New Egypt, New Jersey
June 9–12, 2022
June 9–12, 2022
Finally, nearly at the end of the long journey, I got to see my aunt Katy and uncle Lenny. Katy is my dad’s youngest sibling, and she and I have been especially close since I was a teen, when we bonded over a shared obsession with The Beatles. Since I’ve been on this trip, Katy has been my check-in buddy, keeping track of where I was at each stop and watching out for me from afar.
During my visit, Katy and I went strawberry and cherry picking at a nearby farm, Lenny and I had a couple of beer-tasting sessions, we ate breakfast cooked outside on the camp stove when the power randomly went out, I watched Deliverance for the first time ever (thankfully, this happened at the end of my long, solo trip), my boys got to feast on dog ice cream, and we all took a walk out to see the nearby herd of longhorn cattle. On the way, we saw not only a rainbow but the ruins of the original Ocean Spray canning facility, now covered in inexpert graffiti and vines.
The real highlight, though, was watching my dogs play with Katy and Lenny’s Rhodesian Ridgeback, Zeus. He’s a big boy at 110 pounds, making Mochi look like a shrimp at 75-80. They immediately fell deeply in love, and things got X-rated at times. Zeus was so in love, in fact, that he badly cut his paw pad on the jagged pavement while straining against his leash to reach Mochi during a walk. That put a stop to the rest of our dog-adventure plans, but they still got a few more snuggles in before I headed out. Zeus can do the “Elvis lip,” balance his stuffed birthday cake on his head, and pose like a champion when the cameras come out, so of course I have a lot of photos of that handsome devil.
p.s. If you’re wondering about the weird red mesh cloak I’m wearing in that one photo, it’s mosquito netting. The bugs were absolutely savage, and my uncle happened to remember that he had some netting he’d never used. Avoiding bug bites is well worth looking like a ghost under rose-colored glasses.
During my visit, Katy and I went strawberry and cherry picking at a nearby farm, Lenny and I had a couple of beer-tasting sessions, we ate breakfast cooked outside on the camp stove when the power randomly went out, I watched Deliverance for the first time ever (thankfully, this happened at the end of my long, solo trip), my boys got to feast on dog ice cream, and we all took a walk out to see the nearby herd of longhorn cattle. On the way, we saw not only a rainbow but the ruins of the original Ocean Spray canning facility, now covered in inexpert graffiti and vines.
The real highlight, though, was watching my dogs play with Katy and Lenny’s Rhodesian Ridgeback, Zeus. He’s a big boy at 110 pounds, making Mochi look like a shrimp at 75-80. They immediately fell deeply in love, and things got X-rated at times. Zeus was so in love, in fact, that he badly cut his paw pad on the jagged pavement while straining against his leash to reach Mochi during a walk. That put a stop to the rest of our dog-adventure plans, but they still got a few more snuggles in before I headed out. Zeus can do the “Elvis lip,” balance his stuffed birthday cake on his head, and pose like a champion when the cameras come out, so of course I have a lot of photos of that handsome devil.
p.s. If you’re wondering about the weird red mesh cloak I’m wearing in that one photo, it’s mosquito netting. The bugs were absolutely savage, and my uncle happened to remember that he had some netting he’d never used. Avoiding bug bites is well worth looking like a ghost under rose-colored glasses.
