Sun, rain and a purple finger

Jay with figurehead

Rainy days give Jay a chance to rest and we get a chance to explore where we are. We ended up in Beach Haven, NJ for two nights and took the opportunity to visit the Museum of New Jersey Maritime History. There were a number of articles from shipwrecks, including the Andrea Doria.  

There was also a lot of old diving gear, hundreds of pages of maps, old newspaper articles, photos of people who had caught 40 pound lobsters, and scrimshaw, just to name a few.  We could have spent the whole day there there was so much to see. 

For those of you who knew Mary Sherman, we had dinner with her sister Ida on Labor Day. She lives on the 16^th floor in a penthouse apartment. She has a wrap-around patio with lots of trees, bushes and flowers. We ate outside at a table on the east side and enjoyed the magnificent view of the New York Skyline and Central Park, which is only two blocks away. Ida had just returned from one trip the day before and was headed out again on Thursday, so she stays busy!

Since last Sunday Jay has ridden through New York, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. We are currently camping in Rehoboth Beach, DE. At last count, Jay’s ridden his bike well over 1,050 miles and Helen has driven the car 3700 miles! Quite a few of those miles were for her to make trips to urgent care. We were staying in a hotel in Edison, NJ (home of the World’s Biggest Light Bulb, which we didn’t get to see because all the roads leading to it were under construction!). Helen decided to clean her tennis shoes and stuck her hand inside one and got bitten. Ouch! It stung like a bee or a spider, but we couldn’t find anything to verify it. Her finger swelled up and turned dark purple. She drove to urgent care, saw a doctor that prescribed antibiotics, and now she is well on the way to recovery. No more purple finger!

Atlantic City Boardwalk

We enjoyed an afternoon together in Atlantic City and walked up and down the boardwalk taking in all the sights and sounds. We each enjoyed an ice cream, and Helen took a ride on the biggest Ferris Wheel we’ve ever seen! 

We walked into a couple of casinos and saw how people play the slot machines. They’re electronic and there’s no “arm” to pull. The player just sits there and pushes a button. Almost every time they hit the button they lose some money. 

One casino catered to kids, and all the games were aimed at getting them to ride a motorcycle, play a game with Cinderella or Willy Wonka or win a stuffed animal. 

Lots of loud music no matter where you go. Jay noted Trump’s boarded up casino on the far south end of the boardwalk, far from any other casinos or attractions. Poor choice of locations.

On the way out of town, Jay rode his bike and Helen drove. It was a beautiful sunny day with little wind, which made for good riding.

We took the Cape May Ferry to Lewes, DE yesterday. We have been making a point to see if we can get senior citizen discounts, and sure enough, we got one for the ferry! Jay calculated that he’d get to the place in Cape May where Helen was to meet him about 2:00. There are 2:30 and 4:30 ferries. We decided not to cut it too close and get our blood pressures up, so we booked a space for us and the car (extra for the bike rack on the back) for 4:30. It ended up we got to the ferry loading dock at 2:15. The woman at the gate told us to park on the side, and if there was room they’d let us know. As it turned out, there was space for us on the 2:30 ferry and we got the last spot!

Our campsite is only about a 12 minute drive from the ferry dock in Lewes, so we were able to set up camp while it was still daylight and enjoy supper al fresco. Today Jay did a 70 mile “backwards” ride because of the strong southerly winds. Helen took him to the end point and they both rode back to Lewes, Jay on his bike and Helen in the car.

Shadow of Ferris Wheel at the beach