Everywhere in New Jersey

It sure seems like I've been every where in this long, narrow state.

I've been to West Milford and around Greenwood Lake until I crossed over into the little town on the New York side.

I drove south to Somers Point and east to Ocean City (in search of Gay Talese's childhood haunts).

I've been out Route 80 to the end and beyond more times than I can count. And old Route 46 out to Denville is an old friend too.

One summer our vacation consisted of Jersey trips. We saw Edison's Black Maria; the Sterling Mine in Ogdensburg; the Great Falls in Paterson & the Paterson Museum; the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

For a weekend break we hit the Marriott at Newark Airport - their pool has an indoor and outdoor section and you can swim back and forth between them. On alternate trips we went to the far reaches of Parsippany and stayed at the Hilton or the Marriott. They were all close enough to home to come home and walk the dog and feed her twice a day.

I've been up and down old Route 9 and the Palisades Parkway.

I've circled Milltown and East Brunswick, and headed off to South Amboy and over that Route 35 bridge around South River.

I rode a mock-paddleboat on the Delaware River cruise out of Trenton - or maybe it was Camden?

Another time we were supposed to ride a yacht on the Hudson River to celebrate a new book release - but it was too foggy and we ended up chilling with the author and some of the people in the book at Arthur's Landing.

We've seen Pele play at the Meadowlands.
... John Prine play at Club Bene
... Springsteen at the Capitol
... Amy Grant at Holmdel
... the Muppets at the Meadowlands

Yeah, me, who used to think that anything south of Newark is South Jersey and should have been in the 609 area code, well, I sometimes feel like I've been all over this great old state, and the thing is, there's so much more to see.

Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.