Okay more on the road trip & stuff we did

Whew its really hard to get on the computer to do this!!!

Jersey Shore Pictures Woooo!

We spent most of our weekends in September at the beach, either staying at Ron's parents beach house (which is so very kind of them). Or just taking a drive there. I have always been okay with the beach but in love with the boardwalk, the smells, the sounds, and the sights. Althoughy lately some have the sights have been a little bit raunchy for my tastes. (Come on people put some clothes on!)

Here are some pictures from the boardwalk and the beach. They have this new "ski-lift" thing. It broke down at LEAST once a day but Ron and I still rode it. Fun fun fun and peaceful.
















We went to Allaire Village which was fun and a simple day of quiet New Jersey history.

Allaire Village was founded by the very industrious James P. Allaire. He founded the small town around iron bogs in Farmingdale, NJ. For a time, Allaire was home to all of the workers who worked in the bogs. It was really fascinating as a commune too in which there was universal education and health care (such as it was) there was also 100% employment with children (age 3 and up) working. The young children of course didn't do anything to dangerous...they just worked in the NAIL FACTORY!!!!

Allaire Village

Here is a video I took with my camera. This is called a Wulitzer, a military band organ.

The highlight up the trip for both Ron and myself was a tour of Allaire's former home. Really what made it interesting was this lovely woman who gave the tour who was really interested in the subject and incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. Truly some of the best tours we have ever had have been nearly empty with just us and the tour guide. I think at some time we would have been shy about such an intimate tour but experience has taught us otherwise.

So lets see where did I leave off with our trip? Happily, I have just finished working on the photo album for it. So I'll have that to go through.

After we went to Massachusetts we drove up and over to southern Vermont. Which is simply lovely. Everything about Vermont is majestic and beautiful. The people are kind and we appreciated the different pace of life. It did take some getting used to of course, how strange that people wanted to talk to us pretty much anywhere we went.

We did some "down home" type of things here. We went to the small but chock-full Norman Rockwell Museum, which is staffed by people who modeled for the artist. For several years Rockwell lived in Arlington Vermont. He moved there after deciding that New Yorkers were becoming a little too wealthy for their own good! He enjoyed the life and found what he considered to be the Americana worth capturing. His portraits of Arlington natives are some of his most compelling and famous works. (such as The Four Wants).

Our food situation was a bit limited in this respect but we went to a sweet little place where I had homemade chili and the prices were fantastic! (good for cheap Ron and Nikki)

We did cheese shopping and saw Harry Potter, and drove around looking for covered bridges. We also went to something that has really disappeared in New Jersey. A book store where the employees both love and know books. It is so annoying to go into Borders or Barnes and Nobel (my only options) and ask idiot clerks where my literary selection is located. Not only do they not know, they don't care and they would rather I help my self at the kiosk. Not at this place, here they not only had heard of Nathanial Hawthorne (not exactly an unknown, I know) but they had READ all of his works. They could recommend a selection that would be best for me. Amazing!

We also had an okay dinner at a Colonial Restaurant. The building was really cool, but truthfully it the food was just average. I had Tom Turkey (big in Vermont) with stuffing and vegetables. The weirdest thing, I had like 1.5 lbs of turkey and only 3 carrots....their method serving the vegetables was to first bring your your entree and then the waitress brought out something the size of a small dessert plate with a few baby corn spears and carrots on it, then she asked Ron and I if we would like some and then she divided it between the two of us, and took the rest (yes there were leftover veggies on the plate). I thought that was so weird why not just give us everything. Plus its Vermont in the middle of summer is there nothing green to be had? It was pretty pricey too so we expected more.

We stayed in a cute little cottage in Vermont. It overlooked a mountain and we had our own bathroom and bed and air conditioning. It was heaven and perfect timing since it rained everyday we were in Vermont.

Next we drove to the border of VT and NY. We crossed Lake Champlain in our car on a barge. Peaceful, slow, and very very wet since it was pouring at this point. We spent the day in Fort Ticonderoga, which has a gruesome history that really fascinated Ron. Our macabre is so different. I find death by disease really interesting (as in black plague, influenza) an he favors learning about death by man. Either way its a little dark. (I found the small pox outbreaks really terrifying.)

Unfortunately due to the terrible weather several of the walking tours were cancelled and we couldn't or I should say didn't want to go and see the gardens.

Moving on we drove down to Lake George, NY but we decided to rent a hotel room for an extra night mainly because of the weather and because we like air conditioning. Since I didn't know we would be looking for a room I didn't have time to price hunt and it was the more expensive then our two nights in Vermont! Still, watching TV in a/c was totally worth it as it was pouring outside. It certainly beat tent camping :).

The next night we went to our reserved campground which was truly disgusting. I didn't even bother to go into the bathroom because it was so gross in the campgrounds. Ron did however, and he told me I made the right decision. So, stinky and gross ugh...moving on.... we started to do some activities. We were lucky enough to see some free Shakespeare in the Park. "the Comedy of Errors". It was pretty good actually.

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Next day we drove up to the top of a mountain to take in the view.

Went to Fort William Henry (French Indian War Era Fort that had Civil War souvenirs for some reason?)

Went on a GREAT dinner cruise on Lake George. It was nearly empty while the Minne-ha-ha(another cruise boat on Lake George) was sold out. Dinner was good but the view was better. Lots of lovely little islands, huge homes, and great views of the mountains.

Then we went home but not before we stopped at Saratoga National Historic Site, but I was hungry and don't remember what we did. :)

Hurray for the Road Trip!! One day I will try and add some more detail where I skimped :)

Update Part One!

Well I really haven't done an update in quite a while so i'm going to do a few right now. It all starts a few weeks ago when Ron and I took part in our first Rev. War Re-enactment. We were very nervous about how we would do, meeting new people and scariest of all: sleeping out of doors (in a canvas tent to be precise)!

Our First Event: Battle of Bordentown.

The battle reenactment took place over the the weekend of June 9 - 10th. It was a large event celebrating the 325th Anniversary of Bordentown, NJ. We were joined by our unit (2nd New Jersey Helm's Coy) and about 1,000 other participants for a hot, humid, couple of days.

Our Tent

Ron and I got there late Friday night and were given a bale of hay and our tent. So we set up, chatted for a bit and then got settled for the night. Now I have a big bug issue but I did my best not to look too hard for critters in our tent. The night air was soo humid that we could barely get to sleep, we slept in our underpants on top of a sheet we laid down. At 6 AM the sun flooded through the canvas tent waking us far earlier than either one of us like. We through pillows over our faces and tried to sleep again only to be interrupted by revile which blasted us into the world of the living at 7:00!

This is what Ron looks like when he's cranky in the morning and has a camera shoved in his face.
Some of the people in our group were kind enough to loan us some clothes and we were fortunate enough to buy alot of our gear on the cheap from people giving up the hobby. In the end, we were able to put together our "Impressions" or costumes.

And so there were Ron and Nikki in the 1770s. My role is that of camp follower, which means cook, although (full disclosure) in reality the male soldiers would have done their own meal preparations (meager as their rations were) and camp followers would have done laundry or possible made some extra money by sewing or reparing uniforms and other accessories.

I spent most of my time around this table

and this fire!

The Food

The menu for the day consisted of Eggs, Ham, Cheese and Bread for lunch and for dinner Beef Stew and Three Bean Salad with more bread. Tres magnifique, it was interesting learning how to cook over an open fire and how to stoke and keep the fire roaring. I could never do this by myself of course.

The Battle

Ron may have more to say on this than me, but here are the facts the battle took place on a large open field, with several hundred Brittish, German Hessians, Americans, Dragoons etc. There were eight cannons that alerted the entire town to their presence with loud bursts of fire!

The show was just ok from the perspective of the spectator. It was a bit confusing to see what was going on, and at one point half the army marched to an area that was completely obscured by trees and fought there for about 30 minutes. The tourists were less than impressed unfortunately!

Side Notes

• Turns out ol' Ronald and I aren't too fond of tent camping (on the ground at least, bring on the airobed thank you!)


• I refused to use the port-a-john and held my bladder all day until we could get to a modern bathroom (thanks Bordentown McDonalds)


• Ron had heat exhaustion and he got quite sick. We had to flee in the middle of the night even though I thought that was crazy (ha ha)


• A spider was hanging from the top of the tent nearly in my face!

Even with the side notes Ron and I still had a good enough time to go back in two weeks to the battle of monmouth, although this time we planned a little bit more.....but that is a story for Update Part Deux.

Monmouth walk

As Nikki said, i'll post a little about the battle of monmouth. Maybe i should condense things a bit...maybe the post was a tad long last time! Although this may still end up long! haha. How about a quick intro.

The Battle of Monmouth occured June 28th, 1778. The previous fall the British occupied Philadelphia. Right after that France joined the war on the side of the Continentals. The British were worried they wouldn't have enough troops to hold\supply Philladelphia as well as New York and defend against French attacks in the Caribbean. Also, capturing the rebel capital didn't stifle support for the war and collapse the Continental government like the Brish had hoped. So, General Clinton, the new British over-all commander, decided to consolidate his forces by abandoning Philladelphia and moving back to New York as his main base. He used up all trasport space with loyalists from Philladelphia and shipped them to NY via the Delaware River. He took his army across the Delaware and marched torwards Sandy Hook. Once there he would use the Royal Navy to take him across Raritan Bay to NY. Washington was aware of this and broke camp at Valley Forge. He marched North and crossed the Delaware in present day New Hope. He shadowed the Britsh army for several days but then they met at Monmouth Couthouse.

So i don't make this ridiculously long i'll only describe events around where nikki and I walked. the visitor center is at the bottom left of the picture. That is where we parked and where we started our walk. This is Combs Hill and prety much overlooks the whole battlefield. During the battle General Knox positioned cannons here firing constantly into the British line directly in front. [Quick note on how cannons were used. In close they used cannons like big shotguns firing cans full of lead balls. this was called grapeshot. In this case they were probably firing iron balls. They wouldn't explode like you see in the movies. Instead they bounced like a stone on water. You would fire into the dirt in front of the target and the ball would skip into the lines. In this position the colonists were able to bounce balls all up through the British line...nasty]

Nikki and i walked down the hill to the foot bridge over the swampy creek below. This creek effectively blocked the British from pushing Knox off Combs Hill. We continued walking in a relatively straight line along the British position with a recreated rail fence on our right. A hundred yards to our left was the colonists position. This area was the site of most of the more violent clashes of the day with the British and colonists pushing at each other several times in the day. the British position was a hedgrow/fence line. The colonists had an Orchard, rail fence and barn along their line. As we walk this area my mind always drifts and i start imagining the sounds, sights and events that occured in this seemingly ordinary field. Nikki and i continued to where the trail meets the Freehold Road. There was a road in the same place during the battle. Just across the road is another rail fence where the British line continued. Today it is a field but at the time it was woods. There was fierce fighting here as well.

The purpose of this part of the battle was to buy time for Washington's main army (noted as the large arrow) to turn around, go over Spotswood-Middlebrook Creek (marked by aqua colored line.) and take a good defensive position on Perrine Hill not seen on the map. My mind races whenever i see this swampy creek because i have read accounts of British and Colonists trying to cross the muck, loosing shoes, weapons, being killed oe wounded. It's crazy to think of such violence occuring here!

Well, back to our walk. When we got to the road we made a sharp left, continued a short distance then turned right and went along the Continental line. We then went back up to the visitor center.

Eventually Washington finished placing his Army on Perrine hill and the Colonial units on this side of the bridge withdrew to join Washington. The British then placed several cannon and Washington and Clinton shelled each other for a good part of the day. This turned out to be the longest artillery duel of the whole war.

I think Nikki mentioned patched war damage on Tennet Church. This is probably when the damage occured. The church was several hundred yards behind Washington's position.

I'll probably give more history after Nikki and I get back from the Battle of Monmouth reenactment in June. No complaing if it's long!! =)

Monmouth Battlefield

I believe that Ron will post a rather long yet interesting and vital entry about the battle of Monmouth and all the excitement therein so I will keep my entry short and sweet and simply post some pictures.

The first pictures are from a church that was used as a hospital for injured soldiers during the war. We could not go into the church as it was closed, but a historical recording told us that the pews inside the church are still bloodstained and that divots from the amputation saws of wartime doctors still mark them as well. We'll have to go back...

Old Tennent Church

Surrounding the church is a huge cemetery, there many graves from the mid 1700s still standing.

Here is a detail of another tombstone. Many of the tombstones of this time and location seemed to have the engraving of the angel or skull (see stone above). The skull is a little macabre, I'm not sure why it was so popular.
Here is the marker from the church.

Then we moved over to Monmouth Battlefield State Park for a hot walk around the orchards which was good exercise before my surgery. Here is a picture of a statue I took, and a detail of a little bug that was buzzing loudly on it.

Ewww yucky bug.

Happy Easter

Happy Eaaasssttterrr!

We had a nice Easter weekend! On Friday my mom came over and we dyed eggs and had supper which I made - low fat lasagna (yes there is such a thing!) Then on Saturday we went to do one of a few work meetings for our Revolutionary Re-enacting thing. We basically spent the whole day making cartridges (or blanks) for the muskets. We used 25 pounds of black powder and probably made over 200 cartridges, not bad for a days work.

Finally on Sunday we went over to Ron's parents house for Easter Dinner, I had lamb and enjoyed it very much. Also they had white wine, I think I was the only one who had any, and I had about 4.5 glasses (Nikki the lush). I truly enjoyed it though. Rose made a fabulous pea and ricotta-salada cheese salad. It was very tasty. Happy Easter it was a good weekend.

By the way, I'm up to 90 in my camera fund. Woot. Camera for me on Friday!!

Nikki Whistle Blower

I am learning to play the Penny Whistle, which is an instrument that has been in existence since the 3rd century in some form or another. While this was originally an Irish-Scots musical device it was played in the Americas in the 1730s (at latest) and probably earlier than that.

NJ a battlefield

The General is worried. The weather is bad and he constantly fretts whether this invasion will stay secret. Will he achieve surprise? It is very important to the success of the operation. The coming compaign would be a campaign of liberation and very well could lead to the end of the war!

One could easily think this statement is in regards to the famed Normandy invasion of WW2, or some other well known far off battlefield.
But no! It is in "well known" (note sarcasm on well known) Titusville, NJ. New Jersey?! I thought NJ was the arm pitt of the USA? Far from it! NJ has a very rich history. From 1776 through to the end of the war NJ was marched over, raided, occupied, pillaged, sieged, encamped, scirmished and battled on.

December 1776 was indeed the lowest point for the patriot cause.
Washington and his Army was soundly and embarassingly defeated in a series of battles over New York City, the capture of Fort Washington and the loss of 2600 troops left his Army incapable of confronting the British, his two most senior second in commands were attempting to unseat him from his post and intentionally ignoring orders, Washington could no long engage the British and thus forced to abandon all of New Jersey, Congress adjorned and fled basically giving all powers to Washington, and now that New Jersey was occupied the Britsh were slowly stiffling the rebellion through an amnesty compaign. Last but not least his whole Army would completely disband in a couple weeks because their enlistments were up and considering the aforementioned most if not all were very willing to go home.
His only hope now was to avoid destruction and keep the Army together, because if he and the army were destroyed the cause would be destroyed. He took the Army across the Delaware to a defensive position and then went to thinking and strategizing. It was now or never for him to rally the population around him. He needed to do something drastic!

What he finally decided on was ambitious. Cross the river and capture Trenton, Princeton and New Brunswick reclaiming NJ from the British.
This is where Washington crossing state park comes into the story and why Nikki and I spent an afternoon there. We took some scenic strolls on the PA side of Washington crossing State Park. The bulk of Washington's Army camped around this area taking in the same view of the river we were getting. They were probably hungry and cold, most likely they talked about how excited they were to go home soon. Although when we were there the setting was peaceful, calm and quiet.
At the site of the crossing there is a large stone marker, right around where the troops assembled to cross. When we looked at the River it was calm. At the time however the weather was below freezing, a hail/snow storm flared up. Not only that but the river was fairly high causing an increased current that would smack their wooden boats with sharp and thick chunks of ice. Not only were these soldiers demoralized, hungry, cold and worriying about being in a battle but they had to worry about drowing or freezing in the river!
To the left of the stone marker is a small long sandy island quite close to shore. Now there are geese fighting over nesting spots but then it was where Washington hid his small fleet of Durham boats from prying eyes on the otherside of the river.
The crossing then commenced, it took them just about 9 hours to cross finally finishing at 3am. Thanks to a bridge it took Nikki and I about 60 seconds.

On the other side of the bridge there is a small house called the Johnson Ferry house. It is a small cute house probably smaller than some people's garages. In 1776 it served as a command center for Washington working on details of the attack while his forces crossed. Think of the activity of that place! 2400 people assembling, people yelling, horses everywhere, a few cannon pieces. When we were there it was so peaceful and calm, it's funny to imagine the area buzzing with the drama of war.

From there Washington marched on a dirt road that passes the Visitor Center to Bear Tavern. You pass this spot by car on the way to the park it is appropriately called Bear Tavern Road.) Further from there Washington took Pennington Road.
the assault on Trenton had achieved complete surprise, capturing Trenton and eliminating the 900 person Hessian garrison there. By January 2nd the British made an attempt to recapture the city which was blocked. Washington then left a token force to make the british think they were still encamped in Trenton when in reality overnight he march on Princeton where Cornwallis had left a smaller holding force himself. From there Washington gave up on capturing New Brunswick because his forces were exhausted, they marched torwards Somerset courthouse near Manville. Where, for just an interesting fact only a dozen days or so after Princeton there was a skirmish at Van Nest Mill which was located near where Finderne Ave goes over the Raritan. After the the US troops went on to their first encampment at Morristown. The British withdrew to New Brunswick.

Within the period of one month the American Army went from the depths of despair to the high point of the war up tot hat time. Because of the Trenton victory many troops reenlisted, and volunteered with new confidence, the revolution regained new energy, and the British lost their firm grip on New Jersey.

All this happened in New Jersey!?
I wonder how many people in the state know of the popular Washington crossing picture but don't realize he was crossing in their backyard. Probably quite a few!
Oh well, Nikki and i had a great time taking in the scenery and imagining history.

popular Washington Crossing painting
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware.png/800px-Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware.png
Johnson Ferry House 1
http://www.ettc.net/njarts/examples/ACF9E8.jpg
Johnson Ferry house 2
http://www.ettc.net/njarts/examples/ACFD2.jpg

Weekend Update

This weekend, Ron and I went to Washington Crossing State park on Saturday. It was really fun and we had a great time. We went to the NJ and PA sides of the park. They both have their own strengths, NJ has alot of activities and excited people walking around, their space is full and well stocked with informational pamphlets. 20 minute movies on Washington's Crossing and a general friendly atmosphere. The PA side has an awesome facility, its just huge and beautiful, but its better for a walk than for learning at this point because they are revamping their facilities. There are very few exhibits but a pretty awesome gift shop. I purchased a penny whistle and promptly wrote a song called "Ode to Spring" I think I will record it and put it up on this site. Also we bought some wooden spoons which we will use for reenacting.

Then on Sunday we went to a bread making lecture in East Jersey Olde Towne. Very interesting. It was led by a rather dynamic woman called Jane Chrysostom. She was very knowledgeable about the topic, but really it just highlighted how removed we as New Jerseyians are from our food sources, most of us in the room (age range 9 - 89) did not know the process of turning wheat into flour. Nor did we know that there are various kinds of wheat or that you have to remove the stalk and the beard and the chaff! Holy smokes what a process. After that we had a yummy soup and sandwich dinner with my mom and Mrs. LaFontaine. It was a good weekend.

I would love to attend another lecture by Jane. She does a cheese making that I may be interested in attending!

Also, my mom lent me her digital camera so I can see what i'm looking for in my own digi-cam. I may post some pictures soon.