Friday, May 6, 2022. Flemington, Princeton and the Pocono Mountains
The Lone Eagle Brewery parking lot was a very quiet, level and comfortable Harvest Host site. In the morning, Ben even discovered that there was a 15A power outlet on the power pole nearest the corner that could have been used for overnight power.
It was raining and cool, so we went to the Dutch Farmer’s Market nearby, which Trip Advisor had rated as one of the top things to do and see in Flemington. It proved to be well worth the visit. It looked on the surface like a large grocery store but it was actually many different markets such as a donut and bread bakery, a pretzel and savory roll shop, extensive deli, candy and chocolate shop, pickled everything shop, furniture and wood craft shop, fabric crafts shop and even a sushi shop, seemingly very out of place.
Many of the women working there wore traditional dresses and head coverings, although the woman working the sushi shop was obviously Korean, and a handful of other minorities worked in various jobs around the building. We couldn’t resist buying a blueberry fritter, some frosted apple bread, pretzels and some sausage and cheese rolls.
As we were wandering through the Dutch Farmer’s market, we got a text from Mihee, a friend who we exchange Christmas letters with every year. She lives in Princeton and has two daughters just a little younger than our own children. Janet had thought of Mihee late last night so we tried to reach her via text and email, but we thought our contact information was outdated, so we weren’t sure we would be able to reach her. It turns out that she retired last year, and was happy to see us even for a brief visit. We drove the RV and parked it on the street near her town house and we visited her in her townhouse for tea and lunch bites.
She then took us on a driving tour of the Princeton campus and neighborhood. She and her husband Bob downsized from a larger house after the kids were both off to colleges and find the townhouse very well suited to their empty nester household. They can walk to most activities and stores and really like Princeton. Bob has had his eye on a camper van so Mihee toured our RV, although Bob had to go into work earlier in the morning, so we missed him. Both of their daughters are extremely accomplished with one starting Harvard Law and the other an MBA program at the Booth College at the University of Chicago this fall.
It continued to rain pretty steadily all day. We filled up the RV with 9.993gal @ $5.979/gal with 22026 on the odometer (14.7mpg) and then drove to the Pocono Mountains where we were scheduled for our next Boondockers Welcome site. The site is beside a single family home with 15A power and water available and the owners were in the process of moving out of this house and into a new lake front house also in the Poconos. They are snow birds with a place in Florida as well. They were lamenting the cool weather and rain, but insisted that the Poconos are hard to beat in the summers. There was space for John to park his car next to our RV.
After John arrived, we had dinner of chili cheese dogs, Cole slaw and pickled peppers and olives from the Dutch Market, all paired with a fine French Chateau Brito Bordeaux 70% Cabernet Sauvignon/30% Merlot mix.
We had Kirkland ice cream bars for dessert as we then watched “Airplane” on DVD, and “Mars Attacks” off the Mac Mini’s hard drive.
