Day 17, July 15, 2003

Rude in Jersey

Ride from Parsippany, New York to Grasonville, Maryland

We stopped for breakfast at a place called Minute Man. I had conjured up all kinds of images of the servers in 3 corner hats and vests of the era. I was sure surprised when I walked in and found a South American couple running the place. I guess if I had actually been back in that time period, I would not have been surprised by the proprietor’s nationality. The food was tastier than I had expected and the pastries they were setting out I wanted to take with me. Problem was I had no room. Karen was introduced to a dish called “Pork Roll”. I think she now thinks of it as a modified slice of bologna.

Everyone came from somewhere else then. We left the place and followed the signs to a place called Jockey Hollow. This is supposed to be a place that General Washington had used as a rear area camp, but I’m afraid I found it lacking. We left and I guess I then realized how used to that compass I had gotten. I had to stop and get it replaced.

I never really gave much thought to the fact that Princeton is in New Jersey until I rode through there. Cherry Hill I remember from the song, and the fact that all service stations in New Jersey are full service threw me quite a bit. I actually left a station because an attendant walked up to me and took my credit card from my hand. I ask him why and he said, “This is Jersey.” I thought that was a pretty dumb reason to be rude.

I missed another shot of a deer just about 15 feet off the road. I thought I had this one for sure. I spent a good share of the rest of the day trying to get the flash to work correctly, but I did get it.

We found that there are no sales taxes in Delaware, but their property taxes are high to offset this. Maryland on the other hand has got just about the best roads we have seen in this part of the country. We rode for over a hundred miles on a beautiful four lane rode with little traffic and almost no bumps in the road. It was almost boring.

We stopped a little early in a place called Kent Narrows just short of Chesapeake Bay and spent the evening dining at a little crab house right on the water. The view from the restaurant, and from our room, was perfect. On top of everything else, they could not get the lock on our room to work, so they had to give us a Jacuzzi room for the same price.

All in all is was a short ride, but a great day. It’s days like this that make me say, I’ll see you on the byways….