Highway Rest Stop

http://twitxr.com/fumordotnet/updates/208588

On our way back from the Long Beach Island, New Jersey trip mentioned in the previous Twitter Feat, Staircase, we stopped at the service plaza pictured above. The area in question is the Frank S. Farley Service Plaza along the Atlantic City Expressway, a multi-lane superhighway connecting Philadelphia’s New Jersey suburbs with the Atlantic City area and all points in between. Home to the gift shop seen above, it also plays host to a number of eateries, traveler’s information kiosks, and restrooms. It is one of the very few highway rest areas that I’ve been to which is accessible from both directions of the road it services. I decided to honor Twitter Feat #4 here because my current car-lacking, pedestrian lifestyle in center city Philadelphia doesn’t exactly bring me into contact with many highway rest areas.

Staircase/stairwell

http://twitxr.com/fumordotnet/updates/208426

The spiraled set of yellow metal seen before you is a small sampling of the 217 stairs that lead to the top of “Old Barney.” This term does not refer to the bleached-blonde Mr. Gumble on early episodes of “The Simpsons,” but rather to the Barnegat Lighthouse in Barnegat Light, one of several resort communities on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island along the Atlantic Ocean. The fourth-tallest lighthouse in the United States (and the tallest in New Jersey), it was one of a number of stops made on the island that day by my mom, dad, sister Twin #2, and I. We weren’t on an official vacation or anything, but rather simply on a day trip. This is a good thing, as nightly rates on the island probably require one to be in an income bracket at or above the Larry King level.

While my parents elected to remain at sea level, Twin #2 and I decided to climb it (“decided” meaning that I talked her into it via paying for her $1 admission). Moments later we were…somewhere in the middle, catching our breaths and enjoying our legs’ new rubber feeling. Upon hitting the top, we enjoyed the view until we were satisfied that $2 worth of time had been well spent.