Under Morris Goodkind Bridge
Secretly, I'm a troll. This being what it is I found myself desperately trying to find a way to get under the Morris Goodkind Bridge which spans the Raritan River to connect New Brunswick into Edison. I've gone over this bridge hundreds of times in the over 20 years that I've lived in this area and always looked over the railing and wondered, "What the hell is down there?"
Well yesterday was the day I answered half of that question. I took the first exit off of route 1 north after going over the bridge and just kept going right towards where I thought the bank would be. I knew I was getting close when the temperature dropped 10 degrees. I went through a neighborhood I would not have thought would exist in Edison. I'm talking lovely foliage along the way that made me think I was on my way into a forrest.
The northbound side or the side towards Sayerville almost immediately underneath the bridge houses the Raritan River Boat Club. I wandered in in my pink sarong, red shoes, green shirt and asked the first person I encountered if I needed permission to wander around the dock and take pictures. The half naked, very sunkissed man was very friendly and I think slightly drunk and said I had permission as long as I didn't fall in.
So I spent the next couple of hours taking pictures. A lovely couple passed me on their way from their trailer to their boat and asked what I was doing. "Waiting for the sunset!" I noticed that the man was cradling his extra large bottle of bacardi light as though it was his first grandson. The woman came back about an hour later to ask me if I was comfortable, if I wanted to sit in their boat and have a soda. I didn't want to put her out plus I was raised during the don't talk to strangers phase of this country's growth and even though I'm a self reliant 28 year old it still haunts how open I am to strangers. I regret it in retrospect. There might have been good conversation. There might have been rum and cokes.
I got a couple of good pictures but not the sunset I was looking for since it was oppressively hazy and the sun disappeared beyond the bridge into Highland Park. I got to spend a couple of hours bobbing on the wooden docks watching a family of ducks swim back and forth, watching some kids race each other on their jet skis, watching people on the banks in the distance fish for god knows what all while trucks and cars sped past hundreds of feet above me unawares.
It was a good lesson in the rewards of wandering.
Well yesterday was the day I answered half of that question. I took the first exit off of route 1 north after going over the bridge and just kept going right towards where I thought the bank would be. I knew I was getting close when the temperature dropped 10 degrees. I went through a neighborhood I would not have thought would exist in Edison. I'm talking lovely foliage along the way that made me think I was on my way into a forrest.
The northbound side or the side towards Sayerville almost immediately underneath the bridge houses the Raritan River Boat Club. I wandered in in my pink sarong, red shoes, green shirt and asked the first person I encountered if I needed permission to wander around the dock and take pictures. The half naked, very sunkissed man was very friendly and I think slightly drunk and said I had permission as long as I didn't fall in.
So I spent the next couple of hours taking pictures. A lovely couple passed me on their way from their trailer to their boat and asked what I was doing. "Waiting for the sunset!" I noticed that the man was cradling his extra large bottle of bacardi light as though it was his first grandson. The woman came back about an hour later to ask me if I was comfortable, if I wanted to sit in their boat and have a soda. I didn't want to put her out plus I was raised during the don't talk to strangers phase of this country's growth and even though I'm a self reliant 28 year old it still haunts how open I am to strangers. I regret it in retrospect. There might have been good conversation. There might have been rum and cokes.
I got a couple of good pictures but not the sunset I was looking for since it was oppressively hazy and the sun disappeared beyond the bridge into Highland Park. I got to spend a couple of hours bobbing on the wooden docks watching a family of ducks swim back and forth, watching some kids race each other on their jet skis, watching people on the banks in the distance fish for god knows what all while trucks and cars sped past hundreds of feet above me unawares.
It was a good lesson in the rewards of wandering.
posted by i at 5:59 PM
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