State #23 New Jersey

Jersey Cows, Jersey Shores, team Jerseys, and the Boss was born in Long Branch, New Jersey. And there you have it.

So when we set out this morning, we purposely selected a route that was a little longer because Trevor wanted to avoid driving in New York City to get to Harrison NJ, which is close to Newark. Remember, he hates big cities. So we popped our NJ destination into the GPS and away we went. Soon we started seeing signs for New York City. Here’s how this conversation went:

Trevor: Do you have the directions we picked out in Google?

Me: Yes (Of course I did. He had watched as I selected the route option he chose when we left the hotel).

Trevor: Are we still crossing the bridge?

(I zoomed out and saw the bridge crossing).

Me: Yes, I just looked and we are crossing a bridge.

Then I hear his GPS starting. I’m a little annoyed. I mean, I’m not an idiot. Why is he double checking me? Then his happy-go-lucky attitude changes.

Trevor: I knew it!

Me: You knew what?”

Trevor: Your directions are wrong. We should have crossed the bridge back there.

(Excuse me, MY directions?!?!)

Me: No, Look! We are still crossing the bridge. The George Washington Bridge is just ahead.

Wrong bridge! Somehow, somewhere along the route either Google updated the route or somehow I changed it…but I didn’t. Why would I do that? So Trev is pretty ticked off at this point. To make matters worse the George Washington Bridge has a $7 toll for out-of-state plates that automatically gets mailed to you. $7 toll!! Mailed? We’re not anywhere near home. Man! Then to make matters even worse, as we are making a couple ring-around-the rosie-type turns, I tell Trevor he needs to stay right. It was a three way split and he stayed in the middle because he couldn’t get far right. The GPS updates just as we end up on Broadway (yes, that Broadway, in NYC driving with the cabbies Broadway) trying to find 172th or 178th (I can’t remember now). Heehee! I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. It was the one place he didn’t want to be- smack dab downtown (well, as someone from NY would probably point out, that’s technically not downtown-downtown like 34th street but trust me it was still way too much city) – and, yet, here we were. Trevor, on the other hand, was mad! Giving me the silent treatment kind of mad. Like I did it on purpose. Please! Then we had to get on the NJ Turnpike for another toll. Heehee. It was every place Trev had mentioned he didn’t want to be and WHAMO!; there we were. I told him at least we weren’t in the camper or headed down the Lincoln Tunnel. Heehee! Nope, too soon. It was way too soon for him to laugh about this.

So Grumpy pants and the rest of his gang finally make it to our first Jersey stop, The Thomas Edison Historical Park, which consists of Edison’s Laboratory at West Orange and his Glenmont home. We just toured the Laboratory. The kids had had enough houses. Edison is super fascinating! He believed in hard work. One of Trevor’s favorite quotes attributed to Edison is “opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” We try to stress to the boys about working hard and not expecting things to be given to you or just looking for the easy fix. Most people know Edison because of the light bulb but he created so MUCH MORE than that. Edison worked on inventions right up until his death at age 84. Good grief! Just thinking about it all makes me tired. I can’t imagine that kind of innovation.

Trevor likes airport hotels for cities as they are usually closer to public transportation or they have shuttles to such and are usually much cheaper than staying downtown. Well, he outdid himself this time. Our hotel is right beside a train terminal. I can hear the trains every time they pass and we are on the 6th floor with the A/C running full blast. We found out this evening that their shuttle is broke and won’t be fixed until tomorrow afternoon. Poor fella. It just wasn’t his day today. Maybe tomorrow will be better for him.

Nope. Shuttle still didn’t work. We took an Uber to the Newark/Penn Station to get on the subway. Cost $8. When we checked in the front desk said to keep a receipt and they would reimburse us the money for the trip to the train station. Great, until no other employee knew what we were talking. Not sure what was up with that. It was a little annoying. But Trevor was so ready to get out of the city, he didn’t even bother trying to get in touch with the manager. You know he must be ready when we leaves $8 on the table. Anyway, we walked the 20 minutes every time after that. Mason said that was too much to pay when the weather’s good and we are perfectly capable of walking. I’m pretty sure my frugal hubby choked back a tear of pride at that moment.

Staying in New Jersey but visiting a place, where if we can make it there, we can make it anywhere.