Oakland, New Jersey – Day 2

We are still parked in a beautiful park-like setting at Elks Club #2167. Yesterday I took a walk along the Ramapo River at 5:30 AM to capture some of my favorite photographic subjects…shapes…reflections and shadows…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

We spent most of another blistering hot day reading. Today is forecast for only 85 degrees…where’s my long underwear?…

Mary flies out of Newark Airport on Wednesday to return home to California for about a six-week stay and I’ll depart Thursday morning heading for my son’s home in Connecticut. Mary has a tentative return-to-me date of July 16th.

Enjoying beautiful fraternal club grounds is another joy of the full-timing lifestyle!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of New Jersey. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

OAKLAND, NEW JERSEY

Oakland, New Jersey Elks Club is located just a mile from our good friends, Jim and Ginnie Palumbo. The grounds at the club are elegant, with a gazebo, tennis and basketball areas, a huge barbeque and picnic area and then…the Ramapo river flows at its feet.

Among the landscaping plants was the biggest hosta I’ve ever seen in North America, about four feet across. Beautiful.

I spent the afternoon reading at the riverside and watching the geese swim back and forth under a nearby walking bridge.

The bridge may have been meant for people, but this deer took advantage of it as well.

When Jimmie got off work, they came and got us, and the four of us went for dinner at one of their favorite Italian restaurants.

The zuppza de peche loaded with calamari, scallops, huge delicious mussels, and shrimp with angel hair pasta, excellent.  It came with soup or salad, and wonderful french bread and extra sauce. The guys had meatballs with their pasta. It doesn’t get much better than that.

We sat by the river and visited with Ginnie and Jim until it got dark.  Beautiful  swans swam by, gobbling something they liked.

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A couple of fishermen took advantage of the dusk and put their poles in  from a small boat. Earlier in the day, a kayak went by and a heron landed on the bank, but I didn’t have my camera ready at that moment. Next time.

Oakland, New Jersey – Day 1

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the about 100 miles from Allentown, Pennsylvania to Oakland, New Jersey. Most of the drive was on Interstate Highways 78 and 287 with LOTS of traffic and MANY 18-wheelers. While the speed limit was 65…most vehicles zipped along at 75-80 miles per hour. It’s a downright dangerous situation and very stressful driving. Unfortunately when you are in this part of the United States the other roadways are very narrow, congested and very slow going. My driving technique is to stay to the right, maintain about a 60 mile per hour speed and hopefully avoid any problems.

We are parked in a beautiful park-like setting at Elks Club #2167. Here are some of the photos that I took when we arrived in the blistering heat…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

We have a peek-a-boo view of the Ramapo River through the windshield…

and the usual dinette window photo…

About 4:00 PM we were joined by my friends Jim and Ginny Palumbo whom I have known since 1976. They live about a five-minute drive away. We went to an Italian restaurant for supper…

Where I had pasta and meatballs. One good thing about being back East is one can get delicious Italian food…

About 5:30 this morning I took a walk around the grounds…while it was cooler..and took a few more photos. Mary really likes this place. This Elks Club is essentially closed for lack of membership. That’s really sad because it’s such a pretty place. So, it’s also quite quiet and peaceful here considering we are in such a heavily populated area.

Mary flies out of Newark Airport on Wednesday to return home to California for about a six-week stay and I’ll depart Thursday morning heading for my son’s home in Connecticut. Mary has a tentative return-to-me date of July 16th.

Yesterday was another scorcher and it’s supposed to that way again today. Here’s a photo I took at 5:30 AM yesterday morning…

Here’s an image from accuweather.com showing the heat and unhealthy air quality advisory for today. I’ve placed a red dot at our approximate location in Oakland, New Jersey…

And we are still about three weeks away from the official start of Summer!

Like yesterday, I hereby declare YUK, YUK and YUK for the current weather!

Enjoying beautiful fraternal club grounds is another joy of the full-timing lifestyle!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of New Jersey. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust