The drive from New Hampshire to New Jersey wasn't too bad. We hit the New York - New Jersey border at the asjunction of I-87/I-287 around 4 O'clock during peak traffic hour on a Friday afternoon, expecting heavy traffic as I lived in that area for a year during 1999 - 2000 and familiar with it. Though the interstates were packed with vehicles, yet it was still moving at a reasonable pace. Later, I discovered the real reason behind it. Post pandemic, many these days are teleworking, especially on Fridays, having found the pleasure and efficacy of working from home. It explained the lesser than usual traffic on Friday peak commuting hour.
There are too many big and small sized states in the North - Eastern USA bordering each other. We drove 250 miles covering 6 states in less than 5 hours - New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. This area is densely populated and congested. On the roads you can see signs for Moose alert, similar to the deer alert we see on the roadways in South. While driving during night time, we saw a bunch of tiny Foxes, trudging behind Mama Fox crossing a local highway and giving us a curious look in their glittering, golden eyes, foxed by our car's headlights staring at them.
New Jersey was chilly today, at least for someone who is visiting from warm South. In a span of 5 days we have seen a gradual drop of temperature from 84 degrees (28°C) to 39 degrees (3°C). That's typical of Fall when weather can swing like Pendulum. It might be Fall here, for me it was any normal winter day in Columbus, Georgia. Not much sightseeing, rather socializing to do with my old friends, we mostly stayed indoors, keeping ourselves warm and fuzzy.
New Jersey has a sizable expatriate population, especially the "Desis", a popular slang in America to depicts the Persons of Indian Origin. The gas station we stopped by the fill my tank was filled with Desis. Whenever we stopped our car at a red light stop (we hit quite a lot of those due to heavy traffic here), you look left, you see a Desi in car, you look right, you see another Desi.
75% of the occupants of the Community where my friend lives in Hackettstown in North-western New Jersey are Desis. So much so that many have planted LAUKI (Bottle Gourd), KAKHARU (Pumpkin) plants in front of their home, rather than in backyards where we normally have our kitchen garden. I asked my friend what makes our Desi Bros and Sisters to have their kitchen gardens in front rather than in their backyard ? He replied - "First of all, the backyards here are relatively smal compared to what you have in Georgia, too small to plant veggies. Only the front yard has some space to spare and some use it to their advantage. Secondly, few get greedy, looking to harvest veggies from both front, backyard and sides of their home, making the optimal use of available space". I asked him - "Doesn't your HOA (Home Owners Association) complain about bottle gourds hanging over Mail boxes ? Though a huge fan of gardening, I don't like the idea of planting Kalara (Bitter gourd) and Lauki (Bitter Gourd) in front of house. It spoils the aesthetic value of the milieu". My friend replied - "The HOA here is spineless".
Today morning in New Jersey was cloudy, windy and chilly followed by intermittent rains throughout the day. In late afternoon the sun showed up, peeking downwards through the clouds to have a bird's eye view of the mountains, sluttering streams and fall foliage, scattering its luke warn rays to sparkle the yellow leaves. New Jersey is filled with trees, hence know as "Garden State" which is proudly displayed on car tags. The leaves here are still yellow and getting into shades of brown before turning red. The cold mountain air barged through the fall foliage, its rustling though mountains sounded like roar of waves crashing on a sea shore. The howling wind from the northern Appalachian mountain range made the multi color leaves fall on the ground, as if trinkets and color papers fall on the stage marking a popular Miss World event show on TV or Democratic/Republican party convention in a Presidential Election year. We, from South scared of the cold looked at the splendid sight from the balcony well ensconced in the comfort of home.
I heard many complaints about the inordinately high cost of living in this area, about the exorbitant tax and spend policies of subsequent liberal governments for long time is making these North Eastern states more and more unlivable. Many are considering migrating South to escape from high sales, income and property taxes as well as unaffordable insurance costs. The rising income inequality is conspicuous. Nevertheless, loved the pictures of fall foliage, the pictures of paintings and sculptors of Museum of Fine Arts - overall a picture perfect vacation.
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