Hooked   on a feeling... ~ The Americana Kitsch and Culture Tour
~ originally posted on 28 May 2011

Aloha MM's,   Yesterday as we left our idyllic spot in Cape May, NJ, and drove her to Podunk, NJ for the long Memorial Day weekend. I felt ugh. A bottle of shared wine at dinner with Nate and Theresa and my head is heavy and threatening a sinus headache trigger as well. Lovely...   I am lying down the back of the camper as Aaron drives us to our out of the way spot for the long weekend. We didn't think this through very well. So we have ended up at this place as a last resort. We are stuck in the permanent trailer section. It's not pretty.   The best part was this farm stand. Gorgeous flowers, bags of fresh peas and pretty flowers.   Well, let me clarify that. It's sort of pretty at night. Just about every RV/trailer/camper has a set of lights strung around the place. Aaron and I are coloured Christmas light junkies—so we love this!   It's the incessant flags and whirly things, and the concrete ornaments that make me suck my breathe in a bit sharply. I have never seen so many rabbits, frogs, birds, cherubs, STUFF... Some gnomes—although we quite like gnomes. I can hear the audible grimaces from most of the population. I know... Gnomes are not for everyone.   Not to mention the wishing wells, they seem to be big here. And lighthouses—which ARE actually rather pretty. I guess each to their own in the tacky ornaments, but boy, it looks like a lawn 'art' store exploded out there!   And Aaron has just come back and said that it looks like every kid in the whole camping ground is at the pool. Ugh.   And what a grizzly blog this is.   The truth is: I like being on the road.   I realized yesterday as we packed the camper down and I slid into the passengers seat, that a part me, despite feeling grotty—felt excited and exhilarated to be hitting the road again, after coming off it for 3 days. My whole being perked up, to use a Martha Beck saying—like a Ballerina on crack!   The truth is too: I am missing the energy and the people of the South. I am missing traveling in the South. I hate the energy of the cities and so far the Northern 'hospitality' is not doing it for me. In saying this, we had a fantastic dinner with Nate (he of the magic hands) and his wife Theresa and their girls Maggie and Katie. But hey, no surprises, they're from the Mid-West—Minnesota and ex Alaska... it shows and we enjoy it immensely.   So, I am lying on our bed in the back of the camper, with my box of gourmet jelly beans. They look so pretty all rumbling around in the container. But I am sick of getting the cinnamon ones and the Dr. Peppers, as I idly read and delve into the box without looking at what I'm getting. Yukky.   So I pick out all the cinnamon ones and the Dr. Peppers and have them sitting on the lid, ready to be thrown out. I notice just how boring and plain the jelly beans look now, without the brightly coloured red ones. I consider chucking the cinnamons back in and grimacing every time I snag one unsuspectingly. I debate this for awhile. Then finally manage to throw out the red cinnamons and the Dr. Peppers. It looks a bit plainer now...but now I can eat jelly beans randomly without a nasty surprise.   I forfeit what looks nice, for what feels right.   It seems to me that being on this trip is like that too. There are things I think 'I should' like, but they don't feel right. So I am saying no. I like being able to say no and not feel I have to justify it somehow. I can be quite good at going with a good picture even if something feels off somewhere.   And it reminds me that sometimes you just have to pick out the crappy stuff and just chuck it away. Even though sometimes you are reluctant to do so, because it seems like you 'should' like it.  Despite our present camp site and it's trailer park energy. We had a great time in Cape May, Joyzee. Cape May is an old Victorian seaside resort. It is peaceful and packed with gorgeous old Victorian houses. When Wallace Simpson, the American divorcee who married Edward—future King of England, not to be, came out. She did it here in Cape May. It was high society. And the rich and affluent and influential came from Philadelphia and New York to the 'cottage' in Cape May in the summer.     Houses were defined by how many servants you needed to run it. A house that required 3, was deemed a 'cottage' no matter it's size. Although, looking at the size of some of these 'cottages'—the servants must have been on roller skates and steroids to get it all organized. Some of them are enormous! I am trying to wean myself from using HUGE over and over. :-)   They are gorgeous! I love old Victorians, they are so incredibly pretty, with such wonderful craftsmanship, which is sadly missing these days. But then we also don't have to wear 18" girdles made from whale bone to consider ourselves fashionable and slim either. There are some advantages to 'modern' life.     Woman back then often had ribs extracted to achieve this really quite ghastly waistline - often without anesthetic. Crikey! They then clinched in the girdle as tightly as possible. No wonder women were always fainting back then. 'An attack of the vapors'—they couldn't breathe!   And despite the beautiful houses—our horse and carriage driver Lisa has more gory facts to impart on us.    Apparently England was running out of space for burials. So they used to send the coffins over to be buried in the New World. When they opened them up there were often scratch marks on the inside. It gives me the heebies thinking about it but my brain is stuck in that  car accident space, that can't look away. I am hoping by imparting this knowledge that someone else's brain will take some of the burden. Sorry about that.   Despite being a bit gruesome—it is also a bit fascinating. And whether true or not—it makes for a good story.  When they discovered this, they went about setting up a system that would stop this from happening. So that if someone DID wake up (how they couldn't tell someone is dead is a bit worrying in itself... but anyway) this started a few traditions.   Firstly people were not buried immediately as they had been. They were laid to rest in their coffin and kept in the front parlor for a day or so, in case they sprung to life again.   If they didn't—never mind. They had other ways to aid a person springing back to life from a coma or whatever.   They then attached a bell on a string to the person finger in the coffin and buried them. Presumably the person would have presence of mind to tug like the dickens on the string and someone would frantically dig them up.  Thus we get some interesting sayings like:   Saved by the bell   That rings a bell   Dead ringer  and Graveyard shift—people were posted at the graveyards overnight to listen out for any ringing bells.   And here's another weird tidbit you pick up going on horse and carriage rides around old towns. The difference between graveyards and cemeteries is that a graveyard is attached to a church. Whereas a cemetery isn't! Aren't you so glad I told you that, now you'll be all geared up for your next dinner party. A conversation stopper for sure!!   Ah yes...   Other fascinating fact or fiction tales were that people did not bathe very often. At the end of winter in May, things were warming up abit and people took their yearly baths. So June weddings were very popular, as people still smelt reasonably sweet. (I suppose it's all relative on the pong scale) In case they weren't smelling too fresh on it, the bride carried a bouquet of scented flowers. I can only conclude that peoples noses must have been heavily insulated in the old days and our modern lifestyle produces very thin noses with dog like sensing abilities.     We got to see a Gentlemans Club...of which there were many in old Cape May. And next door was a ladies house that societies woman could come and have tea at, peering over to see what 'gentleman' were going next door. All the while, sitting outdoors, in a veranda that had covered railings. This prevented unseemly looks at womens ankles. This was also the reason for the dual steps up to a house you see sometimes. The men used one side, the women the other. Catching a glimpse of someones ankle could just about get you married off!   Racy stuff!   We enjoyed that short carriage ride around the lovely old houses. Just before our ride, we had been back to The Lobster House again—for lunch—for that divine sublime Lobster Bisque. Wowwww... Still going wowww... Aaron got his own bowl this time, as it was just so beautiful and delightful. Like molten velvet. We brought a pottle of it too at the take out shop they had there. On the lid it has the ingredients, that one day, through trail and error, I will get the quantities perfect and we will be able to eat this at home, when we like.   Yes, this is the same piccie as previously, but worth repeating. God, that was sublime!!!   After we finished our ride, we picked up some dessert to take to Nate and Theresas place. Things like: Oreo Chocolate slices, peanut butter chocolate slices, Cannolis—hard pastry shells filled with cream and sprinkled at the end with choc chips, lemon meringue bars, choccy mousse thingee... All very lovely.     We threw that in the fridge and went off to quickly see the Naval Air Museum at Wildwood. A lovely old museum, that is not very big but packed with fascinating exhibits, planes and photos. We spent more time there than we realized. It was really cool. It is housed in the original Hangar when it was a Naval Air Station. We sat in the original 'briefing' room in seats that came off a aircraft somewhere, that showed you just how narrow they are managing to make the airline seats these days and watched a video on when the Station was active during the war. I rather enjoyed this museum. It has something for everyone.     The briefing room                           We were then running late and hightailed it back to the RV park to have dinner with Nate and Theresa and their kids. Nate is in the Coast Guard and gets posted all over the place. They couldn't bring themselves to buy a house in Jersey though. Just not their idea of home and we don't blame them. So they are living in their rather lovely RV bus until Nate gets posted somewhere else again.     What a wonderful experience for the kids!! They travel all over the place and have had a succession of campers. The kids are the equivalent of jet-set kids! What fun! What a terrific way to live, especially when your kids are young. And they are in a very nice RV park, that doesn't have the trailer park energy of this place!   They also have Mocha the woe-woe, who is a lovely chocolate Lab.  We had a lovely time with them. Nate had ribs rubbed with this fantastic rubbing spice from...sorry...my brain can't remember now. But so good! We had lovely new potatoes roasted by Theresa, Caesar salad and a lush bowl of strawberries. Yummmm. We have met some lovely people on this trip. They had a fire going and a professional looking smoker/BBQ, that Nate cooked ribs and pork tenderloin on. I couldn't stop eating—delicious.   We loved their bus too. It's always interesting to see other peoples campers and homes.   This one was like an apartment on wheels. A proper bathroom! A shower box like the one my dad put in, in their house in Halswell. A full bedroom that LOOKED like a house bedroom! Ours looks like  a camper bedroom... LOL. Not helped by the clashing fabrics in there, between our bright Hawaiian quilts and the dated 90's fabrics for the curtains. Oh well. :-)   They also have the push out sides which we are very impressed with, because it gives so much extra room. And a HUGE... (sorry, it just is...) kitchen counter area that looks like a house kitchen. It's gorgeous!! We are very impressed. Their couch which also turns into a bed even folds out with the touch a button!! We have to heave ours. LOL.   And I suspect that eventually that will be the next motor home for us! They have 36 feet and it makes all the difference, with what you can add in there. This is a lovely. We throughly enjoy our time with them. We are sorry to be leaving. The place had a lovely free to it.   And that at the end of the day, what matters most—how something feels... I am finding I am much clearer on energy here, than I have ever been. Because you get used to changing energy all the time, from place to place—it teaches you to pick up what's what super fast. And you know fairly quickly if something is going to work for you. I know that since leaving South Carolina, I have not felt the peacefulness, I had in the Southern States and I'm missing that.  Last night we watched the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and it left us hankering after the Southern energy and of course, Fried Green Tomatoes. Damn.  We are off to New England on Monday and I dying to know what the energy will be like up there. It's all about how it feels... If it wasn't Memorial weekend in this area, I'd pick up our tent pegs and move on to somewhere else, the way we did in Delaware. Being somewhere that FEELS good is all important in your life.