A few days ago Millie posted a neat page about ghost towns in the USA. and that is where Vel and I got the idea to go exploring around our area looking for these lost towns in our state of NJ. We left here around 11 am and set out NW to find the town of Atsion, which is only about 40 miles from here. Won't go into detail about roads cause that would take too long to explain. It was a beautiful sunny day around 45 degrees. We endedup on rt. 206 which is a straight road that would take us all the way to north Jersey. We knew that Atsion was on this state road.

After about 35 miles we came to that town. First you see a big entrance to a park called Atsion Lake which had been a popular swimming area years ago, and now the state has made it into a great park. Has a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. Really nice. Well of course we had been there before and we wanted to see the mansion etc. that was mentioned on the webpage. We went another few miles and on the right side of the road we saw a big old house all boarded up, with a ranger station right in front of it.Apparently the town had been in this area and maybe split in half. We had no information as to why, but maybe because they put in a state highway. It is on a deserted part of the road. Actually between Hammonton and a place called Tabernacle. It was a lot of fun. We drove into the parking area and took some pictures of the mansion and a few deserted buildings, then got back in the car and drove down a dirt road for miles, got nervous so we turned around and came out onto the highway again.

Drove another few miles and went on another road that took us into the Wharton State Forest. and found that statue about Emillio Carrenza, got out and walked to it, He was a Mexican pilot on a mission of peace. Crashed there in the forrest due to a severe storm. We drove on a winding road for quite a few miles, saw cranberry bogs etc, then thought we better turn around after driving at least 15 miles into the forest and the road was getting like soft dirt, so back on the highway we went after taking a few sideroads. Drove up to route 70 maybe 15 miles then headed east. I was looking at the map and saw another ghost town named Friendship so we had to turn around as we had passed the turnoff.

/Wow, you should be with Vel when she makes those u-turns, Hold On!!! Well we got on rt 569 heading SW. saw where Friendship was supposed to be on the map, passed a few houses but no sign of a deserted town, not even an old building.Pretty soon we were on a dirt road, very bumpy, and had to travel slow, miles and miles and miles. Whoa, guess what, we are coming in the back door of the same road the Memorial of Carranza was. We were in the middle of Wharton State Forest. Nothing there, lots of fire roads, did see a truck or two when we were coming from the other direction, and saw one in this direction. Never saw so many pine trees in your life. This is where the name Pine Barrens come from. Talk about barren land. Oh yea, we did see a boot camp, sort of a prison for young gangstas, it set way back off the road. No we did not go near there. We were so busy laughing about our journey of 80 miles around in a circle. We figured this dirt road was at least 30 miles+ long, if we had planned it we could never have found it. Next week, weather permitting we are going back to look for these places that we couldn't find. They are on the site that Millie posted. plus I went to search and found some other information. So will keep you updated. We had such a wonderful day and ended up having dinner in a diner in Vincentown, yep had a margarita too. Didn't get there til 4:30pm. Was in the car from 11am. Sure was hungry, but had to pee so bad, I don't know which was the best, the drink or the pot, haha.

We left there at 5:30 and got home exactly 7pm. just on time. I had written this report yesterday but somehow I lost it when I went to get the album. Duh! This is much shorter and not in the great detail of my other report but it does give you an idea of our day. All I can say is it was up and down, criss cross, and all around in a circle jaunt. What a great day!!! I am so glad we got out on Wednesday Looks like a snowed in couple of days here. I started a new album for the ghost towns that we find. Vel takes her camera and sends me the pics so I try to put them in some sort of order. Pictures not available due to collapse of Photopoint. Hope you enjoy them. Lots of hugs to all. P.S. I also started a Vi & Vel's #2 album. These pics are of the area where there are a lot of beaches, one road in, and one road wide. We were here few weeks ago looking for a house with doors that have no steps leading out of the second floor,LOL.