My initial instinct was to rate this a star lower than I have. Actually had to think about it for a…read morefew minutes and have a debate with myself. (Who won the debate? Me.)
Not too long ago, my oldest friend and I were hanging out in Oakland, NJ, a town or 2 over from Wayne, the place in northern NJ where we grew up together (we've known each other since we were 8 years old). He lives in Florida now, but he's staying temporarily in Philly while working out of south NJ, and as he looked up at the majestic Ramapo Mountains, he said, "Y'know, from Wayne up, NJ is a beautiful state. But as you start going south...it's flat, ugly, drab, dull. Crowded, polluted beaches and Pine Barren hillbillies. I don't care what Springsteen says. There's nothing here to write romantic paens or ballads about." I couldn't have agreed more. Which brings me back to my review of the NJ Turnpike...
When I was a kid, we tended to take the Garden State Pkwy. when we went to the Shore to swim (Point Pleasant) or to visit my grandparents (they lived in Brick). It was somewhat "scenic," at least in comparison to the NJ Turnpike,
Currently, I ride part of the Turnpike on most days as I make my way to and from Hoboken for my job (a lot of my ancestry is in Hellboken...sorry, I meant Hoboken...but I've never been a fan of the city). I come into the Turnpike from Rt. 78 and it winds its way up through a gritty industrial landscape of swampland and factories and warehouses that definitely qualifies as an eyesore to the Lincoln Tunnel and the GW Bridge further beyond. Mercifully, my time riding on it is short, unless there's heavy traffic. Which there too often is.
Sometimes, at night, they'll shut down the portion that I have to take on my way home, necessitating a wearying, stressful, heavily trafficked "detour." Doesn't help that I'm an old, timid driver with cataracts, but...my God! They've been "fixing" the Turnpike for years and years, but it never seems to get much better. Sometimes, I've prayed (as only an agnostic can!) for rain, because at least then it will be open.
During the last years of my father's life, I traveled monthly down the southern portion of the Turnpike to visit him at my sister's home on the Delaware/Maryland border. My memories of those rides aren't pleasant. A large part of that was having to see my father in his progressive mental and physical decline, part of it was that Delaware/Maryland is "alien territory" to me, and I was uncomfortable having to navigate its "strange" roads (sometimes it felt more like the "Deep South" to me than it did the "Mid-Atlantic South"), and the lesser part of it was the monotony of the long ride down on the Turnpike.
A flat, dreary landscape all around. Some streams, lots of scraggly woods and pine trees. Nothing to elevate my spirit, like a ride up the NY Thruway has always tended to do. More than enough "rest areas," but they tended to be filthy and crowded, and when I availed myself of their food or their gas, way, way overpriced. They served their function, but didn't provide much in the way of "rest." Or comfort.
A long, monotonous ride down, until I finally reached the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which actually was quite impressive. Crossing over, that momentary spark of excitement was quickly extinguished as I began to maneuver my way through the unfamiliar but equally monotonous landscape of DE and then MD. And, if anything, the ride back north was even more tedious and enervating.
Still, I've given this review a higher star than I'm really inclined to because if one considers it in a utilitarian manner as opposed to an aesthetic one, it does serve its purpose. Going south, I rarely encountered a ton of traffic, or potholes. It wasn't as if a quicker, more pleasing alternative existed. In the end, it got me to where I needed to go.
Going north, for me, is more of a mixed bag, but that ride, which I make most every day, is of a shorter duration. Also, it's more familiar to me (I can remember riding on this stretch of highway as a kid with my parents, and my father pointing out "Snake Hill," where an insane asylum once existed), which helps. It's not "alien territory" (although I sometimes wish that it was-- I get why people unfamiliar with NJ, riding only through this swampy, polluted portion of it on their way from Newark Airport to NYC, think of NJ as a "cesspool").
Bottom line? The Turnpike will get you to where you gotta go. But it won't be a "scenic" trip. Or one you're likely to remember with fondness.
