New Jersey and Patty’s 60th Birthday

June 23 – July 6, 2016:  

We are here at our friends Cindy and Rob’s house in Keyport for the next 2 weeks.  We stay in their driveway with water and electric from their house; dump in their sewer once a week.  This is where we are from so we have been coming back here every year for the past 4 years.  Not sure what we would do without these guys and their hospitality!

Our moochdocking site at Cindy and Rob's in Keyport NJ

This is the year Patty turns 60 so I wanted a great party to celebrate and, as her birthday is while we are here in NJ, I decided to have it here.  Her birthday is actually the 20th of June but we were on the road at that time so we are having it on the 25th of June which is a Saturday.  I invited all of our friends and family here in NJ and Patty's family from Buffalo and Philadelphia to attend.  I also had the party catered so no one needed to bring anything.  

I used a catering company called Local Smoke who specializes in smoked/BBQ meats.  We had smoked pork ribs, pulled pork, brisket, pulled chicken with sides of green beans, BBQ beans, potato salad, and slaw.  As most people know, here in the Northeast, we needed to have a pasta dish too so Cindy made a baked Ziti.  The food was very, very good!  I ordered enough for 45 people and we had 40 but the food would have fed probably 65 people!  To top it off we had a cake with strawberries and whipped cream frosting.  To keep everyone lubricated we had an open bar.  I didn’t want anyone to work at this party so I had a server and a bartender for the night.

The party turned out great!  One of the special things was that her sisters from Buffalo and her brother from Philadelphia attended too! Her sister Cheryl and brother-in-law Joe came down on Friday and left on Sunday.  Her sister Sandy and brother-in-law Mike as well as her brother Tom arrived on Saturday afternoon. Her son Chas and girlfriend Lisa were there too.  It’s not very often that they all get together at one time and we were happy that they did for her birthday, just made it that much more special!

Friday evening we went out to eat at a Local restaurant, Burlews. 
 Pictures are l-r: Chas's girlfriend Lisa, Patty's sister Cheryl and Patty

Patty with Mike (Brother in-law) and sister Cheryl.

Patty with friend Pat on left and her brother Tommy on the right.

Patty singing Karaoke.

Friends hanging out. Left to right: Mandy, Risa, Paul, Nick, Maryann, Ann, Pete, and Martha

Rob lighting candles with Diana, Pete, and Ann looking on.

Patty blowing out the candles.

Great picture of Rick as ZZ Top with Billy Jo.

Patty with brother in-law Mike.

The girls group photo l-R: Back are Maryann, Ann, Pat. Second row are Risa, Mandy, Debbie, Diana, Diane, Martha, Sandy, Lisa, Cindy.  Front Row are Billy Jo, Patty, Cheryl, Wendy, Michele, Leigh, Marla.

While we are here we try to visit with family and as many friends as we can.  We went out to eat with my daughter Jennifer and her husband Christian one day.  We also spent a lot of time with Patty’s son Chas while here too.  And then there are all of the long term friends here we see too.

Patty son Chas, Marks's Daughter Jennifer, and her husband Christian out to eat for dinner

I like to ride and walk the old railroad trail here too.  The trail is 13 miles long and runs from just a few feet from where we stay all the way to Highlands NJ near Sandy Hook. I managed to ride the trail round trip while I was there.  That was a first for me!  A few years ago I tried to ride it one way and my bike broke half way and ever since I have wanted to bike the whole trail.

This is the last section between Atlantic Highlands and Highlands.

Sea Streak ferry to Manhattan NY heading to Sandy Hook NJ.  Manhattan Skyline in the background, note the Freedom Tower.

This stop I try to do any large maintenance tasks that need to be done too.  This time I replaced the bad surge guard that had failed just before arrived.  They sent me a replacement under warranty even after 4 years!  Progressive Industries is a great company, I highly recommend them as a source for RV electrical protection.

Removed all of the stuff in our under floor storage area (basement).  I did this so I could have enough room to replace the power protection device and to just clean out 2 months of dirt from the road.

The protection device is the black box with wires coming out of it.
I had already taken the cover off.

Yup, looks fried to me!

A few days after we arrived here our front door latch broke.  I would have never thought that this latch would break but it did!  The inside door release handle broke at the place where it pushes the lever to open the door.  

Old door latch

Interior of the old door latch.

New internal door look. Now all plastic parts!.

New external door lock.  It's now white as that was all they had at Camping World.

It broke while I was outside and Patty was inside.  She had just gone in to get a drink and she started to pound on the window to get my attention.  I opened the door to see what was going on to find that she was locked inside!  

After analyzing the lock a bit we found that we could open it with a can opener, how appropriate! We got a new one at Camping World a few days later and installed it.  The old one is made of metal and the new one is plastic.  Hopefully the plastic one lasts longer than the old metal one!

I also washed the entire RV including the roof and also the truck.  I try to wash the roof two times a year and this is the second time this year.  I washed the roof just three months ago in Texas so the roof was not really very dirty.  Washing the roof also gives me a chance to inspect it for any abnormal wear or damage.  Thankfully the roof was fine.   This 4 hour job did take a lot out of me though!

I managed to play some golf with my buddies from work.  We managed to get out twice at the Bunker Hill course in Princeton NJ.  Just one the four is still working but he plans to retire this October.  I am hoping to be here when does so I can have a drink or two with him.  We are planning to be back here at the end of September for a wedding so it is looking like it is a possibility!

The only golf picture is of a hawk near one of the greens.

The town of Keyport holds their July 4th fireworks display just across the street from where we are!  Cindy and Rob had a few other friends and family over and we all sat in the back yard and watched.  It was great!  Well, except for the fireworks ashes coming down very close to our RV rubber roof!  We watched very closely but nothing landed on the roof, Whew!

We buttoned everything up and took off for our New England and Eastern Canada summer tour on the 6th of July.  We are visiting Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine before crossing the border into Canada.   We plan to visit Quebec City first and then set off to see 3 sets of friends on 3 stops going west before dropping down back into the USA at Niagara Falls and Buffalo to visit Patty’s family there.  

This will complete our RV camping in all of the state’s east of the Mississippi.  We will then have 9 states left in the west to visit to complete all 50! Hopefully, that will happen next year.

Stay tuned!