Grave of Unknown Woman - Rahway, NJ

Do you know why they put fences around cemeteries?


People are dying to get in.



Do you know why I tell such lame jokes?


Me neither.


Clearly, the proprietors of the cemeteries in central NJ are not locking their gates because I seem to keep wandering into them. Fences make good neighbors, but they are only useful if you lock the gates to prevent riff-raff like me wandering in.


Do you think Anthony Bourdain or Samantha Brown or Bridget Marquardt got their starts posing in front of the resting place of random dearly departed or calling themselves riff-raff? Probably not and neither did Dhani Jones or Andrew Zimmern. Maybe I am gunning for fame on basic cable in the wrong way - there is no show called World's Sexiest Grave Sites or No Dead-servations and hopefully there never will be. Unless Travel Channel wants to pay me to star in those shows... I am listening Travel Channel.


But enough about my desire for being followed by a camera crew as I spout bad jokes and self-deprecation around the globe, I am here to talk about something far more important - me visiting random crap in and around NJ. Most recently my meandering has taken me to Rahway, NJ home of the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc. as well as the childhood home of Carl Sagan. Featured in Weird, NJ is the grave of an unknown woman who died in 1887. The unknown woman is the victim of a murder which, even after 200 years, remains unsolved. The victim, described by police as a young woman in her early 20's with blue eyes and brown hair, was found frozen in the mud on Rahway's Central Avenue early on the morning of March 25, 1887, her throat slashed and her face badly beaten. She had worn a feather-trimmed green dress, yellow gloves, "foreign good shoes", jewelry, and a fur cape, and had been carrying a basket of eggs. The locals of Rahway raised money for a gravestone and her remains have been found in Rahway Cemetery ever since. Unfortunately, her identity has never been found to include on the grave marker and it probably never will be. I doubt the Rahway Police Department spends much time on 200 year old cases.

In death, the poor woman's grave serves as a landmark for publications like Weird NJ or blogs like Pics of Me in Front of Stuff to feature. Though a unique achievement, I am sure it is one this poor woman never hoped to achieve!

Empire State Building - Valentine's Day-New York City

Who is this happy couple? Neither of them are me and they are appearing at the top of my blog entitled Piics of Me in Front of Stuff. They are clearly standing and kissing in front of stuff and here's their picture.

So what's the deal?

I spent Valentine's Day at a wedding...at the top of Empire State Building...which the bride and groom had won for free from brides.com. Here's a little backstory. Kevin and Heidi, the lucky contest winners and the newly married couple pictured above, are friends of a friend who were willing to welcome a total stranger, me, to one of the most special moments in their life. Maybe it was because they wished to be featured in a blog of such high integrity like Pics of Me in Front of Stuff or maybe they needed some butts in the seats and my butt just happened to be located in a convenient geographic proximity to the Empire State Building. Regardless of the reason I was invited and I was on top of the Empire State Building with them.

In case you did not know, the Empire State Building is a prime piece of New York City tourism. Completed in 1931 at the corner of Fifth Ave and West 34th Street, the skyskraper was the tallest building in the world until 1972 when it was outpaced by the North Tower of the World Trade Center. A disturbing connection between those two buildings was the fact that both had planes crash into them. The Empire State Building was crashed into by a B-25 Bomber but, clearly, did not suffer the same terrible fate as the North Tower. Amazingly, the elevator operator survived a 75 story plunge breaking world record for longest fall survived in an elevator. Maybe that was why it was not a free trip to the top.

In a previous attempt to reach the pinnacle, I was at the end of a line with a 2-hour wait. I did not reach the top that day though I did get the lovely picture to the left. But I feel the siren call of tourist attractions quite strongly and I would have to take the elevator to top when given another opportunity. King Kong could not resist the majesty of the Empire State Building. He climbed up it a few times. Am I any better than the giant ape? That may be a question better left unanswered. It may be hard to believe sometimes, I do have feelings. I am very sensitive regarding my back hair.

In the wee hours of the morning Pics of Me in Front of Stuff's chief photographer and I ventured into the City that Never Sleeps and worked our way to the Lower West Side. We witnessed the joining of two people in holy matrimony. The happy couple exchanged their vows on one of the upper floors and posed for the necessary pictures featured in advertisements for brides.com, the Empire State Builidng, and the US Coast Guard. Both are officers and graduates of the US Coast Guard Academy as were most of the invitees. Then the entire wedding moved up to the Observation Deck to take in views of Manhattan in the early morning as well as for the bride and groom to be photographed some more.

It will come as no surprise that it was cold and deserted at the top of that building. The wedding started around 7AM. How often do you see a tourist destination completely devoid of tourists? Considering there had been a two-hour wait for the elevator ride previously, this was probably an image rarely seen by non-employees. Thanks to Kevin and Heidi's invitation I was lucky enough to witness it. My wanderings often take me to unique pieces of scenery, but most of those are places people besides me have little desire to see. This trip to the top of the Empire State Building surpasses all of my other unusual wanderings in exclusivity by a mile. It was their special day, but I can not pretend that I did not feel a burning desire to do what I always do at landmarks - my narcistic need to get my picture with it in the background. And naturally, I did.

Congratulations Heidi and Kevin! Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day!

Washington Crossing State Park - PA and NJ

A long, long time ago in a land not so far away a brave man led a ragtag group of rebels to victory over an unbeatable empire. This rebellion was not made possible by a moisture farmer from Tatooine hitting a target the size of a womp rat and thereby destroying the enemy's superweapon. The man was George Washington on Christmas 1776, led the Continental Army from Pennsylvania across the Delaware River in New Jersey to attack Hessians stationed in Trenton.
Here is what Emanuel Leutze thought the event looked like:



It was also depicted in marble in Washington Crossing, PA.

Over 200 years later, I found myself walking along the Delaware River from the Washington Crossing State Park Visitor's Center to a site marking the graves of several unknown soldiers who had lost their lives in the harsh winter conditions.

View Larger Map


Most of the hiking was done along a muddy, uneventful path that followed the Delaware River and the Delaware Canal. You'll have to take my word that it was uneventful because I took exactly zero pictures along that muddy path. I say to boo to whomever said it is the journey instead of the destination, You will get no journey and like it. Regardless of the journey content included in this post, I did include a photo of the monument to the brave Continental Soldiers.





Unfortunately, for every hike out to a grave of Revolutionary War Soldiers from the Visitors Center of Washington Crossing State Park in PA there is a return hike along the same muddy path. It was a long, muddy return trip that eventually led to the real reason I visited Washington Crossing State Park - to get my photo in front of some monument. As it just so happened, there were two monuments to pose next to, one for each side of the Delaware River that Washington crossed.

Here's where I started and Washington ended on the NJ side:

Here's where I ended and Washington started on the PA side:

Thank God for George and his brave soldiers who gave me the freedom to write things like this!

Erie Turntable - Port Jervis, NY

Where it's at!

I got two turntables and a microphone

Where it's at!

-Beck, Where It's At!


From the punctuation, Beck was making a statement not asking a question. But honestly, who gives a shit about Beck's punctuation?! By it, I am going to tell you he meant a historic turntable then he needs look no further than Port Jervis, NY, home of the Historic Erie Turntable. That is the same Point Jervis that is home of the PA/NY/NJ Tripoint making the Turntable the 3rd most famous landmark in Orange County, New York behind the Tripoint and Orange County Choppers.

In case you do not know, a turntable in relation to railroads and not Beck, is a device used for turning railroad cars around. According to Wikipedia, turntables were especially useful for steam locomotives because they were not designed for extensive use in reverse which was required for return trips. Turntables were essential to rail travel in the 1800s. Port Jervis embraced its rail road heritage by putting up small brown signs announcing the Historic Erie Turntable and a train with an American flag posted next to it.

AMERICA!!!

Aside from the red, white, and blue and trains, there is nothing more American than trespassing! Just ask Native Americans, they left the fence open to foreign invaders like the propietors of the Historic Erie Turntable.

Fortunately for the Erie Turntable, I did not have manifest destiny on my side, just digital camera and the need to get my picture taken in front of unique and/or historic objects.