Mom was 84 on Monday and hopefully our visit made it special for her. It was a special day for my brother and me too because we took a 300 mile motorcycle trip to get there. It could have been a 185 mile trip but riding down the New Jersey turnpike is no fun. After last year’s trek to Pennsville, I wrote a story about whether we need interstate highways. One of the points was that there are many interesting things to see while driving on “back roads”. This year I decided to stop and take a look at some of them. My brother lives in New York State. He left home at 5 AM. I left home at 7 AM and we met at Skytop Lodge in Canadensis, Pennsylvania for breakfast and to plan the balance of the trip.

Even though Skytop Lodge had a sign saying “No Motorcycles”, they didn’t seem to mind us being there and in fact they were very nice. After breakfast we headed down route 390 to Canadenis and then followed route 447 to the east along a stream. Interstate 80 took us to the Delaware Water Gap. This is a place I have driven by many times over the years but never took the time to stop and take a look. The picture I put in the photo gallery was Ok but not great. The park preserves 40 miles of the middle Delaware River and almost 70,000 acres of land along the river’s New Jersey and Pennsylvania shores. At the south end of the park, the river cuts eastward through the Appalachian Mountains at the scenic Delaware Water Gap.

We headed on across Interstate 80 to route 46 in New Jersey and then to route 31. This was a mistake because we got caught in the Route 31 Congestion Mitigation Project. I thought 31 was the route that ran along the Delaware River but I was mistaken — it was route 29 that I wanted. The Garmin StreetPilot GPS saved the day as we “followed the needle” across route 12 to the river. Riding down route 29 along the Delaware is like taking a history tour. We arrived at Washington Crossing State Park at the peak of the day’s heat so it was a welcome stop for a Diet Coke and a stretch.

Washington’s Crossing is eight miles north of Trenton, the capitol city of New Jersey. It was here that the Continental Army under the command of General George Washington landed after their historic crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776. Earliest known records of the area indicate that a ferry crossing was established between Pennsylvania and New Jersey about 1700. The crossing was used to transport both passengers and commerce across the Delaware River. General Washington chose to cross the Delaware River at this location because the ferry crossing was little known and used. This location allowed him and 2,400 troops to cross the river without detection. After landing in New Jersey, the Continental Army engaged Hessian and British troops in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. These battles are called the turning point of the Revolution. Seeing the actual location of the crossing conjured up an image of the famous picture of the General in the boat with his aides rowing him across the river. Continuing down route 31, we saw numerous beautiful historical homes and later the gold dome of the capitol of New Jersey as Trenton came into view.

The sun was really beating down on us and the thought of a few more hours of back roads lost some appeal. We got onto Interstate 295 and it took to within 15 minutes of Mom’s place just outside of Salem, New Jersey where my brothers and I were born. We had a very nice visit, stayed over at The Hampton Inn, visited some more with Mom and other friends of the family, and then left in the early afternoon to take the backroads through New Jersey back to Connecticut. The first couple of hours riding through southern New Jersey was enjoyable. Flat roads, farms, cows, hayfields, and corn starting to grow. The rest of the trip was painful. Traffic, construction, heat, and start-stop driving. Once you get north of Trenton it is hard to find backroads. They are there — but the Garmin StreetPilot GPS doesn’t tell you where. The trip was 240 miles and took eight hours. Every year I say I won’t do this again — but I bet I will.

• Photo gallery of pictures from the trip
• Other patrickWeb stories in the Travels Archive
• Other patrickWeb stories in the Motorcycling Archive