Day 50, Sorry, Officer, We're Not From Here

We added two more states to our travels today, Connecticut and New Jersey.  

Yesterday, as we were riding our bikes we came within spitting distance of Connecticut. Today we got to drive through.

Being New England, so much of this area was settled in the 17 and 1800s. I enjoy seeing the old homes and statues or memorials in the town squares, like this one on Sharon, CT.

One of the things that struck me are the number of field stone fences. It reminded me a little bit of being in Ireland. The only way people could make their land productive was to dig up all the rocks and stones. They used them for fences which still stand today.

We drove back into New York State and onto the Tactonic Parkway. Just as Denis was making the turn onto the ramp, I noticed a sign that said "Passenger Cars Only." It was a little late by that time to back up the trailer and SUV, so we continued on to the parkway and hoped that we were considered a passenger car as opposed to a commercial vehicle. However, we quickly noticed that all the vehicles on the parkway were passenger cars. It wasn't long before we saw a motorhome pulled over to the side with the police car behind it. Not sure of what that meant for us, I got onto the internet and found that any vehicle that wasn't meant for transporting passengers was not allowed on the parkway. That includes trailers. That meant us! By this time we had 6.7 miles left to go. I looked at the map and couldn't find an easy way for us to get off the parkway and find our way back to the route we were on. With fingers crossed, we made our way the final few miles and onto the New York State Thruway. We wondered if we'd escaped notice by the police since they already had someone pulled over or if they noticed our California plates. In any case, while the parkway was pretty it would have been more enjoyable if we haven't felt we were going to get caught breaking the law. 

We are now in Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton is the fourth oldest university in the United States. It reminds me a little bit of Berkeley. It is in the center of town and has grown to include much of it. There are fancy stores and restaurants that surround the campus. As Princeton has grown, it has purchased and then leased back many small businesses. The good thing for Princeton is that it doesn't pay taxes on any of that property. Our friends told us that instead they give the town an annual gift of $5 million. That sounds like a lot but doesn't quite make up for the lost revenue the city would be getting from all of those properties if Princeton was paying property taxes.

Of course, there is an ice cream store. The Bent Spoon was rated the number one ice cream in New Jersey by Food and Wine Magazine in June. How could we resist? Denis's Ricotta with Cinnamon and Orange was delicious. My Dark Chocolate Orange was good but I prefer Rick's Rather Rich Ice Cream in Palo Alto. That makes two times in a row Denis chose the better flavor. I guess next time 'I'm having what he's having.'