Atlantic City and on to New York

Atlantic City

June 13, 2010 We left Washington DC and headed up through Wilmington, Delaware and on to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Atlantic City was kind of out of our way but are we ever glad that we went there to see it. It is like Vegas, but all of the casinos are on the beach along the board walk. Many of the Vegas casinos are also there, Caesars, Harrah’s, Bally’s, Tropicana, and of course, Donald Trump has at least 2 casinos there.

There is even a Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Atlantic City was simply a very old city until the government of New Jersey decided to develop a Las Vegas styled resort. The island it is on is surrounded by beautiful beaches, but what really makes Atlantic City so different is the Board Walk. It is mile upon mile of wooden walkway with restaurants, souvenir shops, casinos, arcades and even an amusement park complete with a roller coaster. The people-watching there was very entertaining. The place is a contradiction because beside a giant, glitzy casino is a vacant lot or a run-down apartment building. Because of the layout of development along the strip, it seems that development did not quite happen at the rate that they had planned for. All in all, Atlantic City has the same draw as Vegas; gambling, partying, but it also has the beautiful beaches. We even saw two full bars built right on the beach. It is definitely worth a look.

New Jersey is full of toll highways and they charge by the number of axles. Today we spent $39 on road tolls in a little over an hour and ½. One section of road took us over a bridge and it cost us $23! Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in tolls to pay for a new highway or bridge until it is paid for (like the Couqhala) but $23 for a 12 mile section of highway seems crazy!

New York City

June 15, 2010 We headed north along the coast known as Jersey Shores looking for an RV Park. We pulled into a place called Toms River, continuing our search, but we weren’t successful. There are many beautiful homes along the beach but it has limited public access, and certainly no RV parks. Laurie and I think that the Jersey Shores is the area that New Yorker’s have their beach homes. We stopped for lunch in a little shopping mall and found a tiny restaurant called Andy’s Place. This place was run by Italians and they had wonderful, authentic, Italian food; a real treat. Of course they had the World Cup soccer on a TV in the back.

We decided to make a run to the KOA for the New York area. It is 60 miles from New York (north), but apparently there is only one other campsite closer, but it is booked months in advance. We checked in and the next morning we took the train into New York City. The train ride was along the Hudson River and the river is huge. The scenery along the river was very picturesque and our train took us to Grand Central Station. The station is an incredible building and it has over 100 different train tracks arriving at this hub. The train arrived underground and we climbed the stairs and walked out onto 42nd street.

I will never forget that feeling when I walked out. I felt the size an ant as there are huge building on both sides of the street and they run as far as the eye can see in both directions. Next block over, is the same thing. The noise, the smells, the mass of humanity; it was like arriving on a different planet.

We made our way over to Times Square and it was noon and the lunch crowd was on the move. WHAT A ZOO!! Much of Time Square and 7th Avenue are cordoned off to vehicles and there are tables on the street to eat your lunch, or sit and rest.  They had bleachers set up and a huge crowd was watching a World Cup game. 

We walked around for a while to get a feeling of the magnitude of the place and we passed by the Empire State Building.  The Empire State Building is dwarfed by many building in Manhattan now and the tourists are not really interested in it any longer.  New York City is made up of a number of areas; Manhattan which is the main part, Brooklyn, Queens, Harlem and so on. After walking for a while Laurie and I headed back to the train for the 1 1/2 hour ride back to our station.

The next day I headed for New York on the train but Laurie decided to take a rain-check.  Once I arrived at Grand Central Station I immediately went to the subway and caught a train to the bottom of Manhattan to Battery Park (to see the Statue of Liberty).  There are many, many subway lines under the city and they travel in every direction.  At some stations there are 3 tracks stacked on top of each other.  I planned to catch the Yankees-Phillies ballgame later that day so I had to watch my time.  I saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance because I didn't feel I had time to go on the Ellis Island ferry.  I wandered over to Wall Street and the NYSE New York Stock Exchange.

I went to the site of the World Trade Centre towers and found out that they are building another single tall tower in it's place (so it is a construction zone).  Right across the street is Ladder Company 10 which was a first responder on Sept.11 and virtually all their firefighters were killed that day.

I went over the to Brooklyn Bridge (you can see the Manhattan Bridge in the distance) on the East River and had lunch on a pier with this view.  The pier was called the South Street Seaport Pier and it was a hive of activity.  There were boat and helicopter scenic trips and you could go on a sightseeing trip on the river in a tall ship.  A great place to kick back on a beautiful day.  I planned my walking tour so that I would end up on a subway line that would take me directly to Yankee Stadium....or wrong-go.

As it turns out I had to transfer 2 times and every person I asked seemed to give me a different answer about which train to get on.  The subways are just like you see on TV; dirty, noisy, super crowded and they really travel fast.  There was one Metro employee who's job it was to hurry people along the platform and to push people from behind to jam them into the car and get the doors closed.  Can you say sardines.  The train/subway system is widely used by people of all economic classes and therefor you don't see many metro buses on the streets.  The subway is so much faster because the buses get stuck in the traffic so people take the subway.  I now understand why so many people in New York do not own a car...why bother?

And of course, I finally made it to Yankee Stadium.  That night was a rematch of last year's World Series as they played the Philadelphia Phillies, plus Andy Pettite was pitching, so the game was a sell out.  By the way, the Phillies won the game.  Then after the game, back on the train for a hour and 1/2.