The Garden State

Most of my travels through NJ have involved Newark and the SE side of the state near NYC.  Since we crossed the Tappan Zee in the dark and drove into NW NJ late, the state's beauty and character were concealed from us until the following morning.
Did get to shut down at a motel next to Bella Italia Restaurant in Andover where we got to meet the kind of "Joysey" waitress you expect, as well as enjoy cardunes which are fried artichoke stems (very tasty alternative to french fries) - plus I got to sample the Flying Fish IPA.  Several times...
Next morning was crisp and the coolest we'd had in several days.  We made the short trip to the Flatbrook Roy WMA and I was frankly stunned by the beauty of the countryside and the habitat.

There were pheasant feathers at the parking area (put 'n take perhaps?), but Kali certainly acted like there might be something on the larger predator scale in the woods up the slope.

Plenty of rock walls on this WMA as well.  Makes one ponder the farms and homesteads that might once have occupied the river bottom a couple of centuries ago.

We'd been fishing along the way this trip, but hadn't secured our NJ fishing licenses, so we just walked along the river to look for trout.  Sure enough, came across a rather large pool and could see numerous 14"-18" trout swimming lazily through the shafts of sunlight that hit the water.  A couple of fly fishermen came along and we visited with them a while as they fished.  We kept trying to get them to move to where we were seeing fish because it's almost as much fun seeing fish caught as catching them, but guess they weren't interested in fly fishing advice from Texans.  We moved on...



If how much butter comes on your toast is a measure of a good restaurant, then we found a great one in Branchville, NJ.  Jumboland serves a HUGE breakfast with loads of butter - and a really tasty cherry-vanilla shake for dessert!
 

 Having hunted Kali's 47th state we moved on towards Delaware and even driving IHs and turnpikes were surprised by the beauty of NJ.  It's possible I might even return.