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A Weekend in Jersey

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I decided to attend the 2011 Northern New Jersey (Newark & Suburbs) Road Meet on March 12, 2011, and decided to visit the Garden State for the entire weekend. Besides the road meet, which encompassed two abandoned sections of the Eisenhower Parkway, the abandoned Nikesite Road off of I-78 and the abandoned NJ 58 freeway end in Newark, I also attended a hockey game between the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center in Newark, a short drive around Rutherford, Clifton and Little Falls before the meet, and a nice day trip to Philadelphia and South Jersey the following day with Steve Alpert, the webmaster of Alps' Roads.

Here's some highlights of the weekend's trip...

- Starting off with the road meet, which was attended by 23 people, some of whom came from around the corner, whereas others drove from as far away as Québec and Kentucky. It was also nice to see some new people mixed in with familiar faces.
- The weather, which was nice for the middle of March in New Jersey.
- Abandoned sections of the Eisenhower Parkway. In the past, the northward extension in Roseland was fenced off, but over this past weekend, it was not, so the group got to explore this section. However, the abandoned interchange with NJ 24 was inaccessible from the place selected to start that section of the tour.
- Flooding was common in north New Jersey over the weekend. While it causes some detours, it did allow for some nice pictures of the Little Falls of the Passaic River.
- During Sunday's trip to South Jersey, we briefly visited Pennsylvania, so some old sign photos could be taken and so the Tacony Palmyra Bridge could be driven back over the Delaware River into New Jersey from Philadelphia.
- Haddonfield is certainly a nice town, with treasures and gems to be had by all. Oh yeah, and some old signs too.
- Drove around Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland Counties. The farther you get away from the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia, the more the surrounding countryside looks like Ohio farmland or small towns and swamps of Virginia and Maryland.
- There's an abundance of old AAA destination signage in Salem and Cumberland Counties, as well as some signs in Camden and (I think) Gloucester Counties as well.
- Saw a nifty old swing through truss bridge over the Alloway Creek in Salem County, which was closed to traffic and used mostly as a fishing bridge. However, I also spotted a number of newer bridges during the trip that were built by Salem County, so my feeling is this bridge may not be long for this world either.
- Stopped to walk around Greenwich, which is a small town in Cumberland County, and also was the site of the Greenwich Tea Party in 1774. Greenwich had the feel of a small town in Virginia or Maryland, as opposed to a small town in New Jersey, which typically feels more like a town in Pennsylvania or New York.
- Traveled two routes of one-way paired county routes in Cumberland County, CR 609S in Bridgeton and CR 615S/CR 615/CR 615N in Vineland.
- Checked out the Cross Keys Bypass, which is CR 689 in Gloucester County. The bypass was built to go around what was a 6 way intersection in Cross Keys.
- Towards the end of the trip, stopped in Hightstown to check out an old truss bridge built in 1896, and walked a little around a stone dam near downtown.
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