New Jersey is making us feel very welcome!

We are staying on the New Jersey coast in the little town of Barnegat, at another Boondockers Welcome host. Yesterday we explored the Atlantic Coast on the barrier island beside us. But we were warned by the locals to stay off the island today because weekend traffic would be crazy! That's when the week-long rental beach houses change occupancy, so last week's renters are leaving while next week's renters are arriving. With that advice in mind, we are staying in-land for the rest of our stay. We headed to the town bike/hike trail for some exercise, and loved the tall trees along the Barnegat Branch Trail.

For some more exercise, we tried out the equipment along the trail. With the clear pictorial instructions, we played with all the different exercise equipment.

Between the sea breezes off the bay and a nice cool front, it is a very nice temperature for exercising outside even in the summer. Our camping site only has 15-amp electricity, so we're glad that we won't be needing air-conditioning this weekend. New Jersey has certainly welcomed us with some nice weather.

While exploring in-land, we discovered a county park. From what we have read, county parks charge no admission. We also found signs at New Jersey state parks that they aren't charging admission in 2022. It feels like New Jersey just opened the door, and welcomed us in! At Cloverdale Farm County Park, we found these curiously square ponds, with walkways between.

Then we found out that all these square patches of ground are old cranberry fields. The Collins family raised these berries here since the early 1900s. The county bought the property in 2004 as an educational site to show people how cranberries are farmed and harvested.

If we look very carefully, we can see the small green cranberries on the tiny-leafed plants. They won't turn red and ripen until September.

Another educational part of the country park is teaching people how cranberries got their name. The picture on the left is of one of our favorite birds--the whooping crane. The picture on the right is of a cranberry bloom with its red pointed center, that will eventually form into a berry. The profile of the flower looks like the crane, so they were named crane-berries. We learn something every day!

We had read in the newspaper that Barnegat's Fourth of July celebration got cancelled because of rain last week. So all the holiday fun was rescheduled for today. Once again, we are feeling very welcomed by this state that is giving us our second Independence Day celebration! In the afternoon we went to the high school parking lot, to buy something to eat at one of the food trucks that were assembling there. That's when we found out that the local grocery store was making goodies available to the public with no charge. So we had hotdogs, smoked sausage and vegetable kabobs, chips, pop, and ice cream for dinner--for free! Welcome to New Jersey! Our hands were too full and messy to take pictures of our free celebration dinner--plus we were face-timing with the grandchildren while we were eating.

Our next stop around town, is the Barnegat Dock. Unlike most boardwalks at the beach that are separated from the ocean with a wide expanse of sand, this one is right on the dock. It was deep water, and we saw sizable boats drive right beside the railing of the boardwalk. 

The boats were coming by to listen to the music. We were treated to a free concert of live music at the dock, with plenty of room for dancing. We were joined on the dance floor by lots of New Jersey citizens welcoming us to their state. The band played until the sky turned into beautiful shades of sunset.

When the music finished, we had just enough time to return to the high school where the entire town was waiting for the firework display. We felt honored that they waited until we got here to have the cancelled pyrotechnic show. We had a great seat near the high school football field, where we could watch the fireworks as they were lit and left the ground.

What a great day in our new home-town! We feel like New Jersey has welcomed us to two Independence Day celebrations, free city trails, free state parks, and free county parks. We really like it here!