Movie Nostalgia Everywhere
We headed through Rhode Island to stay a few nights in Mystic Connecticut, another quaint coastal community just North of New York City made famous by the 80's breakout movie for Julia Roberts, Mystic Pizza. We even ate at the namesake restaurant that is still going strong. The pizza was ok as the kids compared it to Chucky Cheese...hmmm. We walked the boardwalk of the downtown shopping district and enjoyed the post summer tranquility of this tourist town. The kids had school in the town library that was housed in an old victorian mansion.
We raced through NYC on our way to our campground outside of Atlantic City on the New Jersey shore. We set our stay for twelve nights at Chestnut Lake, a Thousand Trails property...translation is "free camping" due to our membership. This was another corporate property that lacked much charm, but made up for it with a great playground area right across from our pad where the kids played many days and nights with other kids. One positive of these Thousand Trails properties is that many full time RV families use the Elite Basic pass too, so we see other kids more often than we do at privately owned RV parks. The mosquitos were horrible after all the hurricane action the last two weeks. New Jersey is not a very exciting place to be. At least a dozen people said "why would you ever come here?" The people here have no pride and tell it like it is...just the way Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi have descibed the blue collar, hard working class of people that we met. We did make friends with a family next to us in the park. Matt and Kathy were very kind and about to become full time retirees. They were there with their 6 year old son Devin who the kids played with.
We decided to leave the RV to spend a couple days in Philadelphia during the rainy days on the coast so that we would have stuff to do indoors. We booked the Kimpton Hotel Monaco which was a boutique hotel in the historic district downtown so that we would have easy access to walk to the many surrounding attractions. The kids enjoyed the fanciness of the place.
We walked across the street to tour Independence Hall which served as the original U.S. Capital and was the place that both Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and James Madison's U.S. Constitution were signed. We visited the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's grave, homestead museum and the first Post Office. The post office is still in operation and so the kids were excited to send letters and postcards to their grandparents with Ben Franklin's signature stamped on them.
We next walked down to the Philadelphia Mint, a free self guided tour, to see how all our US coins are made.
We ate a really good lunch at a vegan booth in one of the oldest urban marketplaces in the US, Reading Terminal Market. It was packed with the lunch rush of all the local workers. We then headed out to walk through downtown with stops at city hall and the love statue as we made our way to The Museum of Art, better remembered by most as the steps in the movie Rocky. We all made our triumphant climb to the top and looked back on this beautiful city of brotherly love.
After all the walking, the kids demanded an Uber lift back to our hotel. For the kids, all the historical significance of this city never compared to lounging in their bed watching their favorite cartoons.
We had the front end of the RV fixed by Clegg's Garage near Atlantic City. Against the owner's advice to go spend the day in Atlantic City because of it's "ghetto" status ( it is very ghetti off of the boardwalk) we had brunch on the boardwalk and then decided to take advantage of a sunny eighty five degree day at the beach. We always keep our swimsuits handy in the car, so we all changed quick and headed to the waves. It was a perfect day. Mr. Clegg called mid-afternoon to share the good news that we only needed two new front tires. The belts were shot on both but very hard to tell. We were glad to get out with a little over $500 expense. We got the oil changed too, so that won't need to be done again for a while.
Peace and Love