21 counties in 3 days: the jersey tour
by carol van houten
originally published on
october 18, 2004
It's a small state, right? How hard could it be to see all 21 counties on a three-day weekend?
First let me say that my original idea was 21 counties in 21 days, but we wanted it to be consecutive days, and who has 21 free days in a row? Not us. So John came up with 21 counties in three days, the theory being, three goes into 21 nicely for seven counties a day. That was the plan. Here's how I divided them:
Of course, that isn't how it actually worked out. Day One had a little monkey-wrench thrown into it when our house inspection took three hours! (More on that later). Day Two we got a late start after church and a meeting; Day Three was the only truly full travel day. Plus it had the added bonus of not starting in Hudson County. Although my obsession with buying boots in Salem County did slow us down considerably. And that in a nut shell is why our actual days ended up looking like this:
Day One: four counties
Day Two: six counties
Day Three: eleven counties (yikes.)
Let me say this: it may look like a small state, but it sure doesn't feel that way when it's 7 o'clock at night and you've already driven 300 miles and you still have two counties to go, and the sun is down! Also let me take this opportunity to apologize to the counties that truly got cheated due to time constraints. My idea was to see some really special or unique or beautiful or sentimental (for me) part of each county.
That did not happen.
In fact, if John had not reined me in, many times, we would probably still be somewhere in the Watchung mountains. So, please forgive me, Hunterdon, you are truly one of my favorites, but you are cheated here. Also, my apologies to Camden, Cumberland, Warren, and Sussex. I just wasn't really set up for night shots and I didn't factor in how early the sun sets, you know, in October. Also I have a strong feeling I would really appreciate Gloucester more, if I had been able to spend more time there.
I have no apologies for Bergen County because I'm sorry but that county just gives me a pain. Plus we almost had an accident there. Nice signage, Ridgefield Park. Really, work on it.
So because this is so photo heavy, here is the tour, in three pages. I hope you enjoy it, but if you decide to make the trek, try not to leave 11 counties for the last day.
Day One: Hudson, Essex, Passaic, and Bergen
Day Two: Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon, Union, Middlesex, and Monmouth
Day Three: Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, Mercer, Warren, and Sussex.
--cvh
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