You can look, but you can't touch!

I ran SE this morning to the Jersey Shore, leaving about 8 and getting to the beach about 11:30.  Ocean Grove NJ is definitely a beach resort town.  It is pretty amazing, in that someone took the concept of an oceanside B&B, got a good model up and running, added a number of sidewalk bars and cafes, and then duplicated it 5,000 times and named it Ocean Grove.  It is very compact, neat and orderly, and totally devoid of any personality whatsoever. Cars are tightly parked everywhere in carefully and clearly marked parking slots.  The B&Bs too are nestled jowl to jowl along the grid of streets, each identical to the other, except for a few decorative touches and a different cute resort name.  It is very uniform, gridlike and swarming with people on a June Saturday. I  felt like I was in line at a major Walmart having a going out of business sale on beach going togs and sand castle construction equipment.  I did find a parking spot--one huge advantage of riding a motorcycle! --and walked down to the shore.

The shore consists of 1) a frontage road; 2) a fence; 3) a boardwalk paralleling the beach and 4) periodic breaks in the fence for access, with a pier jutting out towards the Atlantic and restrooms etc right there; and 5) ramps down to the actual sand beach.  The beach seemed pretty crowded for 11:30 a.m., and bristled with beach umbrellas and towels.  This topography of the shore appeared to repeat itself as far in either direction as one could see.  I got a winsome lass who was just sitting there in a chair (why was she sitting there? I asked myslef) to take my picture in front of an informational  sign, and then walked out on the pier to take some photos.  So far so good.  I had in fact arrived at my ultimate destination:  The Atlantic Ocean!--A trip, shore to shore according to the computer maps, of 4038.7 miles for the route I actually took to get there. Since I get lost a bit, and there were four days of RKRR rides tucked in there, my actual mileage is probably 1200 or so more than that...I will calculate the total when I get home. So, there was only one task left--to dip my toes in the actual ocean. I had had many hours to plan this step.  I would walk down to the lapping water (I had not contemplated what I would do with crashing wavers) and wade in  Then I would simply snap a photo of my motorcycle boots in the ocean.  Wonderful imagery, no?  Alas, here, I was brought up short as I began to walk down the ramp to the beach: "Sir", asked the winsome lass "do you have a pass?"  " A pass?" said I, and she pointed to the sign I had stood in front of for our short bonding moment when she took my picture.  I turns out that you can walk the boardwalk and the pier.  You can also use the restrooms.  But if you actually want to walk down the beach to the water, you need to buy a pass.  It was all spelled out clearly on the sign. $5.00 for a day pass. (I could have gotten a senior season pass for a trifling $45 or so.)

This may seem a trivial thing, given that I had ridden a motorcycle 4,000 miles just for the experience of dipping my toes in the Atlantic.  But it quickly became a msatter of principle.  $5 to park I might have begrudgingly swallowed.  But $5 to walk on a public beach that constitutionally belongs to me?  I just couldn't do it.  I explained to her the nature of my trip, and how symbolic and lovely a gesture it would be to allow me five minutes to walk down, click the shutter, and return.  And while she seemed mightily impressed, she was having none of it, for rules are rules on the NJ shore!  So I left, somewhat disappointed, but filled with new detailed information about why I don't live in New Jersey.

New Jersey is the Garden State, and at first blush it is beautifully lush with vegetation and river resources that justify its name.  But it has had several hundred years of a LOT of people living there, and they have left an imprint.  A cultivated botanical garden, sculpted and crafted by hand provides more of a feeling of nature than does New Jersey..or New York (lower) or PA for that matter.  Everywhere you look, yes--you see trees--but you know it is people that dominate and heavily tip the scales of importance in that area.  My cousin Pat told me about upstate NY:  "Take all the leaves off, and you'd see 10,000 deer looking at you".   NJ is the similar: remove the trees and you have several million people staring at you, and ready to take your parking spot the minute you look away.  There is a sense that people are what the place is all about, and no pretense to being a nature preserve can change that.  Plus, c'mon, everyone knows it: you got attitude in Jersey like no where else.

So a bit to the wiser and a bit disappointed, I headed west hoping to get as far as I could to use the day efficiently.  Unfortunately, it not only costs you to visit the beach, it costs you to get away as well.  Pretty soon I found myself on the New Jersey turnpike, as my GPS thinks that is the only direct route out.  It turns out the GPS is right.  That IS the only way out of there that is at all efficientl  After racking up $15 bucks in tolls in only a few dozen miles, I bailed out and reprogrammed the gps to take non-toll roads.  We've been wandering about the PA landscape trying to find a way out ever since.

Each setback has its positive aspect tho.  In our wanderings today I encountered many Menonites, driving horse and buggies, but also riding bicycles and showing other signs of a much more relaxed adaptation to the world, such as patterned, less austere clothing.  I'll have to do some reading about them, and how they compare to the Amish.

Off to Mid Ohio tomorrow, and then St Looey and Topeka for a Tuesday night music jam.  More later.