Trenton and Princeton

The RV park was in a central location in New Jersey so we spent an afternoon visiting a few places of interest in the Trenton and Princeton area.

We've been to every state capitol but it's always thrilling to see it.  And get another photo.

From there we stopped by to see another Declaration of Independence signer nearby in Friends Burying Ground.  We didn't have far to go but it was challenging to get there due to traffic, one way streets, and everything else that goes along with driving a big truck in a major city.  And then we made it here.

WHAT?  We were in the parking lot with a small patch of grass between us and a building and THERE WAS GEORGE CLYMER!!!  What the heck?

It continues to amaze us how some of our signers - remember what they risked by signing the Declaration of Independence - end up like this.  Essentially in a parking lot.

We got out to pay our respects - at least we didn't have a long walk.  :-)

From there we headed to Princeton Cemetery where a few notable folks are interred.

Stephen Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.  He also served as the Governor of New York (1863-1865) and Mayor of Buffalo (January - November, 1892).

To the left is daughter Ruth, the namesake of the Baby Ruth candy bar.  Ruth died from diptheria at the age of 12.

The Curtiss Candy Company asserted that the "Baby Ruth" candy bar was named after Ruth Cleveland.  Known as "Kandy Kake" from 1900 to 1920, it was renamed in 1921, thirty years after Ruth Cleveland's birth.  That same year, legendary baseball player Babe Ruth was nearing the top of his popularity, having just broken the single-season home run record. A New York Times columnist said "For 85 years, Babe Ruth, the slugger, and Baby Ruth, the candy bar, have lived parallel lives in which it has been widely assumed that the latter was named for the former".

Another notable is Aaron Burr.

Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756-September 14, 1836) served as a senator from New York and the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 during Thomas Jefferson's first presidential term.  Burr is remembered for his famous personal and political conflict with Alexander Hamilton, which culminated in the Burr-Hamilton duel in New Jersey on July 11, 1804.  Burr mortally wounded Hamilton, who died from his wounds the following day.  (Stay tuned - his grave is coming up soon).

I'm sure you know what's next - another signer of the Declaration of Independence.

One more stop before we started back to the RV park.

When the British Army invaded New Jersey in 1776, Richard Stockton and his family fled to the home of friends.  When the British learned where he was, late one night in 1776 they broke down the door and pulled him out of bed and sent him to New York for imprisonment.  When his release was finally negotiated, his health had been destroyed and his home had been burned to the ground.  During the last years of his life, he was so poor that he had to accept help from friends just to support his family.  After his death at age 50, his home, Morven, was rebuilt and became the official residence of New Jersey's governor from 1950 to 1981.

We have learned that, historically, Quakers did not have headstones as they wanted the graves to have an equality to them that would be disturbed by the presence of large, ornate headstones that only a few could afford.  

Buried somewhere on these grounds......

As we drove out of town to head back to our RV park, we noticed a familiar name on the map - Red Bank, New Jersey.  Why did that catch our eye?  

Some of you may know that Ron, as a young boy, was a comic book collector in the early 60s.  This was the Silver Age of comics and the emergence of Marvel Comics and the creation of most of the super heroes that have hit the big screen in recent years.  We have carried around his 10,000 book collection to our various homes during our 50 year marriage (don't worry, they are safely in storage and we aren't carrying them around with us these days.)

While he lost interest in comics decades ago, he was curious about a show called Comic Book Men that he'd seen advertised in 2012 on AMC.  It was hosted by Kevin Smith who produced, directed, and acted in several "B" movies and who also co-owned a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey.  The characters in his "biggest" hit, Clerks, included two characters named Jay and Silent Bob so that became the name of his store.  And here we were!

The show centered around the employees who worked in the store and the people who came in to possibly sell their collections.  Ron finally had an opportunity to go into the store and talk comics with the guys.

Unfortunately, none of the stars were there, probably because the show ended in 2018 and they have moved on to other projects.  We did buy a couple of comic books just to say we did but they look completely different and not very readable.

It was a day of checking things (and graves) off the bucket list!