Thursday, May 5, 2022. Wilmington DE to Tops Diner in Harrison NJ
When we got dropped off by John and Terri last night a huge Ford F-150 Tremor was in the driveway blocking our potential escape. We slept well with the cooler temperatures and it was very quiet in the neighborhood. No garage party last night. The night before when John dropped us off, the garage door was open across the street and people and cars were all over the place, but it quieted down by 10pm. When we awoke, we found a second vehicle, a 4-Runner, was also parked in the driveway, completely boxing us in.
I had texted the host last night around 9pm that we were planning on leaving between 8:30 and 9:00am and he texted back “OK, CU in the am”. In the morning, we discovered it was trash pick up day, so we figured we’d have to wait until the garbage truck made its rounds for us to leave, but as 8:30 approached, we heard the 4-Runner go through a remote start and the host then came out and moved the 4-Runner onto his lawn, and the Tremor onto the street.
We greeted our host and gave him $40 for our 2 nights of power and hospitality. He did note that when our RV had rubbed against his new camper shell, it pushed it a little to the side, causing the right side jack to be slanted in about 1”, but it functioned properly. He had mounted the camper onto his truck and then dismounted it while we were gone during the day. I offered to cover any expense to have that repaired, although since it didn’t affect the function, it’s unclear if there was anything more that could be done other than to have a shop try to bend it back out a little. We exchanged information so if there is any cost to repair his truck camper, we’ll file an insurance claim and get our fiberglass scratch repaired and repainted after the trip and RV camping season is over. We did find out that he was in the Navy and served as a mechanic on a floating dry dock that serviced nuclear attack subs, based out of Connecticut. He someday hopes to take his camper to Alaska, but lamented that the Canadians won’t let him cross the border because he’s not vaccinated. I bit my tongue and didn’t say anything about us being fully vaccinated and boosted, but did suggest that he could visit us on Whidbey Island, and then take the Marine Highway ferry from Bremerton to Seward and not have to drive through Canada at all.
It was a short drive to the Christiana Mall where we had to wait outside the Apple Store for the store to open at 10am. Ben went into the mall bathroom but encountered a very suspicious young man in a hoodie in his 20’s who pretended to be urinating in the far urinal but apparently was lurking and waiting for a potential victim to fall into his web. Ben ducked quickly into the first stall, farthest from the man, who kept his station at the urinal, not urinating while Ben took care of his business. Ben was sure the guy would mug him as soon as he stepped out of the stall, so he waited until other people came into the bathroom. A second man did come in shortly but went very quickly into the far stall, but then a third man, who Janet had described as a older homeless man, shuffled in slowly. When that man was in the middle of the space between the perp in the corner and Ben’s stall, Ben took advantage of the cover and darted out of the bathroom, seeing that the perp in the corner was looking a bit frustrated being thwarted by the homeless man blocking access to his early morning target. Ben had been held up at gunpoint in a parking lot when he was in his early 20’s, and still experiences some PTSD when faced with circumstances like this, so his heart was racing for a bit after that.
We did end up getting into the Apple store, which incidentally had two security personnel at the front door. Ben’s AirPods had been erroneously reporting them being left behind when they were in his pocket, so the Apple Geniuses did diagnostic electrical testing, and then updated the firmware and we then reset the iPhone settings and un/repaired the AirPods. This seemed to fix the problem. Meanwhile, Janet took advantage of the No-Sales Tax Delaware sale to upgrade her iPhone. Since her phone was fully functional, she got a decent trade in for it.
But it took more than an hour to transfer the AT&T account to the new phone, update the software, and then restore from an iCloud backup. But we now have matching iPhone 13 Pro’s- his in Gold and hers in Silver with green and burgundy leather cases.
Fortunately, our next destination, the Lone Eagle Brewery in Flemington, NJ, was less than 2 hours driving distance. We were able to check in to the Harvest Host site before 2pm, but the tap room didn’t open until 4pm. The Flemington area is very cute with lots of historical charm, shops museums and restaurants. It also had nice wide streets, little traffic, and very clean streets.
We arranged to meet our son John closer to Jersey City in Kearns, which was another hour’s drive into the city for us. The traffic immediately became more crowded and ill behaved as we got closer to the center of the Newark NJ metro area. The neighborhoods became grungier, the streets became narrower, and tolls became unavoidable, even with Google maps.
John had suggested a Walmart Superstore in Kearns. When we got there, half of the parking lot was torn up, being replaced, but the other half of the parking lot was sparsely filled, and whole sections of recently repaved lot were completely empty except for shopping cart corrals. We put our RV in a spot in the deserted lot between some shopping car corrals, but were immediately confronted by a parking lot security Nazi, who told us in no uncertain terms that NO PARKING BEYOND 2 HOURS was allowed and that we would be ticketed by police if we parked for more than 2 hours without explicit permission from the store manager.
Ben went into the store, which was a zoo, and waited for 20 minutes to speak to a manager. When one did finally show up, he curtly announced that NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO PARK FOR MORE THAN 2 HOURS, NO EXCEPTIONS! He was rude and ill tempered so Ben didn’t even attempt to reason with this sort of life form. We added DEF to the RV while we waited in the parking lot for John to get off work.
We searched around on Google Maps for other places we could park. There was a Planet Fitness across town, but traffic to that was solid stop and go. But there were several large parking lots about a quarter mile past the Tops Diner on Passaic Avenue in front of a closed K-Mart, Shop-Rite Grocery, LA Fitness and Marshalls. So we waited for John to get off work and meet us at the Walmart. Sure enough, that parking Nazi was circling like a vulture ready to call the police on us the second we went past 2 hours. Fortunately John arrived with 15 minutes to spare, and we left that God-Forsaken Walmart in the rear view mirror. We had no trouble finding parking in the Shop-Rite Parking lot, and then hopped into John’s car for a ride to the Tops Diner in Harrison.
We had discovered the Tops Diner years ago when John was interviewing for Stevens Institute of Technology, and we were staying in a Best Western hotel around the corner. The staff had recommended it and we were hooked. When John approached the site, we were astounded to find the old Tops Diner was gone, replaced by a shiny new much larger building and parking lot. The last time we had been there was a several years ago when John and Price were manning Macey’s Thanksgiving Parade Balloons. We had to wait a half hour to be seated and parking was tight. This was certainly not the case this time. The new building has decor that nods to the mid century diner roots crossed with art-deco overtones and a splash of Cheesecake Factory. Fortunately, the food and service had not changed. John had Jambalaya, Janet had a fried chicken dinner, and Ben had a fried seafood platter, and all were huge in portions and excellent in quality and taste.
Our waiter provided excellent and cheerful service. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, our desserts arrived and we are now convinced that Tops Diner remains Tops in our Diner rankings. John ordered tiramisu, Janet ordered carrot cake, and Ben ordered a chocolate fudge brownie Ala mode. While all the desserts were scrumptious, Ben’s brownie was death by chocolate and rich vanilla ice cream. We had lots of left overs to take home for tomorrow’s breakfast and snacks.
We were wondering if we would meet John’s girlfriend Christine on this trip, but we learned that she had just broken up with John this week, so he will be camping with us in the Pocono’s solo. He drove home while we drove back to Flemington to spend the night after a flight of beers and relaxation in the taproom. This traveling across country from one brew pub to the next has it’s definite pluses.
