Cape May, NJ to Willington, CT

June 17, 2023 We set the alarm for 7 AM, planning to leave by 9 AM. We both got up before the alarm went off about 6:30. We readied the bus and were on the road by 8:30. We did enjoy our stay in Cape May, even though we spent 3 extra days there with all the stress and headaches that came with it. We hopped on the Garden State Parkway for our drive north of 297 miles. It was a Saturday so there wasn’t much traffic on the Parkway. Highway 9 (Garden State Parkway) is a toll road. Luckily, we had our EZ Pass set up and ready to go (Pam). The skies were hazy and the temperature was a pleasant 67 degrees. We had a little bit of a breeze out of the northwest at 11 MPH. The Parkway took us over the Middle Thorofare which is the cut between Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the end of the ICW.

We went about 21 miles and then made our planned fuel stop at the Sunoco Service Area where diesel fuel was $3.73/gal. There was a semi truck ahead of us so we had to wait a couple of minutes before pumping.

Now, that it was done, we could cruise the west of the way. We went over Great Egg Harbor Bay. Salt marshes line the highway.

We saw a turtle crossing the road. Luckily, we didn’t hit him, but unfortunately he was going the wrong way–away from the water. We crossed the winding Mullica River with quite a few marinas.

We stopped at the Celia Cruz Service Area so Bob could check the bike rack. We wanted to make sure it was secure because the road was pretty bumpy and then we were on our way. All was good. (The Service Areas all have different names i.e. Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, and Vince Lombardi to name a few.) Traffic picked up around the more populated areas along the Jersey Shore. I wish I knew why we haven’t been seeing many RVs on the roads we’ve traveled on over the past 3 weeks. Maybe because it’s still early in the season for traveling. We crossed the Edison Bridge over the Raritan River. It was 8 lanes wide in each direction!

We waved to our friends, Pam and Donny, from Jersey City when we passed by on I-95. We crossed a couple more low bridges as we neared New York City and traffic was heavy. We could see the NYC skyline through the haze.

We had a slowdown as we approached the George Washington Bridge and crossed under this beautiful arched highway above us.

According to the sign, we would have to cross the George Washington Bridge on the upper level this time.

We had to pay a toll to go over the bridge. These toll booths are very narrow to get through and not all the lanes were open. No wonder traffic was backed up. The upper level bridge is absolutely beautiful, but it cost us $63.43 to go over the bridge at noon. It costs $90 for a semi and $16 for a car. It you don’t have a EZ Pass and have to get billed it costs more. If you go over at peak times (6-10 AM and 4-8 PM) it costs more. Only eastbound traffic towards NY have to pay tolls.

After the bridge, we had to pass through a short “tunnel”.

We could see the Hudson River below.

Traffic was slow and crowded going through the Bronx.

As we neared Connecticut, the road surfaces improved somewhat and traffic thinned out. We crossed over into Connecticut around 1:30.

The terrain changed with woods lining the roadside and marinas appeared at the river/bay entrances. Most had direct access to the Long Island Sound.

I-95 took us along the coast through Connecticut. Unfortunately, near every large town, traffic was crazy. With the slowdowns, our ETA kept getting later and later. Passing through downtown Bridgeport, we passed the bridge over Bridgeport Harbor with its many marinas.

The area had lots of water-access points to Long Island Sound and lots of pretty bridges to get over them.

We passed through Stamford where the Jerry Springer Show was filmed. Next, was New Haven, CT and Yale University where we turned north on I-91. As we continued north, we got rid of a lot of the traffic as we got away from the city congestion. We seemed to be climbing our way to Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut. Hi, Terry and Dennis in Burlington, CT.

We got a quick view of downtown Hartford before crossing the Connecticut River on Highway 5/15.

We took exit 29 to go east of Hartford. From there, we took I-84 northeast to Highway 74 to locate our campground in Willington. We had some light rain that started before our exit and it continued all the way to the campground.

The roads to the campground were narrow and had trees overhanging the road, so we had to take it very slow to avoid the tree branches. What a way to end a LONG DAY! Our campground, Moose Meadow, had a check-in time of 3:00 and a fee of $5 to check in early. At the start of today, we were worried about getting here too early, but we should have known better. It took two hours longer than estimated due to NYC traffic and other city congestion. We arrived at Moose Meadow at 4 PM after 7 1/2 hours of driving.

We were given a campsite in the open field because we asked to stay connected to the Jeep. The campground has some nice amenities for families. There were two large group, multi-families camping together in the field near us.

We plugged into electricity, but didn’t hook up to water. We will use the water in our tank. It was still raining, so we just did the basics. We made a few phone calls and relaxed awhile before dinner. We were having leftovers, so that would make it easy. Auggie got a short, wet walk because he didn’t want to stay out long in the rain. We watched some TV as it continued to rain lightly. Tomorrow is a shorter drive of 112 miles, so we don’t have to leave too early. We will be staying 3 nights near Salisbury, Massachusetts so we can enjoy our time there at our leisure. (I posted later than usual because I couldn’t take a campsite picture in the rain yesterday.)