The first rendition of stories I never got around to publishing.
On paper it was a simple 1 day drive that would have about 537 miles of driving. Kind of a lot for any Bostonian. Now that I’ve been away from rural Philmont for so long I’d once again classify myself as a Bostonian. The plan was to leave at 5:45am and drive straight to New Jersey to try to miss the infamous NYC traffic. I got up late though and left at 6am.
The drive went by slowly. It was really boring to drive though Rhode Island and Connecticut. The first stop of the day was the Thomas Edison National Historic Park. I was basically the only person there, which was kind of a blessing. This place consisted of Thomas’s laboratory and machine shops as well as his house, which was a short drive away. Normally at parks I watch the short film, but here the ranger suggested I shouldn’t as it’s not really that important. The laboratory was AMAZING. Totally worth the drive! It had all of Thomas Edisons equipment, a library of about 10k books, and was 3 stories tall. I asked one of the rangers whether the machinery would still work if the generators were powered up and he said yes, but the turbine shafts would fall out of the ceiling because they are so old. Once they restore it I will have to go back to see the shop in action.
Most people think of Edison having invented the light bulb and the photograph, but did you know he also had over 1090 other patents? Most of them are in the 3 story building. I really didn’t want to see Edison’s house, but I asked myself ‘why not?’ and went. It was a short 10 minute or so drive across town to get there. It is in a gated community so you need to have the park pass, only go to the Edison house, and be respectful to the neighbors who live nearby. There was the main mansion and a greenhouse. It was actually a impressive house and will be more so once the National Park Service fully restores the house. I wasn’t able to go inside because of covid, but I could walk around as much as I liked and see the grave of Edison. Really cool! I’d recommend seeing the house. There are also usually deer hanging out on the lawn.
I wasn’t on a super tight time schedule, but I needed to move on. Next was the Morristown NHP. I read online that the visitors center was at Jockey’s Hollow so I went there first. I watched the movie and spoke to the park ranger. Pretty interesting. Basically the revolutionary army under George Washington stayed here for one of the most brutal winters ever. Unfortunately it was kind of a waste of time since the troops didn’t do much there besides act really organized, not give away their position, and suffer through the winter. The battlefield itself was great! It was a bit cold though. Morristown has a second location about 30 minutes away and it happens to be the house where general Washington stayed at the time. This is the 4th or 5th house I’ve been to that Washington stayed at. Since I raced over to the house I ended up getting there a bit early so I perused the museum first then took the tour. (You can’t go in the house without a tour.) The visitors center here (the website was wrong) had a small gift shop where I bought a cannon tie. I love cannons!
Next up was the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. It is situated in the heart of the city of Paterson. A bunch of reviews stated the river smelled bad, but I didn’t notice much of that. At first I was a bit confused at whether I could get the stamp or not since the visitors center had a big “closed” sign on it and the lights were off, but after calling the phone number for the park, it turns out you can just knock on the door and they will stamp it for you. Bingo! There wasn’t really much to do there besides look at the waterfall so I got bored pretty fast.
Unfortunately I had google maps set to ‘no tolls’ so I ended up taking backroads and neighborhoods all the way from Paterson to the Tappan Zee (Cuomo) bridge, but I did have a really good view of the new bridge. I ended up still having to pay a toll too!
Just over 100 miles back towards Boston I had dinner at ‘The best burger restaurant in Connecticut’: The Haywire Burger Bar! The burger itself was great! I also got some French fries and a chocolate shake. This place had alcoholic shakes, which is something that I had never heard of. Since I still had about 130 miles left to drive I decided not to order one. Although I think it would’ve been fine.
Overall it was a short trip, but I got a lot done. I think that the west Jersey is better than East Jersey, but that’s just my personal opinion. Hope you enjoyed this short first edition of From The Vault. I thought of the concept a few days ago and I seem to have more than a dozen trips I never got around to writing. See you next time!
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