There I was minding my own business watching another Battleship New Jersey video on YouTube and this time it was announced that they would be going into dry dock for the first time in 30 years for maintenance. When they mentioned that you could go on a dry dock tour I knew I just had to go and see. So off I went!
Day 1
I got up at around 1:50am and was in the car driving away at 2:15am. By 5:30am I was halfway across the GW Bridge and could see NYC shining in the distance. Phil was still asleep so I just waved and continued on my way.
The first stop of the day was the Warren E. Fox nature center. This is where I’d get my New Jersey Pine Lands National Preserve passport stamp. Also the Great Egg Harbor River stamp was there too. Sadly no patches for the souvenir drawer.
The guides were really nice and showed me a map of the park. I chose to do the boardwalk because I didn’t want to risk getting any ticks and I didn’t feel like wearing my boots to avoid the mud. Also there was a potential for giant hornets and I didn’t want to risk angering one of them.
The boardwalk was around 1.8 miles one way and so off I went! It was nice to be out of the car walking around for a change since I had been driving all morning.
There weren’t too many people out so it was like I had the whole boardwalk to myself and it was looong! There were sections that were so long that I couldn’t see the end of them.
Eventually I got to the end of the walkway and found both an artisan well and some power plant ruins. They were back from the World War 1 era. I think this is where some of the ammunition was made.
Nearby there was an old cemetery so I checked that out before I headed back to the car. I was running out of time at about 9:15am so I decided to head back. Since I got so many BB8 pictures on the way over I didn’t bother taking him out again to get more. Plus I thought that might be a little too touristy / dishonoring the dead. Anyways, this was a fantastic stop and I’m glad I took the time to enjoy it.
Next on the itinerary was the Cape May Welcome Center. To get the lay of the land and such. I also thought they had an additional NP stamp, but it turns out they didn’t. False info! Anyway, the ladies behind the desk gave me a map of the town, some brochures, and some Cape May Diamonds. (They are small quartz stones that have been rounded by the sea and deposited on the beach, but they are called diamonds because that sounds cooler.)
It was suggested that I go walk around the town to see some of the old houses and the Washington Street market. Afterword I should go check out the WW2 tower and the Cape May lighthouse. I decided to go the Washington St. market first.
Basically it is a walkable street (no cars allowed) that has a lot of shops on each side. I visited a fair amount and had lunch nearby. I got some fudge for me, some chocolate covered pretzels for Phil, some gifts for penpals, and a few different soaps for Mom. (Don’t worry, I’m not spoiling any surprises here.)
After shopping and lunch I decided to go see the lighthouse. It was a 10 minute drive over and it wasn’t too busy when I got there. This lighthouse is 199 steps high and was built in 1859. I paid a small amount to climb to the top.
There were 5 landings spaced throughout the staircase that let me catch my breath for a few seconds and look out the various windows.
At the top I got a great view of the surrounding beaches and town of Cape May. I could also see the WW2 bunker on the beach from here. Since the bunker was sealed up I thought it was best to just skip it. (I’d rather see the inside of a bunker than just the crumbling outside).
This lighthouse is still in use today (operated by the US Coastguard), although they replaced the massive multi ton glass light (housing) off with a newer modern lightbulb. It’s easier to run a lighthouse when you don’t have to carry oil up a ton of stairs to fuel the light every so often. Every Full moon (on a Tuesday) they open the lighthouse to visitors at night. Pretty neat!
After the lighthouse I went to the WW2 lookout tower. This was about a 4 minute drive from the lighthouse and it had a less intimidating staircase. Before I actually went into the tower I did a quick scouting mission to the beach to look at the sinking concrete shipwreck right off the beach. It was a weird idea to carry troops in WW2, but never really played out and so the army decided to sink it as a reef off the coast. On the way there the ship decided to sink itself a bit early and tada! Now it’s on the beach.
After my short adventure to the beach I drove about 300ft to the tower. The purpose of this structure was to help the US military spot German U-Boats in WW2. There were only 2 U-Boats ever spotted from the coast though.
The shore was lined with massive lights that would illuminate the water at night in case there was the need for it, but it was never used. You can read more about this tower here: website.
After getting back to my car I wasn’t really sure what to do next since this was kind of the end of my day. One thing that looked kind of interesting was a lookout platform about an hour northwest of Cape May. It didn’t have many reviews and was pretty remote, but I had nothing better in mind so that’s where I decided to go.
I was once again the only person visiting and it indeed would’ve been interesting if I had binoculars, a long range camera, and expert birding knowledge. I had none of those so it was a bit boring. The platform was well made and there were indeed many birds, but I couldn’t really see them with my iPhone and the ones close to me were hiding in the tall grass. Making so much noise that it felt that the hiding birds were mocking my futile efforts to spot them.
After about 10 minutes I decided to just drive to the hotel. I was getting pretty tired and wanted to lay down for a while. Maybe eat some fudge too. The fudge was great! I decided not to get dinner at a real restaurant because I didn’t really feel up to it. There seemed to be slim pickings in West Deptford, NJ and the closest well known city is Camden. Not really the beacon of great food that I expected. (Philly is a bit farther, I wanted something close by with relatively easy parking).
Tomorrow I will see what I came all this way for: Battleship New Jersey in Dry Dock!
Day 2
The original plan was to wake up early and try to see as much as possible, but since I was still pretty tired and Google Maps showed a suspicious amount of traffic for a Saturday morning I decided to rewrite the plan and do a more relaxed day.
It turned out that the March of Dimes was happening in Philadelphia and so maybe that was the cause of all the traffic? Getting the battleship tour time slot was tough and I could only get the 2:15pm spot so I had loads of time to adventure before it started. The only problem was that with all this traffic it seemed too risky to go anywhere. I made a hasty plan and went on my way.
Valley Forge NHP was the park of choice that day. It took me about 45 minutes to get there from the hotel and I thought I’d have enough time to see most of it and still make it to the battleship tour on time. That tour was why I came all this way in the first place so I was going to be on it no matter the cost.
Valley Forge was basically a rest stop for George Washington’s army. I watched the park film in a pretty huge theater. It was all about the living conditions in the camp and the revamping of the army before they marched out. When Washington arrived there was just about nothing there besides a forest and some fields so the army had to build all the houses and such from scratch. (In the winter). That sounds a bit crazy, since I can’t imagine leaving my town to go build a new town in some far off remote part of the state in the dead of winter. The video also said that the army also had trouble sourcing food because the nearby farmers rejected the meaningless (devalued) paper currency they were giving out. Meanwhile, the British troops were offering hard currency (coins) for food and some farmers obliged…risking court marshal or jail if caught. At some point the army allied with the local tribes of the area and that helped ensure survival until they all moved out.
After the video I decided I had about an hour before I should skedaddle back to Philadelphia. I did the auto road tour! The park is huge and it would’ve been lovely to try a day hike or something. I stopped at 2 places on the drive: The National Memorial Arch and Washington’s Headquarters. I thought that stopping at more would be sketchy given the limited time I had plus they didn’t seem all that interesting.
The drive itself was pretty great! Washington’s Headquarters consists of a train station, a few houses, the farm house that Washington rented out (to use as a command center), and a lot of grassy fields. I wonder how he rented it out if he only had devalued paper currency?
The drive back to Philly was kind of awful. It was bumper to bumper traffic for about half of the distance, but I made it to the shipyard with 10 minutes to spare!
Once there I was told I couldn’t wear shorts. Luckily I threw my Philmont pants into my bag on Thursday night just in case.
I had to sign a waiver, get a hardhat, steel toed shoe covers, and watch a safety video to be able to take the tour. The steel toed shoe covers were a bit annoying to wear over my sneakers.
Me talking about Battleship NJ in the blog doesn’t really do the ship justice. Basically all the stuff about the ship in this blog is from my tour, the website, and the YouTube cannel so if you are wondering about the sources I will link them here. Website. Youtube.
My tour group started out on the top of the dry dock (ground level) and the tour guide walked us to the back of the ship. The dry dock is about 50ft deep so it was really cool to stare all the way down and see the propellers.
We walked down about 75 steps to the bottom of the dry dock and this is where I encountered some fishy smelling mud! Luckily that could mostly be avoided because the dock workers had put a ton of plyboard down as walkways.
When I got there they were in the process of painting it a gray color. Eventually the hull will end up red. We got to see all 4 propellors up close and I had the opportunity to jump up and touch the outboard prop. I could hit it with ease.
The keel of Battleship New Jersey was first laid on September 16, 1940. I got to see that up close and touch it as we made our way down under the ship. The battleship is being held up by 304 concrete blocks. Each block has their own wooden pad called a “cribbing”. Video here.
After everyone got a bunch of pictures with the propellors and keel we ventured to the side of the ship to examine where the ship anodes were. They are smallish blocks of zinc that help with corrosion control. It was a fairly confusing topic for me to figure out, but this video will get you up to speed fast if you are curious: video here.
Next we went back under the ship to inspect the very center. It was awesome to stand (more like crouch) under 4 stories of metal. Some of my friends was worried about it falling off the blocks and ruining the day, but if that happened they’d never know it so why worry?
Under the ship I saw a lot giant metal patches welded over holes in the ship. These holes are meant to be here, but when not in active service they are kind of pointless/risky so they were covered up. At the dry dock they were checking for leaks by cutting a small hole in one, forcing air inside, spraying soapy water along the edge, and then checking the edges for bubbles. Video here.
The last part of the tour was seeing the very front of the ship. My tour guide said that Battleship NJ is the longest Iowa class battleship by about 7 inches. When it was being built, the NJ workers added some extra stuff onto the front just to say that their ship was the longest. Haha
On our way back up the stairs we could see the massive wall keeping the Delaware River out. It is colossal. Probably the biggest door I’ve ever seen!
At the end of the tour we go to take a few final pictures of the ship and ask any remaining questions before leaving. On my way out I bought one of the zinc anodes as a souvenir. (Unfortunately it’s too big for the souvenir drawer so I’m not sure what I will do with it.) This tour was by far the greatest moment of the entire trip and I’m so glad I made it. Throwing those pants into my bag saved the day!
The end of the trip was really the second that the dry dock tour ended. I was free to do whatever I like within a few conditions of course. I really wanted to go see Phil in New York City, if even it was just for a handshake and a hello. So I called Phil and asked if he could do that since we both weren’t sure of his weekend plans. It turns out he was free! So off I went.
According to Google Maps the fastest way was across Staten Island then through an underwater tunnel to Manhattan. It took me about 2 hours, but it was worth it because I got to see Philip and deliver his pretzels. The tolls were super expensive though. I’d say it cost me $40 to enter and exit the city in my car.
The only thing left to do now was stop by Queens to meet a gaming friend. It took about 2 hours to both get there and find him, but we managed to meet up and introduce ourselves, which was wonderful. Next time I’m in NYC I’ll try to go out and meet him again. After saying hi I continued on my way home. It took me about 3 hours to drive through Connecticut. I got home at about 12:20am and proceeded to go to bed!
This was an outstanding trip. As far as my plans go this one was pretty relaxing. I managed to do all this in less than 2 days, mainly because I didn’t want to spend money to get another hotel somewhere. I’m now done with south New Jersey in terms of National parks so that’s neat. I still have about 5 stamps to get in NYC and I’ve been thinking about how to tackle them going on 4 months now, so expect that to be my next adventure. Anyway, I could ramble all night. Thanks for reading!
Trip Stats
- Total estimated miles: 908mi
- Total actual miles: 879mi
- New Jersey Devils seen: 0
- Battleship propellers touched: 3
- Dogs seen while walking on the boardwalk: 5
- Worst part about driving in NYC other than the tolls: the dreadful FDR drive
- How long did the fudge last for: about 4 hours lol
- Best grass: Valley Forge NHP
- Closest I got to entering Philly: the Walt Whitman Bridge
- Hotel rating: 4/5 (No bugs, clean room, great staff, kind of old)
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