Finally made it to home

Part 2

From Virginia I could almost smell the ocean breeze. I decided to drive up the east shore of Maryland, therefore missing the Washington DC and Baltimore traffic. I had never been in this area so it was fun driving through the old towns. Before long I was in Delaware….What does Della wear boys??? What does Della wear? A new Jersey… boys a new jersey….I sang that song all through Delaware. There was a lot of road work which slowed things up, but I didn’t care. Soon it was over the Del Memorial Bridge. Driving in the RV I could actually see over the railing down to the river where I saw barges and a small ship. You don’t see anything driving in a car. Now I was in familiar grounds. This was my regular route to the shore. It was getting late and I was ahead of my schedule so I found a campground somewhere between Woodstown and Elmer.

I recognized the campground from years ago. Many years ago I was the editor of my friend, Belford Whilden’s newspaper, THE MID-ATLANTIC CAMPER. The newspaper was distributed all over southern NJ, including this campground. Some weeks I delivered the papers there.

While working at the newspaper one summer a lady came in who had written a book about her full time RV life. I interviewed her. She and her husband were traveling the country in a RV and worked here and there at campgrounds and state parks. She had some great stories. So that is where the seed of this journey actually began.. I can blame it all on her!!! LOL

I am not going to say the name of the campground because it was the worst one of my entire trip. There were many seasonal trailers there, but the campground was empty. They charged full price and told me to park across from the store, which was closed. The electric units there were all broken and there was no water, so I saw a place right next to the store and backed in there. The place was run down, unmowed grass and I didn’t feel safe there.

I was glad to get out of there. The next morning was cool with a brilliant blue sky. It was great driving weather and I was excited that I was almost home. I drove down familiar roads. So much has changed since I went to high school there. Farms were now developments and little strip malls had popped up here and there.

Then I saw the sign for Avalon…yea…I could smell the ocean now. The tide was high in the back bay and I could see sea gulls and birds searching for food. I drove right into to town and finally parked on 39^th Street. My childhood home. Hi Dad! I made it.

My trip was over…..or so I thought…

More on Avalon next time