South Jersey

I have been living in New Jersey for 26 years and it still amazes me how little I know of the back roads of the Garden State.  The southern part of New Jersey is pretty much flat with the Wharton State Forest in the middle. The park is the largest single tract of land in the state park system of New Jersey, it encompasses approximately 115,000 acres (470 km2) of the Pinelands. Three Sundays ago, my friend Wayne invites me to meet him and a few other riders for breakfast at the Vincent Dinner and then follow him for a ride through the Pinelands.  It was a beautiful day, I didn't have anything to do but my wife would disagree with me on that, and I needed to clear my brain so I left the house around 9 to meet him at 10.

We leave the dinner and head south crossing the park as shown on the map.  I didn't have a chance to take any pictures but I promise I will ride alone through the park one of these days and will take lots of pictures.  Our first stop was at the Batsto Village, a historic site located in Wharton State Forest in the south central Pine Barrens, and a part of the Pinelands National Reserve.  I had no idea the place even existed, so thanks to Wayne for taking me there.

A little history:
In 1766, Charles Read, a well-known ironmaster, built the Batsto Iron Works along the Batsto River on the site of the future village. The area had an abundance of bog ore which could be mined from the area's streams and rivers, and wood from the area's forests was harvested for charcoal for smelting the ore. The rivers, despite their modest drop, were also harnessed for iron making.

In 1773, John Cox bought the Iron Works, which produced cooking pots, kettles, and other household items. Batsto manufactured supplies for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Read more here: Wikipedia

The Batsto Village has over forty structures including the Batsto mansion, a sawmill, a 19th century ore boat, a charcoal kiln, a carriage house and stable, a blacksmith and wheelwright shop.

Back of the Batsto Mansion

The Batsto Mansion

The Post Office is still in operation, and collectors have stamps hand-cancelled, with no zip code.

I walk around the village visiting some of the open buildings and admiring how hard life must have been back then.  No electricity, no TV, no "internet", oh my goodness, what did people do at night?
The corn sheller and corncrib, I don't even know what they mean, where's the supermarket? (sarcastic smile here)

Corncrib housing the corn sheller

Some of the other buildings, all very well maintained.

One last picture before I leave the village, the rest of the group was anxious, this was supposed to be a ride and not a sight seeing tour, but I love to take pictures and share with my fellow national and international readers.

We continue south and make the next stop at the L's Restaurant and J Bones Tavern for a quick lunch.  The Burgers were good and the atmosphere was friendly.  I will be back.

Four Triumphs and a lone Kawasaki Concours

Next we make a stop for gas, the Triumphs have smaller gas tanks than my bike.  I didn't need gas but since there has been talk on the blog-sphere about gas prices I took a picture to show what we were paying on April 3rd.  It has gone way up since then but we still have the cheapest gas in the country.

At this point some of the riders decided to break up and head home, it was left to Wayne and myself to continue the ride in South Jersey.  We head towards Egg Harbor City and make our next stop at the Renault Winery.  I had no idea we had one of the oldest winery in the country, I was amazed that my good friend Wayne knew about it, makes me wonder how he knows these places.

Nearly a century and a half old, Renault Winery is a recognized New Jersey State Historical site and one of the oldest continuously operating wineries in the United States.
The place is also a resort with a couple of restaurants, a golf course and the Tuscany House Hotel.

Click on the picture to be able to read the words

They offer Sunday Brunch, I guess I will have to go back again to taste some of the local wine.  We leave the winery and make the next stop at a small fishing village that seemed abandoned.  I'm not exactly sure where it's located since my route recorder on my Android phone had decided to stop recording.  I should know better to never trust technology, I guess next time I will take notes too.

At this point it was getting late and I had told my mom I would stop by her house.  As we were about to leave I spot the turtle sign on the lonely road leading to the fishing village.  Interesting, how come the turtles only cross the road from May through August? must be another New Jersey mystery just like the Jersey Devil.

I had dinner at my mom's house and then headed home covering a little over 200 miles. So much to see, so little time.

Wharton State Forest

I guess I spoke too soon, the "bang" was more like a whisper and the cold weather returned last weekend.  Hopefully last weekend's good weather was only the first salvo of beautiful weekends to come and a good indication of what lays ahead for the rest of the year.  Nevertheless, a little cold weather is not going to stop me from going out, specially now that I have fitted heated grips to my Goldie.  I never expected I would need them, I have always been one to tough it out in the cold but on Sunday I switched them on and never turned them off until I got home.

Our group with the two red Triumphs

My friend Wayne had invited me to take a ride to the Polar Bear rider's meeting place in South Jersey, I called my brother and the three of us were ready to go in no time.
We decided to meet on route 206 at the Vincentown Diner in Vincentown and over a cup of coffee decided to go around Wharton State Forest before meeting the Polar Bear group at the Pic-A-Lilli Bar & Restaurant.  Wharton State Forest is the largest single tract of land within the New Jersey State Park System. It encompasses approximately 115,000 acres (465 km²) of the Pinelands northwest of Hammonton, in Burlington, Camden, and Atlantic counties. The entire park is located within the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve. The park is located in the forested watershed of the Mullica River, which drains the central Pinelands region into Great Bay.

The Pic-A-Lilli bar and restaurant on the edge of the Wharton State Forest

We were joined by another friend and the four of us departed south on 206 and then went east on Retreat road after passing through Vincentown.  We continued south until we met County road 563 where again we proceeded south approaching the edge of Wharton State Forest.  We entered the park and took a right on County road 542 on the south edge of the park near Green Bank.  The park has nice roads and winding curves through the forest.  One always has to be careful around the turns though as water runoff will bring sand and pebbles onto the curves.  The group consisted of two Triumphs, one BMW and my Kawasaki Concours, AKA Goldie. We quickly covered the 55 miles and after passing Hammonton Municipal Airport made a right onto Route 206 again, this time going North, arriving at the Pic-A-Lilli Bar & Restaurant in short order.

The Polar Bear riders group meet

I was surprised to see so many bikes out, with the weather turning worse and a few sprinkles starting to come down I expected even the Polar Bear riders would stay home but alas lots of bikers were already there.  It was time for lunch, after a few pictures outside, we went inside and had a good meal.
We came out of the restaurant and it had started raining.  We got on our bikes and went north again on route 206 until route 70 where we made a right and proceeded north east to Whiting where my parents live.  They always enjoy seeing their two sons together and a cup of coffee and cake was waiting for us.  We had just finished a huge sandwich but you can never refuse cake from mom, not when she has just finished baking it and it is still warm, the thought about not having cake hadn't even crossed our minds in any case ;-)

A pink Ridley, America's automatic motorcycle

A beautiful Indian Motorcycle