls from bowing out and collapsing under the stresses, iron rods ran under each floor and were secured into the walls. On the outside of the wall, you can see the stars where the support rods screw into. Decorative and functional!

    Thirty cords of wood (logs cut and stacked 4’ high, 4’ wide, and 8’ long = 1 cord) were cut daily and stacked into piles. This intricate stacking was hollow in the middle and was filled with wood chips. The outside was covered in mud and the whole thing set on fire. Designed not to flame but to char, it took 24 hours to turn into charcoal that was then used to fire the furnace to melt the iron ore. This went on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

    All that is left of the furnace. Three buildings once stood here with this furnace in the center. The ore was melted and refined (smelted) and then poured into molds on the floor. 

    There were several more buildings on the property, but since we were visiting during a weekday they were not open and could only be viewed from the outside. 

     After leaving the Park and heading home, we drove down the road and turned right into Tel Aviv!!! We were surrounded by signs in Hebrew and by folks in skull caps and hats and dozens of guys dressed in Orthodox Jewish clothing. Seems that Lakewood, NJ (the town we were in) is a main hub of Orthodox Judaism and in fact is the site of of one of the largest yeshivas in the world! A yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional Jewish religious texts. Our path took us smack dab through the middle of the Institution. Quite a culture shock when you’re not expecting it. 

Cape May Point

    We had a nice leisurely day on our hands, so we decided to go to the beach. Something I’ve noticed about New Jersey:  if you want to go to a nice beach, you have to get something called a “Beach Tag”. What this means is that you pay a fee to get on the beach (kind of like a toll road). You can pay for a day, a week, or a season. And near as I can tell, a tag at one beach is NOT transferrable to another beach! Now we travelled a large portion of the Gulf Shores and never paid to get on a beach?!? Multitudes of toll roads and now pay for the beach? What’s next??? Charge for air to breathe?!? Anyway, I digress...

    Just a pleasant hour drive south of us is a little community called Cape May. This is about as far south in New Jersey that you can go. On one side of you is the Atlantic Ocean, on the other is Delaware Bay. It is a quaint little beach town with lots of shops and restaurants. In fact, Cape May was listed as one of America’s top 10 beaches on the Travel Channel. Cape May and nearby Cape May Point are renowned bird watching areas. Every fall, around 400 species of birds (and the Monarch butterflies) pass through this area in their migration southwards. 

    We drove through the town of Cape May and motored to Cape May Point. Here we “snuck” on to the beach to get a look. 

    As you can see, it wasn’t very crowded this day. The access point we came on to the beach didn’t say that beach tags were needed, so we just strolled right on. Later we found out that we were supposed to have a tag.  :-(

    Some of the “locals” hanging out at the beach. 

    On the west side is Cape May Point State Park. Near as we can tell, this is the only free access to the beaches in New Jersey! Here there are four different hiking trails all designed to facilitate the bird watchers. The trails vary in length from half a mile to four miles and they meander in and around the sand dunes and coastal shore. Here you can also find the Cape May Lighthouse (pictured at the top of this blog). Tours are given (for a fee of course) but we didn’t bother with that this time. Also on the beach can be found the remains of a WW II coastal gun emplacement. This was manned during the war and has since fallen into disrepair. There is a museum on site that chronicles the history of Cape May from the 1800’s to present and also has a nice display of the terrestrial and marine life that can be found in the area. 

    The gun emplacement on the beach.

    Just some of the birds that were hanging around on the day we were there. 

    The State Park is a nifty area. You have access to the beach, they have built several viewing platforms in which you can sit and watch the birds. There are picnic grounds where you can have a nice mid day meal. We will be back several times this summer and plan to make a day of it. 

    All around Cape May, there are homes with lavish gardens in full bloom. This is just one of them.  We have found this to be the case almost everywhere here, thus explaining New Jersey’s claim to fame--the Garden State.

    This is Lily Lake in Cape May Point. It is said that the pirate, Captain Kidd, would come ashore and replenish his fresh water supply from this lake. 

    All in all, we had a nice relaxing day and look forward to coming here again. 

New Jersey, Summer 2011

    Well, it’s been a couple of weeks but we have settled in nicely. Only one “nail biter” on the trip from DC to our summer home and that was in Baltimore. We had been seeing signs that vehicles with propane were not allowed in the Ft. McHenry Tunnel. We debated as to whether it meant RVs or not but took a detour at the last opportunity. Unfortunately, that detour took us into downtown Baltimore with its city streets and traffic. Next to a city bus, I was the biggest vehicle on the road. Lanes were narrow and traffic was pretty heavy. There was a lot of map reading and “discussions” with the GPS but we finally made it through. 

    The next item of interest is that it seems to me that all roads leading into New Jersey are free, but there is a toll to get out! Everywhere you go, there is a toll road. Tell the GPS to avoid toll roads and it routes you through some really small towns and roads. We finally made it into Absecon (our summer hometown--not pronounced as you would expect, but phonetically “ab SE con”) and found the next driving anomaly:  it is difficult, if not impossible, to make a direct left turn from some (but not all) intersections! You have to either get in the far right lane before or after the desired intersection (no rhyme, reason, or consistency as to which before or after!), then make a curving right hand U-turn to the intersection traveling straight through to your destination. This takes some getting used to. The last thing that we have noticed is that it is illegal in New Jersey for you to pump your own gas! Not only is there cash or credit prices (usually about .10 difference) but you have to wait until the attendant sets it up and fills your tank. Takes some getting used to. 

    Anyway, we arrived at our new digs for the summer and met with our new bosses, Rick and Kate. We got settled in to our new site and started work on Monday morning, May 16th. We clean and care for the showers, bathrooms, and clubhouse areas. So far we have done some gardening and cleaning up to spruce up the place for the summer. Hostas grow like weeds here, so we have planted several of them in the flower beds. We also went out and bought some annuals for the bed around our site (which is right next to the clubhouse, a new record for shortest commute to work!). 

    Above is the Office and Laundry room. We usually do a quick clean around the Laundry room every day during our shift. 

      There is a nice pool that we can use when not working. It will feel nice during the hot days of summer, some of which we have already experienced.  I don’t think Barb bargained for the heat and humidity here.  She was hoping for cool Atlantic Ocean breezes to keep it cooler. 

    New here this year is the Dog Park. Right next to the pool, the shaded area is great to let the dogs off the leash and let them run. Misty really likes it here and she has met some new friends that she can play with. 

    Some of the park’s residents have park models set up for their year round residences. Some here come up from Florida and beat the worst of the heat and humidity, then travel south to escape the winter cold.

    A couple of views of the clubhouse and showers. You can just see the nose of our motorhome just behind the clubhouse in the second photo. 

    Here is a shot inside the clubhouse. There is a full kitchen at the end, and a gas fireplace in the middle. That is an indoor shuffleboard table along the wall on the left. 

    Looking from beside the fireplace towards the back of the clubhouse. There is a piano in the foreground and a pool table sits along the back wall. 

    Showers and restroom facilities are a point of pride at Shady Pines. We work hard to keep them up to a very demanding standard. Just recently, we installed the full length vertical mirror opposite the sinks. 

    Our site is very spacious and well shaded. Above, Misty is trying to convince me that she needs to go for a walk and meet her friends at the Dog Park. We have a portable fire ring and picnic table at our site provided by the park. We set up our chairs and read or watch shows (so far mostly the NASCAR races) on the outdoor TV (located in a sealed alcove under the small window beneath the awning). The trees are a mixed blessing. They shade us from the heat of the day and keep the motorhome cool, but they block any chance of a satellite signal for Dish TV. Not to worry though, I found out that Dish will let you put your account on “Vacation hold” for up to six months. You only pay $5 a month and they suspend your account. You can start up again any time and get exactly the same service that you had before the hold. That allowed me to get cable installed to my site in the park and I pay essentially the same as I did with Dish. I can cancel cable at any time with no penalty so it is a great deal for our time here! 

    We haven’t done much in the way of touring. We needed to rest and recuperate some after the trip up here from Florida and our sightseeing in the south and DC. In the coming weeks we plan to venture out a bit and will share our adventures with all who read this blog. Hope you all have a great summer!!