I am pretty committed to not taking freeways to get places, but it’s taking its toll on me. Today, Sunday afternoon about 4pm, my plan is to drive to western New Jersey, which was the other place I considered meeting Dylan. But again, I took the scenic routes, and again it was half scenic and half really annoying, and again I ran out of daylight and ended up at yet another Walmart, this time in Dover, New Jersey.
As always, it was very comfortable once I settled in, but I am not giving myself the proper mix of being there time versus getting there time. Lately it’s been all day on the latter, not much of the former.
Monday
Along with Walmart, the other chain establishment that is a recurring event on the trip is Panera. The first one I encountered was in Ohio, I enjoyed it, and have been to 2-3 more since. They have acceptable food, good pastries, free wifi, and serve-yourself coffee refills, which pretty much hits my sweet spot for a morning place. Went to another in the shopping megaplex surrounding my Walmart this morning, then headed off to find the Eastern Shore – DelMarVa – as it’s called. From where I am to where I want to go, Philadelphia is pretty much smack in the way. Google tells me to just blast straight up the gut, I-95 through Philly to Delaware.
But nooooo, I’ve gotta take the side roads. It was the usual progression. I started out feeling great about my decision. Central New Jersey is actually a lovely place – woodsy, lots of open space – forests and hills and pretty colors and quaint little towns, so I was bopping along feeling good. But as the day wore on I got closer to the Philly vortex, and the various flavors of rush hour started. First is the school buses starting around 2:30 and going on till after dark for some crazy reason. Then the regular rush hour, and surprise, I spent the next four hours in rush hour traffic of various kinds worming my way through the no longer pretty or quaint exurbs of Philly, across the Delaware River (very cool!) into Pennsylvania, to a few exits of I-95 to a left into the top of Delaware.
Delaware campgrounds cost about $30, which I am just not down with, so I blew my last 1/2 hour of daylight looking for a state forest camping area that I absolutely could not find. So SURPRISE!, I ended up at yet another Walmart, this time in Dover Delaware.
So the thumbnail of my day is: Dover (NJ) Walmart to Dover (DE) Walmart — livin’ the Walmart life on the eastern seaboard … sigh …
Tomorrow I plan to check out cool-looking wildlife refuges, which had better happen, because the last coupla days have seemed suspiciously like work.
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