From southeastern PA to NYC, we had Philadelphia and several rivers in the way.  Fortunately, we also had sailing friends to visit across NJ on the east coast in a small yachting town called Forked River.  You may call it Forked but the locals call it Fork-ed.  We said farewell to the farm and headed on US 1 toward Wilmington, DE and the back roads.  (PS – this US 1 is the same as the one that goes thru Miami, and Coconut Grove where we live, and goes all the way to Key West to MM0! More of US 1 will show up later.)

Betty and Wayne Romberg are friends from our sailing trip in 2012 and are extra special due to the fact that they have (and still have) the same model as our Wildest Dream.  We met in Columbia and sailed with them later in Panama. Their boat, Bright Ayes, is a newer model than ours and they have sailed her all over the world.  And she lives on their dock behind the house and just got a new motor!  So, she is ready for more.

We made it across NJ and parked the RV on a cul-de-sac next to their house and were invited to stay inside the house!  We accepted gladly.   Slept well, took long showers, and did the laundry.  Great friends, indeed!  Also visiting were two grandsons, Sam and Teddy, who mostly hid out playing games (including chess!) but were always available when needed and helpful with the kitchen chores as scheduled by Betty!  They also taught us a new card game called Queen that required a lot of memory and strategy.  And Sam won!  

We also discovered that there was an issue with one of the leveling jacks not staying in the full up position.  Wayne and I did some trouble shooting, added some more hydraulic fluid and checked some wiring but problem persisted.  We contacted the leveler manufacturer and the RV manufacturer and made a plan to get someone to check it later. 

So we set off for Long Island and Wildwood State Park for a long stay.  But we had some navigating (more than we anticipated) to do getting thru the city.  We took the Garden State Expressway up north to the city.  It was nice and inexpensive.  We crossed into Staten Island easily and across to the Verrazzanno-Narrows bridge into Brooklyn.  We had decided to use the Belt Parkway to avoid going thru Brooklyn and the city traffic.  So just across the bridge, the navigation “lady” told us to exit onto the Belt Parkway.  (Those of you familiar with the freeway system in NYC may know what is coming next!)  (Oh! BTW- The SunPass/EZPass charge for the bridge was $93.50! RV with double rear wheels towing a car!)

As we took the exit, there was a sign saying if you were over 10’6” in height you cannot use the Belt Parkway!  Oops!  We are 11’8” and we were a little stunned what to do.  The next sign said to exit if you were over height, so we did!  But we exited too soon into a fenced in and gated work area for the city!   It appeared that we were stuck. But as it turned out, fate provided us with a perfect solution.  There was a team of Bridge and Tunnel workers sitting in a city pickup taking a break.  I went over to ask what to do next and they calmly explained the Expressway/Parkway differences in the city.  You cannot drive with any trailer (and no commercial vehicles are allowed) and must be below the posted max heights. We were both. 

They asked where we were going and when told Wildwood State Park, they all just kinda’ rolled their eyes!  It seemed that we were definitely in trouble.  We could not turn around and could not go ahead.  BUT…one of the workers was from Long Island and he kindly explained where to go and how to get on the I-295 also called the BQE or, in English, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, to the I-495 or LIE or Long Island Expressway, where there were no limitations!  AND…he had a gate key!  We were saved.  We had to navigate several blocks on the streets of Brooklyn to work our way back on the freeway, but we made it. 

That was the beginning of a long drive out of town, past the Brooklyn Bridge, into Queens, past JFK, out into Long Island, and on to Wading River to the park.  Lots of traffic with merging lanes, but slow and easy. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any photos to show the situation or the guys, especially Sean.  But we did send a note to the Bridge and Tunnel Department to send our thanks to the team.  It was responded to with a very nice your welcome and assurance they would pass our thanks along to the team.  Not a bad day in the end!