Friday, with nothing better to do, Smartz and I decided to head to Jersey. The original plan was to go to Asbury Park and Iselin (basically “little India”) and drive back to Central PA.

To get to Asbury, I was told by GoogleMaps to take I-80 to PA 33 (which is now basically an interstate). While on PA 33 I saw a sign for Easton, PA and remembered this amazing little two-lane that went along the western bank of the Delaware River, PA 32. We drove through Easton, past the Crayola Crayon Factory, and picked up PA 611, which PA 32 shoots off of.

611 and 32 narrowly wind along the Delaware River and Delaware Canal. Now, I’ve never really been a big fan of canals. I’m more into trains and railroad. But still, a canal is historical, so I do have a certain thumping in my heart for them.

We were being tailed by another, more hurried, motorist, so I decided to pull over at a little state park made for the Delaware Canal Lock. There was basically no explanation for what it was that we were seeing, so I can’t really tell you what we saw.

The Delaware Canal tow path (where the mule pulled the boat) is mostly a walking/biking path. Parts of it were closed due to flooding, but you should be able to walk or bike much of its length. I believe there is also such a thing on the Jersey side, right across the river, but I’m not sure.

This site, Locks Number 22 & 23, had a few old houses, a few picnic tables and some signage explaining how the canal worked and how long it was in operation. A nice diversion, I’ve always wanted to stop at an old canal lock. No reason, really. Just did.

The road, PA 611, turned west and to stay along the river, I turned leftish on to PA 32. Originally, I assume, this was all the same road. PA 32 was thin and windy and pretty fun to drive. However, it gave me quite a scare when it went from a narrow two-lane with traffic able to move freely in both directions, to a weirdly narrow one-lane that use to be two. See?

There were no signs or anything like that to let me know that it was now a south-bound-only road. I basically freaked out. “What the hell?! What if a car comes from the other direction? What do I do?!” But a quick check in my rear view mirror assured me that it was now a one way road. The north-bound traffic were detoured around the wash out. They don’t appear too eager to fix this.

The houses along PA 32 are either really expensive or really run down. All are fun to look at, I suppose. There wasn’t much room to pull over to take a picture. But one house that I was able to capture really caught my eye. It was a small two story house on stilts, right up against the road and the river. I’d love to live in a house like this and can’t really imagine what it would cost. In one sense, you are guaranteed that you will be flooded. That would drive the value down. But you’re right up against a river in a nifty little house. That would drive the value up. Who knows.

Like our north-bound friends, we did have to detour around a washout. The detour took us past countless gigantic houses, most of them new. This was real excess. I didn’t take pictures and I realize that I should have, but think of a huge house, one that just makes you sick and then double it. The detour took us, all the poor people, on a parade tour of Bucks County’s most obnoxious homes. Maybe this was all part of their plan.

We passed through New Hope and there crossed over into Jersey. Once in Jersey, we took the route along the river, NJ 29, to where George Washington crossed the Delaware for a Christmas night (in 1776) surprise attack on some drunk Hessian soldiers. Go, George, Go!

The state park dedicated to it had some fun old houses and told the story, through signage, fairly well. There was also a really tiny bridge, just large enough for two cars to pass without hitting, that spanned the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. We walked across that and saw where ol’ George launched his 2,400 soldiers from on that chilly Christmas night.

Rather than finding the Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway or some other interstate, I decided that we’d drive across Jersey using nothing by a crappy Rand McNally Atlas and my sense of direction.

Shockingly enough, I was able to pull it off. We got lost a few times and, to be honest, there wasn’t much to see. But it was nicer than fighting for your life on the Turnpike.

We rolled into Asbury Park and the first thing that I noticed was that the Metropolitan Hotel was… gone. It used to be this amazing hotel. But now it’s a pile of rubble. Folks were trying to save it. I heard that it was saved. But I guess not. The 1960’s addition still stood, but the original, very majestic looking original structure was gone. I’ll have my old pics of it up shortly, but for now, check it out here and here.

We drove a block or two farther to near the Casino and parked. I knew that much of the Casino had been torn down. And again, I’ll have my own pics of it up shortly and will do a “before and after” post about Asbury.

So much of it is gone now. They’re building condos and folks are moving in (I guess). But so many of the old buildings that most thought were blights were the reason I went there.

There are a bunch more pics in the gallery linked at this end of this post.

Asbury Park used to really do it for me. And, of course, I’ll keep going back to check the “progress,” but this trip was kind of a downer.

Anyway, we were getting a bit hungry, so decided to head up to Iselin to get some wonderful Indian food.

We got there and a couple of the places were I used to go were shut down. There was one “Desi” vegetarian place, but it was mostly not Indian food. Just stuff like veggie burgers. The other places mostly served South Indian food, which might be amazing, but I have no idea what any of it is.

We ate at a place called Food Land and it was crap. Horrible. Such a let down! Luckily it wasn’t really expensive. God. It was crap. The samosas were ok, but I asked for Aloo Gobi and got peppers with potato. It came with a paper plate full of lettuce with two slices of tomato. Seriously. Why bother? Why not just not have a “salad”?

They were playing some particularly crappy Bollywood music videos. I really don’t get it. Does the whole culture not get how cheesy they are?

Oh, and just because you’re not white doesn’t mean that you’re black. Ok? You’re just not. Dear India, knock it the hell off, ok?

All in all it was a fun trip with crappy Indian food. Come to think of it, it was the second fun trip with crappy Indian food in a row.

I took the interstates back to central PA. It’s dark, nothing to see, so why not?

I’m really having a blast doing all this traveling and all these day trips. Woo!

OH! And here are all the pictures from Jersey!