New Jersey (2)

Here is the second half of our NJ visit---

On Wednesday, 9/23, we drove into Hightstown and had dinner with Russ and Elvira Diefenbach.  Had a great time reliving old times and getting up to date on current happenings.  Here are Russ and Elvira:

This afternoon (9/24) we drove to Gary and Doris Koenig’s house for dinner.  We originally met Gary and Doris when we were both members of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Plano.  They moved to Des Moines, IA and just last year moved to East Windsor.  Had a great time with them as well:

On Friday we had lunch with Marilyn and her Mom, Phyllis Anker, at a Charlie Brown restaurant.  

Marilyn is still at the Peddie School (almost 10 years now) and Mom volunteers at the library.

After  lunch we drove over to church and found Pastor Jim there so we had a nice chat with him and also he gave us a tour of the new sanctuary as well as the rest of the building remodeling.

Later we met up with Russ and Elvira again. Ordered pizza and then drove over to Ewing where John and Kim live.

John was working on his boat getting it ready for a Saturday and a Sunday fishing tournament. They both looked great. After we left John and Kim, we drove to an ice cream store that has way too many flavors! We found what we liked and had some. This store is run by a family that has their own dairy farm and they make their own ice cream, so it was very fresh and tasty.

Saturday promised to be a big day for us. We met Ashley and Matt (MJ) at the Americana Diner for breakfast. Enjoyed visiting and catching up with them. Matt is a volunteer fireman for Hightstown and was out on two calls – one in the night and another one earlier in the morning.

After breakfast we drove back to the CG and from there drove down to Cherry Hill, NJ to visit with Rachael (a good friend of Julie’s) She and her husband, David, have two boys, 3 and 1½. We toured their house which is a three story stone home with an observation room on the fourth floor.

David was not there because he got a call from one of their tenants that had a water heater problem, but he did get back just as we were leaving so we got to meet and talk with him for a short while.

From there we drove back to East Windsor to have dinner at City Streets with Skip and Diane Cox, Ashley and MJ, and Matt and Amanda.

Matt works for an insurance firm and Amanda is a financial planner.

After dinner we went to church to see an actor portray the new testament book of Mark. He was from Canada and has been an actor for many years. For the past 6-7 years, he has done this with Mark. Very nicely done.

On Sundary we drove into East Windsor for church at 11. We purposely got their early to visit with those that we knew from when we lived there. The service was great – choir sounded fabulous with the bells playing from the balcony.

Danny Egan and his girlfriend were there as well as Dana.  Dennis is in Florida so did not get his picture.

After church we went back to Skip and Diane’s and spent the afternoon with them and Elvira (Russ was not there as he left after church to visit his Dad in North Carolina) and Ashley. Matt and Amanda came later after going to the NY Yankee/Boston Red Sox game.  We had a great dinner. MJ showed up later.

The NJ visit was just fantastic. We got to see so many people and renewed our relationships. It was very hard to leave.

Today, Monday, we left the CG and drove to a Thousand Trails CG just outside Hershey, Pa.

New Jersey (1)

OK - it is now 9/22 and we got up early this morning to get the camper ready to travel.
We crossed over the Tapenzy Bridge - Hudson River (I know - when you've seen one bridge, you've seen them all).  Here are the pictures Mom got thru the windshield.

We had heard that I-95 thru Connecticut and NY was not the road to take because it was always so busy. So we 'circled' around NJ (could not use the Garden State Parkway either - no trucks, buses or RV's). We ended up at the NJ Turnpike at New Brunswick.

We got to the Timberland Lake Campground in Jackson, NJ about 3:30.

CG is very quiet now but it will probably pick up on the weekend. (Six Flags is closed during the week).


9/23 We drove into Hightstown/East Windsor and did some sightseeing. Drove by our old house on Buxton Drive.

It is now white; I had painted it yellow while we lived there, and, at one time it was blue. We drove by the Princeton Junction train station where I used to catch the train every day into NY. Then over to Princeton – we always enjoyed this drive - it hasn't changed.

Quite often you can see the Princeton rowing teams practicing here but not today.

We found Thomas’ Sweets (where we used to go for ice cream. In those days the line was usually out the door, but the ice cream was so good it was worth the wait). We drove by the office where Mom (and Nora Leone!!) used to work (Princeton Nassau Pediatrics); it is now Princeton Nassau Leg and Foot Clinic. We drove around downtown Princeton and thru the campus, which is beautiful.

Drove by Anker Park in East Windsor (so named for Marilyn Anker's father)

and Lee’s Turkey Farm (which is very busy this time of year).  And right across from Anker Park!

 Drove to the High School where the kids all went. Watched all the kids coming in from soccor, football, etc practices. Nothing much has changed over the years.

This picture is for Bellinda, Julie, and Larry just to let them know that:  YES, WAWA is still there!!

We drove over to church and found Pastor Jim there so we had a nice chat with him and also he gave us a tour of the new sanctuary as well as the rest of the building remodeling.

This picture was taken from the balcony.  Check ou the steps to get up to the balcony in the next picture.

This stained glass window was taken from the old sanctury and placed here below the balcony.  It is a memorial to Pastor Jim's first wife, Candy.

Here are a few more pictures:

This is one from Sunday in the rain.

That's it for the scenic part of the trip.  Next post will be of everyone that we visited with during the week.

Massachusetts (3)

9/13 We decided to go to church today and the closest ELCA church was in Stafford Springs, CT. so we drove there (about 10 miles). The church, Holy Cross, was a very old, but very nice church . We got there about 15 minutes before the service so we sat and listened to the choir practice, which consisted of 4 ladies and the director. They sat behind the altar. The setting that they used was the about the same as what is used at Resurrection so it was very nice.

Stayed at the CG during the afternoon - here are a couple of pictures of our site now that we have moved from the barn site.

For dinner we met Larry, Jacky, Hannah, and Mike and Nancy at the Steaming Tender Restaurant in Palmer, MA. This restaurant was originally a train station.

Approximately 40 trains pass thru their each day. While we were there, two freight trains and an Amtrak passed by and the floor shook a little each time. After supper we went back to the CG and had s’mores.

9/14 Today Larry came home from work early and we started staining the deck. (We didn't get out of town soon enough!!!!!).  Larry used a sprayer to coat the deck and I used a sponge to spread it out evenly. We got about ¾ of the deck sealed.

9/15 Drove to Larry and Jacky’s house and worked on the deck.
9/16 Drove to Home Depot to get 3 more cans of sealer for the deck; then to Larry and Jacky’s house to get to work on the deck.
9/17 Worked on the deck again and stopped around 6 PM when I realized that I would not quite have enough sealer to finish.
9/18 Went to Home Depot again to get one more gallon of sealer for the porch. Stopped at the Loose Goose and found them to be very busy. We had lunch and then came back to their house. I finished the deck while Mom made the supper (meat loaf, scalloped potatoes, and green beans; for dessert we got Klondike Bars!!).
I guess pictures are in order after all that work sealing the deck:

In case you are interested in what the back yard looks like from the deck:

According to Larry and Jacky, it makes for a great hill for sledding in the wintertime.

In case you are interested in what the house looks like from the front:

Mom and Ernie are enjoying the beautiful afternoon out front.
9/19 Drove to Larry and Jacky’s around 11:30 and had leftovers for lunch. Then we drove to up to Old Greenfield to go to a craft fair.

Nice day to walk around and look at all the junk! Jacky surprised me by arranging for me to have a massage to loosen up all the stiff muscles from staining the deck. It felt great. We had kettle corn and an apple while walking around.

Then we drove back to the Loose Goose to get some brownie and cookie platters ready for an 8:30 event that night at the Amherst Music Department. Don't they look GOOD?

Since it was too early to deliver them, we walked down to Berttucci’s and had pizza for supper. While we were waiting for our food, Hannah took some dough and rolled it and they baked it for her.  Here is what the finished product looked like before it was eaten:

Afterwards, we went back to the Loose Goose and they got another two platters ready for an event tomorrow afternoon and then delivered the first two cookie platters to the Amherst Music Dept.  From there we drove back to their house for another game of Chickenfoot (Jacky's favorite!!!!).

Only 3 more days left before we have to leave.  We have had such a great time that it will be hard to leave.