Hubby was working from home, so I left him to supervise the contractor dudes (they don’t need it, but sometimes they ask questions before they do something. And you need to make sure there are cold beverages in the cooler for them. . .)

I had done a bunch of research on Ong’s Hat, thinking at first that it would be a really cool Weird NJ trip. As it turns out, there’s nothing there, unless you hike several miles through tick land, and even then not much. So instead we drove down Ong’s Hat road just to say we’d been. Afterwards, we did the tour of the old Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly. It was small, but worth the admission, and it was interesting. We didn’t experience any supernatural activity, as I’d expected but as Audrey had hoped. (it made her feel creepy though, so that’s good for something.) Then off to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, lunch at the restaurant above Han Ah Reum in Cherry Hill (very yummy! We’ll go back, for certain!) and pot and plant perusal at McNaughton’s Nursery. I sure wish I could keep a palm of any kind alive. They had a bunch of really interesting varieties, but I can’t see spending that much money on something I’ll kill in record time.

I’ve explored different routes between Audubon and Toms River on these trips. I found that Route 38 beats Route 70 hands down, but it doesn’t exist east of Route 206. At that point, it becomes 530, and since I know it later connects to 70 near Lakehurst, I thought I’d give it a try. Eh. Not so good an alternative. It takes you through “business district” Pemberton, which is depressingly ramshackle, and at several points where you’re on the straight part of a T instersection, you need to turn to stay on 530, rather than go straight – and you find this out after you went straight. I’d have to say it wasn’t much of a timesaver, and it wasn’t more scenic, either. But you never know if you don’t try.

Got home, and WHOA! we have lovely seamless gutters the exact same color of the trim, with the downspouts positioned along the vertical trim, so nicely done that I didn’t even notice they were there. Woohoo! It brought my attention to the weeds growing between the street and the curb. They looked yucky, the weather was cool, and it was still light out, so I used two of my least favorite power tools, the weed whacker and then the leaf blower, to clean it up. Much nicer. I’ll break out the Round-Up as new ones emerge. After the dumpster and all the construction stuff is gone, it’ll be time for a second dose of weed and feed on the lawn, compost distribution, and regular watering again. Then pictures of our fab new look.