August 30th -31st, 2025 – One night stay in the home of new friends in Delaware from our Roadtrek group. After a craft fair in Arden Delaware, a great event by the way, known as “Arden Fair“, we wanted to spend the night somewhere leaving us the next day to explore. In the morning we headed to one of our favorite places, Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge. We saw so many birds, they literally appeared to be growing on trees in some places. A leisurely drive back along the coastal roads with a few stops. Then a walk along the Wilmington Riverwalk, where we got our favorite brussels sprouts for dinner at our usual Mexican restaurant on the Riverwalk, Taco Grande.
September 5th -7th – We camped two nights at Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. After a peaceful evening and night, we spent the first day at an event with Hillary in Burlington County. The Wood Street Fair might have been an okay event, had the organizers not called it two hours early, due to the forecast of a storm coming through. Although it was probably a good call, there is no compensation to vendors who paid a hefty fee to be there for lost sales. While we were in Burlington, we had lunch at the Union House since it was on our South Jersey Dining Card. It was not only extremely noisy, but the items we went for weren’t available during brunch. It was a bit disappointing but the food we did get was okay.
Since the weather wasn’t great at that point, we De Toured a bit to Pee Wee’s Ice Cream in Medford. Of all the places we get vegan ice cream, this has become my favorite for taste and texture. They had a fig flavor that was amazing. Then back to the campground. The next day we had plans to go to Lambertville for dinner and made a major detour to check out a Festival in Doylestown, PA, just because we wanted to see if the event was a good fit for Hillary next year and it fit with the weather that cleared in the afternoon. Still in the proper De Tour fashion we went back to Lambertville for dinner El Tule. We never get tired of their food, especially their ceviche.
September 12 – 14 – We had a short meeting we had to go to Friday morning in Cape May, so of course that called for a weekend at the Jersey Shore. We visited many of our usual spots, starting with brunch at the Mad Batter. We walked through town, followed by walking on the trails by the lighthouse and then Diamond Beach. We picked up dinner from Good Earth Organic Eatery and brought it to our campground, The Ocean View Resort, in Ocean View, New Jersey. It was kind of an odd campground, with a mix of year round structures, long term and short term campers. They have a lot of facilities including a pool, lake, big rec. hall and more, all of which close down after Labor Day. It had everything we needed, including a nice bath house.
We had no original plan to go back to Cape May the next day but after striking out on some whale watching trips, we found out that the State of New Jersey’s official tall ship, the AJ Meerwald was sailing from the Cape May Ferry Terminal and had openings, so we decided it was a great chance to take a ride we had always been interested in. It was a beautiful day for a sail. We all could help hoist the sails, I helped with the first one, but it was not easy, so I watched the rest go up. Once we were underway, one of the crew presented a very interesting history of the ship, who was originally built to harvest oysters in the New Jersey coastal waters. Returning to shore we headed back to camp for a quite evening.
The next morning, we checked out a place I kept reading about. On the 9th Street Bridge into Ocean City, New Jersey, they built a welcome center. I don’t think there is anything remarkable about the building, but we didn’t go in. It’s the “backyard” of the center, where there is a bird rookery. You can overlook the area and get really close to the large number of birds that nest there. Definitely worth checking out.
We then De Toured to the The Union Market at Tuckerton Seaport to get some take out for brunch. Then we had a picnic with our bounty at Whitesbog Village. I had wanted to go there to see the cranberry bog, which supposedly allowed a drive through tour, but it seemed we were a week or more to early to see anything. After we ate, we did walk some of the trails, which were a little buggy, a little confusing but still nice. We wrapped up a trip with a few errands and headed home until next time.
We did one more impromptu Spud outing before our soon to be posted bigger trip. An old friend and great musician, Andy Dimacale posted on Thursday night, September 18th that he would be performing the next night at Cedar Rose Winery, in Millville, New Jersey, about a half hour from our house. We wanted to go and hear him. I did a quick search and found that Cedar Rose, like many wineries is a Harvest Host. We decided to go for it, taking Spud and spending the night, even though we had to be up early the next morning for a local craft fair. We had a great night, eating food, trying their different wines, listening and even singing along. It was a small crowd, but they got more festive as the night went on and it became like a party. When the evening finished, we climbed into Spud and were soon asleep. I had prepared food we could eat for breakfast on the way to the event the next day, so we got up and were soon ready to be on our way.
October 11 – 13 Following an event in Medford, NJ with our daughter, we once again decided to head to Brendon Byrne State Forest. I had a Monday Holiday from work and we figured it would be a good time to test Steve working on hotspot / Starlink and I could relax and explore. We almost cancelled day one and then again on day two as a Nor Easter barreled up the coast. In the end we were glad we hadn’t. Saturday night was actually lovely and we learned a new lesson, when in doubt get fire wood. We still sat outside and enjoyed the evening. Then the rain started during the night and continued most of the rest of our stay. Sunday we went exploring in the area hoping to see some of the Cranberry Harvest. Even though clearing came and went we failed to find any bogs that were currently full of berries. We also tried to go to Popcorn Zoo, some place I’ve always wanted to visit, but it was closed due to the threats of the storm. Finally we went back to camp and used our inside time for some planning of our trips for the Upcoming Winter. The next day, Steve did work. Every time I tried to get out for a bit of a walk the rain seemed to know and picked up, leaving me to my puzzles and books. I got out for one short walk and talked to a friend while pacing the lakeside pavilion. I’d still rather be stuck in Spud in the rain then in the house.
The following weekend’s trip was to visit our kids and grandson in Long Island. We had tickets to see Come From Away Saturday night at the theater where our son works. It was amazing! I also participated in the local “No Kings” protest with about 3000 other people. We spent family time, had some nice meals and walks and parked SPUD at the Battle Row Campground as usual when in that area. We also found an interesting vegan restaurant in Linden, NJ on the way home. A very small place that was hard to find in a row of old shops on a main road but really worth it. If you find yourself in the area, check out the Vegan Factory!