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2014 Cape May, NJ Rally Recap

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:33 pm
by bfadmin
The Cape May Rally kicked off on Sunday September 7th at Holly Shores Campground off of US Route 9 in Cape May, New Jersey hosted by Bruce and Judy Gregory and Lynn Engelman, and tremendous help from Bob and Marilyn Gray. Ten motorhomes made their way to the rally. Rally attendees started arriving late morning and continued arriving through early evening. Sunday evening found the rally attendees gathered at the happy hour social around 5 pm, followed by a great pot luck dinner and a Leap’n Lions hayride, (sans hay), so it was really more of a "Hey!" ride as we rode around the acre lushly landscaped campground waving at the other campers.

We kicked the week off on Monday meeting for breakfast and car-pooling to the Edmund Physic Estate for a tour of this Victorian mansion and a trolley tour of historic Cape May. Katherine, our tour guide and Bill, our driver, did a wonderful job pointing out all the wonderful "painted ladies" and the "drunken architecture" that abounds in Cape May. After the morning tours, we met for lunch at the Mad Batter Restaurant, followed by an afternoon of wandering around Washington Square, the wonderful pedestrian mall. The day was nicely rounded out with a campfire and good company.

Tuesday dawned a bit gray and a bit windy, but hat didn’t stop our intrepid group. We car-pooled to the Naval Air Station (NAS) Wildwood Aviation Museum at the Cape May Airport. NAS Wildwood was built in 1943 as developed in 1943 and served as an active dive-bomber squadron-training base in World War II. The museum is in Hangar #1 the only remaining original WW II era hangar on the site. Bruce, the assistant director of the museum, provided a great introduction and history of NAS Wildwood and the museum and after the introductory video, Bruce provided an quick tour of the museum and then let us explore all the wonderful exhibits.

(Both Hangar #1 and the museums centerpiece, a TBM Avenger Aircraft, are both listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places with National Significance. The museums mission is to memorialize the 42 known airmen who perished there while training during WWII, educating the public and restoring the hangar. If you want to learn more go to usnasw.org)

After lunch at the Flight Deck Diner at the airport, the group continued carpooling to the Cape May County Park and Zoo. This 85-acre zoo is free to the public (although they encourage donations) and has a collection of 550 animals representing 250 species. Each of us went exploring on our own and then headed back to the campground for dinner and our nightly campfire.

Wednesday morning found us once again meeting for breakfast and then car-pooling to enjoy a morning salt marsh tour. The tour started off on a unique note-Because of the Harvest Moon Tuesday night before (unfortunately it was covered by clouds so we couldn't enjoy it during the campfire) the tide was extremely high, the tour Guide said it was the highest they had seen it since they had been operating there). On the tour we saw a number of Osprey, wide range of seagulls, cormorants along with other unusual bird species.

After the marsh tour we met at the Lobster House for lunch and group picture. The afternoon was free for folks o explore he area on their own. A number of us went out to the Cape May Lighthouse, and Cape May Point looking for "Cape May diamonds" on the beach. We rounded out the day with our nightly campfire,

Thursday was a free day with folks free to explore where they wanted. Places that people explored included the Vietnam War Museum across from the NAS Wildwood Museum, Wildwood New Jersey and the Cape May beaches. There was a wonderful catered dinner on Thursday evening, and a second group picture taken by the campground, and once again rounded out the night with a campfire.

Friday morning saw some of our rally members getting an early start for the Cape May Ferry so they could get a head start to their next destination. The rest of us met for one last quick cup of coffee and breakfast before heading out.to our various destinations.

Submitted by: Lynn Engelman

NOTE! This recap was posted for the authors by the Website Administrator (bfadmin-2)