We had set our alarms for 7:00 a.m. and Mom got up before I did so she could get a shower in before I went in there to get ready. I laid in bed for about 20 minutes more. Once Mom was done, I went in there and took care of what I needed to and packed up my toiletries. Mom was attempting to pack up her suitcase when I went back out there. That meant I needed to as well, so I started to. We always come home with more than we showed up with. We need to be more thoughtful when we pack and leave home. Leave room for bringing home stuff!
Everything seemed to fit where it needed to go and sat down on the bed with the television on and ate our bananas, we bought from the 7-Eleven the previous night. We threw our garbage away, threw the towels into the tub and I asked Mom if she was ready for our adventure back towards JFK. She said yes, let's go. We got onto the elevator with all of our stuff and went down to the lobby to the front desk and checked out.
We wheeled our luggage a few blocks, found a perfect spot to take a photo of Amy's Friends Funko Pop figurine and on to Rockefeller Center where the subway entrance was. It was quite the maze of subway tunnels, stairways and platforms to navigate through. By the time we got to our platform, the orange M line, we were sweaty. We didn't have to wait that long before the train came. We hopped on and made our way through the many stops along the way until we got to Jamaica Station.
We got off and made our way out of the subway. Right before we exited, there were these two people (you could tell they were beggars) and they asked if they could have our MTA card since we didn't need to use it anymore (it still had three days left on it) and I told them we had no idea where we put them, which was sorta true with all the stuff we had hanging off of us along with pulling our luggage around. I really didn't want to give them our cards either. They told us thanks anyway.
We hoisted our suitcases up the stairs, onto the street level and then up another flight of stairs up to the Airtrain. This was a lot of work to use the subway, but we were willing, able and wanted to have the subway experience. We swiped the last of our Airtrain MTA card, pushed our luggage through the turnstile and made our way to the AirTrain. We didn't realize all of the AirTrains go to the same place, so we almost missed the one we got onto. We were only on there for a few minutes and got off at the rental car stop, Federal Circle.
We meandered our way down to the Budget Car rental, got in line and waited to what seemed like a really long time. I thought with two associates working the desks. The lady told me that someone would be with me soon, left and never came back. I stood there for at least 40 minutes waiting for my turn and I was getting impatient. It was finally my turn. This was my first time renting a car on my own. I agreed to all the terns, added some extras to our rental plan because of the many tolls we would be driving through, paid with my debit card and signed my name. It came out to about $900 and some change but he said I would be getting $300 and some change back once we returned the car at Ronald Regan International in DC. I was given the keys and he told us what row our car was in. I thanked him and Mom and I went out to find the car.
It was a silver Chevy Malibu and it had Pennsylvania plates on it but wasn't sure of the year. We threw our luggage in the trunk, stuffed our bags in the back seat, got oriented with the car, plugged the coords into my Nuvi for Coney Island and set off for a crazy adventure. This would be the most "city" driving I have ever done in my life and driving on the east coast is very different than driving on the west coast. A lot more people, cars, cities, tolls and highways. Yikes!
I followed the route Nuvi calculated for us and already turned the wrong way, haha. We got oriented correctly and got on the Fort Hamilton Parkway. It was weird driving in Brooklyn/NYC especially in a rental car. I was supposed to get off at a specific exit and missed it, so we had to drive a mile out of our way, turned around and headed back to the exit we needed to get to Coney Island. We got off at Ocean Parkway and followed the road to "downtown" Coney Island. I really wasn't sure what to expect as far as traffic went but when we got there, I remembered that Diane from the 9/11 Museum told us that our car would be safe parked in the aquarium lot. That is where we headed except every bus in New York was double and triple parked in front of the entrance, and it made it hard to figure out where I needed to go. I had to turn around somewhere and come back after learning which entrance, I needed to turn into. The busses made it really hard, but I eventually got into the turn lane and got into the lot. Mom and I found a good place to park. I got out, paid for our spot, made sure we had everything and went to walk around Coney Island.
We stopped by Luna Park and the large rollercoaster called The Cyclone. I was glad to see the virtual cache we could find from the street instead of going in since the park is closed during the weekdays until Memorial Day. If it was open while we were here, I may have considered paying the $10 to ride it. The Cyclone (GC7B9JR) us a wooden roller coaster that opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The Cyclone reaches a maximum speed of 60 mph and had a total track length of 2,640 feet, with a maximum height of 85 feet. It was declared a NYC designated landmark on July 12, 1988 and was placed on the National register of Historic Places on June 26, 1991. We had to get some information off of the plaque on the fence to claim this virtual cache as a find.
Mom took a few pictures of the rollercoaster, the surrounding areas and stuff that we saw while walking along the street.
We continued on a few blocks until we saw Nathan's Famous hotdogs, a place Mom and I have always wanted to visit since watching the annual hotdog eating contest on the 4th of July. We walked inside the building and had no clue they served other things besides hotdogs. The menu was stacked! We just ordered hotdogs and strawberry milkshakes and waited for our food to be done. We grabbed some napkins and ketchup and went outside to eat it. The weather was pretty mild, and it wasn't raining yet. This was the only day in the forecast that called for rain. We were hoping it held off for a few more hours.
We ate our Nathan's Famous hotdogs and speculated how crazy this place was in the summer time...especially during the 4th of July. We finished our lunch, threw our garbage away and went to go explore for a little while.
Mom wanted a Coney Island T-shirt for her quilt so we went into two different souvenir shops to look around and she found one she liked. We tried taking a few pictures of the amusement park but a guy yelled at us so we moved on towards the boardwalk.
Hurricane Sandy came through this area in 2012 and made it look like an absolute war zone. This area was already below the poverty line, and it just made it worse for those people. Many homes were damaged or destroyed completely. Several rides inside Luna Park had to be fixed from the damages the hurricane caused and residents spent several months removing sand from the boardwalk.
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I have only seen this area from movies over the years and I could not believe I was here. We spent time admiring the ocean, the boardwalk and all of the little shops sprinkled along beside it. Not a lot of places were open yet, but they were preparing for Memorial Day weekend when most of these ocean front shops and towns open up to the public full time. I told Mom that we came at an awkward time when everything was pretty much closed except for the weekends. Oh well, at least we got to see this place in real life.
We walked back to the car, paid for our parking spot and I entered our next location into the GPS. We got back on the Fort Hamilton Parkway and made our way west to the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge, which briefly turned into I-278. It is a double deck suspension bridge with 13 lanes (7 on the upper level and 6 on the lower level) that spans 2.59 miles and connects Brooklyn to Staten Island. Yes, it is tolled, and I wasn't sure the entire time how we were being tolled. Did the car have a sticker it scanned? Did it get billed to Budget later? Good thing I decided to pay the flat fee so the rest was on Budget.
We drove across the bridge into Staten Island, which we both didn't realize was that big. I didn't even know you could get to it via the bridge. I 've always thought you had to take the ferry. On the southern side of the island, we followed the highway until it split, we followed the NY 440 into New Jersey. That highway turned into the NJ 440. From there, we followed the highway until it split into the New Jersey Parkway near Amboy. We got off the parkway near Mechanicsville and followed the NJ 36 to Hartshorne Dr, where we followed the spit north to Sandy Hook.
The Sandy Hook recreation area is shared with Fort Hancock, a former United States Army fort, located in Middletown Township New Jersey. We were here to get a couple of the caches and to see the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. I figured since we rented a car and are driving along the eastern seaboard; we might as well see a lighthouse while we were over here. Plus, Mom loves lighthouses.
We drove to the lighthouse first. We parked in the nearest parking lot and walked across the street to admire it. Neither Mom nor I have been to an east coast lighthouse, so this was a first for the both of us. I opened up the geocaching app and took a look of what I had to do to fulfill the earthcache, Sandy Hook Light Earthcache (GC1PR8G).
It said I could finish it if the visitor's shed/video room was closed. Of course, it was closed so I couldn't watch the video. Instead, I had to do my own research when I got home. I made sure to get the necessary photos I needed. We drove around the fort, looked at the many rundown batteries, military barracks and the scenery. The east coast definitely has its own look and feel. It's been nice to explore this side of the country the last few trips we've taken.
We thought we should get a move on since we were still at least 4 hours of driving ahead of us. As we exited the recreation area, I briefly stopped at a virtual cache called The Lost Lieutenant (GC513E). One, it was an old one, two, it was a virtual cache and three, it was another New Jersey cache under our belt.
We got back onto NJ 36 and followed the coast through Seabright and Monmouth. In Monmouth, is where we made our second stop in NJ. I wanted to get the NJ Surfer Cam (GCQWPK) because I love webcams and both of us wanted to see and touch the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
We followed the directions of the parking coords, walked up on top of the cement seawall and saw the area we needed to walk to. Along the way, Mom saw these little animals hiding in a hole underneath the cement seawall. Mom was like, did you see those puppies?! I looked ahead of me and saw a fox trotting away. Mom, I think those are baby foxes. Either way, they were cute, hiding and waiting for their mom to come back. I found the US flag and the stairs that led us down to the beach. The flag was how I was going to figure out where we needed to stand for the webcam. I found the feed on the cache page, clicked on it and there was a slight delay, but I got a screen shot of what we needed.
We took turns touching the sand and beach. The coastline, sand and ocean here is so different than back at home on the west coast. We walked the beach on the way back to the car. We picked up small seashells and some sand to take back home with us.
I knew the dog poo bags would come in handy. I used the creepy porta potty before we left. I set the Nuvi to Atlantic City specifically the virtual cache in town. The route popped up and it was about 80 miles our current location. Atlantic City, here we come!
We continued on the NJ 36 until it was time to merge onto the Garden State Parkway. We stayed on that highway for a while, enduring stupid traffic, a little bit of rain and discussions about Atlantic City. We reached the junction and got off at the Atlantic City Expressway and headed east towards the city. It was slightly raining as we got into town and then stopped for a little bit. We did not expect Atlantic City to look like this. There were huge windmills as you enter town from the west, and I expected it to be glitzier and more glamourous like Vegas was. Maybe it was and we came during the wrong time of year?
The coords we put into Nuvi took us to the virtual cache in town, Sin City Light (GCA378). The Absecon Lighthouse is New Jersey's tallest lighthouse at 171 feet tall and the third tallest lighthouse in the country. Construction began in 1854 and with first light on January 15, 1857. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1933, although the light still shines every night, it is no longer an active navigational aid. I parked in the nearest lot, left Mom in the car and walked across the street to answer the questions. Of course, it started raining again. I got what I needed and hopped back into the car.
I asked Mom what we were going to do next. She said, let's go to the boardwalk. After some discussion about where we were going to park, we decided upon the Hard Rock.
We went the wrong way a few times, because I thought the roads went through, but they didn't. We got back on track and found the parking garage for the Hard Rock. I paid $10 and our limit was until the next day at 6 a.m. We were only going to be here for a couple hours or so. We also decided we were going to try and have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe while we were here. We went inside the casino and out the back to walk around the boardwalk for a little bit. We still had a tiny bit of daylight left. As we left the casino, one of the more visible older casino workers asked me to close the doors that were stuck open because I looked like a young person with lots of energy. I was super confused with why he asked me, but I closed the doors for him.
Out on the boardwalk, Mom and I took a bunch of pictures, took in the scene, enjoyed the beach area, found a cache called 5 AC Survivor Series: Poker (GC5KFQZ) and it was a bison tube hidden underneath the boardwalk. I didn't have to be too stealthy because there was hardly anyone around. I am sure it's more difficult during the summer months. We noticed that this boardwalk takes care of feral cats. They trap them, fix and vaccinate them and they live here under the boardwalk. I thought it was pretty cool they have a program like this. I told Mom we should probably eat since it was getting late, and we still had a three-hour drive to DC ahead of us.
We went back into the casino and waited to be seated. No one came to ask us if we've been helped. Mom finally went up to the counter to ask about getting some food and they said that it would be at least an hour wait. What? An hour? We were confused. There was hardly anyone in there, how is it an hour wait? We went back out to the boardwalk to see if any other restaurants were open. One was closed to the public due to a private event and the other one was still seasonally closed. We cut our losses, went back to the Hard Rock, used the restroom and went back to the parking garage to get the car and leave. Apparently, April is not the time to come to Atlantic City.
We looked up places on Google and Mom found a place called Fish Heads that served fish and chips. We like fish and chips, and we thought the name of the restaurant was amazing! We put the address into the Nuvi and drove over. The traffic lights in Atlantic City take FOREVER! We got to Fish Heads only to discover that Google lied to us, and it was closed for the season. It didn't open until Memorial Day weekend...like everything else on the east coast. They seriously need to update their stuff for people who are not from here. We were defeated so we just decided to leave Atlantic City because we were still at least 200 miles away from DC. It was approaching 9 p.m.
I put the address of our hotel in DC into the Nuvi and went from there. We drove inland on the CR 563 and took the wrong exit out of the roundabout, so we had to turn around. I saw a Wawa convenience store and decided to stop there to top off our gas. While we were there, we went inside and grabbed some hoagies for dinner. I heard earlier on the radio that day, that if you were in NJ you had to stop and get a hoagie at the Wawa. I know of Wawa's because of watching hockey. I had seen the advertisement on the boards and wanted to know what a Wawa was. It is a convenience store located in eight states throughout the east coast.
We thought they had closed for the night, but they were open. To order, we had to use the touch screen to customize or order. We each got a hoagie of our choosing, Mom and ham and cheese and I, got a turkey and cheese. Mom picked up a couple of bananas and water, I grabbed a bag of chips and a Coke Zero. We even got a small Wawa tote to take with us...mostly to put our stuff in but because we wanted to commemorate our first time at a Wawa. We paid and asked Mom how her experience at a Wawa was? She just laughed because she thought the Wawa name was funny.
We got back on the road, and I literally had to throw money at the small toll booth to get back onto the Atlantic City Expressway. We ate our hoagies and chips, called Dad and Ben to let them know where we were, listened to my podcasts and it started raining again as we got closer to Philadelphia. We approached our junction and merged onto the New Jersey Turn Pike, through lots of tolls, over the bridge into Delaware, more tolls, got onto US 40 and then merged onto I-95. Picked up a cache at the rest area for our first Delaware cache, I-95 Rest Stop: Delaware (GC61NTA). It was getting dark, and it was rainy, so I didn't get picture of it. Besides, it wasn't all that great of a hide...hidden inside a pokey tree. I just wanted an easy one, so we'd have one in Delaware.
We got back onto I-95 and continued through Maryland. It didn't take us long to get to Baltimore. As we merged onto the 295, I pointed out downtown Maryland to Mom through the window and she saw where the Ravens played football. We followed 295 through southern Maryland and merged onto US 50 that took us over the Anacostia River and into DC. We could see some of the lit-up monuments from the car window as we drove through DC, specifically the Washington Monument since it was the most obvious.
We drove across the Potomac River on US 50 and into Virginia. Then made a wrong turn to our hotel and that mistake took us on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. There weren't very many exits to turn around at so the first one that was available we took, turned around and headed back. I saw what we did wrong when we got back to that intersection. I made the correct turn in Roslyn (just north of Arlington) and saw our hotel, the Red Lion Inn at Iwo Jima. We picked that hotel because it wasn't that far from the metro station.
We pulled in, I parked near the office so Mom could check us in. We got to our hotel just after midnight. She was in there for a few minutes and then came back out to let me know to park in the parking garage. We went into the parking garage, I backed in, we made sure we had all of our stuff and we went inside to room 158. We shared a king bed. The room had plenty of space to sprawl out. I was so tired, so I took a quick shower and got ready for bed. We were in the car for a long time. We fell asleep just after 1 a.m. We drove about 350 miles that day through five states and DC.
Next Adventure: NYC-DC-PA Vacation: Walking around DC, Geocaching, Iwo Jima, Arlington Cemetery and Driving to Carlisle, PA
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