Day 82

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Obfuscator writes: We began a long day in Turkey Swamp State Park near Hammonton, NJ. Having nothing in particular to see in that neck of the woods, we set off early for Atlantic City. Now, you may have heard things about Atlantic City. We certainly had. As usual, we try not to judge the place until we see it, and so being in the neighborhood of this Vegas of the East, and site of Monopoly inspiration, we decided we really couldn't pass it up.

We drove through a fair amount of Atlantic City before finding a place to park in one of the Casino ramps. The first thing we noticed on getting out of the car was the smell. Now, we talked about Rhode Island being smelly. Honestly, I anticipated New Jersey being odoriferous, but was pleasantly surprised that most of the state didn't seem to smell any worse than anywhere else I could go. Atlantic City, however, smells terrible. Imagine what would happen if you built a parking ramp in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and filled it with the apparently thronging masses of homeless veterans. That's about what Atlantic City smells like. It's a wholly unpleasant mix of sea air, motor oil, stale urine, and desperation. To their credit, I can at least say I was panhandled less in Atlantic City than I would be on our imaginary oceanic parking ramp.

Smell aside, Atlantic City is sort of unpleasant in lots of other ways too. Perhaps if you really like casinos, you'd appreciate the monstrous buildings that line the ocean front. To me, they looked like a blight on an otherwise somewhat pretty beach. When you couple them with the squalid shacks surrounding them, they just look like dingy monuments to vice and opulence. Everywhere you look in Atlantic City, you'll find gambling, poverty, and adult entertainment. It's not a pretty picture. They've tried to cover it up on parts of Boardwalk, where the nicest looking casinos are, but you don't have to wander far to see what the city really looks like.

That's not to say that everything in Atlantic City is terrible. We found a very pretty Catholic Church that was undergoing massive restoration work, and a nifty Mission-style Episcopalian church as well. Not too far from the Casinos on Pacific Ave, you can also find an attractive Carnegie Library. Finally, down by Vermont Ave, there's a wonderful and historic lighthouse. Of course, it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we couldn't get inside it or learn any more about it.

Ventnor City is nearby as well, and is not without a certain charm. The upscale neighbor with none of the poverty, Ventnor City looks like a suburban nightmare in some respects. Rows and rows of more or less identical looking houses crowd its limited land. There's also some sort of enormous elephant that has doors and windows. Apparently it's a tourist attraction, though we didn't really stop long to find out more, since it was closed.

We left Atlantic City after finding as many streets from the Monopoly board as we could. We headed back toward Baltimore, so we could meet up with one of Onaxthiel's army buddies for dinner. We didn't get there and parked until it was dark, but we went down by the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore, and there found the U.S.S. Constellation and some sort of Norwegian sailing ship docked. The Constellation was closed, so we couldn't tour it or anything. Still, it was a lovely and impressive vessel to find there. There was also some sort of submarine nearby, attached to a museum no doubt. Baltimore's harbor was pretty by night.

We met Onaxthiel's friend, and enjoyed a decent meal in an “Irish” restaurant, before driving through Washington D.C., and getting a motel in Fredericksburg, Virginia, for the night.

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