For some reason we forgot to let Duke and Goblin know that we planned to sleep in until 9 am and they were up and about at 7:45 am. We were trying to stay quiet and decided to get up and take the dogs downstairs to let Ann and Ryan sleep and go figure as soon as we got downstairs Duke and Goblin fell asleep on the carpet while we organized our stuff and read for a while on the couch.
When Ann and Ryan came downstairs Ann made a killer eggs and ham breakfast and Ryan made coffee. (Our last visit is what convinced me to buy a French Press to make coffee. Ryan taught me how much better coffee could be.)
We hung out for a while, took the dogs to the park again then headed down to the car to load up again. Each time we loaded the car we had more room and this was no exception. I truly could put about twice as much gear on top of the car if I needed to.
We were leaving Philly about 2.5 hours after we originally planned but we only had 4.5 hours of driving so we didn’t worry about it. As it turns out we had no idea how much driving that 4.5 hours would become!
We headed out of Philly on 95 hoping to go over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge but decided to skip it because Sandra wanted to see the Yale Campus instead. We were cruising along fine until we came to the ticket station for the New Jersey Turnpike. What a mess that system is! And once you get through the line to get your ticket you get on the turnpike which in reality is just one big line for the cashier at the other end.
Along the way they have rest areas where you can wait in line for food or gas before getting back in line to check out. This has to be the system our Wal-Mart was modeled after, the lines are just as ridiculous. In fact the next time I hear someone complain about the lines at Disney I’m going to say, “Hey, it could be worse. You could be on the New Jersey Turnpike!”
We did get to stop before we drive into New York and Duke and Goblin made sure to leave their mark in New Jersey. If you are going to New Jersey and want to really enjoy yourself go to Cape May and be sure to avoid any toll roads.