Day 39 - There She Is...Miss America 🎵 🎶

Rather Impressive Lady

After yesterday, we approached Day 39 with limited expectations. For starters, we've never been huge fans of NYC. Thus, we've tried to steer away from it whenever and wherever possible. That is, however, somewhat counterproductive if you're exploring the Atlantic Coast. So...since we we're headed for Ridgefield, CT, a mere 185 miles from Atlantic City, NJ, we decided to plow right up the New Jersey Turnpike, "balls to the wall."

Some interesting learning from the decision:

• In NY and NJ the word, Interstate is exactly equivalent to the term, "Toll Road." There is literally no difference.
• Our 150 mile journey from Atlantic City to the Connecticut border cost just under $40 in tolls. The same Interstate I95 in Connecticut charged no toll fees.
• I got to doing some quick mental math and thought I might be conjuring some zealous sums for annual toll revenue; so I did some Internet checking. One source estimated the annual revenue for just the George Washington Bridge alone at $344M. I don't think my ginormous estimates were at all out-of-the-park.
• Where's all that money going?? It sure ain't being spent on improving the road surfaces. Shucks, folks, we saw some 18-wheelers that disappeared for 3 full seconds in some of the pot-holes on I95 and I78 today. Scary stuff, especially in a Miata!!
• We rode on our first divided Interstate with two entirely separate northbound sets of lanes and two other southbound sets of lanes. Get this...we rode on a stretch of pavement that was three and sometimes four lanes wide. Parallel to us was another two lanes separated by a huge median like most Interstates. The difference is these lanes were running the same direction as us. Move over a few hundred yards and there were two sets of parallel lanes running the opposite direction. Whew! Now here's the kicker. Traffic was reasonably light, but almost twice as scary as the LBJ Freeway back home. The extra lanes simply meant there were more choices of direction when it came time to floor it and rip by another motorist. Truly unbelievable!
• The unwritten rule of the road in the Northeast:
  When approaching traffic congestion ahead; especially when rear tail lamps indicate braking; accelerate quickly and traverse as many lanes as possible. It is as though all traffic congestion is nothing more than an apparition that will vanish if you charge into it as fast as possible.
• There is also a highway game that apparently all Northeasterners know as well. I guess it's kinda like vehicular shuffle board. The name of the game is "Gotcha." Rules of play are simple:
• Assume you're traveling faster than the motorist ahead of you. Oh, you can be in any of the lanes.
• As you approach a motorist in your lane from the rear, you must wait as long as possible before changing lanes to pass them. 
• A perfect score would result if you could actually barely scrape the rear bumper of the car ahead of you, but if that results in audible contact, you receive a penalty.
• So...a perfect pass would have your front bumper coming within just a few inches of your competitors rear bumper.
• Of course, all other lanes may be wide open which would have allowed you to change lanes with dozens or even hundreds of yards to spare; but where's the fun and intimidation in that...right??
• Finally, the posted, modest speed limits throughout NJ and NY are hardly even suggestions, let alone practical concerns.

So much for Interstate travel in the Northeast. We decided to brave the emboldened bastards and bravely bully our way to Liberty State Park. For those that don't know, Liberty Park is pretty much due west of Manhattan across the Hudson River. The views are, well...see for your self:

The foreground debris represents lots of history for immigrants of yore.

Liberty Park is the base of many of the cruises to Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty. We took one such cruise; we're so glad we did!

These cruises run constantly, throughout the day.

From the cruise you have dramatic views of the NYC skyline.

View of Manhattan from the Cruise Boat

The highlight of the boat ride was our Lady of Liberty. It was the first time to be here for both of us. She's quite impressive from almost any angle. I had a great deal of difficulty deciding which photos to post. Here's a couple of my favs:

As I said, we're delighted that we chose to brave the traffic to get somewhat up close and personal with New York, New York. We learned a great deal and, nothing is quite as captivating as being up close and personal Though we've seen thousands of images of the statue and the skyline, today was extra special.

The coup de gras was the staggering monument built to honor the Twin Towers and many of those who lost their lives on Sept 11. These enormous metallic walls are positioned to focus your gaze precisely where the Twin Towers once stood. These images don't really do it justice; you really have to be there to get the full experience.

View including some Ground Zero debris

View from inside the walls. Names are of casualties.

Tonight we reside in Ridgefield, CT. It's a sleepy little throwback town similar to towns in Northern Michigan. It has a quaint, old-fashioned feel as though it were a movie set constructed primarily for tourists. We know this because we stumbled upon a couple of hardware stores wherein we bought replacements for our tattered tarpaulin. It needs replacement from thrashing about in the blustery NE winds. Forecast from here to Maine is 100% rain. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Stay tuned!

Please don't forget to let us hear from you, too!