Joe's New Blog

Nothing special, this is just my third effort at writing a blog about my life and what goes on in it: Hobbies, cooking, work, maybe the occasional book or DVD review, and so forth. Nothing really noteworthy, but this is sort of a little subset of my world...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

America runs on Dunkin'...

We're stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts in Edison, NJ. We passed one earlier that advertised free internet, but unfortunately this one does not. The donuts are quite good, though, and it appears that there are nearly as many Dunkin' Donuts around these parts as there are coffee stands in Oregon.

We got a little bit lost getting out of Philly, because sometimes the GPS software doesn't realize that you can't make certain turns and such. In the end, we got out all right, although we didn't go over the Ben Franklin Bridge like I wanted, and we missed the Welcome to New Jersey sign. The girlfriend might have managed to get it out of the side of the window with her camera, but I was having issues trying to get a little charge on my battery so I could take any pictures at all. I did get a shot as we crossed the bridge into New Jersey:
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About half an hour after we left Pennsylvania, we stopped for gas. I was a little surprised to see someone come out of the little office to our car, but we found out that New Jersey is the only state aside from my old stomping grounds in Oregon where it's still illegal to do self-service gas. The guy who pumped our gas was a chatty sort. He's the first person I've heard who really had a distinct sort of northeast accent. It was pretty much that stereotypical Brooklyn accent, which I've really not heard much before except in movies and such. I know, I'm easily entertained...

We had a little trouble getting back to the freeway from the gas station, but that's because the GPS kept wanting to put us on the tollway, which we didn't want to be on. But after making a couple of U-turns and pretty much going straight back to where we got off the freeway, we made pretty good time. I noticed that New Jersey, like Maryland, has very nice looking overpasses across the freeway:
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I'm used to the plain concrete type things, so the nice stonework is kind of a nice change. Both the girlfriend and I also noticed that it seems like three-quarters of the overpasses have American flags draped on them or attached to the fences. I don't know if that's a northeastern thing or what. I've not seen much of that in either Oregon or Texas. Something to ponder...

After driving the freeway for another half an hour or so after gas, we got off to avoid having to merge with the tollway. Of course, the US highways are a bit slower going, with stop lights and lower speed limits and such, but after spending so much on those couple of toll bridges, we're a little leery of the toll roads. Plus being on the side roads lets us stop at places for lunch, or snacks, at least, and for internet access to try to find our way. Of course, the internet access part isn't happening here, but at least we can get our bearings a bit.

On to New York!

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