I’ll keep this one brief because I’m not gonna lie, I’m darn tired! We woke up in Cookstown and ate a quick breakfast snack in the hotel lot. We made our way south on the High Point to Cape May Bicycle Route past Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, which was mostly uneventful until a few dozen soldiers opened fire with fully automatic weapons at a range we had just pasted. Then we made a good call to secure lunch in the next town before heading South into a much less populated area.
I saw a police car sitting in the back of a grocery store parking lot, so we approached and asked where the best place for lunch was. He directed us to a local sub shop and we packed a large sandwich, pickle and chips and got back on the road. It’s a good thing we did!
The New Jersey Pine Barrens are, well, barren. And huge—they take up like a third of the state! We stopped for a while at some sort of fire watch facility and ate lunch at their picnic table. The monotonous surroundings were occasionally broken up by a huge clearing with sweeping vistas and huge farms. There were a few really beautiful cranberry farms in one section.
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
We stopped at an old store at a crossroads and I had a cold candy bar. We stopped at an interesting lake with an inviting dock. And again, we found ourselves at a small cemetery right when we needed another break. The universe does indeed seem to provide exactly what you need when you’re traveling like this.
After about fifty miles, we found ourselves in a little town called Egg Harbor. My wife called and while we spoke Dad looked at the map and made a plan of where we would stay. We would depart the HPC Route and head towards Atlantic City. In about a dozen miles, we would reach our destination for the night near Pleasantville.
We found a nice hotel, walked over to Walmart, and then dinner at a Texas Roadhouse. I scouted a nearby foot massage place and took a Lyft. It was heavenly! My feet and legs feel completely renewed and I’m hoping they still do in the morning. The weather is looking marginal for tomorrow and we have to make some decisions when we wake. It’s only another forty-five miles to Cape May where plan to catch a ferry to Delaware. We’re not in any hurry, but it looks like something in the area may be inflating the hotel prices. As far as planning goes, I think that tomorrow may be our most fluid day yet.