There is no such thing as the “beach”. It’s called “the Shore”.
In spite of what you see in the TV show (which takes place in Wildwood IIRC), much of the Jersey Shore (like LBI or Madasquan) is actually pretty nice.
People here often have an unhealthy obsession with Bon Jovi and Bruce Springstein.
Most people will identify a geographical position by its proximity to an exit on either the Garden State Parkway or NJ Turnpike.
Hoboken, NJ has a shit-ton of bars, clubs and restaurants (including several steak, sushi, pizza, Indian, Thai and pretty much whatever else you can think of) as well as a W hotel. While it’s not NYC, it makes an attractive alternative for a night out if you don’t feel like spending the extra time and money trying to go into Manhattan on a Friday or Saturday night. (Which you can still do anyway via the PATH, ferry or 126 bus should you change your mind).
I want to give this a little bump now that I am closer to the move date. Movers show up on Sunday to pack our things into a truck and cart them across the country. We fly out on Tuesday, spend a few days with family in Lancaster County PA, and then move in Saturday.
It’s 85 and dry out right now. I hear that the weather isn’t quite this nice out there at the moment.
It’s a little bit sick that I am looking forward to the bad weather, right?
I used to work for the Summit Medical Group, and I’d recommend them if you’re looking for a doctor. They take patient care pretty seriously, and because they’re ginormous, most specialists are in-house.
There is a partial solution to this problem: Just pump your own gas anyway. It doesn’t speed up the cars in front of you, but you don’t sit there feeling like a doofus. I find that most gas attendants don’t mind.
True, but there are some attendants who mind a lot. The reason is that they can get seriously fined if you are caught doing this.
Do it a couple of times a week and then let’s see. It’s an enormous time-waster.
I actually think most NJ people who prefer having attendents do so because they are unfamiliar with the process, not visiting other states too often, and prefer to leave it to the “pros”.
BTW, I would also guess that there’s another downside to the attendent system in that the vast majority of gas stations on NJ are closed late at night, since it’s not worthwhile to pay people to man them at those times. I would think unmanned gas stations in other states should commonly be open 24 hours, but I don’t know if this is actually the case.
Route 78 is a nice highway, I’m not sure if the division of local and express lanes go that far west. Be very careful the first time you drive on Route 22, it takes some getting used to.
If you like nature, you’re very close to Watchung Reservation, someone else mentioned Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
Oh yeah, stay the hell out of Irvington and Newark, the crime rates are high.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the thread. I am moved in now and starting to settle into life here on the East Coast. It’s different, but not drastically different.
My biggest thanks go to the people who helped me understand a jughandle turn and how to spot them before I moved here. You saved me a whole heck of a lot of frustration.
Once the weather gets nice I’ll shoot a PM in your direction.
Yeah, snow *is *drastic, I guess, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I have some fun pictures of our first day here, right after 18 inches fell, which I took so our friends back home would go :eek:, but really, snow isn’t that bad. The ice this morning, on the other hand, that was a whole new type of suck.
But yeah on the whole it isn’t that different, though it is clearly a different culture with slightly different rules that I don’t totally understand. But that’s sort of fun.
Fortunately, the “town encased in a sheet of ice” sort of thing that I understand much of the state got (and which we somehow avoided) is an extreme rarity. I can only remember two days like that in my entire life. Lucky you, landing on one right out of the box.
I know it’s illegal, but it’s a stupid law. Hence I break it. Really, most I’ve encountered don’t make a fuss. How do I get in the way of the attendant? When I pump my own gas, they don’t have to come to my car at all.
I don’t mean this to be snarky, but do you have a cite that they will be (seriously) fined if I get out of my car and insist on pumping my own gas? This may convince me to stop doing it, as I don’t want to screw over the attendant.
We have a really fat Republican governor who thinks he is the second coming. With any luck, he will be voted out of office next time around. Not only is he a disgusting fat slob; he has so many pals to payback for his election, that the state is going to hell in a handbasket.
