Over my 48 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States. I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning. Working in alphabetical order, we continue today with the 3rd state to be added to the Union: New Jersey
State: New Jersey
Joined the Union: 1787
Visits: 1
I made my first, and only, visit to the Garden State back in 2003, as the base of operations for my opening day trip to New York.
A long drive on a Saturday in late March of 2003 dropped us in Newark, at the Howard Johnson near the airport. After getting settled, we opted for a brief nap and a few episodes of the Chappelle Show, before trying to head into Manhattan for the evening. Despite an airport shuttle claiming to stop at the hotel every 15-20 minutes, we waited for over an hour before catching a ride to the Newark airport, where we were finally able to take the train into New York City! After catching the last train back to New Jersey, we made it back to hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Sunday morning started with a trip out to Red Bank, New Jersey for a trip to Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, the comic book store owned by Kevin Smith. We were a little early, so we went down the block to the Broadway Diner, where I enjoyed a pretty decent breakfast of strawberry and banana pancakes. Once the Stash opened, we looked around for a bit, made our purchases, and then headed out for another trip into Manhattan.
We checked out the next morning before heading to Queens for exciting Mets (and Cubs) baseball.
Will I return? Maybe? Nothing is currently drawing me there, but nothing is keeping me away either.