7/24/15 - Milton, NJ

We left early this morning and drove to a new camp.  The owner tried talking us into staying but no way.  The place was the pits.  We took showers this morning and the bathrooms were filthy.  We drove into New Jersey -- there are three national sites to visit here.  Jim found us a county park to camp at for $20.00 but the office didn’t open until 1 pm for making a reservation.  We drove there anyway.

Three miles before the entrance the road was blocked.  We made a u-turn and were trying to find the police station when we came upon the fire station.  We pulled over in the parking lot and were trying to get the phone number to call the police about the road when the fire chief drove in.  I had just gone to the Casita restroom and could smell propane.  The propane tank we had just had filled in New York about an hour earlier was leaking.  We called the fire chief over and he made a few calls.  He said it was one of two problems.  Either the valve was bad and was leaking or the tank was overfilled and it was venting.  I asked the fire chief if the road was blocked until late could we stay in the parking lot at the fire station over night.  He said sure and he would let the police know.  He also told us a bear visited the large trash container and if we stayed we would probably see him.

We drove to the propane company he called, they checked it out and it was an over fill.  He fixed it and every thing is okay and we won’t blow up.  Jim called the camp office as it was 1 pm by now.  They told him sites were available and to go the back way into the park.  We did, and when we got there, at the barrier sat Sgt. Caruso who told us we had to go into the park from the other side (the one we had been at originally.)  He said that we could go around the barrier there and go into the park.  If anyone stopped us to tell them that he okayed it.  Sgt. Caruso was very friendly.  The road was closed because of a DWI wreck into a power line with the lines down on the roadway.  But it was just past the entrance to the park and we would be able to go in.  We finally made it and I think we know the roads as good as the locals now.

The friendly camp host who checked us in talked for another 30 minutes to us.  He had been a camp host in Palo Duro Canyon and was trying to get a host job at Lake Livingston State Park for the winter.  He has a big friendly rescue dog he got in College Station. We walked around camp and found a geocache by the restrooms and then went on a hike.  After supper we watched another Roger Corman sci-fi movie, “Piranhaconda”.