Road trip, part 1: Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey

As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Raven is a treasury of cartographic knowledge. When I told him I wanted to take a road trip to Morristown, NJ, and to New York City, and that I didn't know how to choose among so many different options of things to see and places to go, he applied himself to the problem, and came up with a wonderful itinerary, full of sights and experiences to look forward to.

And then it snowed, and I ended up hacking his carefully-planned, thoughtful, and detailed plan to pieces as a result.

As he wrote on the Morristown leg, "NOTE: not an interstate route, but Bucks County and New Hope are nice, you should see them", and I was looking forward to seeing what he meant. But when I awoke to 3 inches of snow on the ground, it looked like at first the trip might be off. However, it was just snow, not ice, and if I didn't do the trip Sunday, I wouldn't get to at all this time, because I'm flying back to Seattle next week, and I'm totally booked all the days in between, what with getting ready. So I set out, but because of the snowy roads, I decided to stick to freeways. That made the driving better, but I missed out on New Hope. As it was, by the time I got the ferals fed and set out, it was after 8:30, long after my planned 7:00 start, so the weather cost me time on setting out as well as on driving more slowly.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is unremarkable; however I have to say, though, the Lehigh Valley, past Allentown and Bethlehem was quite nice. And then when I crossed over into New Jersey, I got quite a delightful surprise.

If, like me, all you know about New Jersey comes from reports of syringes washing up on beaches, you may not be expecting much from the state. Like me, then, you would be surprised at how nice the northern part of the state is. There are rolling hills and valleys, with farmland.



I stopped at a farm in Pittsville to get a snack at a farmer's market. Outside in a pen, they have some spoiled-rotten sheep and goats whose jobs appear to be just to look cute and snarf down the feed people buy for them inside.







After a very nice break in unexpectedly pleasant countryside, it was on to Morristown!