Heading to the Next Gig

Today is travel day.  We had a flash flood warning in place for all of today with the potential for torrential downpours.  The plan was to be able to get to the backside of NYC before we started looking for a place to stay and now I was having my doubts we would make it that far. It is not like we are on a critical schedule – we are not due to start at Greenbrier until October 1^st, so that gives us three full travel days to get 470 miles.  The rain started about 7:30 a.m. so we packed up in rain gear and I found that either I did not lace my boots tight enough or they are no longer waterproof. Since most of the truck was packed and the trailer prepped, packing was easy and we were at the dump station by 10

The ride went reasonably well with two stops in Connecticut for breaks.  We hit traffic (as expected) on I-95 near Bridgeport and I-287 before the Tappan zee was slow so I figured I wouldn’t get the 250 miles (my daily goal) I was looking for.  However, the rest of I287 was pretty clear. Once in New Jersey I needed gas and figured New Jersey is pretty cheap so we stopped off of 287 in Oakland.  I was shocked when I got the receipt!  I’ll have to use my AAA gas app in the future because JWN & Sons was getting $3.799 for mid-grade. Since it was after 3 pm we figured we would plug a campground into the GPS and have a place to stop for the night.  The first Good Sams park (I wanted full hookups so I could flush the black water tank) in our direction of travel was Fla Net Park in Flanders, NJ.  So we rerouted onto I-80 and had more backups.  Fortunately the campground was only 27 miles from the gas station.

Once we got to the park and got setup it was time to find a place to eat.  The hostess at the campground office initially recommended Chili’s and Longhorn, which are O.K. but we typically go for more of the local flare – unless its Cracker Barrel ( We are pretty easy to shop for and the kids know it.  Cracker Barrel gift cards are the go-to’s for them.)   I told the hostess that we would prefer something that is not a chain so she recommended Budd Lake Diner.  As I was searching the GPS for the diner an ITC Buffet popped up – I like buffets, plenty of selection, try a little of everything and then go back and empty what they make well!.  We head out of the park and get to the address of the buffet and there’s no buffet there.  So I put restaurants in the GPS and a little before Budd Lakes in the listing is Cracker Barrell.  Guess where we ended up?

I even got back to the campground in time to do a first flush on the black water tank.  Another flush tomorrow and it’ll be on the road to Boonsboro with a stay at a commercial campground since we will be a day early and the host camp site is currently occupied.