Got home a little over an hour ago; William is day-camping with Scouts next week, and I had to take him up to the camp for orientation and swim-check. Round trip, it was 92 miles from our house. The camp is near Stanhope, way out in Sussex County and not too far from the Delaware Water Gap. It is not exactly in our backyard. Total trip duration: about 3 1/2 hours.
However, the camp provides busing, and a stop is conveniently located not too far from Edith’s work. The camp is still a thirty minute drive from the bus-stop, but it offers a lot of fun activities for the Cubs and Webelos – all the cool stuff that typical 10-year olds want to do but never get to do at home, like shoot arrows, BB guns, slingshots, climb up rock walls and ride down zip lines, etc. Will also gets to work on some of his final achievements for his Arrow of Light badge.
Traffic on Route 80 slowed us down a bit, but we arrived in plenty of time to get done what we needed to. On the way home, I decided to take a more scenic route, down 206 through Morris and Somerset counties. Northwestern New Jersey is pretty rural, as well as fairly mountainous, and I have to admit I love driving on the back roads and admiring the scenic views of forested land, great big fields, and farms. In Summer, it is all quite beautiful, and makes me appreciated how blessed that we are surrounded by it all. Despite the many miles, it was worth the trip.