the BB-62

Took a bike ride down to Penns Landing yestrday then hopped on the ferry to Camden to see the Battleship New Jersey.

First off, I had a hard time finding a good place to lock up the bike. There aren't any visible bike racks down there. I did find two of those metal ring reals in the ground that people use. They were in the parking lot directly across from the ticket taking lady. This turned out to make me feel nice since the bike was at least in sight of someone in authority.

The ferry ride is always nice, the problem is that it goes into Camden. I know they are working really hard to improve their waterfront in in some ways they have totally kicked our ass, but when I got there, I still had to walk 10 minutes to the ship from the ferry drop off. No signs or anything. I did later find out that there is a shuttle to and from the ferry area from the battleship, but that was after I got back and saw the stop for it (no times or info posted though).

There were 3 ways to tour the ship, self-directed $13.50, guided tour (1.5 hours $15), and the "Firepower Tour" (2 hours, $17). I took the firepower tour since it went into the 15" guns and the CIC.

The ship is awesome. The tour was as promised 2 hours and it covered a lot of the ship. It was pretty cool. If I go back, I'll probably do self-guided since there are signs and displays all over the place and I like to move at my own pace.

Being on the NJ was really cool. It was pretty up to date and didn't feel like some old mothballed pice of metal. It wasn't as cool as spending the night on the Teddy Rosevelt at sea (one of my favorite adventures), but it was up there.