Just returned from the Deep South, aka New Jersey below the Atlantic City Expressway. Fun fact: the original Mason-Dixon Line ran east-west at the 39° 43'N line of latitude. A.C. sits at 39° 27' 45". This is not a mere technicality, either. In Southern Jersey, the drawl is distinctively Delmarvan (i.e., from the peninsula named after Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, which all lay claim to a part of it), and sometimes sounds like what you hear down in Tennessee. Sweet tea is readily available, as are crab-cakes, snapper soup, and other non-Northern delicacies. The geography of the region - Pine Barrens, saltmarshes, and barrier island chains - is also much more like the States to the south than to the north. Ah, I missed the marshes. We have a couple up here, and Rumney Marsh in Revere is right next to Lynn, my present home, but there's nothing like driving as fast as you can around sunset down Highway 9 or the Garden State Parkway, towards Cape May.

Did a lot of fishing with my dad and my brother along Corson's Inlet, which is the channel separating Ocean City from the village of Strathmere. I caught two flounder, although neither were big enough to keep. The inlet was nice, but there were a ton of jet skiers out on the water all weekend, and I have zero patience for those turkeys. Why any region hesitates to ban a form of "recreation" that spews into the water as much gasoline as it burns (fouling the air as well), creates an insanely disproportionate amount of noise pollution that can be heard for miles up and down the coast, and presents a hazard to marine life, boaters, and swimmers alike is totally beyond me. Another consequence of living in a country with ridiculously cheap gasoline. Where people stop raking their leaves or shoveling their snow and turn to loud and obnoxious gas-powered alternatives, is it any surprise that the same folks will want to "experience" the outdoors in exactly the same way? Snowmobiles, mopeds, jet skis. Three forms of transportation that should be reserved for the pit of hell, and nowhere else.