Discovering Small Town New Jersey

Over the weekend, I used technology to help me discover simple small town pleasures.  Let me explain.  Having had a nice time at an event in Pennsville, NJ, near Delaware, my friend and I wanted to find somewhere to have lunch.  I programmed my car’s GPS to “avoid highways” and it took us on a beautiful tour of part of New Jersey.

We drove on nice roads that took us past corn fields and farm stands.  We saw a variety of architectureal styles.  While driving we started talking about and wondering about what life must have been like when the towns were first developed.  We pondered why some downtowns had a lot of vacant buildings and “For Sale” signs while others seemed to be thriving.

One of the nicer spots we saw was Swedesboro.  A lovely main street with a variety of retail shops, we were drawn to the red chairs outside The Red Hen restaurant.

Not only did we enjoy a delicious meal, but everyone was so friendly!  Crossing the street from and to the car we were pleasantly surprised that drivers gave us the right of way.   And people say New Jerseyans aren’t polite!  This proves that wrong.

Another treat was finding a bake shop cleverly named "Sweetsboro."  There I sampled a cinnamon roll shaped in the form of eyeglasses.  Yum!

Do you ever decide to take the long way home and just enjoy the scenery?  I enjoyed our exploration so much over the weekend I’m going to leave the “avoid highway” setting on my GPS for a while longer.