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From
Pacific
City to
Atlantic
City 4/30
She made it!
New Jersey:
April 30 - May 1, 2002
The
strongest winds yet were on Highway 55 getting across New Jersey to Vineland
and Cape May. Stopped at Cumberland Community College to check up
on my wordsmithing buddy John Adair who made a joke about Seno getting
a blow job in New Jersey (reference to WIND currents, folks). John
is up for College Teacher of the Universe and please so vote for him because
he is the dearest thing but has spent a lifetime creating a personna of
a curmudgeon. What a failure! He is precious beyond belief
and I've run into people who has said so who weren't even being paid.
Checked
into the #2 rated B&B in the country in Cape May, New Jersey and awake
at 2 a.m. and looked out my 3rd story window of this gorgeous Victorian
mansion at the sea (across the street) with a near-full moon painting with
silver. Raspberry french toast and I was on my way again.
ATLANTIC
CITY, New Jersey! A goal met!!!! I delivered
the Pacific City,
Oregon postcards to the Chamber of Commerce office in Atlantic City --
so somebody please tell the wonderful and generous businesses in Pacific
City that mission has been accomplished.
I cruised
both Atlantic and Pacific Boulevards and headed out again. A city
bus driver pulled up next to me and asked, "How fast will it go?"
I asked, "Want to drag?" He said, "Sure!" so we pretended to drag
race down Atlantic Avenue with people on the streets giving thumbs ups!
(My little car could probably win a drag race only with a riding lawn mower!)
Everyone in Atlantic City seemed to be in a party mood and I want to extend
a special thanks to Vincent Brown of the police department there for helping
me keep the car safe and getting me to the C of C offices. What a
sweet fella!
You don't
pump your own gas in New Jersey (just like Oregon)--very civilized.
My vote for BEST GAS STATION so far is the Texaco on Highway 30 leaving
Atlantic City. The attendants even wore uniforms just like in the
old days of Uncle Miltie!
Met a cardiologist and a cop
in New Jersey and I hope they follow up with Dale Matthews and check out
his web site for a great place to buy old cars. See here: Matthews
Memory Lane Motors in Portland, Oregon.
After
an eyeopening cruise through both South and North Trenton, New Jersey,
I headed north and made it as far as Somerville when I was totally washed
out. Construction mud, instant dark, buckets of water until I didn't think
I could make it another mile. A miracle delivered a motel; I stopped.
New York,
May 2, 2002:
Next
morning, clear blue sky I made it all the way to my friend Irving's house
in Chestnut Hill, New York. Irving is an old Oxford chum of mine
and he wasted no time getting me back into a car and downtown Manhattan
for lunch at a great French restaurant where he saw Woody Allen. Irving
drove his car--he said that Seno would cause riots on NYC streets.
Walked thru Central Park and went to the roof top garden of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art--check it out: a big red trowel is up there and a 16-foot
safety pin and some blueberry pie. Why not peach or cherry?
It's art.
I had
NO IDEA when I started this trip that I'd be having cappucino with Irving
in NYC. Last time we had cappucino was High Street in Oxford!
If the
weather permits I'll be east and north bound in the morning. My right
ankle and both hands have nearly returned to normal after so many vibrating
miles. I am getting by with a LOT of help from my friends!
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