Another Weekend Road Trip
Originally published at Big Ugly Man Doll. Please leave any comments there.
The weekend started the way a good weekend should start, which is to say on a Wednesday.
Number One Son has 100 mommies, as I’ve mentioned, and one of them came for dinner Wednesday with her 2 kids. We were joined by a friend of hers (and now a friend of ours) from another internet board, and four of her five kids. SOBUMD had met Auntie Jenny once before; none of the rest us had ever met in real life. I find it amusing that some peoeple are still freaked out at the idea that we would have them all over for dinner. Just because all the introductions have been virtual doesn’t mean we don’t know them (outside of the biblical sense, because that’s still tough to do over the internet, you know).
I have spent so long hearing about all the Mommy board people that in my head, Auntie Jenny is first and foremost one of Number One Son’s 100 moms, and since she’d (virtually) introduced us to Jen From Around Here, I’d sort of lumped the evening into that category - so I had a small doubletake when I remembered (by dint of a few of their comments) that they’re also faithful readers of the BUMD. It’s so good to get in touch with my fans, especially when they’re as cute and fun to hang out with as the ones I’ve met so far! A great time was had by all, and repeat visits are in order.
The next day it was wheels up for the beach, because the Boss said that down the shore everything’s alright, and we could all use a little more alright in our lives. The best part of the New Jersey Turnpike is driving with SOBUMD and The Magic iThingy, since she was able to guide us to lunch at Hot Diggity Dog in Bellmawr, which we had not until noon that day even heard of. It’s a wall into which someone has knocked a hole so that someone could set up a hole-in-the-wall hot dog joint, and they have GREAT dogs. You know you’ve gotten off the Turnpike at the right exit when you order a slaw dog and the guy at the grill looks at the young lady at the register and says, “Hey, go make some fresh slaw, will ya?” Hot Diggity Dog, 432 Creek Rd, Bellmawr, NJ - a hot dog worth the exit.
We found the Atlantic ocean the way people have found it for years - go east, stay east until wet. It was cold, as the Atlantic often is in April, which likely had something to do with why we were the only ones there.
Cold Kids Are Cold
They don’t just roll the sidewalks up during the off season, they actually roll up most of the places to eat and sleep, too. We found a place to sleep in a town called Toms River, although I never saw the river, nor Tom, come to think of it. It could just as well be called Bob’s Diner for my money - I could at least see a few diners. Actually, I’d've been OK calling it OB-CO, which is the name of the Doughnut shop you should stop at if you’re around the Toms River area. Yum.
The hotel had a pool, which was filled with water, kids, and noise - the volume in decibles was exceeded only by the volume in deciliters. The hotel did not have rooms for five, nor adjacent rooms, the upshot of which was that I got to spend the night with Number One Son kicking me, then waking me up at 0630 because hey, get up.
We rolled out to see the State Park, which had a sign requesting we not feed the foxes.
Foxy Little Thing
That the “Jersey Shore” jokes wrote themselves on this trip, I probably don’t have to mention. Driving up the long spit of dunes that is this State Park, we saw a fox - four legs - which walked almost right up to the car and gave me a look as if to say, “Hey, who’re you going to listen to, some dumb sign or an actual fox like me? Amiright here? OK, I’m right. So where’s the doughnut, fat man?” Sly little devil.
Back to the beach to run in the sand for a bit. Number One Son let the water crash over his ankles a few times, then calmly walked up to me and mentioned, “Daddy, I can no longer feel my extremities.”
Cold Feet!
I hate when that happens.
Next up, Friday and the Rush to Easter!